Audio Issues, all kinds

[Gairnulf]

As I've written before, I am very sorry that audio is apparently last priority with this game.

 

1. We never got the long awaited Developer Update on Audio.

2. The ambient audio volume is still subordinated to the Effects slider, hence increasing its volume will increase all kinds of combat sounds as well, which are much louder and the player generally wants them to be less loud than the ambient sounds of the area he is currently in.

3. The sliders for selection/command sounds mysteriously disappeared from the options screen. These controls were already present in PoE, why on Earth have they been removed?

4. The soundtrack's quality varies greatly. I've heard some excellent ambient music, as well as some which was simply out of place stylistically. And that's from just 5 hours of playing.

5. A serious bug - on a 5.1 speaker system, all selection/command sounds are playing through the rear speakers only. As a result, something that should be heard loud and clear sounds sort of muffled. Plus, it's plain wrong for it to function like that.

6. Player voice sets sound somewhere between "uninspired" and "would have been better off without this". Have you heared the male "Sinister" voice set? Does this sound sinister to you? If for some reason the answer is yes, fire up your PoE and hear "Sinister" there.

7. Volume of different lines varies within the same voice set. I don't know how this could have gone unnoticed.

8. Why were none of PoE's voice sets reused in Deadfire, when some of the wilderness tracks (at least) have been reused? I would have just gone for the better sounding voice sets which PoE had. Now I can't do that.

9. The voice and music files used to be in ogg format, and much easier to mod and change. Now if someone wants to add PoE voices to Deadfire they have to seek out special software to handle the decompression to ogg and then back to "wem".

 

I won't even comment on the full VO, I've already done that, and some of my expectations have already been confirmed. I'll just say again that quantity does not mean quality. In any case, I'm happy that random people's conversations on the street are not always voiced. 

 

While the game has been very cool so far, all these issues clearly disappoint.

[Jayngo]

I love audio, especially in CRPG's, so this thread caught my eye. Things I noticed:

 

- Ambient sounds are WAAAY too quiet. Ambient sounds are my favorite part of these types of games. I agree, it needs it's own slider.

- I loved Justin's score in PoE1. I listened to it to and from work for months straight lol. So far, (4 hrs or so in), the music has been good, if not uninspired (as in I don't notice it while I'm playing) and some seems to be reused from PoE1. I have the digital soundtrack, but I really don't want to start listening to it until I complete the game and hear the music in game first.

- The VO is fine by me. So far it's great. With regard to character voices, I was fine with them, as my girl from Icewind Dale 2 appears to be a voice set yet again: "Into the fray!" I simply love her voice. I've always wondered who that VA was.

[CENIC]

I'm also interested in customizing the amount of voiceover. I was pointed to this link:

 

https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/95552-converting-wem-to-ogg-for-sound-mods-tutorial/

[Gairnulf]

Yeah, I found that too. If I didn't already have my hands full with writing the editor, I'd play around with making a music mod, and cutting the VO. A 0 length mp3, converted to an ogg and then "compressed" to a wem, should work in theory.

 

Simply deleting wem files may cause errors in the error log or a game crash at start, I'm not sure which.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Gairnulf

[Starwars]

The smallest thing that I nagged Justin about on twitter... they removed that sweet "inn music playing faintly in the background while you stand outside the establishment"! That's like the best little thing... hope they can get that into the game at some point.

 

The soundtrack is a bit and miss for me so far. I *love* the tavern music and the variety, and some of the new combat music is way better than what we got in the first game. Some of the "story moments" music was also quite good. Not a fan of what I've heard of the Neketaka music so far though.

 

Sound effects are great I think, especially how they're used in the scripted interactions. Really makes them come alive. I would definitely welcome more sliders though and I would definitely like it if ambient sound was louder in general.

[CENIC]

Yeah, I found that too. If I didn't already have my hands full with writing the editor, I'd play around with making a music mod, and cutting the VO. A 0 length mp3, converted to an ogg and then "compressed" to a wem, should work in theory.

 

Simply deleting wem files may cause errors in the error log or a game crash at start, I'm not sure which.

I've deleted WEM files without repercussions, so removing voiced audio for NPCs is possible.

However, I also am not a fan of Xoti's voice, and there doesn't seem to be a way to remove ALL of her VO without breaking something.

[Skazz]

Some of the PC voicesets appear to be way too quiet compared to party members, too.

[Jayngo]

 

Yeah, I found that too. If I didn't already have my hands full with writing the editor, I'd play around with making a music mod, and cutting the VO. A 0 length mp3, converted to an ogg and then "compressed" to a wem, should work in theory.

 

Simply deleting wem files may cause errors in the error log or a game crash at start, I'm not sure which.

I've deleted WEM files without repercussions, so removing voiced audio for NPCs is possible.

However, I also am not a fan of Xoti's voice, and there doesn't seem to be a way to remove ALL of her VO without breaking something.

 

Yeah, she has that southern US accent. Makes her sound like some kind of cult nut job individual.

[Vyrulisse]

Spoken dialogue often overlaps if you continue to the next bit of dialogue before the previous VO was done saying what you read. So you'll have two of the same voice over mixing together at the same time, one still reading previous lines and the other beginning the new ones. It's not always but it happens.

 

I also wish they had kept the original PoE player character voice sets and I do not understand why they didn't.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Vyrulisse

[CENIC]

Weren't the original Pillars player voicesets in the beta? That would imply they would be in the WEM format that all the Deadfire VO is in and would be easy to swap.

[SkySlam]

I also wish they had kept the original PoE player character voice sets and I do not understand why they didn't.

 

Exactly!

[Gairnulf]

Regarding Xoti's voice, I like it because I just like Southern American English, but also because it has more personality to it than most voice sets. What I never liked in PoE was how non-fantasy voice acting sounds, in style, tone and language. I don't know if this is because of lack of direction, or it was done on purpose, but I think it hurts the experience.

 

My example of voice acting done right in a fantasy RPG - Icewind Dale. Play it, and see.

 

In general, I think voice acting is something that should be used sparingly in a role playing game, because it takes away from what is the player's job. Imagine watching Game of Thrones and then reading the A Song of Ice and Fire books. You'll be unable to imagine the characters in any way but how you've seen them in the film. That's what voiceovers do in RPGs, they narrow down people's experience and make it less personal. A role playing game should aim to be the opposite, give opportunity for subjective interpretation whenever it makes sense.