[REQ] Calling All SH sound or seabed Modders!

[Lionman]

I repeat here my post from another thread, slightly edited, in it's correct place. -

The more cool ambiant sounds triggered by changing events in the boat that you can introduce, the more convincing and authentic the environment becomes. Sound is SO important for us all. A great muscian friend (the late Simon Jeffes, leader of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra) once said to me "You can put any visual junk with a really great music sound track and people will watch it as long as the music grips them but even the greatest movie with a rubbish sound track will lose the audience in minutes." He was right. I lived and worked at sea for almost 20 years and for me nothing convinces or brings on the nostalgia, like those ambient sounds. Muttered comments, random clanks, low volume machinery sounds, footsteps, running up and down ladders sounds, laughter, swearing, low radio sounds, faint music, snoring, distant shouted orders, muffled arguments. So . . . . . . .

[REQ] 1

I am no modder but if I was I would make a MOD that triggered appropriate groups of randomised sounds in given action situations. So in really heavy weather you'd start to hear the odd crash of things falling over or off tables (cutlery, breaking plates tools etc.) even (shock horror) triggered by an especially heavy roll, with curses, (even though real sailors swear a LOT, it needn't be too heavy - the occasional "OH ****!" or "Damn it to hell!" would do) groans, muffled sounds of crewmen being sick, angry muffled comments or arguments, increased creaking and groaning of the ship etc. In calm, sunny, surfaced passages, fragments of happy whistling, song, laughter, muffled card game sounds etc. (Crew sunbathing on deck? LOL) Approaching port - loud laughter, radio music, animated conversation, lewd anticipatory comments etc. In action - anxious muttered comments, cries of shock after impacts, swearing, sharp comments from officers, urgent requests for coffee for the watch etc. In the extreme stages of prolonged depth charging - perhaps even crew muttering prayers, the sounds of damage control parties hurrying through the boat calling orders, even crew members crying in fear. The MOST evocative and moving sound of all is that of crewmen singing collectively in celebration, triumph or even to stave off fear and rally spirits! Imagine the lump in the throat hearing your crew lustily singing in unison in a distant compartment in celebration or anticipation of going home or celebration of defeating the enmy after a long battle! This was definitely used by the German U boat crews to boost morale, so maybe sometimes yanks did it too, especially at Christmas?

The skies the limit really. The larger the sound sets, the longer the interval before repeats of specific effects, and accordingly the more convincing and immersive the results. Like the scenery tiles of ground detail in flight simulators but in sound with a temporal randomiser and perhaps designed so that area-specific or time-specific "new packs" might be added in as developed and required. Can I suggest this as a project for one of you marvellous MOD creating guys?

[REQ] 2

Talking of "realism" MODs, am I correct in saying that I heard a rumour of a "sharks MOD" for the SH IV underwater environment? I ask because, as an ex-pro diver, the ONLY aspect of the subsea virtual world of SH III and SH IV which has always been totally false is the complete absence of fish. Random fish shoals or random size, occasionally moving in concert, as they do, shouldn't be too impossible a thing to model, surely? The same code in 4 different sizes could give a good impression of most of what's down there, as well as the same shoal at different distances, plus the occasional random shark or even the odd whale of course! Frankly I wish the ocean floor was far more "kelpy" in shallow waters too, as it is almost universally in the real world, along with the myriad coral reefs that the Pacific is certainly riddled with, giving some great opportunities for subtle colour effects in shallow waters.

Deep in the hypothalamus, in the unimaginably ancient core lizard brain of our species, we KNOW the elemental ocean as we know no other medium, so there are plenty of "deep" psychological buttons for you modders to press, if you catch my drift . .