How i learned not to listen.

[MimiCry]

Today, i played another FPS (blasphemy!!!) and got myself killed, because i ignored important indications:
Steps, reload sounds, noise in general.
I think its because M&B consistently teaches me to ignore sounds during the last few weeks. 

Directional sounds in M&B are somewhat bat****.
How often do i think, there MUST be a battle/duel just behind that corner/hill/wall, just to discover: nothing, just good old M&B fake -again!

Im at a point where i think its better to force MONO-Sound via soundcard settings instead of plain wrong multi channel sound or to turn it off all together. So much for direction.

Another problem is volume.
Volumes for distant sounds seems too loud and if i manage to filter out the sound of an approaching horse/lancer its mostly too late (i hope this is not by design, more power to the backstab lancers...). Feels like i am in an indoor swimming pool, lots of interferences.

Im not sure sound in M&B uses the correct physical formulars, but one thing is sure:
It lowers the quality of the game a lot (at least for me).

The Devs, should rethink the priority, IMHO this should be a on top of the roadmap after bug fixing.
I dont think top graphics are important to make a good game, thats just eye candy, but sounds are part of the game mechanics, detection in multiplayer and kind of important for single player immersion.

And while you are at it...  implement damped sounds for closed helmets. (including Darth Vader breathing in heavy swadian metal helmets...
Ok, i admit, thats just "ear candy".

 

[Fattyfat]

You're definitely right, directional sound and volume are very wonky here, and in many games it is a critical element that your survival can depend on.

Wish something could be done about it

 

[Ironfounderson]

Here's my two cents: wear headphones.

 

[TekUK]

but if they were to add some kind of 3D sound like EAX, (I think) would that not take up alot more resources being that even myself I play the game maxxed out.
and I kinda like the amount of resources the game does take up atm. rather than adding a whole bunch more just for sound. ??

Even with the battlecount at 150, wouldn't 3D sound just eat the memory. 150+ 3D sounds of all differant volumes. not to mention all the ambient sounds and effects.
Ahh what the hell. it would rock hard though. but hey wtf do I know

 

[MimiCry]

I wear headphones, audio is a little better, but still wrong and inferior compared to all other multiplayer games i play.

Concerning performance:
Thats what audio options are for (3D sound on/off,  every game has it).
I dont need battlesizer in multiplayer, multiplayer is the main reason i created this topic.

 

[Archonsod]

Sure. We'll just put a sign on the box saying "Deaf players not welcome" shall we?

 

[MimiCry]

Sure. We'll just put a sign on the box saying "Deaf players not welcome" shall we?

You mean nearby those signs saying:

"Multiple  sclerosis players not welcome, must be able to operate a mouse"
"Blind players not welcome"

Yes please.

Seriously.
Accessibility standards are fulfilled by ADDING helpers, not by REMOVING features. (Valve games, subtitels for any audio, not just speech).
In your case: Visual indication bar for horse sound volumes.

 

[duracell]

I wear headphones and it doesnt help much, there are fake sounds all over the map and sometimes the volume is off too.
The most annoying issue with the sound is I cant hear the charging horses behind me at all! 

About the performance issue, the sounds in Call of Duty 4 are correct even with 50 players and that game has very low system requirements to play.

 

[diavel]

Yeah sounds aren't helping much, well sometimes they do like for example when I'm a sniping archer and hear someone dying 'somewhere' then I turn back. Directional sounds aren't the best. But I don't think this is such an important feature.

 

[Lord Leoric of Wercheg]

Oh wow, I can't believe how far behind my computer is. COD4 has low system requirements

 

[MimiCry]

EAX is around since 1998 ?
2 or 3 ? years later EAX effects were incorporated into the DirectX Audio.
And EAX is hardware-accelerated. <--------
I dont think it has a great impact on performance.

I can not play most games with  beefed-up graphics, but i CAN play any other game with 3D sound switched on without a noticeable effect on performance.

All i say is: please implement nowadays standards.
I would understand if a dev says: too much work, not enougt resources atm or so... but denying that its annoying and implementation is necessary (earlier or later) seems strange.

 

[diavel]

I think there are more annoying things. Sound quality is one of them but it's not the most important one.

 

[Mordgrim]

I think sound is very important, and its damnably annoying that we have no proper surround sound.

Fix please Taleweorlds. 

 

[ironpants]

By far my biggest sound complaint is that horse hoof sounds are not loud enough - except the ones coming from your own mount, which are too loud! Directional sound has never been strong in M&B but it should be way easier to hear an approaching horse and its general direction.

