I realize it's still pretty early, but I want to start a conversation on sound effects with a topic near and dear to my heart: bass. I feel like a lot of dev teams these days just don't bother to put much in the low ranges because so many players wear headphones; play on laptops with their tinny, tiny speakers; or just don't want to invest several hundred dollars in a big, thumping set of speakers.
Well, some of us still take our sound systems seriously. Bring that bass. When my mech stomps, I want to feel that in my gut as much as hear it. I want sound effects with texture. Have some low-mid interest for the headphone wearers and laptop listeners - I don't want them to miss out. But I don't want you to skimp on the LFE because less than 10% of your players have a subwoofer. (Not from actual figures, totally made up number, plz don't nail me to the cross of statistics!)
My favorite example is actually from WoW: the druid's Moonfire spell effect. When I started playing, it was on a crappy pair of stereo speakers. Then a laptop. When I finally had a new desktop, I bought a THX-certified 5.1 system, and OMG... Blizzard's sound design was awesome. Moonfire had this undercurrent of bass that made that spell feel a ton more powerful than it was. Melee sounds had oomph. You could practically feel the impact.
That's what I'm after. Please don't let me down!
Well, some of us still take our sound systems seriously. Bring that bass. When my mech stomps, I want to feel that in my gut as much as hear it. I want sound effects with texture. Have some low-mid interest for the headphone wearers and laptop listeners - I don't want them to miss out. But I don't want you to skimp on the LFE because less than 10% of your players have a subwoofer. (Not from actual figures, totally made up number, plz don't nail me to the cross of statistics!)
My favorite example is actually from WoW: the druid's Moonfire spell effect. When I started playing, it was on a crappy pair of stereo speakers. Then a laptop. When I finally had a new desktop, I bought a THX-certified 5.1 system, and OMG... Blizzard's sound design was awesome. Moonfire had this undercurrent of bass that made that spell feel a ton more powerful than it was. Melee sounds had oomph. You could practically feel the impact.
That's what I'm after. Please don't let me down!