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What's up Teamliquid. Checked around for a topic but couldn't find one.
One thing that's really been bugging me about Starcraft 2 is the lack of interesting/cool unit sounds. I'm mostly talking about attack and death noises. This kind of carries on into death and attack animations (which I also feel are underwhelming) but that's another thread.
The original Starcraft had many satisfying unit sounds that not only made the game better for those observing, but in my opinion made the game funner to play because the audio feedback was very clear.
This was really apparent when watching the Nony v David Kim replay on youtube which I've put in spoilers below.
+ Show Spoiler +
Around 2:43 in the VOD we get to hear a drone attacking and it ends up sounding like a tiny wack/spit noise... it's really uninspiring and underwhelming when compared the the acidy spit of the original SCBW drone. IMO this carries on to the weird/quiet new swiping sounds the zealots make.. the attack doesn't sound powerful at all when they attack the hatchery around 4:24. And don't get me started on the zergling v zealot fight that occurs seconds later.
Open a new tab or window while playing the video on youtube in the background and without watching the video, listen to the audio of the zealot v zergling fight (this occurs around 4:24 in the VOD linked in the spoilers). When the zerglings attack it kind of sounds like peasants from WC3 harvesting wood O_O.
More unit sounds that I have specific complaints about include siege tanks entering and leaving siege mode, hydralisk attack and death sounds, the marine death, mutalisk attack sound among others.
All in all the sounds to me feel uninspiring and wimpy. I'm making this thread to see if other people feel the same way and if so I want Blizzard to see the feedback (as I assume they are actively reading this forum.) Starcraft 1 was a masterpiece in many ways and I feel like that carries on to it's audio experience from both a player and observers perspective. Hearing a 2hatch hydra break ZvP and listening to the hydras explode against cannon fire (and the cannons/probes exploding) is a joy to hear. 3 control groups of goliaths taking down a carrier right before it flies over the cliff into cover isn't just awesome visually or tactically, but also audibly. The sound of the charon boosters, the sound of the carrier explosion...
Even the sounds of goons exploding after 15 siege tanks siege up... or the drone getting that final hit on the 5HP SCV trying to escape after scouting the zerg base... the satisfying drone spit and the satisfying explosion of the SCV...
All these sounds I feel like help add to SC1 being awesome and I really don't feel the same way about the SC2 sounds. They seem wimpy and uninspired.
Anyways, I tried to make this a good OP. What do you guys think of the SC2 unit noises? Thoughts?
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I think the noises sound too weak.
They need to make the sounds more powerful.
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I think my only two complaints about SC2 are no bnet channels and some of the unit sounds are very forgettable. I like some of the SCVs though, "In the rear, with the gear..." and "WHOA, you scared me!" but other than that, I couldn't tell you what any unit says really. :/
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I missed..
1) The marine's gory death screams
2) Overlord argghhss
4) zergling and hydra attack/death sounds
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I agree, many sound effects need to be more prominent. From a gameplay point of view, distinctive dying sounds are probably most important.
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Yeah I guess I agree, but hey what can you do right? I must admit though, even more so after seeing others play over livestream, sc2 looks more like wc4.
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Agree here too, wrote abot it before as well. It all sounds so muffled and smoothed out, like with cotton in the ears. And yes, this is especially bothering with the attack and death sounds. Maybe this is an artifact of their sound compression? Don't have the beta, so can't tell what sound file format they have.
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I actually don't really mind them so much... Although I could live without the "Well butter my biscuits!" from the SCV. lol.
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Yeah I don't mind the sounds either, but most of them definitely aren't striking or poignant. I'm especially disappointed in the Zergling, Zealot, and Siege Tank combat sounds, which are far less in-your-face than their SC1 counterparts.
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i agre; sc2 sound effects do sound wimpy.... if they replaced these new sound effects w/ the old ones i'd be happy 
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By the way, what are some of the phrases unit say when you click on them repeatedly enough times? One of my favorite easter eggs for all Blizzard games are those funny phrases.
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yea most of the sounds in this beta are pretty bad, luckily betas are for fixes this kind of stuff.
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A lot of the attacking sound noises are way to wimpy and need more oomph.
