Something to make synergies a bit easier.

gezzerb16_ESO · April 2015

Not too sure if this is the right place to be posting this so Mods feel free to move it if needed.

I've been running a few dungeons mostly with one of my work buddies. I'm running a DK with both Destro, and Resto staves/skills. And between watching for the area indicators for a creeps abilities and then dodging if needed, dealing with/kiting adds, making sure I'm in position to give my tanking buddy the heals he needs, and what have you I often miss the indicator that I could use a synergy. It's just that it's not an option you can anticipate that well, or prepare for. It's there and if you miss it, well, you miss it.

So I was thinking. (oh, oh), why not do with the synergy indicator the same thing that happens with the ultimate ability indicator? Give us a sound cue that the ability to use a synergy is available. I mean it's already coded into the game because the ultimate does it, so I think it wouldn't be that hard to do. If you had to it could even use the same sound as the ultimate, but to be honest I think a louder and lower pitched version of the same sound would be better. This way I wouldn't have to take my attention off my more important job, keeping my tank alive.

ZOS_timefortrees · April 2015

Hi, hi! UI sound designer from ZOS here, got your post forwarded over to me and just wanted to drop in and comment. There IS in fact a sound in the game for Synergy Available. I was going to attach the file here so you could get your ears on it, but turns out that's not an available option... but, I can help you out still, I think.

So, two things:

1. The sound. Its high qualities are quite bell-like (well...it's a bell.), a ding, like a hotel desk bell, so, look out for that next time. Maybe when you're with your buddies, try and set up a situation where you can trigger a synergy where there isn't a lot going on and you can get the noise in your head. Promise once you hear it, you won't be able to un-hear it.

2. I also went ahead and turned it up a couple db, so next time we push an audio build out the door, the sound should cut through in the mix better. It's quite noticeable when you're not in combat, but I could see in the middle of a huge battle it being something that could get lost in the mix. We go big a lot of the time.

Hope that helps!

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · April 2015

Hey @timefortrees great, thanks for that. Like @gezzerb16_ESO I wasn't aware of this cue, as you say fights get a tad 'noisy'.

Also of course, the Ultimate icon on the skill bar lights-up and is pretty easy to spot even out the corner of one's eye while the on-screen text can easily be overlooked at times.

While you're here .. bet you hate that

.. I'm a great user of audio cues, moreso that on-screen text but there are some I'd love to be able to disable, in particular the enter/leave stealth '***'.

Is there any hidden way (meaning manual editing of a config file) where such cues can be enabled or disabled?

gezzerb16_ESO · April 2015

timefortrees wrote: »

Hi, hi! UI sound designer from ZOS here, got your post forwarded over to me and just wanted to drop in and comment. There IS in fact a sound in the game for Synergy Available. I was going to attach the file here so you could get your ears on it, but turns out that's not an available option... but, I can help you out still, I think.

So, two things:

1. The sound. Its high qualities are quite bell-like (well...it's a bell.), a ding, like a hotel desk bell, so, look out for that next time. Maybe when you're with your buddies, try and set up a situation where you can trigger a synergy where there isn't a lot going on and you can get the noise in your head. Promise once you hear it, you won't be able to un-hear it.

2. I also went ahead and turned it up a couple db, so next time we push an audio build out the door, the sound should cut through in the mix better. It's quite noticeable when you're not in combat, but I could see in the middle of a huge battle it being something that could get lost in the mix. We go big a lot of the time.

Hope that helps!

Wow, that was fast, and just wow. Your to be commended on you quick response time. This is how customer service should be done.

As for the sound I haven't noticed it at all, but being just the two of us it does get really hectic. I do have a question. How long is the sustain on the sound? If it's a real short one that could be why it's being missed, by me and it appears at least one other. I think for something that is so seldom heard and has very little predictability it needs to linger a bit so our (slow) minds can actually process it and go "hey, isn't that the sound for a synergy?". But then again since you were so fast with your response (again wow, just wow) I haven't had a chance to check for it, yet. Got a run today, and will do.

Thanks so very much.

CP5 · April 2015

A good way to notice this is to play as a werewolf for a little bit. Any time you get the prompt to devour (either to bite another player or when you mouse over a corpse) you will get it. Keep bringing your mouse off and onto that target to get a feel for the sound. It can be easily lost in combat but once you get used to it you'll notice it a bit more.

SoulScream · April 2015

Glad you turned it up a bit thanks!

Dragnelus · April 2015

Buy a thing or make something tiny that push continue on the x?

Addon that alwayd automatic activate it?

Automatic activate in light attack?

