Bee/Mosquito sound in Summer

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by Sheila, Mar 23, 2016.

?

Remove buzzing ambiance in summer?

  1. *LOUD BUZZING NOISES* (Yes)

  2. No

  3. Don't care

  4. Yes, but change it for cicada noises

Results are only viewable after voting.
  1. Jonesy

    Jonesy Sarif's Attack Kangaroo Forum Moderator

    I ask that you please avoid going off-topic to 'bump' threads. It's an active topic as it is, and not one you'd want to make untidy with these sorts of posts.
     
    • Sheila

      Sheila Void-Bound Voyager

      Sorry! I don't think of bumping as "off-topic" and I saw nothing against bumping my own thread in the rules, so I thought it'd be okay, specially since it's fairly easy for a thread to hit 2nd page and be forgotten about in forums :)
      Just wanted everyone to see and give their input/votes.
      Will try not to do again!
       
      • bernalex

        bernalex Space Hobo

        Instead, I'd like to see swarms on your farm and in the forest, that maybe impede you slightly (like big spots of weeds do) -- maybe you even lose a negligble amount of energy. Then you could buy/craft mosquito/cicada magnets to keep them off your farm. :)
         
        • DatRaph

          DatRaph Big Damn Hero

          Why would you do that, @bernalex ? It's not enough they are annoying as hell, now they'll start destroying everything I own, One Punch Man style??

          [​IMG]
           
          • RushToward

            RushToward Big Damn Hero

            Yes, I hate that noise! It sounds less like the noises of summer and more like I'm standing next to a massive pile of horse manure all day long.
             
            • fizzy-pop

              fizzy-pop Space Hobo

              i am totally onboard with removing or lowering the volume of the buzzing, it reminds me of flies, which remind me of maggots so it gives it this really creepy vibe and I feel like im going to stumble upon something rotting around the corner >_<
               
              • Xylia

                Xylia Tiy's Beard

                Apparently, you've not been around barns much RL. The sound is very authentic and realistic. In fact, I'd wager a guess that CA seems to have some experience in the field of farming with some of these sound effects (especially the ambience).

                Really brings back childhood memories of working on the family farm... these days, my parents are way too old and we stopped that farming thing 16+ years ago, but stuff like that ambience brings old memories back.
                 
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                • RushToward

                  RushToward Big Damn Hero

                  This makes no sense if the player has no livestock or isn't near their farm.
                   
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                  • Xylia

                    Xylia Tiy's Beard

                    That's just it, you don't have to have livestock to hear those sounds.

                    IRL, on our family farm, the barn was a good 150 yards to the one direction away from the house, but yet I remember that soft buzzing noise everywhere (louder near the barn obviously), but no, that buzzing noise was everywhere.

                    Have you ever lived in a rural area where there's very little human noise pollution whatsoever?

                    Around here... the only noise pollution we get is when someone drives along the road we live on or the occasional gunshot when someone's target practicing. Otherwise, it's nothing but nature.

                    I think a lot of people in this thread lived in cities or suburbs and they're not used to things you'd only hear in silence.
                     
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                    • DatRaph

                      DatRaph Big Damn Hero

                      Is the sound of mosquitos more realistic? Probably. But that is beyond the point. The point that many here agree is: We would rather sacrifice the realism to have a more pleasant experience.
                       
                      • RushToward

                        RushToward Big Damn Hero

                        I will be grateful if you were to not make assumptions about me and ask for background info on my real life. No one is obligated to explain where they live or how they grew up, and a person does not require experience working on a farm before they can offer opinions on how a farming simulator video game could be improved.

                        Thank you for your understanding. :nod:
                         
                        • Xylia

                          Xylia Tiy's Beard

                          I actually had an experience with this buzzing (though it was slightly different) IRL just earlier:

                          It's getting warmer RL, and spring is moving in for keeps a bit ahead of schedule.

                          I took a walk over towards what was once our 2nd barn (we tore down the first when I was a kid because we needed something bigger). Nowadays we use it for junk storage, and parking various vehicles in (garden tractors, the bulldozer, a broke down car). Well, anyways, as I was walking around reminiscing (this thread got me the idea to do that and I got bored), I walked past what was once the pig sty. Man, that brings back memories. The actual pig pen area is obviously no longer a muddy pig sty, but the original "pen" that the pigs would sleep in still exists to this day! I couldn't believe that.

                          Mind you, I'm a computer nerd who rarely steps outside these days, and I've not been over to that barn in years. My dad occasionally puts stuff in it and we store the firewood near it but I myself never go over there as I have no reason to. But anyways.

                          The pigs' pen, which is just some boards nailed to three trees that grow near each other to make a diagonal enclosure with some boards across the top for a roof, still exists. In the pig pen area (not in the pen itself, it's only like 2 and a half feet high by 4 feet across at the widest part) was some kind of wooden drawer thing, a small dresser of sorts. Anyways, I heard that buzzing sound!

                          So very similar to the one heard in the game. Mind you, there's no manure, there's nothing left over from the animals we once raised there 16+ years ago. I thought maybe I was hallucinating or something. Anyways, I looked around as to why I was hearing that sound, and that's when I saw the bees. Apparently a bunch of jellowjackets had made a large nest in that old drawer unit and I could hear their buzzing from 20 feet away (I didn't dare get any closer than that, I saw a couple dozen bees hovering around it!).

                          Said buzzing sound was very similar to the in-game ambience, though it was constant and just slightly different tone. But otherwise very close!

                          I was surprised, because it's only late March and the bees are already out...
                           
