Damage and Audio

[catmorbid]

Did a short search and found nothing, so here goes.

I was recently thinking how cool it would be to be able to play (if you wanted to) without any interface at all. Then it occurred to me, that one of the most important things lacking would be the feeling of how much damage your attack does when it connects. I mean, sure you could to certain extent simulate this by blood splatters and other graphical effects. However, I also thought: "wouldn't it be more effective to simulate it by a correct audio?"

So basically I came up with the idea of the impact-sound constisting of two different parts: The Absorption-sound and the Wounding-sound. I'll try to elaborate this thought through an example.

Let's say an armor absorbs 50% of the damage dealt by one particular attack. Let's also say you have 10 different sounds for both absorbing and wounding hits.

So the sounds work as a damage scale, and to each sound is tied a Threshold of damage. For example:

thud = 1
Thud! = 5
THUD! = 10
THUDD!!! = 20
KBLANG!! = 50
and so on...

This means that to determine the Absorption sound, you take the damage value the armor absorbs, and then find the highest threshold it surpasses, and that's the sound you hear. For example, you deal 50 damage, and armor absorbs 50%, then this means the armor absorbs 25. We see that threshold of 25 is more than 20 (THUDD!!!) but less than 50 (KBLANG!!), so the sound we hear is THUDD!!!

You apply the very same principle to the wounding sound, and then you mix them together for something completely different and you'd have a pretty immersive system for telling how much damage your attacks do - and how much of it is absorbed by the armor.

[LightsabeR]

Sounds interesting. Don't really know what else to add.. lol

[SnakePitAndre]

Interesting

[Stump]

Hehe. Nice Cat. Actualy in Lineage2 i noticed feature like this, when you hit the "Critical Hit!", there is the sound, and it's strongness depends on the damage dealt.

It also could be done not in a way that for every damage amount different sound, but actual modifications or strongness of the sound could be done depending on the damage.

[Kira]

Yeah, it could be a great feature since you don't have much of a clue otherwise.. Definitely interesting. A few MMORPG's also feature this.

[The Black Wolverine]

Yes, I like the idea...

but kblang? On leather?

[Opus V]

Slothflocsh!

[catmorbid]

Originally Posted by The Black Wolverine

Yes, I like the idea...

but kblang? On leather?

Well you could have separate a 10 audio sample scale (plus maybe additional software effects to make it actually 100 unit scale) for each different surface type, so that no matter what kind of surface you hit, you always get the proper sound

[Balkin]

I like your idea it sounds cool!

Imagine how this would sound during a large battle, usually in games large battles consist of maybe a couple of damage sounds but this system would increase that to the point that it would sound like so much more was going on. It would be great to hear all the different wounding sounds and damage sounds mixed to create a very realistic sound to battles!

[Resin]

Originally Posted by catmorbid

Well you could have separate a 10 audio sample scale (plus maybe additional software effects to make it actually 100 unit scale) for each different surface type, so that no matter what kind of surface you hit, you always get the proper sound

yes please.

This sounds great for armor absorb, mix in grunts and grimmaces and cries of pain for wounds received (should have a selectable voice actors on creation for this) ; mix that with heavy breathing for low stamina and heartbeats for low health.

I would like that I think.

How about creepy whispering for low mana? I don't know might not work maybe different low mana audio cues depending on the school of magic you specialized in? or am I just taking a good idea and pushing it further than it needs to go?

[Stump]

<Stump> I prefeer more like the every sound of material hitting other material, then maybe one more for sharp hit and blunt hint. Then depending on the force of the hit the sound herces should be increased/decreased, so it would give an effect. Something like that used Lineage 2 for their critical hit sound

Just make a coeficient of damage dealt and add it to some kind of sound calculation to increase hertz, and here we don't need to classify to 1, 5, 10 and etc. The damage itself makes sound.

[catmorbid]

Originally Posted by Resin

yes please.

This sounds great for armor absorb, mix in grunts and grimmaces and cries of pain for wounds received (should have a selectable voice actors on creation for this) ; mix that with heavy breathing for low stamina and heartbeats for low health.

I would like that I think.