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On February 20 2010 18:39 CharlieMurphy wrote:
yea most of the sounds in this beta are pretty bad, luckily betas are for fixes this kind of stuff.
Yeah I mostly made this thread hoping that Blizzard was aware of it  . Nice to get everyone else's opinions.
I think it's interesting that someone said "if they just added the original SC1 noises to xyz unit I would be satisfied." I think that's kind of a cop out, but at the same time I definitely wouldn't mind for some units... the siege tank and hydralisk especially.
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The thing that hit me most is the sound of marines, it doesen`t realy sound like a big gauss rifle more like a smal machinegun...
i also agree on the zergling "pinching" it just sound lame.
Hydrass doesen`t sound so satisfying either. And it would be nice if it was a more "dragoon death sound when the stalker dies.
And i dont even like the sound of hellions or the unit for that sake either =).
Zelots should have a more distinct sound when they attack instead of the "sweep" sounds that now exist.
Shortly, starcraft 2 need more deapth and heavy sounds than it has in this build. But like a guy said betas in for improvments.
Sorry for my bad english..
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Zealots: add some nasty sizzling to the softly buzzing psi blades
Zerglings: maybe make it different, depending on whether they attack hard or soft targets. Some nice splutch for soft targets and hacking metallic impacts for hard.
Tanks: sound more like rockets than big gun shots. The peak is missing.
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I couldn´t agree more.
Been watching alot of replays now and the sounds are just really dissappointing.
The marine fire sound and death sound are TERRIBLE... do you remember how a marine death sounded in SC1? It sounded like it was fucking agononizing, the scream everything... it fitted the death animation of just getting splattered. The marine Fire sound needs to be more heavy and raw, it sounds like a light machinegun now, not a big gauss rifle.
The worst of them all must be the siege tank and the hydralisk.
VERY weak combat sounds, even death sound and siege mode sound.. Starcraft 1 fire sound in siegemode was EPIC. It had such a huge impact and depth, actually scary when you saw one firing on you.. you ran.
The hydralisk attack and death sound is veryyyyy weak, you cant barely hear anything.
The zealot and high templar sounds are bad too... these are trademark units BLIZZARD
why do u give them so weak sound system?
We all know that sound is half the experience of any entertainment product... movies, games whatever...
SO CHANGE THIS ASAP, and also work abit on the animation and grit of terran
Add more muzzle flash and light on the visor when marines fire.
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Yep, with a lot of units in SC1 you actually felt a sorry for them when they died, just because of the sound. Not just marines and the dragoons (which I keep hearing as "Fuck you!") also overlords trumpeting and guardians.
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Kyrgyz Republic1462 Posts
I fully agree, the unit sounds are by far the weakest part of the current "look and feel" of the game. They are way too generic, unoriginal and bland. In particular the zerglings' rustling and the hellions' flamethrower hiss make me wonder if there is something wrong with my audio card, these sound like static noises on the radio.
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Siege tank sieging animation needs to be louder and more mechanical sounding. The entire reason I main terran is to hit "o" and hear 12 siege tanks sieging up. It is the most satisfying sound in the game.
Hydra attack sound is terrible, it sounds like they're throwing pebbles or something.
Zealot is ok, I would like more umph though, it just sounds like they're cutting tomatoes. A mix between the sc1 dt sound and the sc2 zealot sound would be good.
Zerglings need to be a mix of sc1 and sc2 also i believe, considering they are penetrating armor with their sword limbs or whatever. The sc2 sound also reminds me of throwing pebbles.
I'm fairly impressed with all of the other sounds though. I especially like the hellion's attack sound.
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On February 20 2010 18:04 Schismotive wrote:
Yeah I guess I agree, but hey what can you do right? I must admit though, even more so after seeing others play over livestream, sc2 looks more like wc4.
lol that's what everyone was saying about the first one.
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FREEAGLELAND26782 Posts
Yeah SC1 sounds and death animations were so much better.
Nothing beats the sound of a good science vessel getting scourged or a defiler hit by feedback.
Or just zerg waves dying under massive massive amounts of storm.
I hope they can change this in Beta, though at least Thor's voice is lulzy.
