Remove "scary" ambient sounds

[MightyMorphinPowerRager]

So after all this years still no official way to turn off these annoying "scary" (lol) sounds?
when im playing for a few hours it REALLY starts to make me angry. the same few low quality "spooky" sounds AGAIN AND AGAIN. let me turn off this madness.

no - i dont want to fiddle with any game files, i want a checkbox that says "Turn off annoying sounds"

[daggaz]

The problem isnt so much the ambient spooky sounds in and of themselves (frankly the basketball sound really spooked me out the first day i played), its the fact that your brain quickly learns to differentiate between actual threat sounds and what just becomes repeated background noise.

Want to make it spooky again? Make it so certain things _overlap_ in their audio effects: was that just the wind in the trees, or was a zed moving thru the brush behind me? Is that a stray cat scratching at the door, or is it a zombie dog pawing at the door handle because I touched it and now it smells like meat, about to burst through? That weird growl, was that just a run-of-the-mill zed or is it actually a big hungry animal?

Give each of the sounds some "randomization bandwith" eg say 10 possible tracks per event_source, and then make sure there is some significant overlap in this library between events.

Now people will have to pay attention to the sound, and it will be unpleasant if you miss something.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by daggaz:

The problem isnt so much the ambient spooky sounds in and of themselves (frankly the basketball sound really spooked me out the first day i played), its the fact that your brain quickly learns to differentiate between actual threat sounds and what just becomes repeated background noise.

Want to make it spooky again? Make it so certain things _overlap_ in their audio effects: was that just the wind in the trees, or was a zed moving thru the brush behind me? Is that a stray cat scratching at the door, or is it a zombie dog pawing at the door handle because I touched it and now it smells like meat, about to burst through? That weird growl, was that just a run-of-the-mill zed or is it actually a big hungry animal?

Give each of the sounds some "randomization bandwith" eg say 10 possible tracks per event_source, and then make sure there is some significant overlap in this library between events.

Now people will have to pay attention to the sound, and it will be unpleasant if you miss something.

That wouldn't even REMOTELY address the stated problem. Which you've somehow managed to miss.
It's not the 'spooky sounds', it's that the sounds are not only not really spooky, but also sound WAY out of place in the ambient soundscape (on multiple levels, not just in what types of sound they are, but also in their mixing and staging). They don't provide atmosphere, nor do they provide info. And having a 'random' chance of the ambient audio actually mean something is an absolutely ASININE idea, from a design perspective. You don't want RNG audio cues, which is effectively what you are proposing. Let alone wanting them in a game that is HEAVY on time crunch where you can't really afford to be diverting to double check every time a sound plays.
That does the exact opposite of making those sounds less annoying.

[Reeva!]

Yeah besides your brain would get used to the overlapping too. It will do this even if they add more sounds. Main problem is that the ambient sounds are tied to the music slider, so turning down the music will also turn down the sounds, people want it on separate sliders.

[Good4U]

yes do it, its annoying.

[oldagetron]

Ambient music = Uninstall

Well really wanted to get into the game and survive in this zombie infested world, but alas turned off all music in the options menu and while playing i get this immersion breaking silly music interrupting my gameplay constantly.
I have to uninstall cant play the game its that annoying.

What is baffling to me is why there is no option to disable it within the options menu. Crazy decision that one.

[CatPerson]

You can turn it off, a separate sound setting than "music." But it'll also turn off stuff like rain/weather sounds.

[Corsin]

Sorry such a simple thing turns you away from such a great game. Good luck👍🏻

[Alucard †]

Except you can indeed turn off the music?
Not sure what you are even trying say .. your "complaint" makes no sense to be honest.

[CatPerson]

Originally posted by Alucard †:

Except you can indeed turn off the music?
Not sure what you are even trying say .. your "complaint" makes no sense to be honest.

They're probably talking about the ambient soundtrack that ppl have complained about for years - wailing babies, some music bits, zombie moaning, etc.

But as I said already, you can disable it. It just also disables some other environment sounds.

[oldagetron]

Originally posted by Alucard †:

Except you can indeed turn off the music?
Not sure what you are even trying say .. your "complaint" makes no sense to be honest.

No mate the B-Music horror sounds that play every 30 seconds, just not for me and there is no option for it unless you disable other ambient noise.

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by CatPerson:

Originally posted by Alucard †:

Except you can indeed turn off the music?
Not sure what you are even trying say .. your "complaint" makes no sense to be honest.

They're probably talking about the ambient soundtrack that ppl have complained about for years - wailing babies, some music bits, zombie moaning, etc.

But as I said already, you can disable it. It just also disables some other environment sounds.

Ohh those random "creepy" sound bites that play during night or in wasteland?
I wouldn't really call that "music" tho lol.

[oldagetron]

There is music clips within it all, just strange there is no simple option to disable it all.
Really pulls me out the game and i cant play it, to annoying for me.

[CatPerson]

Originally posted by oldagetron:

There is music clips within it all, just strange there is no simple option to disable it all.
Really pulls me out the game and i cant play it, to annoying for me.

Ages ago there was a single mod that (I think maybe) replaced the ambient track with one that would only have the environment sounds, but it's outdated/never updated I think.

It is indeed an odd decision to merge environmental (birds, rain, wind) with "spooky sounds" into a single track (which is why you can't have separate on/off for the two) but it's been like that forever. The game has never had great sound-design (technically) overall. There was a time when hitting metal noises were 500x louder than everything else, used to drive me nuts, especially if wearing headphones. It's better now but...

I've just taken to having ambient off and playing my own nature ambient tracks from YouTube or whatever. Or playing my own music so it wouldn't really matter anyway. Just me tho.

[oldagetron]

Originally posted by CatPerson:

Originally posted by oldagetron:

There is music clips within it all, just strange there is no simple option to disable it all.
Really pulls me out the game and i cant play it, to annoying for me.

Ages ago there was a single mod that (I think maybe) replaced the ambient track with one that would only have the environment sounds, but it's outdated/never updated I think.

It is indeed an odd decision to merge environmental (birds, rain, wind) with "spooky sounds" into a single track (which is why you can't have separate on/off for the two) but it's been like that forever. The game has never had great sound-design (technically) overall. There was a time when hitting metal noises were 500x louder than everything else, used to drive me nuts, especially if wearing headphones. It's better now but...

I've just taken to having ambient off and playing my own nature ambient tracks from YouTube or whatever. Or playing my own music so it wouldn't really matter anyway. Just me tho.

ill try again with ambient all off and see how that goes.

[James]

Originally posted by oldagetron:

ill try again with ambient all off and see how that goes.

It's definitely better with ambient music off. This is always the first thing I do before starting the game.