LOUD NOISES

[Oldman Robustin]

I'm surprised this hasn't come up.

The range on sounds seems to have shot up dramatically.

I'm in virology (metastation) and I can hear someone tearing up the cremator. I'm frequently hearing shit from other departments even.

It also seems like a pretty big FU to the clock cult since their abilities give unique noises and even if you're in maint anyone in adjacent departments is gonna hear your goofy clock shit.

Sound range seemed fine before, now its both annoying and unbalanced.

[Nabski]

Today is argue with Robustin day!

Jaunting around in maintenance as a nightmare tended to get me called out. Yeah you can hear a surprising amount of shit going down in the viral lab, and you someone care more there because you might be listening for airlocks opening.

I always headcanoned it as the walls are paper thing. It takes more metal to make a comfy chair or scooter than a wall.

[RandomMarine]

Playsound has distance and falloff arguments. People should be using them more often.

[Dr_bee]

certain noises need to be louder than others, but right now everything has the same range I think.

non silenced gunshots, e-swords, certain wizard spells, and people attempting to break down walls and such should be able to be heard from far away. Everything else maybe not so much.

If people can even hear the click of a silenced Cr20 the same distance they can hear a regular gunshot, then something is wrong.

That being said, I love noise actually being a factor now, it makes murderboneing a little harder as most methods of murder are loud, so you cant just run around taking people unawares even with radios out.

[Oldman Robustin]

Bumping this because its a massive balance concern that apparently got changed without anyone realizing it.

I find it to be downright frustrating, especially during highpop because:

1) You hear too much shit and it gets distracting (i.e. I hear someone hacking a door, rush to make sure its not my door, its some turd 2 rooms away)

2) You routinely get out'd without any way to prevent it. I seriously sympathize with Clock Cult on this one, what's the bloody point of NOT going war if the first person to use any kind of cult magic is going to BEEP a unique noise that everyone on that side of the station is going to hear? Same thing applies to any "antag-associated" noises. I get that chopping someone up with an esword is not quiet, if I'm nearby I would expect to hear it off-screen, but ambushing someone with an esword in maint only to have multiple people in two different departments calling it out on radio is ridiculous.

[Qustinnus]

lol you can't really fix this unless you make it so walls block audio more efficently but that would require sound to be less shit on byond

[Yakumo_Chen]

"chopping someone up with an esword is not quiet,"

It's listed in the uplink as loud and conspicuous, so if you start using it, only makes sense it can blow your cover.

[Yakumo_Chen]

However I do think we need some ambient meta-breaker sounds like the clock cult teleport sound that randomly emit in maintenance, complete with steam cloud. People can blame it on leaky pipes (totally sensible for maintenance). It only gets suspicious when you hear it a lot more then normal.

[John_Oxford]

Sound doesn't transfer through the vacuum of space, the heavy steel walls of a space stations hull shouldn't be flexible enough to warrant vibrations traveling through them, which only warrants sound traveling long distances through maint tunnels and vents. Vent's aren't exactly feasible because they are super tiny, and generally speaking filled with compressed air.

Which leaves maint tunnels.

Which are separated by giant sliding metal airlocks.

Emphasis on airlocks.

Sound shouldn't be that blatant.

[Dr_bee]

However I do think we need some ambient meta-breaker sounds like the clock cult teleport sound that randomly emit in maintenance, complete with steam cloud. People can blame it on leaky pipes (totally sensible for maintenance). It only gets suspicious when you hear it a lot more then normal.

Leaky airpipes would also give atmos a bit more to do, similar to how engineering has to fix mice chewed wires.

also, reinforced walls should prevent more sound transfer than regular metal walls, and metal walls more so than reinforced glass.

I dont know if they dont already do that

[Deitus]

this has been around for a longass time and i dont really have a problem with it. all the new "ambience" sounds, the new lavaland wind sounds, and the loud humming sound that plays at the beginning of every round has me reaching for stopsounds pretty often though.