Septimus_Magna · April 2015

Go to controls and bind the synergy to scroll up and/or scroll down instead of X, this makes it a lot easier to activate them quickly.

ZOS_timefortrees · April 2015

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

Hey @timefortrees great, thanks for that. Like @gezzerb16_ESO I wasn't aware of this cue, as you say fights get a tad 'noisy'. Also of course, the Ultimate icon on the skill bar lights-up and is pretty easy to spot even out the corner of one's eye while the on-screen text can easily be overlooked at times.

While you're here .. bet you hate that .. I'm a great user of audio cues, moreso that on-screen text but there are some I'd love to be able to disable, in particular the enter/leave stealth '***'.

Is there any hidden way (meaning manual editing of a config file) where such cues can be enabled or disabled?

There is not a way to disable them. We have heard of add-ons that allow you access to audio UI cues, and you can change or assign sounds to them, but we don't know about turning them off, might be something to look into though. It's a mechanic we introduced with the Justice System to help people with knowing when they've gone into stealth/spotted when running around stealing.

That being said, we are always keeping an eye out for things that the players do/don't like, or things that do/don't bother them, so, of course we can't make any guarantees about what we might change going forward, we can say that the feedback on these sounds has been on our radar for sure, has been discussed, but we're not making any decisions yet, the system is still so new.

While YOU'RE here, we have a question for you.

. How would you, or any of you reading this feel about only ONE sound being connected to the sneak mechanic? Either a notification for when you enter stealth, or a notification for when you've been spotted, would that make it less intrusive? If you're into that, which one do you think would be more helpful in your life as a dirty thief?

Thanks!

ZOS_timefortrees · April 2015

Hey gezzerb, so, yeah, it is a very short attack/decay time, the base of it is literally a bell. There is a longer middle/low end portion to the sound, but, that... that's just never gonna cut through during combat, so its existence is negligible.

We had a really great response when we updated the Ultimate Ready sound and gave it a bit more presence and length. So, of course, we can make no promises, because, you know, we always have a lot going on, but, we'll see if we can get some time to put together a new, more distinct sound for Synergy Available.

There are lots of gameplay factors that come with many of the UI sounds, so we have to be very careful about changing and adjusting them. A sound that bothers, or is unnoticed by one person, might be something that someone else has grown very comfortable with and accustomed to. So, while we of course want to make everyone happy, we have to tread carefully so that "fixing" something for one person doesn't ruin it for another.

Luckily this is an MMO so we can essentially tinker endlessly.

curlyqloub14_ESO · April 2015

While sound designers are active on this thread...can you PLEASE turn down the volume on the Blade Cloak audio cue? It is far louder than all my other sounds/notifications, and since it fires off every 3 secs... I end up turning down the volume on everything else just so this sound doesn't deafen me...which of course makes it rather hard to hear any of the other audio cues. Would be great if Blade Cloak sound could be more balanced with other skills audio.

timefortrees wrote: »

While YOU'RE here, we have a question for you. . How would you, or any of you reading this feel about only ONE sound being connected to the sneak mechanic? Either a notification for when you enter stealth, or a notification for when you've been spotted, would that make it less intrusive? If you're into that, which one do you think would be more helpful in your life as a dirty thief?

Thanks!

I think a sound when you've been spotted would be good. There is already an icon right in the center of your screen that tells you when you're going into stealth, I think that is more than enough for entering stealth. But in pvp especially...I could imagine a sound for losing stealth being pretty nice.

Speaking of that stealth icon...why is the eye sometimes open when you are hidden? It's a minor thing, but it bothers me immensely. It's rather misleading and confusing when the eye is open yet the text says I'm "Hidden"... I find myself wondering which is actually true. For example, what is going on here? Am I hidden or not?

Bit off-topic, I know, but would love to know what the deal is with this icon.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · April 2015

timefortrees wrote: »

While YOU'RE here, we have a question for you. . How would you, or any of you reading this feel about only ONE sound being connected to the sneak mechanic? Either a notification for when you enter stealth, or a notification for when you've been spotted, would that make it less intrusive? If you're into that, which one do you think would be more helpful in your life as a dirty thief?

Thanks for responding to my question, it was useful that you mentioned the sneak cue only came in with Justice, I thought I hadn't heard it at some time but wasn't sure.

To reply to your question: personally I don't have any need for a sound for this action, mainly for the same reason you took action on the Synergy sound .. I rarely sneak in a context where there's a lot of on screen action and I've got used to the lack of a cue (as we just mentioned) and since the 'eye' graphic was tweaked so as to be more consistent as to when it shows you in and out of sneak I find that perfectly adequate.

