Sounds, Sounds, Sounds!

I see a lot of threads in this section about music, but few about in game sound. I was thinking, have we got any work done on sounds for the creatures. when they roar, when they grunt, when they snarl, etc. Maybe they make very strange noises to us, since they adapted differently to their planet. When you shout out your mating call, will you be able to identify the mating call response as being a member of your own species? How much variety to the animal sounds are there? For example, if I give a mating call, i want to have to listen closely, and be able to tell if an interested mate of my species is responding simply by the sound of their call.

What about the languages of intelligent species? Will they just remain silent while a dialogue box beneath them shows what theyre supposed to be saying? Will they all just speak some sort of simlish (the spore solution)? Or will they all sound different?

Im forgetting a couple more of my questions, but for now thats good...

EDIT: Will your organism's voice be selected in the editor, or will it be determined based off of mathematical equations based off the shape and location of vocal cords/sonar emitters/etc.

NickTheNick wrote:

I see a lot of threads in this section about music, but few about in game sound. I was thinking, have we got any work done on sounds for the creatures. when they roar, when they grunt, when they snarl, etc. Maybe they make very strange noises to us, since they adapted differently to their planet. When you shout out your mating call, will you be able to identify the mating call response as being a member of your own species? How much variety to the animal sounds are there? For example, if I give a mating call, i want to have to listen closely, and be able to tell if an interested mate of my species is responding simply by the sound of their call.

What about the languages of intelligent species? Will they just remain silent while a dialogue box beneath them shows what theyre supposed to be saying? Will they all just speak some sort of simlish (the spore solution)? Or will they all sound different?

Im forgetting a couple more of my questions, but for now thats good...

EDIT: Will your organism's voice be selected in the editor, or will it be determined based off of mathematical equations based off the shape and location of vocal cords/sonar emitters/etc.

Honestly I never tried making animal noises so this is a roar very "classic", but I'll try to do better.

We plan to use pre-recorded sounds chosen according to what vocal organs are used which are then tweaked according to your organism's shape, particularly the neck and chest. We won't have languages, because that would then require a large set of sounds and a voice synthesiser, but we may have a few variants of each sound.

The Uteen wrote:

We plan to use pre-recorded sounds chosen according to what vocal organs are used which are then tweaked according to your organism's shape, particularly the neck and chest. We won't have languages, because that would then require a large set of sounds and a voice synthesiser, but we may have a few variants of each sound.

So it is not necessary that I make animal noises?

Doggit wrote:

The Uteen wrote:

We plan to use pre-recorded sounds chosen according to what vocal organs are used which are then tweaked according to your organism's shape, particularly the neck and chest. We won't have languages, because that would then require a large set of sounds and a voice synthesiser, but we may have a few variants of each sound.

So it is not necessary that I make animal noises?

We'll be able to find plenty of animal noises in different databases online.

The Uteen wrote:

We plan to use pre-recorded sounds chosen according to what vocal organs are used which are then tweaked according to your organism's shape, particularly the neck and chest. We won't have languages, because that would then require a large set of sounds and a voice synthesiser, but we may have a few variants of each sound.

Then what will it be like for example when you are in a diplomacy screen with another race? Or when you are in strategy mode and you order some footmen to a location? Will it just be silence with a dialogue box for the former, and absolute silence for the latter?

~sciocont wrote:

Doggit wrote:

The Uteen wrote:

We plan to use pre-recorded sounds chosen according to what vocal organs are used which are then tweaked according to your organism's shape, particularly the neck and chest. We won't have languages, because that would then require a large set of sounds and a voice synthesiser, but we may have a few variants of each sound.

So it is not necessary that I make animal noises?

We'll be able to find plenty of animal noises in different databases online.

Sorry but I do not understand ... I make other animal noises or not?

Doggit wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

Doggit wrote:

The Uteen wrote:

We plan to use pre-recorded sounds chosen according to what vocal organs are used which are then tweaked according to your organism's shape, particularly the neck and chest. We won't have languages, because that would then require a large set of sounds and a voice synthesiser, but we may have a few variants of each sound.

So it is not necessary that I make animal noises?

We'll be able to find plenty of animal noises in different databases online.

Sorry but I do not understand ... I make other animal noises or not?

Not needed.

As some of you are aware, planets can be heard when converting the frequencies they give off (those electromagnetic waves) into ones translatable by a computer! Maybe these sounds will come in useful and we can shape them, or just simply use them when on a Barren world; as if your ship can pick up the signals, translating the electromagnetic waves into digital waves.

It's almost a guaranteed this will be move to the Miscellaneous Bugs thread, but what the hay, why not? Making sounds for the game itself is one thing. Another thing to take into consideration is the use of sounds. What I mean by this, is having the player make sounds, mostly in organism stage...Confused? Not too hard if you think for a second.

The player will need to make sound. It will be the center of survival for their species if the player knows the sounds and what they are for, but more importantly, they need to make a sound as well to help the others in their group.