[Yakumo_Chen]

Sound doesn't transfer through the vacuum of space, the heavy steel walls of a space stations hull shouldn't be flexible enough to warrant vibrations traveling through them, which only warrants sound traveling long distances through maint tunnels and vents. Vent's aren't exactly feasible because they are super tiny, and generally speaking filled with compressed air.

Which leaves maint tunnels.

Which are separated by giant sliding metal airlocks.

Emphasis on airlocks.

Sound shouldn't be that blatant.

Centcomm didn't have the budget for soundproofing.

Sound more or less carries through space anyway, I don't think anyone is aiming real high for a realist sound simulation here.

If you're going to be doing things that make a lot of noise (eswords, guns, etc) you should expect to be heard and for someone to go investigate. If you're concerned, make a better effort to hide your cover and don't walk around in blood-covered clothes / etc.

imo it'd be better balance to add meta-breaking noises to ambience / have events that make the noise to increase paranoia then to make everything quiet. If you can't deal with people hearing you being an antag when you're being a loud antag, then acquire skill.

[Oldman Robustin]

It hasn't been around that long, it wasn't around before I took a break early this summer.

When I came back I noticed that suddenly I could hear EVERYTHING going on in adjacent rooms. It really hit me when I was working in viro (Metastation) and could hear someone breaking the Cremator in Chapel (literally 6 airlocks between me and the sound) and I realized, holy shit, if I can hear that there's absolutely no chance I'm ever going to accomplish anything "stealthy" if it involves any noise whatsoever.

And I was right.

And we still can't even agree on what changed this. It was OBVIOUS to me when I came back that sound carried MUCH further but I can't even try to address it when I don't know what PR caused it in the first place.

[oranges]

It's been in since Jul but you haven't noticed until now, can't be that bad

[Incomptinence]

Oh that explains all the times I hear combat sounds then search the area around me to find absolutely nothing there.

Fucking annoying even as an antag hunting officer. Definitely not a mechanic to be proud of spin fruit.

[Dr_bee]

There are some noises that really shouldnt carry. Screwing open an airlock for example should be quiet, crowbaring it open not so much.

Would it be feasible to add a "quiet" tag to certain sounds that make them only hearable if you are in sight of when they happen? It would allow coders to pick and choose what noises can be heard through walls.'

Also add the crowbar noise as a creaking ambience noise the station makes occasionally to break the meta. Is it someone crowbaring your room in? or is it just the rusty bucket you live in creaking again?

[oranges]

I think it's feasible but someone would have to do the work

[Oldman Robustin]

It's been in since Jul but you haven't noticed until now, can't be that bad

I was away until late September, didn't make a post until early October because despite noticing immediately I didn't want to wade into the first balance issue I saw.

Finally figured out it was this PR: https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/29455

Edit: Metabreaker noises would be a fun addition to the broken airlocks in maint

[Bluespace]

Dear god please reduce sound radius.
You can hear anything happening in maint at all.

[Rustledjimm]

I personally think that sounds travelling too far are an issue.

Often as an engineer I hear someone breaking down a wall or hacking a door and I search maint and everything nearby and not a thing. I then travel all the way to another department and lo and behold there it is. So far that I should never be able to hear it clearly.

[Anonmare]

I like both ideas - reducing sound radius and meta-breaking noises.

[Qbopper]

I like both ideas - reducing sound radius and meta-breaking noises.

would be great for helping stealth, +1

[Oldman Robustin]

I made a revert PR to two important variables that Fox McCloud (some other server dude) altered when he added "3d Sounds" a few months ago.

I actually wanted to settle on a compromise number but when you have Kor's support suddenly your shit gets merged TOO fast.

So now we're back at old sound radius. Definitely an improvement but I think the ideal number is a modest radius increase with a balance pass to sound volume since apparently volume actually affects whether you hear a sound for not.