My main point of aggravation with it is when sneaking around areas with mobs while harvesting, where one is more or less continually entering and leaving sneak, the cue is going off every few seconds.

If I had to choose one action where the cue sounds then it would be coming out of sneak since it would alert one to the fact that you've been spotted, presuming that you didn't deliberately leave sneak by taking some action.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Sharee · April 2015

curlyqloub14_ESO wrote: »

Speaking of that stealth icon...why is the eye sometimes open when you are hidden? It's a minor thing, but it bothers me immensely. It's rather misleading and confusing when the eye is open yet the text says I'm "Hidden"... I find myself wondering which is actually true. For example, what is going on here? Am I hidden or not?

If the text says hidden, you're hidden. The partially opened eye lets you know you are about to be detected if you move further towards whoever caused the partial-open.

In PvP, you can use it as a stealth detector. An enemy player who is in stealth nearby will cause the eye to partially open even if you did not detect each other yet.

GT_Schorsch · April 2015

timefortrees wrote: »

While YOU'RE here, we have a question for you. . How would you, or any of you reading this feel about only ONE sound being connected to the sneak mechanic? Either a notification for when you enter stealth, or a notification for when you've been spotted, would that make it less intrusive? If you're into that, which one do you think would be more helpful in your life as a dirty thief?

First, I like it as it is. During the first game hours after the launch of Update 6 it was quite annoying for me, personally, but I got used to it pretty soon and right now I enjoy having both sounds.

Second, as Sharee said, if you are going to change or remove at least one of the two sounds it will probably bother some PvP players as well; at least those ones who like it in its current way and are acoustically oriented. While this change happend for all active thieves it is quite useful for PvPers as well.

Conclusion: I know I am only one person, but please make it either adjustable if you want to hear both or just one of the sounds (I know, not a good option) or leave it as it is or open this possibility to addon authors, many of them are doing an awesome job.

Third, slightly off-topic, but sound related: Could you please turn down the volume of the sound the UI notification window asking you if you want to travel to the group leader is causing a bit? It is extremely loud for me, it shocks me usually. I turned down UI volume a bit, but now I am hearing many other sounds barely (for example the sounds the quest log is doing while browsing through it, but others too). I know it is not that big issue, since it is not combat nor justice related, but as you are here for us now...

Thank you for reading and hearing us!

farrier_ESO · April 2015

I use both sounds. They can be a bit annoyingly loud and intrusive, especially in those cases where they repeat a lot (see bug below).

The "hidden" sound doesn't actually tell me "you're hidden and can do stuff now", unfortunately.

What it does tell me is "You completed the hide action, now you must wait a second to see if the other sound plays, so you can tell whether you've really truly sneaked, or if there's that weird brokenness where it keeps dropping you in and out of sneak, sometimes even when nobody can possibly see you because you are far behind the only person in the room, shoo-voop, shoo-voop, shoo-voop...".

But I suspect that's just a bug. And even that is useful.

david.kinnaneb14_ESO · April 2015

timefortrees wrote: »

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

Hey @timefortrees great, thanks for that. Like @gezzerb16_ESO I wasn't aware of this cue, as you say fights get a tad 'noisy'. Also of course, the Ultimate icon on the skill bar lights-up and is pretty easy to spot even out the corner of one's eye while the on-screen text can easily be overlooked at times.

While you're here .. bet you hate that .. I'm a great user of audio cues, moreso that on-screen text but there are some I'd love to be able to disable, in particular the enter/leave stealth '***'.

Is there any hidden way (meaning manual editing of a config file) where such cues can be enabled or disabled?

There is not a way to disable them. We have heard of add-ons that allow you access to audio UI cues, and you can change or assign sounds to them, but we don't know about turning them off, might be something to look into though. It's a mechanic we introduced with the Justice System to help people with knowing when they've gone into stealth/spotted when running around stealing.

That being said, we are always keeping an eye out for things that the players do/don't like, or things that do/don't bother them, so, of course we can't make any guarantees about what we might change going forward, we can say that the feedback on these sounds has been on our radar for sure, has been discussed, but we're not making any decisions yet, the system is still so new.

While YOU'RE here, we have a question for you. . How would you, or any of you reading this feel about only ONE sound being connected to the sneak mechanic? Either a notification for when you enter stealth, or a notification for when you've been spotted, would that make it less intrusive? If you're into that, which one do you think would be more helpful in your life as a dirty thief?

Thanks!

OOO ask Konami if you can use the metal gear sound effect when an enemy spots you.