City screens are LOUD

[harken23]

Anybody else getting deafened by the sound in the city screens? It gets a little quieter once you choose the next thing to build, tho. Tried with the music muted, but the city sounds are deafening. Tried the "Don't stop music in city screen" toggle both ways.

[Dale Kent]

This mod should help.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3366060063

[harken23]

I tried that, and if anything it got worse...

[Elegant Caveman]

Originally posted by Dale Kent:

This mod should help.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3366060063

I think OP's talking about the ambient sounds while you're in a city screen, not the sound that plays when you open a city screen, though I could be wrong.

Originally posted by harken23:

I tried that, and if anything it got worse...

Are you talking about the city "hustle and bustle" ambience sound that plays while you're in a city screen?

I made a similar post recently, though it wasn't about city sounds, but it might help you anyway.

If I'm right about the sound that's bothering you, the entry you want to delete is "AMBIENCE_SELECTED_A_CITY".

I'm not sure what "AMBIENCE_DESELECTED_A_CITY" does. I tried deleting that one as well, but didn't notice a difference.

I'm honestly not sure if it's better to just delete SELECTED, or delete DESELECTED as well, since they seem to be connected.

Note that while in the city screen, other sounds (like music) will still be muted (as in "not as loud", not as in "completely off"). I don't know how to change that.

[harken23]

Originally posted by Dale Kent:

This mod should help.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3366060063

Originally posted by harken23:

I tried that, and if anything it got worse...

I did have that mod active when I started the game, and deactivated it mid-game. One of the posts on the thread you referenced said that you have to start a new game when changing mods. So I guess I'll try that and see if it works when I start a new game. Which is a drag, bkz I have the first actually enjoyable game I've had going in a while! Ah well.

Are you talking about the city "hustle and bustle" ambience sound that plays while you're in a city screen?

I made a similar post recently, though it wasn't about city sounds, but it might help you anyway.

If I'm right about the sound that's bothering you, the entry you want to delete is "AMBIENCE_SELECTED_A_CITY".

I'm not sure what "AMBIENCE_DESELECTED_A_CITY" does. I tried deleting that one as well, but didn't notice a difference.

I'm honestly not sure if it's better to just delete SELECTED, or delete DESELECTED as well, since they seem to be connected.

Note that while in the city screen, other sounds (like music) will still be muted (as in "not as loud", not as in "completely off"). I don't know how to change that.

It's both sounds, actually. If the music is muted, the ambient city sounds are super loud and if it's on, they're both loud, tho the music is louder. Like, both are twice as loud as any other part of the game. It seems like the mute-ing went the wrong direction, and cranks the volume somehow.

I'll try your suggestions, tho, cheers!

[Elegant Caveman]

Originally posted by harken23:

I did have that mod active when I started the game, and deactivated it mid-game. One of the posts on the thread you referenced said that you have to start a new game when changing mods. So I guess I'll try that and see if it works when I start a new game. Which is a drag, bkz I have the first actually enjoyable game I've had going in a while! Ah well.

Yeah, I'm the one that said that.

I did a bit more testing, and it looks like mods are set when you start a new game. Disabling them after doesn't change anything.

At least, that's the case here with this simple mod, I don't know how more complex mods are affected.

But basically, if you start a game with a mod that deactivates certain sounds, even if you toggle off the mod, the sounds will remain deactivated.

And if you only add a mod to deactivate certain sounds after you've already started a game, it won't do anything.

Good news, though, is that once you've started a game with a mod (at least in this case; I don't know if it works the same with other mods), you can edit the mod itself and those changes will take effect without having to add a new mod.

So in this particular case, you don't have to start a new game, since you already started your game with that mod.

All you have to do is edit the "Disable city open audio" mod, like Fluffster suggested in the thread I linked, instead of making a whole new one, like I did.

Originally posted by harken23:

It's both sounds, actually. If the music is muted, the ambient city sounds are super loud and if it's on, they're both loud, tho the music is louder. Like, both are twice as loud as any other part of the game. It seems like the mute-ing went the wrong direction, and cranks the volume somehow.

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear.

I didn't mean "muted" as in off (the way you used it in your OP), but "muted" as in muffled/distant/softer.

I'll just go over the various "city sound" aspects again, just to be clear:

• First, when you click on a city to open it, there's a loud machinery-like, clanking sound. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but I'll call this "clanking". This is what the "Disable city open audio" mod disables. This is a one-off sound; it doesn't keep playing indefinitely.
  
  
• Second, once you've opened a city and are on the city screen, there's an ambient sound of crowds talking and working, moving around, etc. I'll call this "crowds". This sound plays indefinitely as long as you're in a city screen.
  
  
• Third, while you're on a city screen (and "crowds" is playing), there's an effect that happens which blocks (or at least lessens? unsure) outside ambient sounds (birds, wind, etc.) and game music, if it's playing, sounds as though it's softer/far away/muffled. Like you're indoors and those sounds are coming from outside or another room. I'll call this "muffled".

I assume, from your OP, that your primary issue is the continuous "crowds" sound.

The "Disable city open audio" mod doesn't affect that: it only disables the one-off "clanking" sound.

Since you have the "Disable city open audio" mod already active on your present game, though, you can edit this and add/remove things and it should still work.

So you can remove the "crowds" sound, and either keep "clanking" disabled or add it back in if you want.

You can also look through the list of sounds and disable any others you want.

As far as I know, though, you can't get rid of the "muffled" effect while in the city screen.

At least, I haven't found what that could be related to in audio.xml, if it's even there. I suspect it's just a part of the game's code instead.

I mean, I imagine that could possibly be changed with some other kind of mod, but that would be more complicated than what we're talking about here.

Originally posted by harken23:

I'll try your suggestions, tho, cheers!

Good luck!

[Dale Kent]

Originally posted by Elegant Caveman:

I did a bit more testing, and it looks like mods are set when you start a new game. Disabling them after doesn't change anything.

At least, that's the case here with this simple mod, I don't know how more complex mods are affected.

But basically, if you start a game with a mod that deactivates certain sounds, even if you toggle off the mod, the sounds will remain deactivated.

And if you only add a mod to deactivate certain sounds after you've already started a game, it won't do anything.

Good news, though, is that once you've started a game with a mod (at least in this case; I don't know if it works the same with other mods), you can edit the mod itself and those changes will take effect without having to add a new mod.

Correct, if you activate a mod, you need to start a new game for the mod to be active. What mods are active are stored in the save file, so changing active mods does not affect games in progress.

Also correct, if you start a game with a mod active and then CHANGE that mod, the changes you made also apply to games in progress with that mod.

[Elegant Caveman]

Originally posted by Dale Kent:

Correct, if you activate a mod, you need to start a new game for the mod to be active. What mods are active are stored in the save file, so changing active mods does not affect games in progress.

Also correct, if you start a game with a mod active and then CHANGE that mod, the changes you made also apply to games in progress with that mod.

Thanks for the confirmation! Good to know.