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So far, SC2 sounds "make sense" to me but yeah, they just aren't as satisfying. Like, I have no clue how the Zealot's attack from SC makes that sound, but I love it.
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Realize, however, that eventhough a sound may not necessarily have to be realistic, it DOES have to sound COOL and fun and just awesome, exactly what SC1 sounds did.
What's the fun of fireing a large weapon if it makes no sound to indicate the seriousness of the shelling and projectile? Doesn't make much sense.
Game sounds are usually unrealistic, but at least they sound fucking awesome, and that's what people want. Entertainment and instant gratification, blood splatter and explosions with the appropriate sound accompanying it.
Could somebody with Beta Acess make a thread about this on the beta forums please?
And maybe link to this thread, and discuss it. Blizzard really needs to be aware of this problem.
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I really miss the Overlord noises from SC1. I felt more confident in game only by hearing them.
SC2 Ovies sound a bit shy to me ^^
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Since the game is probably 4-6 months from release, its very doubtful they are going to re-record all the sounds.
I guess they could just increase the general volume of them and it would help
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I wholeheartedly agree, unit sound effects are mediocre at best right now - hope Blizzard is reading the thread.
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Although I guess building/environment sounds are nice, maybe even better than nice!
Please fix unit sounds!
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I have relatives in the sound department ><
I know one of the ways they made the zerg sounds was slothing around gel in front of mics. Although it does all sound weakish.
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The main thing that I'm diappointed with SC2 is with all the sounds =\ although some still sound great (Protoss Advisor, Probes, umm is that it? LOL)
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Now I haven't gotten to play the beta first hand. But from the streams I think that hydra attack sounds really need an improvement, it's like pfft, pfft, pfft. Oh, I'm under attack by little dart spitting aliens.
The Zealot I believe needs something better then the “sweeping” sound it has right now. In Starcraft 1 it was really in-your-face, sound. The new sound is sort of aloof.
And there are many more sound effects that are somewhat lacking. (Though I haven’t been able to listen to all of them. Not by a long shot.) The overall theme that needs to be incorporated is satisfying sound effects, at least where attacks and deaths are concerned.
Because making it fun to listen to will give the game even more spectator value, which is part of the e-sport Starcraft success. The amount of fun derived from simply watching it.
Don’t get me wrong sc2 is very fun to watch. But it would be better with sound effects that are satisfying, that have kicking power.
And to make a perfect game blizzard should look into this issue. Without fixing it, starcraft 2 can be great. But the question is, would it not be as great as it could be?
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On February 21 2010 09:12 Inkblood wrote:
Now I haven't gotten to play the beta first hand. But from the streams I think that hydra attack sounds really need an improvement, it's like pfft, pfft, pfft. Oh, I'm under attack by little dart spitting aliens. [/i]
Bite me, but isn't that exactly what the Hydra is attacking with?? Lots of small darts that it shoots out of flaps on the sides of its headshield?? [Haven't hold the Starcraft manual in my hands since 6 or 7 years and it was in German, so I can't be 100%sure ]
Anyways, the only thing that disturbs me at the moment are the sound of some of the protos, especally of the Stalker, when you select him and he asks"how my i serve you?"
I swear that sounds like the original sound file for the WC3 Acolyte! if any body got the game handy, could they do a check, [my game collection is still in Germany  ]
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On February 21 2010 09:47 Ojahh wrote:Bite me, but isn't that exactly what the Hydra is attacking with?? Lots of small darts that it shoots out of flaps on the sides of its headshield?? [Haven't hold the Starcraft manual in my hands since 6 or 7 years and it was in German, so I can't be 100%sure ] Anyways, the only thing that disturbs me at the moment are the sound of some of the protos, especally of the Stalker, when you select him and he asks"how my i serve you?" I swear that sounds like the original sound file for the WC3 Acolyte! if any body got the game handy, could they do a check, [my game collection is still in Germany ]
Well, I suppose my point was that in Starcraft 1 it was more like, “Ah! I’m under attack by lethal poison dart spitting aliens!” Whereas here it sounds like they have flimsy blow darts. But your right, as far as I know they do spit darts, or maybe needles. Same thing pretty much.
Can’t say I’m familiar with acolyte quotes.