                          • AtomosomotA

                            AtomosomotA Subatomic Cosmonaut

                            I actually do agree.. The noise should be toned down or made less frequent..
                             
                            • Sheila

                              Sheila Void-Bound Voyager

                              Fair points @Xylia, but like I said I think realism needs to make room for pleasant in this case (just like the super bad slingshot mechanics but that's another discussion) :)
                              If realism is going to be cumbersome or annoying then it should probably be revised.
                              I don't think "realism" fits Stardew Valley in any way, maybe in a game like Farming Simulator I'd understand. A game with monsters, magic, dwarves, etc should probably not be tied down by "realism".
                              @DatRaph Calling this "farming simulator" isn't really accurate either, if you take a good look at how these kind of games are supposed to be.
                              Cicadas are still realistic in a sense, but they're a lot more romanticized and their cries are a lot less grating to the ears than loud buzzing :) I think it really would help provide a more homey sort of feeling which I think Stardew Valley does amazingly at times.
                               
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                              • Tamorr

                                Tamorr Supernova

                                ...

                                I just listen to quite a chunk of sounds found by google, and a page of short bursts from a site. Yeah I have heard them before. What I have heard from the 20-30 sounds files is about the same as what we have, but different sound for sure. The buzzing is constant as we have now, but the cicadas are well just as rhythmic. Granted having their own tune.

                                From all that I can't say which I would prefer. Both are good. What we have now, and the cicadas. What would be nice if there was a mixture of the two depending on the factors. Of course lowering the volume of the buzzing, and as well keep that volume for the cicadas as well. Having one or the other it would be roughly the same. I think mostly why people put to that buzzing is annoying, is probably games that have used it for various things. Like dead bodies for flies, bees around the place, insect hoard coming to attack, and so forth.

                                The factors I think would be to have it switch between two which is more prominent, and be random from day to day. That way we have a bit of variety. Also if not already, the more land cleared on the farm the less of the sound should be heard. Another one could be too is if one decides to make bee farm, and having the buzzing happening around them.

                                Either way I still like the buzzing sound to be somewhere in game, as it is buzzing bees, and since cicadas does not sound like bees... I wouldn't mind some kind of compromise or something similar to be changed depending on what you choose to do with your farm. In others having a few factors in order to determine which would be heard more often based on what you have or what is on the farm. Don't know if that would be feasible, but would be nice.

                                Cicadas are not music to my ears, at least not by themselves. By themselves it would be no different than the buzzing bees. A constant sound, which is only a hint or fraction of what would be nice. So for me neither are music to my ears, and the only thing I could even suggest is to broaden the sounds with other sounds mixed in to have a natural sounding day.

                                Again I am one to not mind the bees, but I do like having more variety, so why not. :nuruhappy: Note bees to me sound more like summer to me than cicadas, but it is more or less a combination of several sounds that makes it summer, and not a single variety of insect.
                                 
                                • Sheila

                                  Sheila Void-Bound Voyager

                                  Cicada chorus (link)

                                  I don't know about you, but I find this a lot more "musical" than a bunch of bees buzzing loudly by my ears :)
                                  Sure, lowering the volume would help! But at this point I personally find these more pleasant to listen to than bees.
                                   
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                                  • DatRaph

                                    DatRaph Big Damn Hero

                                    Yes! That would be so much better.
                                     
                                    • ReyVer

                                      ReyVer Void-Bound Voyager

                                      I hate the buzzing noise. It makes me think there are swarms of flies. Ick.
                                       
                                      • Tamorr

                                        Tamorr Supernova

                                        yup that is one of the ones I listen to off one of the sites I went to. And yes it still sounds roughly about the same as I mentioned. I might be an odd one here. Since the buzzing sound not noise, sounds like a chorus of pollination or the general busy bee/wasp of a hive. It is a sound of nature. Some may not hear it that way, but possibly due to other reasons.

                                        The cicadas sound to the same as that a chorus of their own. Sure different in sound only, but generally the same concept. Music has many forms, and most things in nature I find pleasant melody. Might be due to all that backpacking I did when I was younger. Camping out in the wilderness. Cicadas and buzzing bees/wasps if not other insects were part of those experiences. Or at least some of them, as not all were during summer. But generally in nature the buzzing tends to tapper off around Fall. Less insects swarming around doing this and that.

                                        The type of insects that also make that buzzing sound are the feeding types which I can see as first come first serve in an orchestra of desperate flight to ensure their survival. Those were only during the summer times I have went, while cicadas I have heard during the fall as well... At least the early parts of it, where it was still warm.

                                        Regardless yes the sounds of buzzing probably should be lowered a bit. Maybe adding other things as I mentioned in the other post. But that is how I see it, and there isn't much to convince me one is not more musical than the other. It is just that cicadas to quite a few is the most recognizable pointed out to the way they go about their music. It is like those that like country and those that like metal. There is a vast difference between the sounds that each music genre makes. That was my indirect point in calling them the same as they are both from nature, and both have vastly different sounds they create.

                                        Some like and some don't, but as mentioned before. Some have either preconceptions of certain sounds depending on where they heard it first or have heard it. Then there are some that related the sound to things in games, which now a days seems to be the most likely.

                                        But yes either way would be fine, as long as there is a place for the buzzing sound as well; nothing like a good sound going to waste. After all we have bee hives we build, and could revolve around that, but lesser volume as well.
                                         
                                        • EmmaLVV

                                          EmmaLVV Space Spelunker

                                          Having cicadas in the Summer just like in Harvest Moon would be nice, instead of the buzzing! Although if the buzzing sounded more like bees rather then flies/mosquitoes than I'd be able to tolerate the buzz better :)
                                           
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