I feel like I'm missing something with the birds on Revontuli

[Grim]

During normal wandering around/tracking of other things I'll hear birds making alert scolding sounds and also pretty intense flapping sounds around me like I've startled some birds and i should be able to see them. But theres never anything there. I check the sky, i check low near the ground, i check the nearby trees...am i missing something? This can't be random environment sounds but i'll be damned if i can spot whats making the noise.

[florble mcfumperdink]

Assuming you are talking about the upland fowl such as the Hazel and Black Grouse, they tend to spook about 50 meters away and flush away from or otherwise parallel to the player. Sometimes they spook right back towards you. What i tend to do is walk at standard pace through the forest and look form them through binoculars or wait for a warning call, then when I spot or hear them I move directly towards them shotgun in-hand (ptarmigan need to be shot in the air, but the other upland fowl don't). if they fly too far away i simply give chase and catch up while they are landed, opting to blow them out of the sky once they flush again.

Honestly its mostly about getting lucky, so you aren't too far off the mark right now. Just remember, these birds tend to weigh less than two pounds and are smaller than egg-laying hens. The only exception to that is the Capercaille, but even then they are still quite diminutive.

[Kaned Dragon]

I had the same experiance at first. Basically go low and slow, keep a shotgun or 22l ready. Sometimes the (i think it's the black grouse) will land nearish to you. That's the flapping your hearing. But they are further away then they sound. Get to the northern part of the map as it's less dense and you can see them land and fly away more clearly. They're just at the 100m mark it seems when making that noise. In the denser south part we start in it's really easy to not see them, but hear them. North and bit different

[Grim]

So i'm not insane at least lol. Its just weird because i keep seeing things like disturbed vegetation/leaves being animated nearby but no critters doing it. I guess its just that they are that small and fast.

[dbump]

I have also heard this, and continued walking, came over a rise, and found the source of the sound was a group of Canada geese on the ground, 150m or more from where I heard them initially. It seems like the sound of birds on the ground (which includes a lot of wing beating) travel much much further than birds in the air (which seem to fade correctly with distance).

[Henrimagne]

Yes, this is also my experience: they sound closer than they really are.

[Agima]

I concur. I'm playing with headphones and soundwise, all the birds sound way closer than they are. When fleeing, they sound like there are right next to me but in fact, they are relatively far away (50-100 meters).

So you need to "train" yourself to look farther then they really sound. They are harder to spot in dense forest too. You'll get better with time and practice... and luck too!

[creep_]

Was also my first bird experience. Had a caller for a hazel grouse and those "sound waves" answersing the call even indicated it should be visible from my position. Gave up after a couple of minutes, walked in the direction just to find it was about 50m away or more judging from the footprints. No idea where it went.

It's fun to walk around with shotgun in hand to get them. Never had much practice shooting flying birds. Have all the callers with me but never used them again.

[Vault Traveler]

Isnt the whole sound of animals kinda like that? The Deers at 25m away munch like they have a blender in their mouth.

[Agima]

Originally posted by Vault Traveler:

Isnt the whole sound of animals kinda like that? The Deers at 25m away munch like they have a blender in their mouth.

Well, even with headphones, I personally never really felt that the animals were sounding that loud, well maybe a little, but for me, the newly added bird feels way much worst.

Afterall, a moose at 50 meters should make way more noise than a grouse at the same distance... and from my perception, the grouse is making as much (if not more) noise than a moose at 50 meters!

[Kaned Dragon]

The problem is the birds sound like they are flying right over the player but their actually like 50 to 100 meters away. Proper disorientating.

[creep_]

Always thought whitetail and blacktail warning calls are way too loud as well. Often startles me when I didn't play any maps with them for a longer time. It's like they are shouting right in your ear although over a hill 40-50m away or something.

For the birds: Might be my subpar headphones but I find it nigh impossible to locate the flapping just by ear. Seems to be everywhere for me. Perfectly fine with other animals or regular bird calls but that weird sounding flapping (sounds to me someone tries to imitate a bird's flapping with some sheets right next to you) is all over the place and you start spinning with your shotgun in hand.

[BJWyler]

There are constant airplanes, dogs, and chainsaws going off in Hirschfelden. Never saw a single one of them. Kind of annoying considering this is a hunting reserve.

[Findus]

@BJWyler: Not sure how hunting reserves are defined, but while they did reuse the outpost mechanisms and language on these strange info boards for Hirschfelden ("Please register"), which looks like it might make sense in remote areas of North America or perhaps Sweden, but seems out of place for Germany (but I'm not a hunter, so I might simply not know about that), it seems like they tried to portray rural, at least in part actively used landscapes in Germany, with the barns, fields and logging camps and also some of the story lines if I recall correctly. So perhaps not a hunting reserve per se, other than to keep a consistent language. But I have to agree the repetitive noises are annoying.

As for the noises of animals, I always found them to sound much closer than they actually are, with standard headphones, which was confusing at times in the beginning.

[StuTheMoose]

Unfortunately the sound has always been borked when it comes to judging the distance of animals. The environmental and ambient sounds have always been fantastic imo, but they have never got on top of direction/distance for the animals, not for people in Stereo/Headphones anyway. I've no idea if it's better in 5.1. In a game where judging direction and distance of animals is so important it's pretty disappointing this hasn't improved.

..and whoever did the completely over the top flapping/wing beating sounds.. well, the less said the better i suppose.

[Agima]

Originally posted by stuthemoose:

..and whoever did the completely over the top flapping/wing beating sounds.. well, the less said the better i suppose.

If the birds were 1 meter away, those sounds would be fine tho! Lol! But certainly not when they are at a distance of 50-100 meters!