It’d probably be 10 or 20 lines of code; coded within 30 mins. An artist could create a slider in Options menu in probably 10 mins since they already have all the artwork done. Connecting the two dots (volume sliders to sound files) isn’t rocket science. Then, UAT would be rolled into the broader release as one tiny element to test along with every other change going into the release. This truly is a microscopic request for anyone familiar with the code and game’s construct. If this is somehow a, say, 40- or 200-hour work request, then the game has incredibly flawed source code and stifling bureaucratic processes surrounding code updates.
Is there a JIRA ticketing website I can submit this ticket for them if that helps shave off 5 minutes of the 45 minutes or hour it’ll take to implement this?
I can tell you don’t want the update. But at least be realistic on time commitments that would be involved. We’re talking about decreasing the volume of a couple sound files; not making a brand new civ. Every month or two they paint beautiful pieces of artwork for the Main Menu of the game, and create/add cheat codes, profile icons, game enhancements, event-specific content, etc. Again, adding two volume control sliders isn’t rocket science and isn’t the end of the world. You’d still eventually get all of the above and more things you want.
But if they implement this and it ends up being the very last thing they release for the game because it takes so long to make and Microsoft risks bankruptcy from the sheer effort, then my apologies
I doubt anything like this will ever be added, nor that it should be added. How I see this option being used:
You set the interval to 60 seconds because you are annoyed by it
You lose an entire army because you didn’t notice it being attacked
You complain that the game is frustrating to play, army is too hard to control, and the minimap is unreadable. Even though it was you changing attack notifications that caused issues.
Some things are not meant to be changed, because adjustements are very likely to cause problems. As an example, you probably know that most strategy games and MOBAs have a very strict limitation on how far you can zoom out. That’s intentional as well, because if you let people zoom out too much, they start complaining about poor visibility, slow-paced gameplay and so on.
At the very least, the ability to decrease its volume should be implemented. Whether I hear the battle sound blaring at 130dB (jack hammer) or at 40dB (quiet office), I still hear it. Just one of those volumes is a lot less annoying.
And to circumvent your worries about having a less frequent or inaudible sound, a visual indicator could negate those concerns.
Either way, the player has some responsibility to not screw up their experience. I could play at 640x480 resolution and wonder why my graphics are pixelated and awful, but I don’t. Same with most any player.
Sounds like Utopia to me Well, near-Utopia anyways. I do know some notifications are necessary. I just have a problem with their loudness and repetitiousness. Well, the sounds themselves could also be revamped to be less annoying, ideally.
But, hey, with user-customizable sliders, we’d all be happy. You could crank it up, and I could lower it to barely audible.
Throw in a “frequency of occurrence/repetition” slider, as I’ve also proposed a few times over the years, then we’re all even happier. Give me $1.99 DLC with 10 different sound files I could choose to replace the annoying sounds, then super.
But, apparently, implementing these in the game must require an astronomical amount of time and resources, or the devs just really, truly love hearing the battle sounds… like a beautiful symphony to fall asleep to… because what I feel are jolting, abrasive, and incessant sounds still remain after years and years.
Annoying sounds like these (and the ridiculous doorbell chat sounds in DE) must be like ASMR to those in charge of the code and the updates. I can’t figure out how else some of these sounds have survived “as is” this long. Is too bad.
It is funny honestly I’ve never really noticed it until one day it just clicked and I was like … why is this sound so annoying ? I get now why many streamers choose to play with low sound but still what is bothering is how often it plays and it even plays when your are looking at your troops being attacked… and as I am writing this message I am listening to a streamer playing aoe2 and the sounds just keeps spamming/repeating that I can’t even focus on wirting this comment argghghhg !
Once you become conscious of it, its annoyance is forever inescapable. I’m sorry, friend, that you have become conscious of it
I played a few matches recently, and it is so bad how incredibly frequent it is. The worst is when it is a big battle vs. AI and they have some monks. You get the KO audio punch of annoying monk conversion sounds going non-stop coupled with battle alert sound going absolutely NON-STOP! (Capital letters for emphasis, not yelling)
The alerts are so frequent sometimes that it is every half- or quarter-second, which is so frequent it cuts off the alert sound that ‘was’ playing in order to play the newer alert sound
Seriously, I’m dumbfounded how more people aren’t annoyed by this
Once you hear it, it’s hard or impossible to un-hear it. It would probably take 20 minutes of coding to implement a fix and new audio slider(s) for it for us, but here we are. 25 years after AoE2 was released, and not once has any dev been annoyed by the frequency and loudness of occurrence.
Thanks. I didn’t know about any mods. Considering any mod you download comes with various warnings, though, I’ve been reluctant to download, in general. Plus, mods can break the game someday, or get in the way of patches. The base game should just officially be updated, imo. But since probably 99.9% of players and 100% of devs in 25 years love the sounds, their volume, and their non-stop frequency of occurrence, chances are slim my ears as one person will ever hear more soothing tones.
