It’s been strange for me to not hear the monsters vocalizing anymore. While it currently feels a little odd, there is far less repetition of sound going on and it’s less obnoxious when there’s multiple monsters together in an area. Removing these vocalizations has drawn attention to the more pressing need for their attacks to have their own samples. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for some time, but now it’s of far greater importance.

In the near future I’ll be gaining functionality that enables me to make sounds play upon the projectile’s creation. This is good because this means I can assign samples based entirely on the type of attack, whether they’re ranged or melee types. For instance, depending on what type of melee attack is being used (bludgeoning, slashing, biting), the monsters will use different projectile and play the appropriate sounds. If a monster is attempting to headbutt you, you’ll hear a fairly general whoosh and a flat bludgeoning sound when they successfully hit. Comparitively monsters that attack with claws, they’ll make more of a “slicing the air” kind of sound and do slashing damage (think the sounds swords make when they hit organic enemies).

The more gargantuan task is going to be finding suitable sounds for all the new ranged attacks that have been added recently. There was a handful to begin with, but now it’s climbed to over 60 different projectile types, and there’ll likely be more to come as Metadept and Tiy continue to add unique attacks for our flying enemies and bipeds. Sometimes finding that perfect sample can be a fairly straightforward affair, and at others it can be mindnumbingly difficult to find one that doesn’t sound horribly out of place. All that said, I’m confident that by the time I’m done, Starbound will sound better than ever.

I’m looking forward to seeing what people think of the new sound arrangement once it’s finished!