Friday Facts #38

[slpwnd]

The usual batch of Friday news from Prague: http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-38

[sillyfly]

Ah, another Friday update
I was looking forward to all the neat bugfixes in 0.10.1, but I guess I'll have to wait another week or so

The sounds are great - they really do add a lot, but a few are rather annoying - mostly the flying robots one (see https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=4279). That eerie high-pitched whine can drive me mad!

As for the forthcoming music - I do hope once you have more than one track you add a ui option to check which ones are played (Like the one in Red Alert). I now it is still a long time until we have more then one actual music track, but planning ahead is rarely bad
(Oh, and it may be only me, but I would like to have some tracks in the spirit of the trailer soundtrack, even though it may not really fit the "stranded alone in a factory environment" theme).

I know I say this a lot, but - keep up the good work

[torham]

I generally like the sounds, the only exception is perhaps the furnace sound. It sounds rather like a small wood pile burning, not really like a ore smelter. high temperature coal fire is more uniform, something like This

[Rahjital]

Aw, no new release this week? I was waiting for it to release my own mod... aw well. Hopefully some of the modding interface improvements will make it to 10.1 once it is released then.

[Psycho0124]

Arggg.. Was really crossing my fingers for a soon-ish release of 0.10.1 for some of the bugfixes. The shotgun pellet bug isn't too bad since we can just use other weapons or run FreeERs mod but the turrets not firing is really maddening. I spend so much time now jogging from wall to wall keeping the biters at bay. Would a tiny hotfix for the turrets maybe be possible, just to tide us over?

I'm really enjoying the new sounds for everything though. They seem to bring the factory to life. I'm definately with torham on the furance sounds though. More "Woooosh" and a little less crackle would sound more satisfying.

[DanTaylor]

Hi,

It's about time I started posting on these forums I think.

I'm responsible for all the new sounds so I'm very interested to know what you all think of them. There is still some balancing in terms of volume that I'd like to mess around with, but I wanted to hold of until we got some feedback from the community.

The sounds are great - they really do add a lot, but a few are rather annoying - mostly the flying robots one (see https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=4279). That eerie high-pitched whine can drive me mad!

As for the forthcoming music - I do hope once you have more than one track you add a ui option to check which ones are played (Like the one in Red Alert). I now it is still a long time until we have more then one actual music track, but planning ahead is rarely bad
(Oh, and it may be only me, but I would like to have some tracks in the spirit of the trailer soundtrack, even though it may not really fit the "stranded alone in a factory environment" theme).

Do you mean when they're flying around and fixing things? Or the door of the Roboport? If it's the later then that's already been changed and should hopefully make its way in next week. It's now much softer, like an air powered door, no more metallic sounds.

As for music, the trailer one was made specifically to grab your attention, might not work as well if that style is within the game. Still, I'm open to new ideas, there may be other ways for that style to be in without directly being apart of the games music playlist... we'll see.

Thanks

[sillyfly]

Nice to see you here. It's always nice to know the development team gets direct feedback from the users

I'm talking about the sounds of the robots flying by. flying-robot-1.ogg and flying-robot-4.ogg are the most offensive to my ears, but maybe others like them...
I thought the flying robots are something like this device - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjgMhO_qZT0 , although I realize having dozens of such robots may as well sound like an infestation of flies or locust Maybe something along these lines but with more "whoosh", like a jet plane? Just a thought....

I can only assume how hard it is to make sound effects for games, especially when it's so easy for us to tell what we don't like, yet very hard to say what it is we actually want. Still, I hope we can provide some hints to help you make this game even more awesome

Edit: Also - it would be nice to have your status changed to "Facotrio staff", just so it's easier to tell...

[DanTaylor]

Nice to see you here. It's always nice to know the development team gets direct feedback from the users

I'm talking about the sounds of the robots flying by. flying-robot-1.ogg and flying-robot-4.ogg are the most offensive to my ears, but maybe others like them...
I thought the flying robots are something like this device - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjgMhO_qZT0 , although I realize having dozens of such robots may as well sound like an infestation of flies or locust Maybe something along these lines but with more "whoosh", like a jet plane? Just a thought....

I can only assume how hard it is to make sound effects for games, especially when it's so easy for us to tell what we don't like, yet very hard to say what it is we actually want. Still, I hope we can provide some hints to help you make this game even more awesome

Thanks a lot!