Sure, I will mod my own someday. But Wwise and the bureaucratic steps it needs to modify files and make new files is just annoying, so I’ve put it off. I’ve also not converted/loaded the 200+ custom taunts I want for DE because of the manual effort that Wwise requires. Last time I tried, there was no batch option for what I needed to do. Took 5 minites and a few clicks to load them into HD and CE. But will take hundreds or thousands of clicks and much more time in Wwise, along with DE’s need to publish the mod(?) rather than just toss a bunch of .MP3s into the Taunts folder
I could be wrong on some of that, but I don’t care. A fellow AoE enthusiast hooked me up with lots of details before. I will look at all that when I’m ready to try again
I chip away at the endeavor and then hit a roadblock, set it down, come back a year or two later, get a little farther, hit a roadblock, set it down for another year or two, etc. Each time I set it down, it’s preceded by an eyeroll. It’s a thousand steps if you’ve never gone through it once.
It all started with this fateful page… a 2,750 word essay on how to mod audio in AoE2:DE -
Later, a kind forumgoer directed me to a nice vid they made, located at the very bottom of that 2.750 word essay, if you stayed awake long enough to get there or didn’t go cross-eyed before getting there. But even this is a bunch of steps, just concisely layed out. Step 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… 110, 111, 112, 113… etc. Since I don’t have two monitors, I will have to open this in one-half of my screen while I do Wwise and File Explorer gymnastics in the other half.
If you don’t see downloading Wwise, installing Wwise, registering for Wwise, setting up a Wwise project, converting all your files thru Wwise, making a mod, pointing to this, pointing to that, renaming this, renaming that, etc. as a bunch of bureaucratic steps compared to just dropping an .MP3 in a Taunts folder (or one of the other sound folders for battle alarm or monk sounds), then I’m sorry you don’t see efficiencies like I do.
Oh, and even if you have .MP3s, Wwise won’t let you import them. (It’s not like MP3s are the most popular lossy format or anything. Why would you support them?) So, since Definitive Edition audio modding can’t have enough bureaucratic steps, go download and install Foobar2000 and convert all your MP3s to .WAVs so you can then, and only then, use them in Wwise.
I will even have to replace (or add) the old AoE2:HD taunts into DE because the new ones have such poor equalization to them, sound dry, and lack charm.
No misconceptions here. Like I said, I have all the info needed:
“A fellow AoE enthusiast hooked me up with lots of details before. I will look at all that when I’m ready to try again”
It’s just a matter of doing it, and not rolling my eyes at the next roadblock that appears. There was this other thread where it was all layed out:
Modding them myself is low on my priority list when the process involved is 100x more cumbersome than it was with a 20 year old game.
I’m happy for you if it takes you 5 minutes. I’m sure it took you 5 minutes the first time you went through all this, too, right?
Wwise adds random HEX numbers to every file. I have 250+ files that I need to edit thanks to this feature(?)
Luckily, the HEX number seems to be the same value per conversion job. Changes in the next conversion you do. That makes a batch rename a little easier… but still, why does it even add a HEX?
Due to DE’s new AI Commands capability, taunts approx 42 thru 105 are off-limits. I will need to rename 43 and up, which doesn’t sound fun for 250 files, unless I figure out a script
Wwise has a batch renamer of some sort…
But it doesn’t let you import WEM files into the Audio File Importer. (Surprisingly, they don’t recognize their own file type as being “audio” files)
This is not an efficient process at all.
Wwise has as clear as mud UI/UX and related support pages regarding batch renamer and files, in general. You import 200 files and it doesn’t show you them in a list? So you just blindly convert ‘all audio files’ in hopes it knows what you’re trying to do.
Here was the warning that came with AoE2:HD when you go to download mods for it. Seems to me the same risks would apply to AoE2:DE. And if you browse the mods that are out there, some certainly seem a little sketchy. I don’t think any and all sound mods are, inherently, “safe”:
Removed the HEX values, and got many custom taunts loaded. Just need to manually renumber them all someday because of AI Commands
Fixed most annoying and loud battle alarm, monk, etc. sounds. There’s a straggler file or two that I’m not sure where they are yet
Wasted an entire day doing all this. Not quick or efficient. Even after going through it once, it’s still bureaucratic each time you want to mod audio
I cant seem to change the chat doorbell sound. 1.5 hours isn’t enough troubleshooting time yet.
The Original_Sounds mod changes it, but not my own mod, despite doing the exact same thing and even copying/pasting that mod’s chat sounds to mine since my own attempts failed. Could be a future multi-hour endeavor
Well, near-Utopia anyways. I do know some notifications are necessary. I just have a problem with their loudness and repetitiousness. Well, the sounds themselves could also be revamped to be less annoying, ideally.
You can get all the answers from the internet, if you care enough.