How about creepy whispering for low mana? I don't know might not work maybe different low mana audio cues depending on the school of magic you specialized in? or am I just taking a good idea and pushing it further than it needs to go?

Well, I only thought about displaying damage in audio format, but the stuff you described would certainly add more to the mood of the game. Certainly exhaustion should be hear, so would cries of pain and your own heart beat when near death, and the magical whispering words spoken when casting spells. I can imagine all this together could alone make for quite an experience!

Originally Posted by Stump

<Stump> I prefeer more like the every sound of material hitting other material, then maybe one more for sharp hit and blunt hint. Then depending on the force of the hit the sound herces should be increased/decreased, so it would give an effect. Something like that used Lineage 2 for their critical hit sound

Just make a coeficient of damage dealt and add it to some kind of sound calculation to increase hertz, and here we don't need to classify to 1, 5, 10 and etc. The damage itself makes sound.

Try tapping your table. Then bash it with your fist with some force behind it (oh, but don't break your table!). Hear the sound? What's the difference? Is it just volume or is there more to it than that? I'd say there's more than just volume. Like when you just scratch metal with a sharp object, compared to when you hit it very hard.

That's why you'd need the thresholds for different samples - but maybe they could be dynamically mixed together so that at damage 8 you would hear a mix of both 5 and 10 sounds, and so on. Anyway, regardless of how you do it - either by using a single sample and just setting the volume and distortion and maybe a few other effects, or using a more complex mixture - it'd be absolutely great =)

[Elfvis]

I like the idea for a player to comprehend how much damage they just dealt.

[B4U4GET]

They'd need to have really good graphics to depict the damage taken too. Depending on the creature's natural color and stuff it might not be feasible.

[Synod]

Sounds cool; if I was playing a game without an interface, I'd like it to be this way, but I like having an interface.

[Mantis]

Originally Posted by Synod

Sounds cool; if I was playing a game without an interface, I'd like it to be this way, but I like having an interface.

You need an interface for other noncombat options

[catmorbid]

Originally Posted by Mantis

You need an interface for other noncombat options

Yeah, what I'd like would be to play with interface off just to get maximum immersion and enjoyment while exploring and not needing to turn it on again when engaged in combat. In fact the interface should be so simple, it'd be easy to just memorize your hotkeys for items (not a crapf**kload of them).

[Red Ranger]

This sounds intriguing and would probably do tons for immersion. Also it would go hand in hand with this: http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/4...html#post88904

I'm just afraid it would be too much work for the poor developers to realise the idea.

[catmorbid]

Originally Posted by Red Ranger

This sounds intriguing and would probably do tons for immersion. Also it would go hand in hand with this: http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/4...html#post88904

I'm just afraid it would be too much work for the poor developers to realise the idea.

Well, the funny thing is there's no telling really what have the devs done. Ok, we know there will be healthbars, but it doesn't mean there wouldn't be other ways. And if such will not make it to the launch, a similar approach might be considered after launch =)

[TNM]

i agree that sound is very important, or can be in this kind of games. if implemented right, sound can tell you very much. From how health is to how much dmg you are making to where an opponent is, how fast he is running ....well you get the idea.

i hope MO will have this feature.

[Morgan Andressius]

Originally Posted by TNM

i agree that sound is very important, or can be in this kind of games. if implemented right, sound can tell you very much. From how health is to how much dmg you are making to where an opponent is, how fast he is running ....well you get the idea.

I hope MO will have this feature.

Yes I agree with this. Sound will be the greatest concern for Stealthers any brute movement will denounce them if the sound sistem is incredibly well made

[Meos]

Originally Posted by TNM

i agree that sound is very important, or can be in this kind of games. if implemented right, sound can tell you very much. From how health is to how much dmg you are making to where an opponent is, how fast he is running ....well you get the idea.

i hope MO will have this feature.

Indeed, and remember to give cat the +rep he deserves. :P

Many times sound is not looked into well enough and being the sound whore i am i have noticed that in many games i simply at some point stop playing without the in game music and in worst case even the sound effects if they are really bad.

Small details in sound are usually as important, if not even more, than music. And details include ambient sounds as well as realistic (not in the same scale as reality though when it comes to dB value) sounds effects for things like combat.