Strange you should bring up quadcopters as a possible sound for the robots, this was actually the initial plan but like you say, if they're clustered together it might sound like a bee hive, I opted for "robotic voices" instead. A friend of mine owns one of those quadcopter things, might be interesting to see what it sounds like if I record one of those, but in the end it might be best if I just balance what we have as I'm pretty confident quadcopters will sound like a bunch of bees . Jet-like engines are another possibility, but would need to be gentle, wouldn't want something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5YS5wkj5m4 for example (amazing noise right before the engine kicks in though).

Making sounds is definitely hard, but a lot of fun, especially for this style of game. Reading opinions and ideas definitely help keep things flowing, so keep them coming

[ssilk]

Well, the sound. Kind of my hobbyhorse.

The overall atmosphere is quite well hit. I go through all the sounds and on those which I really like and which not I make a comment:

Accumulator idle+working
nice. The base frquency (50 Hz) should be much louder when working, the "ZZZZ" must not be much much louder as when idle.

Asseblies:
All assemblies have as base some the same "noisy" sound. I think this is not needed.

Basic transport belt:
My vision of this sound is the luggage belt on an airport, which is much, much deeper. I found this one: https://www.freesound.org/people/mwl500/sounds/49972/
But I mean even deeper.
And you can hear a bit of noise from the single "claps" of the belt rolling over the wheels:
https://www.freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/169192/ - in the second part if this sound...

Boiler:
I would add not only gas-sound, but also firing wood, cause it also coal...

Burner-mining drill:
Hm.

Car:
I like it.

Chemical plant:
Also very cool. I think 0.5-1 db less "blubber", more this very cool background.

Deconstruct-bricks:
Hm. Sounds for me not destructive enough. Reduce the "tone".

Eat:
Hm.

Electric furnace:
My vision to that is the sound of a toaster. https://www.freesound.org/people/jfajner/sounds/70934/

Electtric miner:
I don't like this "rotating" sound so loud.

Explosion:
In my eyes personal taste.

Express/Fast transport belt:
Already said with basic belt. Of course faster. Express is 3 times faster, fast 2 times.

Flying Robots:
Well. I think the sound are quite cool. But I find them too distracting.
I thought of flying robots.
https://www.freesound.org/people/RICHER ... ds/216492/
https://www.freesound.org/people/system ... ds/163147/
https://www.freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/188241/
https://www.freesound.org/people/pushkin/sounds/215301/
https://www.freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/188243/
https://www.freesound.org/people/conleec/sounds/148627/

Furnace:
Nice.

Gunshot:
Well. Taste.

Heartbeat:
That's what's awaited.

Huge-explosion:
Is not huge enough.

Inserters:
Well, not what I awaited. I thought more to something like that:
https://www.freesound.org/people/perida ... ds/188821/
https://www.freesound.org/people/FreqMan/sounds/21200/
https://www.freesound.org/people/beerbe ... ds/160432/
https://www.freesound.org/people/mhtayl ... ds/126038/
https://www.freesound.org/people/ABStud ... ds/177153/ (but much less agressive)
https://www.freesound.org/people/Pixana ... ds/238978/

Laser:
Taste.

Machine open/close:
Well.

Manual repair:
I thought always to duck-tape.
https://www.freesound.org/people/thefir ... ds/203107/
https://www.freesound.org/people/awfulT ... nds/19417/
https://www.freesound.org/people/awfulT ... nds/19420/
https://www.freesound.org/people/daneha ... ds/235708/

Chest open/close:
I think that sound is to wide. A metallic chest doesn't sound like a bell.

Oil-refinery:
I think the steam-sound anoying and the blubber not realistic.
The background sound should come from the chemical plant. Or this: https://www.freesound.org/people/vumsep ... ds/199634/
Steam:
https://www.freesound.org/people/jesabat/sounds/119741/
https://www.freesound.org/people/pengo_au/sounds/90143/ - for example...
And for the boiling a bit more of those:
https://www.freesound.org/people/KidsCa ... nds/42811/
https://www.freesound.org/people/gelo_p ... nds/69397/
https://www.freesound.org/people/SteveM ... nds/86205/
https://www.freesound.org/people/Corsic ... ds/184832/

Pipe:
More streaming, less boiling, finer bubbles.

Pumpjack:
Well here I wish the sound of a motor a bit.

Pump-gun:
Currently very low-res.

Radar:
I hear the rotating and some "pings".
Ping:
https://www.freesound.org/people/bubapr ... ds/107144/
Rotate:
https://www.freesound.org/people/Adam_N/sounds/164662/
https://www.freesound.org/people/Timbre/sounds/201551/

Roboport-Door:
I don't like that sound for that. And It's also used in the radar.
I think perhaps a scissors in time lapse could do it:
https://www.freesound.org/people/Swobom ... ds/108453/

Roboport-Working:
Ok. 2-3 different sounds, no reverb and it's ok.