Also I forgot to mention this in my previous post. But I think that Archons also need some fixing up. Their one handed attack animation/sound is pitiful if you put it up against the imposing powerhouse that was the sc1 Archon.
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Dominican Republic825 Posts
On February 21 2010 01:28 Random() wrote:
I fully agree, the unit sounds are by far the weakest part of the current "look and feel" of the game. They are way too generic, unoriginal and bland. In particular the zerglings' rustling and the hellions' flamethrower hiss make me wonder if there is something wrong with my audio card, these sound like static noises on the radio.
agreed, blizzard most read this forum to realize about that i hope it
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On February 20 2010 18:20 imbecile wrote:
Agree here too, wrote abot it before as well. It all sounds so muffled and smoothed out, like with cotton in the ears. And yes, this is especially bothering with the attack and death sounds. Maybe this is an artifact of their sound compression? Don't have the beta, so can't tell what sound file format they have.
Wav and ogg. It's not compression. It's the style of sound editing they're using.
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On February 21 2010 11:14 Inkblood wrote:Show nested quote +On February 21 2010 09:47 Ojahh wrote:Bite me, but isn't that exactly what the Hydra is attacking with?? Lots of small darts that it shoots out of flaps on the sides of its headshield?? [Haven't hold the Starcraft manual in my hands since 6 or 7 years and it was in German, so I can't be 100%sure ] Anyways, the only thing that disturbs me at the moment are the sound of some of the protos, especally of the Stalker, when you select him and he asks"how my i serve you?" I swear that sounds like the original sound file for the WC3 Acolyte! if any body got the game handy, could they do a check, [my game collection is still in Germany ] Well, I suppose my point was that in Starcraft 1 it was more like, “Ah! I’m under attack by lethal poison dart spitting aliens!” Whereas here it sounds like they have flimsy blow darts. But your right, as far as I know they do spit darts, or maybe needles. Same thing pretty much. Can’t say I’m familiar with acolyte quotes. Also I forgot to mention this in my previous post. But I think that Archons also need some fixing up. Their one handed attack animation/sound is pitiful if you put it up against the imposing powerhouse that was the sc1 Archon.
Well Archons now generally look really small and weak compared to huge badass ultralisks.
But I gotta say the sound of Ultralisks attacking units (its a different sound for attacking buildings) is very weak, doesnt do those huge beasts justice at all.
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ovies dont go
BLARGHHH!
anymore!
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On February 21 2010 11:30 Mykill wrote:ovies dont go BLARGHHH! anymore!
:'( I miss that too.
Also, Zerglings and Drones sound like they are whacking units with large trouts.
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I'm quite sure most of the sounds we hear are placeholders considering that sound work generally is saved for last. Unit voices I'm not so sure about, but again anything can happen. I do like some of the unit quotes though.
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WE might be biassed because we played so much of Starcraft 1. There's that nostalgia factor. We need someone that is new to the game to tell us if the sounds are lacking in some way.
For our case, it's possible that we'll get used to the sound after a month of playing. We might even remember them fondly.
It's kind of like saying vanilla WoW was better than the expansions although a lot of things were wrong back then. However, I do think sounds need to be more crisp. I agree completely that it's useful to be able to distinguish units by their dying sound.
ON another hand, do they still have funny chat when you annoy units?
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I agree completely with this thread. Though I did Blizzard did a great job in attempting to get the sillouetes for the untis and the visuals to be functional in 3d and large combat, the sounds for certain units are just too weak.
I'm surprised no one's really cited the mutalisk. In SC1, it had an iconic sound when it fired its glaive AND when the glaive hit. In SC2, it sounds like weak thwacking, as do other units (like WC3 noise thwacking). I will admit that we may all be suffering from nostalgia goggles, but for me this SHOULD be a legitimate design criticism.
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I listend to a couple more live streams and I am sure that the sounds are only place holders, at least the speeches they hold.
I focussed mostly on the stalker, but he answers with "state they bidding","all shall be revealed" and "I walk in the shadows" which are the sounds of the WC3 Acolyte and the Shadow spy, so it all may turn out well  [[*/me has a little prayer*]]
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EPT