Let's start with the problems that Spore had that I feel would be a problem here. Since Spore didn't rely on communication through noise, it didn't matter what noise they made, the only difference being the change of tone based on mouth part size. So if two ape-like creatures met, they make the same noise. No big deal, peace or war could still be made. In Thrive, the player will need to feel a bit immersed in their environment, and that starts with the senses you can use for a video game, sight and hearing. I saw the chest, and neck, and vocal-chord structure idea, but let's be honest, there are going to be a ton of dinosaurs, dragons, and other animals of the sort made, and they'll all be making the exact same noise.

Sight is a no brainer, but the sounds a creature makes is what can determine life or death.

There would be utter confusion for the player if they found out that there was a species that made the EXACT same noises they do (see above). It would be like having barking dogs AND cats.

What's the problem here? Well, the other species may use their noises differently, and they may not tip off your own to a predator, and when one of your own DOES spot a predator, it can get drowned out by the other species.

This is where I bring a perhaps already thought of, or perhaps non-implementable idea. (That or it will be shot out of the sky.) In the behavior editor, there could be a 'Vocals' tab. Within that tab, you can find template noises. (A huge array of them, perhaps.)

What I figured you could do is something like what they did with Jurassic Park, or the old RTS game Paraworld, but much more basic. You can start by mixing the noises together, such as with Jurassic Park's Tyrannosaurus. (It used noises from dogs, geese, and even cockroaches.)

You can change the tone they come in as well, be it very deep, or very high pitched, or somewhere in the middle.

The tricky part is putting communication of noise in at all, because with a vocalization editor, it would have to be the player who determines how that works.

An example would be like...A reptilian that barks like the raptors from Jurassic Park, just to give you an idea. Three short barks could mean a predator was spotted. A long, loud bark could be telling the herd where food or water is. The player could preview these noises they set up, I'm thinking in a Mario Paint meets Guitar Hero's notes sort of way, where all you have to do is determine what kind of noises are made and for how long.

Then, that's where the player is put to the test, they have to remember what would be crucial to survival, namely those three short barks.

I just thought this would take us one step away from Spore. Just as well, it helps the player determine how they want their creature to sound a bit more easily...Though now that I think about, someone would probably make a Godzilla that sounds like a chihuahua.

Maybe size and mass of the creature should be taken into account...

Just the resident lizard man's thoughts.

*Edit* I did a very Vsauce thing to do. (Sciency youtube channel.)

I started with one point and moved onto another without addressing the first point: Having the player make noise.

This, I feel, is simply dealt with an old but good video game solution.

Hotkeys.

The player can bind the noises they made to a hotkey, such as...A warning call being put on C, so when the player sees a predator, they can press C, and their creature makes the noise that was created in the editor, with any nearby of the same species reacting based on what the noise was designed for, they'd all know there was a predator nearby, and take off running.

The noise another species makes can also help the player. Example: The player is hunting prey, and one of them let's out a loud bellow, followed by the prey running off. The player can assume that when that bellow goes off next time, they have to attack right then, or the prey will get a head start. Even predators in the real world know the warning calls of their prey, and have to determine what to do if they hear it.

Once again, just my thoughts. :alien: 

LIonGraphiK wrote:

As some of you are aware, planets can be heard when converting the frequencies they give off (those electromagnetic waves) into ones translatable by a computer! Maybe these sounds will come in useful and we can shape them, or just simply use them when on a Barren world; as if your ship can pick up the signals, translating the electromagnetic waves into digital waves.

I think thats a great idea! However, this would require a spaceship. There could be a function part that, when attached to a vehicle in space, allows the vehicle to pick up planet noises.

I don't think there would be any copyright issues using the planet noises from our solar system, and if we want more diversity we could make more based off of what we know so far.

@dinoman

Players might make similar organisms, but they won't be playing each other's games, and the insides of an organism are a whole other playing field of customization as well. I don't think that's reason enough to not base sounds off of organism anatomy. What's more, I would prefer it that the sounds organisms make are based off of their design and not presets or a "Vocal Editor". Presets we might have to use as a placeholder at first, and we have too many editors.

However, in the Behaviour Editor, it makes sense to assign different sound fluctuations to different situations. It's just that the base sound itself is not customizable directly. You could make different alterations of it and assign them to different signals. (We would probably have to give the player a limited choice of options for what they could assign sounds for, to prevent the player from using advanced communication too soon).

NickTheNick wrote:

@dinoman

Players might make similar organisms, but they won't be playing each other's games, and the insides of an organism are a whole other playing field of customization as well. I don't think that's reason enough to not base sounds off of organism anatomy. What's more, I would prefer it that the sounds organisms make are based off of their design and not presets or a "Vocal Editor". Presets we might have to use as a placeholder at first, and we have too many editors.

However, in the Behaviour Editor, it makes sense to assign different sound fluctuations to different situations. It's just that the base sound itself is not customizable directly. You could make different alterations of it and assign them to different signals. (We would probably have to give the player a limited choice of options for what they could assign sounds for, to prevent the player from using advanced communication too soon).

I didn't mean advanced communication. Perhaps it could be made as simple as a drop-down list with what the noise would represent. Such as 'Mating Call' or 'Warning Call' Or 'Threat'.

I do think that the player being able to use aggressive gesturing and calls would be useful, so that a conflict can be resolved by just scaring the competition off.