Something Surprising about the Artisinal Sound

malvtheman

I am like a lot of others enjoying the april fools sound but there was something else that i wanted to put out there and maybe give out some information too. I have a hearing disability while i am not totally deaf i have to use hearing aids in order to hear anything. One of the things abouts a lot of sci fi games is that the ambient noises and sound effects tend to use a lot of electronic sounds. For some of us with hearing aids this causes a rarely talked about problem of distortions and feedback in our audio.

There are many ways manufacturers go about trying to prevent this and there are many white papers that discuss the reasons why this occurs. My point though is this while meant as a joke i was floored by just how easy and how comfortable the new sounds were on on my hearing aids. It became very easy to pick out the individual sounds for the first time.

I know this was intended as a joke and the current system wont be hanging around but I have to ask to at least consider the possibility of using human voices to provide an alternate sound track for those who do have a hearing disability and use these devices, I have to say it really was fantastic and I appreciate the work that went into it. It was a whole day without audio feed back or my hearing aids dropping out the sound completely.

gerwalk0769

Thank you.

dracounguis

I guess a human voice, even if doing a sound effect, is something the brain can catch easier than a 'real' sound effect? Though I have to say; I just played "All that Glitters" mission in the Delta Quadrant... and the funny noises were inappropriately funny as the Vadwaar were killing defenseless Talaxians! And you gotta go to Kobali Prime's combat zone and hear all the "exPLOSion!"s

davefenestrator

You raise a very good point, @malvtheman . Along with a high-contrast video mode, STO should offer the audio equivalent of that -- probably not the April Fools "zoom!" but something based on the white papers you mentioned.

markhawkman

I wonder if your issue with distortions is the result of some sort of noise-canceler in the hearing aid device?

jorantomalak

dracounguis wrote: »

I guess a human voice, even if doing a sound effect, is something the brain can catch easier than a 'real' sound effect? Though I have to say; I just played "All that Glitters" mission in the Delta Quadrant... and the funny noises were inappropriately funny as the Vadwaar were killing defenseless Talaxians! And you gotta go to Kobali Prime's combat zone and hear all the "exPLOSion!"s

goddamnit now i gotta play all that glitters and visit zombie prime lol

staq16

That's absolutely fascinating, and it makes complete sense. Thanks for educating the rest of us.

If any Devs read this - seconded.

burstorion

I'd agree... this inadvertantly might be a good option to keep and extremely good publicity by being one of the few mmos that offer this useful option (and might prompt other big name mmos to follow suit)

Not to mentioned the so called 'disabled dollar' is pretty valuable and could be a minor gold mine and would fit in well with the ethos of inclusion star trek fosters

baddmoonrizin

@ambassadorkael#6946

Something to consider here.

fluffymoof

I wanted to keep it just because of how oddly refreshing the artisinal audio really is to me. Keep it turned off by default, but let us toggle it when/if we want a switch to the AA.

Never even occurred to me that someone with a hearing issue would benefit from AA in the game. If so, it's a better route to keeping something FUN in the game than just "we all like it." I know that sounds kind of insidious, but I hope we both get to keep the AA or something similar.

burstorion

To be fair though, a few of the noises would need to be changed to less comedic options...​​

sarysa

In a similar vein, how about letting people override sounds much like TF2 players can on servers that allow it? The community could make hearing-aid friendly sounds, override the more grating sounds (looking at you solar gateway and herald staff), or simply make an "easier to distinguish" type of customization.

fluffymoof

sarysa#0502 wrote: »

In a similar vein, how about letting people override sounds much like TF2 players can on servers that allow it? The community could make hearing-aid friendly sounds, override the more grating sounds (looking at you solar gateway and herald staff), or simply make an "easier to distinguish" type of customization.

One of my favorite Warcraft addons was always Super Mario World of Warcraft. It let you change the in-game music and everything. You could even modify the mod and use your own custom music/sounds, so long as the file names were the same as the original.

I wish we had that addon here.

chelly

Quite frankly as someone who wears a hearing aid, I find the artisanal sound refreshing. I don't find it jarring and irritating to hear and it is a steady sound. It would be nice to have a different option to sounds.

gerwalk0769

burstorion wrote: »

I'd agree... this inadvertantly might be a good option to keep and extremely good publicity by being one of the few mmos that offer this useful option (and might prompt other big name mmos to follow suit)

...and would fit in well with the ethos of inclusion star trek fosters

I think this would be a great addition, set a bar for MMO's and as you said "fit in well the the ethos of inclusion Star Trek fosters."

I hope the Devs consider adding artisanal sound as a feature, I would second their efforts and be immensely proud of STO.

For the record I really enjoyed running ground with the Artisanal Sound System, running ground helped unravel some of the mystery of why some sound effects were included. Thank you to @malvtheman
for educating me.

Unknown

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jbmonroe

Completely onboard with this. +1

parish

Very interesting! I would and do vote to give us the option to toggle AA on or off. I was at time hilarious and refreshing. Just as you intended. The possibility of setting a precedence for MMO should be enticing to you devs.

jorantomalak

*sniff* i miss dat A.S.S.