So I'm a rather sound oriented person in general. And this is definitely a game that, in general, is surprisingly well developed in the sound area compared to most (other than stuff like the fact that you hear sounds in the vacuum of space of course! But then that would be boring I suppose. Certainly it would be necessary for the computer to provide pilot with some sort of feedback for some stuff without it anyway.) However, I find that, interestingly enough, certain things like the heat warnings are almost impossible to actually detect at times -- particularly in battle, but often enough even while scooping. I would add here that I keep the music either off or extremely low, so I have even less noise to distract me than most players probably do. Yet, for something as important as critical warnings I find I'm often largely unaware of them. Similarly, there should be better visual indications. (Rather than the thin smoke coming from consoles, a simple red light would make far more sense. There shouldn't even be any smoke appearing within nominal temperature ranges -- smoke is an indication of something being physically damaged which is not happening below 100%.) I also have troubles with potential impact warnings which is especially troublesome in dark asteroid fields. The sound is almost inaudible most of the time and the visual indicator so tiny and unobtrusive as to be unnoticeable on its own (but also impossible to see at certain angles when turning.) Louder sounds for warnings (perhaps tied to a separate volume slider, but at 100% they should be louder than they are relative to other sounds -- they ARE critical warnings after all!) and more noticeable visual warnings for those less auditory inclined could help everyone -- not just a handful.
More noticeable alarms.
- Thread starter nazo
- Start date
Alarms seem pretty loud to me, especially when nearing 100 heat and several 'bells' are whistling at the same time, but a separate slider would not hurt anybody.
Well now that you mention it, the "bzzzzt. bzzzzt. bzzzzt." sound you start getting after 80% heat is quiet subtle. Actually it makes less than half the sound a fuelscoop generates. It's hard to hear that in peaceful conditions but practically impossible in combat. Probably the concept behind it that it's supposed to not be an alarm but only a warning that you're soon going to cause damage but I agree that it would have been more useful if it did it's job bit more louder.
What I would like to have in the game is a warning/alarm if my shields are low. Sometimes when I'm triggerhappy and target-focussed, it can occur that I don't notice my shield gauge dropping and when I hear the first (and only warning) "Shields offline", of course it's too late 
. I know, as a combat pilot I'm not supposed to be unaware of my shields like that, but some notification when I'm on the last blue ring would certainly go a long way.
. I know, as a combat pilot I'm not supposed to be unaware of my shields like that, but some notification when I'm on the last blue ring would certainly go a long way.