 

[MimiCry]

I think there are more annoying things. Sound quality is one of them but it's not the most important one.

Care to elaborate whats more important (except critical bugfixing) ?

When i start realising, that i play worse in other multiplayer games because i play Mount&Blade (spoils me, hehe) it starts getting more than a little annoyance. Im thinking about taking a break from Mount&blade until the stupid sound is fixed, how can it not be important, if its chasing players/clans away ?

When im at a point where i play better with mono sound or with no sounds, the devs should think about it.
Im not alone, not a single person in my friendslist disagrees.
I think this is a real problem, because its not a forgivable sporadic/temporary lack of quality (like, lets say, muddy textures or so), its omnipresent and the cause of many deaths in multiplayer. Im not asking for fancy features (like better gfx), im asking for a better basic feedback-loop and control over my character, its a missing core game mechanics.

There is a great luck factor involed and holding down the "view equipment" key cant be a permanent solution, the game is just not accurate enough to support professional tournaments in its current state.

Please tell me:
What could possibly be more important than fixing a problem that causes you/your team to loose in multiplayer and makes people abandon an otherwise very good game ?

 

[diavel]

Care to elaborate whats more important annoying (except critical bugfixing) ?

As you said - bugzzz
- environment physics
- character bodies physics
- horse movement - famous sudden stops
- projectiles realism - bouncing, (now it's possible to run with multiple throwing axes in your head)
- more MP maps
- more diverse SP game world
- SP campaigns
- MP campaigns

When i start realising, that i play worse in other multiplayer games because i play Mount&Blade (spoils me, hehe) it starts getting more than a little annoyance. Im thinking about taking a break from Mount&blade until the stupid sound is fixed, how can it not be important, if its chasing players/clans away ?

Stop blaming one game for how you play other games. That's just plain silly, don't you think?

When im at a point where i play better with mono sound or with no sounds, the devs should think about it.
Im not alone, not a single person in my friendslist disagrees.

Do you play better without the sound? Really? I agree that sound in m&b is bad. Sometimes I hear for example half of fight - that's one person but not the other.

I think this is a real problem, because its not a forgivable sporadic/temporary lack of quality (like, lets say, muddy textures or so), its omnipresent and the cause of many deaths in multiplayer. Im not asking for fancy features (like better gfx), im asking for a better basic feedback-loop and control over my character, its a missing core game mechanics.

I don't want fancy gfx either if for performance price. Sound is important but not as important as in FPSs when sometimes sound is the only possibility to locate people. M&B is (should be) about huge battles where you see big army in front of you.

There is a great luck factor involed and holding down the "view equipment" key cant be a permanent solution, the game is just not accurate enougth to support professional tournaments in its current state.

Well in RL battles soldiers don't look into backpacks while in heavy fire. You should hide first and then look for your sandwich I'd love to see pro tournaments in M&B.

Please tell me:
What could possibly be more important than fixing a problem that causes you/your team to loose in multiplayer and makes people abandon an otherwise very good game ?

First you blame M&B for you loosing other games and now for loosing in M&B? Did you know that the other team play the same game? With the same sound quality. Really. People should look around more often (yeah me too), scouts and teamchat can make miracles.

So yeah I argued for argument sake but I agree about one thing - sound sucks and should be fixed, but now there are more important things to fix.

 

[Ekardt]

I agree OP, ive been starting threads now & again concerning M&Bs terrible 3d audio for 4 years, and each time it falls on deaf ears. They improved the 3D audio substantially with Warband compared to vanilla M&B, but it's still pretty shoddy. I use my hearing as much as my sight in multiplayer games, and in Warband I just cant rely on it.

 

[SockMonkeh]

I agree OP, ive been starting threads now & again concerning M&Bs terrible 3d audio for 4 years, and each time it falls on deaf ears.

lol

 

[Ekardt]

I agree OP, ive been starting threads now & again concerning M&Bs terrible 3d audio for 4 years, and each time it falls on deaf ears.

lol

I literally just realized what I did. Srsly, no pun intended.

 

[Lord Kinlar]

They improved the 3D audio substantially with Warband compared to vanilla M&B

Did they really? It sounds much worse then the original M&B IMO. In beta M&Bs (not WB) there were absolutely no directional audio. You couldn't even tell the direction of enemies by listening to sounds. This problem is somewhat fixed in 1.x M&B. Now, in Warband, you may tell the direction, but you can't tell the distance. You can hear the sound of enemy cavalry advancing as if they are right beside you.

Not only that, don't know what they did to it, but the battle sounds in recent versions of WB are somewhat choppy.