I never thought about the sound assets until now but I would have to agree it is far too in your face. (Horse monster scream, I'm looking at you) As to what direction you should take, I have no idea. The game which I thought had the best monster sounds would have to be Ragnarok Online (not the sequel) because every monster had very distinct sounds so you could immediately what kind of enemies were near you. They also had a lot of personality, from the cute bouncing noises of the Poring slimes to the heavy horse breathing of the Nightmares. They also weren't too vocal as certain sounds only played when they were doing certain actions (moving, attacking) or if they made sounds while standing still, it would usually be with noises that didn't involve the voice box. (Breathing, flapping, buzzing, etc)
I like everything in this post. My suggestion would be to make monster calls more atmospheric. You hear the monsters before you ever see them. If you beam down to a planet, for instance, you could stand still for several minutes and listen. This not only allows you to get an idea of what is on a planet before you find it, but also creates an element of suspense and gives the player the impression that the planet is bigger than what he/she is experiencing on screen. This could be extended to more civilized settings. If the planet has a spaceport, you might hear spacecraft going by once in a while. If the planet has an Avian settlement, there might be a public call to prayer or something that can be heard from well outside of town. Keep up the great work guys!
I am also a perfectionist who can be driven batty by those small, immersion-challenging issues. I am always so glad to hear from developers who feel this way, too. Regarding sound, I have had some issues with the repetition of some of the shriller farm animal noises. There are creatures that scream like horses or squeal like pigs, and these sounds assaulting my ears over and over gets very uncomfortable. If the beasts must scream like that, I'd like the screams to be less frequent. The dog snarls and yelps are also rather discomfiting, though that may be more an issue of guilt about attacking a 'puppy'. I cannot presently offer input regarding what kind of sound effects I'd like to hear in Starbound. Really isn't my area of expertise. Might think of something later. I can only offer a vague agreement that the current monster sounds aren't always what I expected from Starbound's aesthetic.
This, I love your idea because you pinpointed something very crucial. It really helps with the immersion if the game gets decentralized, and this is one step towards that.
Monsters should do more than just roar their lungs out like that's the only thing they can do. In fact, they should have a sound system similar to music, that changes depending on whether you're in battle (with them) or not. Neutral animals that live in packs should at least make some noises at each other as in a form of communication. There's so many sources to draw inspiration from: Whales, Predator(movie), fan-made monster sounds, whispers, drinking water, animal sounds, squeezing cat-food, dragging nails across a board, snoring, belching, etc, and then just play with the filters to make it sound like something cool. It might sound complicated but it really ins't. Sometimes the simplest of ideas and sources can give surprising results if you know how work it.
Would it be possible to have randomly generated sounds? The sounds would be made up of notes at different pitches kind of like the song system. The notes would be put together to make a pokemon-like noise consisting of high pitched sounds (hopefully not like right now) I think that would fit with starbound pretty well.
in a balance related note that i probably missed the answer for will there be more craft able weapon choices in the final game to compete with the weaker find able counterpart and on a more related note there could be a system similar to don't starve where people sound like instruments but that probably woulden't work to well for monsters and animals but it would be amusing to make chickens sound completely ridiculus
Finally starbound will stop having barnyard animal sounds. An the chair and bed thing was an issue for some time. Glad to see these issues finally being worked out.
The ideas so far seem pretty good. Hearing more subtle sounds coming from creatures and animals would be nice (chirping, purring, low growls, wheezing, and breathing.) Also I think it would be cool to hear more ambient sounds/noises when creatures are moving about or fighting; although this would take a little more effort and time, it might add more to the immersion. Perhaps depending on the size/weight of a creature or what kind of legs or movement method it has, it might make a different noise. Large legs would make a pounding rumble, spider legs would make a lighter rapid tapping as they skitter by, a slug or snake body would slither. Each part making unique noises may also change slightly depending on what material the ground is underneath. ALSO, aside from sounds being added, can we or will we see multi-seating surfaces??? I would love to actually be able to sit next to someone on a couch or use some other multi-person object. Playing alone is great, but even on multiplayer servers interacting with stuff alone is still kind of playing... alone.
Birds need a sound of some sort. Nothing is more annoying than mining, only to have a 30 eyed owl start vomiting fire on you with no warning. It's also more frightening to have sounds. There should also be a noises for the spaceship. Sometimes I stay on the planet for longer just because I don't particularly enjoy the sound of a dormant engine. Maybe a simple theme for each race of ship. There should also be some noise for when there's no monsters around. A sort of ambient effect, like Cliff_Racer said earlier. They don't necessarily have to be violent, just something so you don't feel so alone. The music has a tendency to stop when you get farther down. I was working on building a deep underground cavern, but I stopped because it was boring without it. One other thing that irks me is that when I'm walking above ground, sometimes a monster will fall into lava and start dying. This triggers the battle music, and interrupts the song I'm currently enjoying. It would be amazing if there was any way to fix that. Also, there should be an option to turn off battle music for those of us that don't like having our listening experience interrupted by a giant screaming platypus squirrel. I know I'm knit picky, but I'm a hug band nerd, and music is one of the most important parts of a game for me. Starbound definitely has one of the best soundtracks of any game I've played before, probably tied with Skyrim. I love it, and I want to help make it better. Thanks a ton for all the work you've done
I like the idea of giving some randomized sounds to different monsters, so that they have a unique sound as well as appearance. Maybe find a way to generate random sounds or use pitch-bending or filters to add some variety to the sounds of each planet.
If your talking about immersion, as well as "sound", I have to ask... Any plans for the implementation of further biome specific music tracks and (above all) an underground music theme? Thanks!
This is looking pretty good. I am glad you are addressing the sound design, and I agree that the current monster sounds are out of place; having some bizarre space creature neigh at me really breaks immersion. Also, could you please include a store within outposts that sells the tiles used to build outposts? ("Bases-'Я'-Us"?) The outpost screenshot that was posted the other day contained what was probably the best looking building I've seen in this game (honestly, I wish ALL of the buildings looked neat and futuristic like that one did) and I would really like a way to obtain the blocks to build my own bases without having to tear down existing ones.
I would suggest getting inspiration from sound recordings of actual wildlife. Just listen to this and the Starbound soundtrack at the same time. https://soundcloud.com/nature-sounds
I would like to see some 8 bit distortion-type monster sounds like a good chunk of the early Pokémon games had. I think you could get a few variations of those, and then change the speed and pitch to suit different monsters. And maybe add in some "oh shit" enemies like the team for Left 4 Dead did, where you hear the audio cues and everything gets serious. The current bosses aren't intimidating in any way. Just my two cents don't flame.
Just a little idea for variety: Randomly determined pitch shifts and equalizer changes can be made to a small pool of existing noises, making every animal sound a little different without actually making a million different animal noises.