Steam-engine:
Nice: A steam engine?!.

Storage tank:
Yes and no. If it is not filling/emptying yes. But when currently filled/emptied: no, then more like a pipe.

Substation:
I like it, even if it is a bit boring.

Train:
Persuading.

Transport belt working:
I don't understand where it is used. And see above for the other belts.

Hope this helps...

[FishSandwich]

Arggg.. Was really crossing my fingers for a soon-ish release of 0.10.1 for some of the bugfixes. The shotgun pellet bug isn't too bad since we can just use other weapons or run FreeERs mod but the turrets not firing is really maddening. I spend so much time now jogging from wall to wall keeping the biters at bay. Would a tiny hotfix for the turrets maybe be possible, just to tide us over?

I agree, they say it is not game breaking but for me it is when I recently had to scrap a 25 minute video, all because a horde of biters broke into my base while I was distracted elsewhere and laid waste to half of it before I realised what was happening.. while my turrets just sat and did nothing..

[Ca_Putt]

The sounds make the game seem much more finished in a rather subtle way.

the only one I really dislike is the Radar, not because it's bad but because I always think something bad is happening when I'm passing by my radar :/

[DanTaylor]

Hope this helps...

My word, ssilk. That list must have taken you a long time to put together, I appreciate it

There are some sounds which I'm going to revisit in the future, like the transport belts. The engine for the electric mining drill is slightly too loud, I agree.

Thanks!

[Aza-Industries]

I love the factory sounds, It's the only audio I have turned on in the game. It adds a great ambience to the game.

The music always makes me think it's horrible compressed/distorted when I listen too it, so I always end up turning it off.

[sciencemile]

For Boilers and Stone/Iron Furnaces, I think that the ambient sound should be determined by what sort of fuel you are using; currently with the Stone Furnace, for example, it always sounds like crackling wood. It'd be nice if it sounded like that only if I was using wood as a fuel source.

[Club Sandbox]

Another example from vast amount of the new stuff on the forums are the GIF minitutorials created by Club Sandbox. Great idea and implementation. Chinese proverb says that a single picture is worh more than 1000 words, so GIF should be worth even more:) These little animations showcase common (basic or advanced) situations mostly with transport belts in a great way. Checkout some of them below.

It's a "True fake Hoax" lol !
I'm not the creator of this tutorial but i've take contact with the creator (few days ago) and he doesn't respond to me, he just vanish but this hoax is not totaly wrong you can find in few time more GIFF from but the current are from mpstark he deserves all the credit for this.

[slpwnd]

Another example from vast amount of the new stuff on the forums are the GIF minitutorials created by Club Sandbox. Great idea and implementation. Chinese proverb says that a single picture is worh more than 1000 words, so GIF should be worth even more:) These little animations showcase common (basic or advanced) situations mostly with transport belts in a great way. Checkout some of them below.

It's a "True fake Hoax" lol !
I'm not the creator of this tutorial but i've take contact with the creator (few days ago) and he doesn't respond to me, he just vanish but this hoax is not totaly wrong you can find in few time more GIFF from but the current are from mpstark he deserves all the credit for this.

Sorry, it is fixed now.

[Club Sandbox]

Another example from vast amount of the new stuff on the forums are the GIF minitutorials created by Club Sandbox. Great idea and implementation. Chinese proverb says that a single picture is worh more than 1000 words, so GIF should be worth even more:) These little animations showcase common (basic or advanced) situations mostly with transport belts in a great way. Checkout some of them below.

It's a "True fake Hoax" lol !
I'm not the creator of this tutorial but i've take contact with the creator (few days ago) and he doesn't respond to me, he just vanish but this hoax is not totaly wrong you can find in few time more GIFF from but the current are from mpstark he deserves all the credit for this.

Sorry, it is fixed now.

No prob, but it was funny "take a look at this FF today hmmm.... WTF that is my name !!"

[fixthebugs]

Maybe Daniel will like this idea for music (:
funny music
and more constructing
This is somewhat hard to make it really good!

[torham]

Can you link us the LEVEL interview, when it comes online? Their website is ... lacking in directions...

[albarak]

The actual sound of the train is fine, but I feel like it maybe runs a bit slowly when the train is going slow? As in the length of time between clacks is so long it seems to bear no relation to the motion of the train at all.

Regarding the implementation of sounds, is it possible to expand the radius around the player which determines what sounds are played? Right now for much of the time only one or two noises are playing at once, so my factory doesn't feel very busy. If it's something that's possible to tweak in files/options or with a mod, that'd be swell.