disable turret idle sound

[Gireen]

I think this ping sound is annoying.

[illwieckz]

I'm so conditioned to hear it that I had to start unvanquished to figure out which sound you were talking about. 😁

Well, I guess it has some gameplay usage like making alien knowing there is a turret close. But that may not be that important.

Let's see what others may say about this but to speak for myself I would not regret this sound, also this would make one sound from Tremulous to ditch (Yay!).

[illwieckz]

The sound file is stored there: res-legacy_src.dpkdir/sound/buildables/mgturret/idle1.flac

About res-legacy:

The purpose of this package is to be ditched one day.

[ghost]

Well, I guess it has some gameplay usage like making alien knowing there is a turret close. But that may not be that important.

Let's see what others may say about this

That sound is not annoying to me, rather helpful since, as you said, it allows aliens to spot human bases without seeing them. Turrets are really deadly, and aliens regen slowly, so removing aliens a way to spot danger from afar does not seems such a good idea to me.

but to speak for myself I would not regret this sound, also this would make one sound from Tremulous to ditch (Yay!).

Is that a goal?

Maybe one could simply opt-out some kinds of ambient sounds? But this would open a can of worms, if people can tweak too much (easily) that kind of things, it could end as in red-eclipse, where "pro" players know the way to cheat by increasing brightness of player entities (and thus can headshot without being seen people which don't consider it fun to spend thousands of hours customising their config) thus I'm not sure about this either.

Another solution would be to change the sound. What is the exact problem? Beep sounds being annoying? Maybe this could be replaced by some loud enough humming, then?

[Gireen]

@bmorel did you know about this sound or make use of it in actual games?
The ping sound is most prominent in bases so aliens would have to stumble into a base to notice it direct.
And the knowledge about this sound is also not that common and i don't think anyone notices if its gone. I for one thought that this comes from the reactor until i looked for a way to disable it.
For comparison rocked pods make no idle sounds and they are more dangerous.

For me the ping is to prominent, especially as human builder in a silent base. If i am really the only one annoyed by this i would be fine with having a way to disable it in the client or a less bothering sound.

[ghost]

@bmorel did you know about this sound or make use of it in actual games?

yes, even if I would not say I actively use this feature, since most maps are too small to really be surprised when finding an outpost.

For comparison rocked pods make no idle sounds and they are more dangerous.

Rocket pods are more dangerous because of range, and imo they break balance a lot, making maps considerably harder to build, "thanks" to their near infinite range (game config says 3000 units as range) so you won't hear their sound before eating the rocket anyway.
I think this is a very different problem though.

For me the ping is to prominent, especially as human builder in a silent base. If i am really the only one annoyed by this i would be fine with having a way to disable it in the client or a less bothering sound.

I don't know if not changing anything on that side is the way to go, really. If this is annoying you, it probably annoys other people, as well, and thus should be improved uppon.
I am just asking why is it annoying you,? Maybe it can be fixed without removing the feature, after all, and add to game immersion in the same shot.

If the problem is the high pitch, the sound could be replaced (a humming, maybe?). If that especially in a silent base, should really human bases be silent? Another non-mentioned solution (just got the idea) would be to have the sound playing only for aliens (like, because it's a sound humans don't hear).

[necessarily-equal]

I think I kinda like the current sound. It gives some ambiance feeling.

What probably makes it so annoying is that you hear it really strongly on the human side, as you are often in the human base, and often close to turrets. Likewise, the goon jump sound is really irritating because it comes from very, very close (distance of 0), but it is useful for the other team.

What I think should be done is that we should dampen the sound of the player's own team in many cases. Maybe I'll make a PR for that. It's on my todo list at least.