Audio is Important!
I just haven't seen it mentioned as a concern by Artillerymen or the masses. Audio is important! I believe it's the special sauce that helps make the game not just good but great. Less music and more the effects, and the ambient noise!
Think about Hearthstone, it's a pretty basic game you put cards down and you beat nerds. Audio isn't even necessary for you to play the game at full efficiency. But the unit voices, spell effects and pizzazz audio are what make the game a lot of fun! (At least for me) Think of how satisfying it is to hit the training dummy a hundred or so times, or poke the rock behind the zephyr until it ALMOST falls off. Is it because people enjoy the dummy flop around? Yes but.... it's also the sound it makes when you hit it. They have multiple sound effects for the exact same hit so it doesn't sound repetitive. Even with just the hearthstone board. It is satisfying to just click on the board to hear the little thud. Gameplay wise it's completely useless but it is so satisfying it actually makes the game more fun to play.
What does this have to do with Atlas? Well the sounds currently in the game are not quite there. I can't think of a single satisfying noise the game makes. Take Vela's ult for example. It is a single target skillshot that has the ability to one shot enemy hero's. But the sound effect itself is a little more than a muffled (pew...) Even a SC2's Ghost auto attack has more umph. This is an 800 damage ability that can completely change the tide of the battle as far as the numbers go but it is very unsatisfying so using it feels less worthwhile and less fun. This I feel is true for a great majority of Atlas's audio.
I know this is in Pre-Alpha, but the survey didn't have anything about the audio in the game. You hit on gameplay and artstyle but when you missed audio it makes me think it's not something valued as important in the game!
X: I played the game and a lot of it felt unsatisfying audio wise (Don't get me the wrong I like the gameplay) Y: This made me feel like an important part of the game was missing. Z: Add better and more audio. Or at least let us know it's a blip on your radar!
Cheers
Comments
I think the big reason the audio feels placeholder is because it mostly is.
I'm pretty sure I remember the Artillery folk mentioning they don't have an actual sound engineer on team yet, so I'd imagine most of the audio you hear right now is free/open sample soundclips or something like that
I absolutely agree with you, but if they don't have a sound engineer yet then there's not much they can do. But I can say I always love playing as characters and mocking their lines for no reason. When I play with friends, they commonly hear me yell, "AH! You scared me!" when I play SC2. I'm sure Artillery are very aware of how important sound design is. But it might not be at the very top of their priority list as getting high quality voice acting and sounds is expensive.
Hello and thanks for the feedback. Audio is on our "To Do" list but we want to get some of the other core gameplay elements nailed down before we invest in that area. Totally agree with you that it's important.
Thanks for playing. Hope you have fun.
Oh. Well that puts all my worries to rest.
Thanks guys. GL Artillery team. Let just know if you need more help!
I can't agree enough with what you've said. I'm a HUGE audio fanatic with the games I play and the music I listen to. Technically, I recognize that the correct move is to focus on gameplay systems as we are now. However, man it hurts my little heart not to have the crunchy poppy effects that my favorite games have.
It will definitely definitely happen :D