As I've been fiddling with the graphics options before us, I started thinking about other elements of the game that could best be described as "chrome". Has anyone discussed that addition of sound effects and/or music to Clash? While it's not essential, it CAN make or break a game by adding to the appeal of the game. I'm not experienced in any way with programming customized sound effects (formats, etc), but I'm assuming that there are packages out there that will fairly easily allow someone to design and implement some sound effects for the game. Any comments, suggestions, cheap shots, or volunteers on this topic?

I was thinking more along the lines of maybe some music (perhaps something prerecorded, but not copywrited) that we could use on the intro screen to give the game a more professional, polished look - and that's what we need (especially in demos) to generate interest in the project. Also, some basic sounds (like the clicks described above) as well as some sound effects for battles and natural disasters might add something. I realize that many people ignore or turn those effects off, but some people (like me) prefer to hear their tanks crushing the enemy or hear their swords clanging against the enemy's armor. A game as complex as this one shouldn't be silent, as that would seem, well, incomplete in my opinion. If you are in the group that hates sound FX, just turn it off

The civ2 sounds were about the worst possible that I could imagine. They were long, loud, and high pitched. Each time you attacked you were "treated" to a sound clip that lasted over a second. That is way too long. I'm thinking something along the lines of a third of a second.

Besides unit commands I think some interface commands are good. Like whenever you go into a nonstandard interface mode. So taking civ as an example you would hear a quiet sound whenever you went into the city screen, you would not hear one when leaving the city screen to go back to the main map.

Perhaps some scroll bars should have been given sounds (like the one that cycles you through cities) but not others (like the one that lists your city improvements).

I'm new to this area of apolyton, and think the game sounds as though it will be great. And speaking of sounds (pardon the pun)I'd be glad to help if no one is really doing this at the moment. I'm not a professional, but this is a major hobby of mine (for about 10 years)and I do have all of the equipment necessary for such a project (digital audio recording, sampling, physical modeling synthesis etc.) So if there's any interest in starting up this side of things, then count me in.

But seriously, I agree that sound is an important component to achieving a "professional" result. And I agree with Paul, that those who don't care for them can always turn them off. Having said that (and noting that I'm no expert), could we perhaps offer the gamer a "sound menu", something like this:

In-Game Music - On/Off
Battle sounds - On/Off
Civilian sounds - On/Off
Rare Event sounds - On/Off

Also since there is little to distiguish(sp?) civs apart, this might help somewhat.

How about a sound when u move your units?
Marching for land and waves slamming into the hull for naval... though this may get annoying when trying to march from say, Rome to Spain, or sail from Rome to London... I dunno

-A sound for when u form or dismantle a TF (taskforce or Army, if u didn't know that one ). Possibly a different sound for each type of TF u can form: Naval, Combined, or Land

-sound for when u gain a tech, and when one increases

-for when u are raided

Just a list of ideas, feel free to use them or ignore them.

quote: you shouldn't hear the battle cries, the whinny of the horses, etc...

BUT WHY THE HELL NOT? Those are the best sounds in the game! What better in getting you to the mood - when the commander of the army shouts "fire", and you hear the cannons hammering the enemy - or a few muted sounds of swords?

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"Now Lone Star, you will see that Evil will always triumph, because Good is Dumb!"
-- Dark Helmet

I bought a cd today with 6000+ sound effects, and we can use them for sounds in Clash - Free of charge!! I even recognized a few from some games I previously downloaded off the Internet, such as DopeWars.

Most of them are very good quality, but some aren't. Also as was previously discussed most of the sounds are very short, so they won't be too overpowering.

The cd contains nearly any sound you can imagine. So if we can formulate a list of sounds we'd like to have, I can send them Mark's way and see if we can't get some sound FX in Clash pretty soon.