Does audio not matter in online shooters?

(Drac0rion) #1

So we lost 4 augments as of release of 2nd generation loadouts.
Pineapple juggler, Cool, Sneaky and Big Ears.

Now Pineapple juggler and Cool were considered too situational to be valuable enough, but I did not hear anywhere that Sneaky and Big Ears were going to be removed as well.

I’m just curious as to was I the only one that actually saw some value in those two augments?
I mean for Phantom Sneaky could have potentially been the best augment with maybe a slight buff to it’s value especially because of the Undercover nerf.
And personally I also liked the Big Ears augment as I could often tell what’s around the corner sooner than without the augment.

(Drac0rion) #2

Ok so it posted just by pressing enter and I couldn’t add more options…
God damn it…

I wanted to add additional options as to if the values should have been higher and something else that I already forgot…

(nokiII) #3

Let’s be honest, with DBs sound system, sound related augments are just garbage.
If they ever fix positional audio and audio balance, I might want to see a return of Sneaky and Big Ears.

(Drac0rion) #4

Well, Big Ears felt only just a counterpart to Sneaky, so I was not too big of a fan of the Big Ears augment.

But what if the value on Sneaky was 100%, would it still not have any value compared to other augments?

(nokiII) #5

Even if Sneaky would reduce footstep audio by 100%, it still wouldn’t be a very good augment, because of the nature of stopwatch. You know where your enemies are, if you can hear them or not. At least for organized play, pubs are a entirely different subject matter.

(TheStrangerous) #6

Well yeah, audio is important.
There were few times I spotted an enemy in the near area, by using audio cue. But I agree, it’s not as advanced as in L4D, for example.

(Amerika) #7

Audio is ridiculously important. Most of the choices I make during a game is based on what I’ve heard combined with what I know. Hearing footsteps, however, isn’t all that important in DB. This is mostly due to the nature of DB in that there are constantly weapons firing and you’re constantly firing a weapon so hearing footsteps isn’t something that happens with or without augments.

Then there is the issue with the sound mixing in DB where footsteps are simply too quiet and there also must not be enough channels for all the sounds playing at the same time so some sounds simply get cut out/off. Which makes hearing footsteps sometimes even less likely.

(Tanker_Ray) #8

I would say Sneaky was quite useless since everyone hears the gun sound, not the footstep.

Big Ears was actually quite useful. I still use this with D52 1st gen Dreiss Red Eye loadout.

(LifeupOmega) #9

Audio is important, but most of the time DB’s audio doesn’t tell you enough making these augments absolutely pointless for the most part. When you can’t hear someone running behind you at times something is wrong.

(Drac0rion) #10

To be honest, all of this just really got to me because of the Phantom changes.
I was really hoping to finally get a C51 in cobalt through tradeups, but they removed the augment completely. (Except 1st gen, I know)
It could have been left even just as a merc specific augment just for him, just like Undercover, as it actually helps his flanking. (And some of the faster mercs could probably use it as well.)

Sure in SW mode you can assume the positioning of your enemies most of the time,
but that’s the beauty of Phantom’s ability. After getting behind a spawn wave he can constantly switch up his position and not being revealed by audio while hiding completely still in a corner would help greatly.
I usually have not noticed my enemies leaving their spawn guns blazing.

For the rest of the mercs in SW with equal spawn timers, at certain points of the maps, some areas have too little paths to be unpredictable. So yes, in those cases either of the augments would probably mean nothing even with higher values on the augments.

(Black) #11

Audio is important in most strategic fps games. However in fast paced ones like quake, unreal tournament, and well of course dirty bomb audio is just a luxury.

During the game you are probably too busy with other things to hear footsteps and other stuff.

(Terminal_6) #12

Sound is very important, but a lot of victims players just don’t care. I often wonder if they’re playing without any sound at all. In a lot of pub situations, attacking someone with Sneaky would be no different than going at them while tap dancing because they just wouldn’t react differently either way. So it’s only useful at high-level play, and as mentioned by other people, footsteps often get lost in the chaos and DB’s audio doesn’t always give the best situational information.

(grandioseCutlet) #13

Sneaky is very useful on Phantom since it reduces his armor’s noise and it’s sad none of his loadouts have it. It is on the C51 though, which makes it (imo) the best loadout for him as long as you don’t plan to play with the knife all the time.

Other than Phantom, yes pretty garbage augments (Big ears would probably also work against Phantom, but that would be very situational as you said).

(Sorotia) #14

[quote=“grandioseCutlet;181992”]Sneaky is very useful on Phantom since it reduces his armor’s noise and it’s sad none of his loadouts have it. It is on the C51 though, which makes it (imo) the best loadout for him as long as you don’t plan to play with the knife all the time.

Other than Phantom, yes pretty garbage augments (Big ears would probably also work against Phantom, but that would be very situational as you said).[/quote]

Does it thought? I keep hearing people claim it does but I’ve seen people say it has been proven not to.

Besides armor noise shouldn’t matter much unless you’re playing like a scrub who thinks he only has a katana.

(grandioseCutlet) #15

[quote=“Sorotia;181993”][quote=“grandioseCutlet;181992”]Sneaky is very useful on Phantom since it reduces his armor’s noise and it’s sad none of his loadouts have it. It is on the C51 though, which makes it (imo) the best loadout for him as long as you don’t plan to play with the knife all the time.

Other than Phantom, yes pretty garbage augments (Big ears would probably also work against Phantom, but that would be very situational as you said).[/quote]

Does it thought? I keep hearing people claim it does but I’ve seen people say it has been proven not to.

Besides armor noise shouldn’t matter much unless you’re playing like a scrub who thinks he only has a katana. [/quote]

Well I’ve always seen people say it worked (including a lot of experienced players), so I guess it does? Otherwise yeah, these augments would be even more useless than I thought considering how little importance footsteps have in DB.

#16

There is no point in having audio related perks when the audio is complete garbage.

(HunterAssassin5) #17

granted, i managed to surprise some people by their footsteps, and sure as hell people have been shot or they shot someone trying to sneak up on them because of the footsteps, but the augments dont do a whole lot, i never really noticed a difference. it probably could do with a buff, i suppose.
in the game’s current state, placing enemies by the sound of gunfire is more effective than footsteps

(pumpkinmeerkat) #18

Audio and consistent (high) frame rate are the most important things. Those augments just didn’t help enough to be chosen over others. DB has issues with sound prioritization and sounds just getting completely lost when a lot is going on it seems.

(KUST__LunarTM) #19

Audio is important, just not as important in this game. There’s so much gunfire and explosions going on that you can rarely hear anything in the first place, and considering most of the time people are going to be on the same ground level as you, it doesn’t matter too much, but it does help from time to time on maps like Underground first point and Terminal.