Changes to Coaster Sound Effects (Specifically Malice Unchained)

[mudvayneimn]

With the winter update, there were changes made to the sound of the various coasters (toning them down to allow for park music etc). For the record, I think the overall sound reduction on coasters was overkill; A little piece of my heart died when I could no longer hear My B&M inverted coaster roar from the plaza directly in front of it. But perhaps the most jarring change I came across happens to be the sounds for the RMC Iron horse hybrid. Originally, it had a very appropriate steel hum/roar. Here's an example.

[video=youtube;utCVKEur0-E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utCVKEur0-E&list=PLAvz_LjEBFgs58Gmo4G8UO8gUSyTBFX7P&index=13[/video]

After the Winter update, it appears the audio for that type was completely scrapped and replaced with the default wooden coaster sounds. For some reason, having a steel roller coaster sounding exactly like a wooden coaster is getting to me like a spider web that keeps sticking to you. Here's an example.
[video=youtube;Kia53lVETtA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kia53lVETtA&feature=youtu.be[/video]

I know I'm going to be in the minority with this but I really wanted to see if this was a bug, or if perhaps this was a mix up that flew under the developer's radar as they pushed out the update. To the community, do your hybrids also sound like this now, or could this possibly be something wrong on my end?

 

[Matthew Florianz]

Hi!

First off, thank you for such a thoroughly presented case, it makes it much easier to understand your issue which is two fold it seems:

"With the winter update, there were changes made to the sound of the various coasters (toning them down to allow for park music etc). For the record, I think the overall sound reduction on coasters was overkill;

For 1.1 we made all coasters louder (on ride) and have extended the range on distant layers, such as the B&M Roars (now 600m). However we also made changes to the "attenuation range" curve. This describes the reduction of volume over distance and we've made that 30% more aggressive. The reason was not so much park music as you speculate but the entire park being unrealistically loud when built densely. We researched this a bit at local fairs before starting time, recording volumes of rides at various distances. We found we we're not dropping enough volume quickly enough and although our recordings showed we should really drop even more aggressively, we opted to for the 30% as being a good compromise. To me, the mix was overbearing but I realize that is a taste issue, so it's hard to have a discussion over that. We can however discuss resulting problems.

What we want is for coasters to be loud. When everything else is also loud, we have a war of volumes that we couldn't possibly hope to win. The point of the changes was to create room for (distant) rides and have them cut through more. It seems your experience is the opposite of our intend, and that peeks my interest : )

1. Can you tell me which inverted coaster is affected so I can have a listen when I'm back in the office?
2. Is your map on the steam workshop?

After the Winter update, it appears the audio for that type was completely scrapped and replaced with the default wooden coaster sounds. For some reason, having a steel roller coaster sounding exactly like a wooden coaster is getting to me like a spider web that keeps sticking to you. Here's an example.

The "old" sound is the sound we created for modern B&M coasters. It's got a typical steel resonance sound and is smooth, bar the sounds that the carriage couplings make. We simply didn't get round to give it a bespoke sound in the beta but the release version has three types of base coaster sounds: Modern Steel, Wood, Junior. In the Holiday Release (1.1) we split wooden coasters out into classic, hybrid steel and hybrid steel topped and also did a pass on the modern steels ones to split them out into arrow and B&M. Within those categories we made the bigger coasters heavier sounding, emphasized wind sound on inverted ones and made sure the rattles only happen when the tracks bank in a way that produces lateral force. One inverted coaster should still sound the same, though others might have had a few layers exchanged or reblanced.

The sound in your first example is wrong... sorry : )

As much as you liked it, it should really go on coasters like the Cloud Runner. Personally, I have a similar situation in that I love the way the Scream Machine sounds in 2.1 (https://youtu.be/bEVnS1WR6QM?t=33s) but as you can see from the track, that wasn't right for an Arrow coaster!

Having said that, what you show us in the second video (again, thank you for such thorough presentation!) is not entirely right either as it is using a mix of wood and metal coaster sounds. I would have wanted to provide each and every coaster with a unique sound design, but the complexity we shoot for (ie. it has to have enough layers so it can sonically re-create *your* track) means we choose that over variety. What's also missing is the sounds for the supports. The Steel Hybrids I could find have a sound akin to very big shopping carts trashing around. I'd love for it to sound much closer to recordings like these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKH3q9WNhSI but, as said, we do have a limit on memory, source material and resources and that means we can't go so specific.

Perhaps one day we can revisit it and tone done the wood a little to make it more steely. Both your issues are on my to-do-planning list now : ) However, can't give you a promise as to when we'll manage to fix / look at this.

So... tldr; agree in part and hopefully we'll get a chance to address your issues (to an extend) in the future.

Hope this helps!

Matthew