When I first started playing Eve, I could drown in the sound. The music fit the feel of space. Undocking in Gallente Space was full of mystery and wonder. It was also gorgeous and the sweeping swirled echoes of the music accentuated the nebula that formed a backdrop for the ships engines and the flickering flash of hybrid turrets. The music soared and swept, roared and whispered under the crackle of the turrets and the bright explosions of the ships.
I loved Eve with sound. But somewhere along the way I turned it off and never turned it back on. I’m rather sure it had to do with chatting. Listening to the commands and relaying the information meant that I turned out excessive sounds, such as the world sounds. And once they were off, I did not miss them. I’m a creature of quiet by nature. I do not tend to have music playing and the main noise in my home is the click of nails as the dogs settle down.
About a month ago I turned my sound back on for a fleet. I forget why I did but I did. Since then I have not turned it back off. Originally, I stopped listening to the sound because of coms. I wanted to focus on what was being said because everything was confusing. With the recent sound changes to create a more audibly intuitive interface I've attempted to leave my sounds on and use them as a guide.
It is working. It has allowed me to notice when I am being shot for instance. I keep auto relock on my hauler alt. I catch people ship scanning me because of that. It is the sound of the target trying to lock that catches my attention. It gives me a little bit of extra It has let me notice my fleet members or corp mates shooting me. Without them on overview and checking other windows the sound of being shot at can come as a surprise.
The scream of the capacitor being low gets me each time I jump a freighter or a carrier. But it is useful when I am in a frigate and managing modules. The beeps and whirs of locks and timers irritate me but I am trying to learn them. The woosh of the jump effect distracts me to my alt when she needs to jump again.
It may sound strange to suggest turning the sound on. Many people have never turned it off. But, just as many turn it off for reasons similar to my own. I do think it is worth turning on. The ambient music is rather calming. I'd love for it to have a bit more energy when you entered space or started combat.
The other thing I am using a bit more is the tracking camera. I don't use it when I am in combat but I do use it when I am travelling. They slowed it down a tad it feels from when it was first released. I'm using it to stop myself from drifting away from gates with misclicks. I also just like the screen movements when I am heading to a thing or focusing on a particular target. I use it more in PvE than PvP but I'm becoming more and more fond of it. I'd hate it if I could not turn it off.
It is working. It has allowed me to notice when I am being shot for instance. I keep auto relock on my hauler alt. I catch people ship scanning me because of that. It is the sound of the target trying to lock that catches my attention. It gives me a little bit of extra It has let me notice my fleet members or corp mates shooting me. Without them on overview and checking other windows the sound of being shot at can come as a surprise.
The scream of the capacitor being low gets me each time I jump a freighter or a carrier. But it is useful when I am in a frigate and managing modules. The beeps and whirs of locks and timers irritate me but I am trying to learn them. The woosh of the jump effect distracts me to my alt when she needs to jump again.
It may sound strange to suggest turning the sound on. Many people have never turned it off. But, just as many turn it off for reasons similar to my own. I do think it is worth turning on. The ambient music is rather calming. I'd love for it to have a bit more energy when you entered space or started combat.
The other thing I am using a bit more is the tracking camera. I don't use it when I am in combat but I do use it when I am travelling. They slowed it down a tad it feels from when it was first released. I'm using it to stop myself from drifting away from gates with misclicks. I also just like the screen movements when I am heading to a thing or focusing on a particular target. I use it more in PvE than PvP but I'm becoming more and more fond of it. I'd hate it if I could not turn it off.
While I turned off EVE's music (when it got repetitive), I never turned off the sound because of the information it provided (same reason why I don't wear headphones when biking or running: my ears are my early collision warning system).
ReplyDeleteAnd the tracking camera is cool, once you find out in which situations it works best for you.
One of the first things I did when I started playing Eve was turn the music off but I've always kept the sound. Sure some of the sounds are annoying but sound is still very useful... Music is just a distraction.
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ReplyDeleteSame story here as the others, turned off the music but kept the rest. I kind of liked hearing my guns rip into the target and hearing the explosion of my ship :)
ReplyDelete+ living in a wormhole it's a massive lifesaver if you have an alt watching a hole when you are doing something else.
EVE Sound has only become more and more intuitive over the years, and I've never minded the music, but that's probably because I have it turned off on my main machine and don't play EVE on my notebook terribly often, and have therefore avoided burn out.
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