leeboy26

Join Date 08/2009

+23

'Sound is half the picture' -St. George of Lucas, Patron Saint of making money from old rope.

Hello. I was considering why I never found Elemental: War of Magic that immersive and concluded one of the major factors was the Sound effects. To say they are anaemic and underwhelming is an understatement, and makes me wonder if anyone at Stardock considered them as anything more than an afterthought. Master of Magic made a fanfare of practically everything within it's technical capabilities. It added hugely to the charm. My allusions to Star Wars are relevent- the Iconic noises of things like the Light Sabre, TIE Fighter, Chewbacca, Dart Vader's Mask and so forth made the movies memorable and immersive. They were grand, theatrical, overblown, but undeniably awesome.

Here's a few examples of the SFX in Elemental:

Fire Shard:

Elemental- Whoosh.

What it should be- 'RUUUUUUFFFFFFFFF!!!'

Cave Bear:

Elemental- 'uhhh?'

What it should be- 'GRRRRAAARRR!!!'

Inn:

Elemental- Nothing.

What it should be- Random pub noises.

Hero:

Elemental- 'ah-hah', (as bland as possible) 'Yes', 'Hu-hu-hu'.

What it should be- 'Yes, My Lord!', 'It shall be done', etc etc

So, are we going to see some new sound effects for Fallen Enchantress?

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Das123

Join Date 05/2003

+82

I believe you are right. Ambient sound in WoM is all but non-existent and would have gone a long way to adding to the immersion. This has been mentioned since early beta but never really taken up. Compare the ambient sound in Age of Wonders to WoM. Chalk and cheese.

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You forgot "Nooooo!"

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I've been running with no sounds forever in E:wom because the sounds are quite boring and repetitive. Then again, I do that in almost every game.

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yep.. i was trying to argue that wom wasn't immersive enough in beta, sound wasn't one of the things i mentioned at the time i think as I can personally live without it in a 4x game, but now that you mention it, sound can be a real immersive factor ingame..!

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HenriHakl

Join Date 09/2011

+76

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One of the reasons I like Heroes V so much. Got the whole soundtrack in my phone even. That music is just superb.

Haven't played War of Magic but they have to beat Age of Wonders. Can't be that hard.....

Scratch that! The Age of Wonders music and sound are good. I remember them now and it will be quite tough to beat. I don't think Stardock will do that.

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ANd we don't have a single one dev diary about music/sounds in FE. The souns of EWoM are just increasing the overall 'meh' feeling when I'm starting the game. Just as you said. I think the MoM have more sound samples!? I always play with the sound and music on. When I bought my first PC it was without sondcard and I thought I could live without it... but I was running to the store few days after purchase.

Remember the chorus and Max von Sydow from Skyrim trailer? That are the things I am looking for in soon-to-be the best fantasy TBS.

Check below for Guild Wars 2 video about sound design for the game. This is something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiamRvDqk9s

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Quoting Campaigner,

reply 6

One of the reasons I like Heroes V so much. Got the whole soundtrack in my phone even. That music is just superb.

Haven't played War of Magic but they have to beat Age of Wonders. Can't be that hard.....

Um...you have never played the game that this forum is for?

Anyways, I agree 100%. There is a degree of charm to WoM's music, but overall the sound is a weakpoint. I could get past that if the rest of the game were superb. As it is, it doesn't do enough to make a difference. Music and sound can have a major impact in setting tone, and I remember the soundtracks and sound effects / ambiance of many games to this day.

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Quoting Goontrooper,

reply 8

Um...you have never played the game that this forum is for?

I started following War of Magic since before it was released (I used to read the GalCiv II news) when it was called Not-MoM. I like Age of Wonders and want a successor to it and Master of Magic. Elemental: War of Magic was supposed to be that successor but it fell way short of expectations.

I don't preorder games anymore and I listen to what the community says as well as watching reviews, trailers and playing demos.

In this case, based on the reviews alone, I wouldn't have gotten it. The community reaction cemented that decision.

I'll get the Fallen Enchantress demo immidietly though!

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Good point. I hope FE get a little love on this part of the game. Would be nice.

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The General Status report doesn't mention anything about the sound designers, plenty about animators tho-

https://forums.elementalgame.com/411211/page/4

It does say 'In addition, several new artists/developers have been hired over the past year with the result being that the FE team is larger than the WOM team was.' makes me wonder if there's been any additions/changes to those involved in the sound and music department. I'd like more incidental music, dramatic sound effects and generally more acoustic fanfare.

Has it been mentioned at all in or have I missed something?

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Quoting Heavenfall,

reply 3

I've been running with no sounds forever in E:wom because the sounds are quite boring and repetitive. Then again, I do that in almost every game.

You're missing out on half of what pretty much every game has to offer
I had a friend like that, it was always completely incomprehensible to me. They add so much atmosphere that to play without sounds or music in games is like playing scrabble by yourself in a quiet room.

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Quoting Das123,

reply 1

Yeah, ambient sound (with music) build the climate. Remember beautiful sounds on strategic map in Heroes of Might and Magic II? I can still hear them, I didn't played the game for years thou.

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StevenAus22

Join Date 06/2010

+110

If you're still interested in H2, there is the mod fheroes2 which has a number of added features and fixed bugs.

Best regards,
Steven.

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Looks interesting. Thanks.

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I agree. Hopefully with all the ambient visual effects that will be present in FE they can spare some time to throw in some great ambient audio effects.

Also I hope they fix that bug that amplifies the sounds of large units (the dying sound of 12 soldiers make me take off unit sound effects completely so I don't blow my speakers)

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I don't really like having sound effects to everything I click, but in master of magic, you have many very short background music that triggers after various events that has the effect of catching the player back into the game. That could be an alternative solution.

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I just hope there will be ALOT of sound effects, I tend to get really tired of most games sound effects because they have like 10-20 minutes of sound if u added it all together (might not be true, but it feels like that ). Though not critical, its on my wishlist

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

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