I'am missing a feeling of "life" / Realism in LE

Feedback and Suggestions
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First of all i love this game, so my critique is because i hope this game succeeds even more.

Then my point.

1. I miss the feeling of actually being in a “real world”.
I thought long and hard why i feel like that and i feel i found one of the answers.
I dont see crawling small creatures or flying birds in the air or other things in maps.
This makes me less immersed and makes it harder to me to really have the feeling of actually being part of the world.
Those creatures could just be neutral creatures just living in this world.

2. Audio.
With audio of creatures or murmering people around houses, screaming in the backround etc, you could also increase immersion. Games like D2, Path of exile, Grim Dawn tend to do this and i love it.
It might seem as a minor addition but all those minor things are helping me to feel like iam not only in a sandbox area or map with monsters to kill.

Audio is your friend, just like in movies and scenes. It sets a certain tone to support the visual things we are seeing. I hope you guys focus more on does the game “feels good”.
Do i feel actually scared in certain areas? No? Could we add some audio to give that feeling?

D2 because its a masterpiece in my opinion.
Easy things they do to make a believable world. You walk in the forest and hear a blowing wind. You hear your footsteps, differently while stepping on the wet/muddy grass.
Really small audio things but it does the trick in my opinion.

audio when hitting someone and getting hit. I hope this gets improved. In D2 i actually feel like iam hitting a skeletal or a fleshed body. This could help to improve the feeling of combat.

3. Visuals
In D2 they have things like a campfire were somebodys sits and chickens walking around.
Those are really small things but it is just enough for me to give the feeling that you are actually at a encampment.

4. More examples/ideas
An idea would be to script running AI people away from there houses while being chased by mobs. You hear the screaming of them because they are being raided by this invasion of strange creatures. This is just a simple idea, but things like that would help to give me the feeling that iam entering an actual world.
Things are actually “happening” in the world of Epoch despite me being there killing monsters, is missing right now in my opinion.

Diablo 2 is a great example of how audio is done well in my opinion.
Already at the start you hear rain and the music and other sounds around the map instantly suck me into that world.

Those are one of the games were i actually like listening to what they have to say instead of skipping. But that is another story, because that is voice acting. Which actually could also helps with increasing immersion.

End.

Bears that port to me in a fiery area, seem out of plays to me.
Change the looks of those bears to fit better in area’s for example.
Let me believe your world let those creatures actually fit in.
Change the music at darker type maps or lonely desert/frost areas.

Do you guys agree with me or not?
Do you guys have more idea’s?

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A lot of this sounds like stuff that will naturally improve over time as more is added to the game and they can shift focus to smaller things like this.

I’d have to double-check, but I swear I heard the sound of a bug squish under my character the other day, which caused me to stop and look only to see a squished bug in my path. There definitely are “little” things like that already in the game. There could be more, like different footsteps under different materials (as I don’t remember hearing a difference myself). For the most part though I don’t think there’s a lot of space in the game yet for specific environmental audio. You do hear a screech as you approach a certain area boss during the story, but it’s nothing like hearing the torture of Tolman in the background in the Crematorium of PoE, only to arrive seemingly shortly after his death (as the sounds stop when you get close).

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Yeah. The character selection screen could probably use a revamp at some point in the future. I think there was a post a few weeks ago saying how all the audio queues on impact of hits and everything could be improved. The audio elements is so important for how the game “feels” to play.

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I think what you are talking about is the final polish before release, which I dont think is the main worry of LE devs at this moment… there are still some classes missing, some skill trees are not complete etc… and I do agree that all that stuff is great… when I first played D2 the think that amazed me was the sound if hitting the mobs or the fact that when you shoot an arrow, it actually sticks in the monster…
I think the devs are aware of that, and it will come in time… I like the fact that the devs are focusing on gameplay rather then cosmetics first… I still occasionally play D2 but there were tons of WAY prettier games with lackluster gameplay that I tried and abandoned. Wolcen comes to mind … Its very pretty but was unplayable when i tried it.

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D2 actually doesnt use many sounds. The balance between the sounds you actually NEED to hear to set the tone of the feeling they want to give you is the problem in LE i think.

I never had a single moment from start to finish were i felt spooked, caughtious, endangered, excited to explore a certain area because of the feeling it gave me.
That is a fundemental thing. It shouldnt be something you do at the very end.

An example:
I think good horror movies are good examples at what i try to describe.
Even when nothing happends yet you still tend to feel scared in certain parts. This is because of a combination of light/darkness and one of the most important things, AUDIO.

I once watched a video on youtube about the importance of audio in movies. The guy removed the music and backround sounds with the same visuals. It wasnt scary anymore.
Then he set natural music under it instead, and it wasnt scary at all but rather funny and out of place with the visuals.

I think LE could compliment certain darker cool areas they visually have in my opinion. Like a level ish level they have in the monolith should be complimented with better audio.
Just some more ambient music and sounds would make certain areas way better in my opinion.

I know that the music scores of D2 are pretty unique but many movies and games done it really good with less “proven talented artists”. Hence, a lot of the audio D2 has is just recorded by the staff xD.
They nailed the balance between the volumes and the few audio’s in the area’s in my opinion.

To get back on my point why it is more important then people think in an early stage.
The point of games movies etc is to drag you in them as soon as possible. Beside that you want a movie song or whatever to feel believable and even better curious to find out what it has more to offer.

Dont get me wrong LE is getting in a great direction. I just dont feel the connection with most places because i miss the AUDIO feedback for example.
When i ask somebody about the song of the pirates of the carribian, a certain song probably comes to mind. Without even needing to go deeper into the story or something else. That is something that fits perfectly with the goofy character jack.

I think ive made my point :wink:

I actually think Path of exile has the same problem.
Grim Dawn does this way better in my opinion. When i stand in a spooky area with skulls on the ground here and there, the music gives me that feeling aswell. The feeling of hmm i might see a big skeletal or a difficult creature soon. The feeling to watch out instead of wow nice visuals but i just run around to the end boss with no fear or other feelings hoping that the certain unique finally drops in mind.

It saddens me that AUDIO seems so underated in a lot of games.
Especially since i produce music myself and sometimes movie scores as a out of hand hobby. Everytime i only hear my footsteps in a dark area the music score and a wind blowing or something it gives me chills in Diablo 2. Iam still amazed that so many games couldnt do something similar. Dont get me wrong there are still games that nail it.

Less is more, the importance of silence in certain situation and just hearing your footsteps and the sound of the “area” or weather could set a clear tone already.
Hearing birds happily sing there song sets a differnt tone already, i could go on for hours about this lol.

So to finally end this of, i disagree with you that this should be something to do at then end. It would bring the game way more in line with D2 then almost every aspect they have in the game at the moment in my opinion.

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Exactly and it gives me that feeling of damn i want to find out more about this world in this game.

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