Scary sounds in DM!

[ebeneezergude]

Picking-up on the Amiga stereo comment, we used to have our Amiga hooked up to an amp and proper stereo speakers, using the L and R stereo outputs from the back of the Amiga. Nice and loud, some great bassy 16-bit sounds, specially the procedurally generated or synthy stuff...

It's great to get immersed in that old Amiga sound. All those cool game tunes and cracktro tunes sounded beautiful. Listening to amiga music has to be one of the most powerful nostalgia trips I can go on. Deliplayer app plays them all a beaut on pc.

[Chaos-Shaman]

yeah, i had it hooked up to my stereo in surround. when i got attacked from behind it made me jump. my kids loved it. i was happy to chuck out my old apple for the amiga, and those hudge floppies that held only 1.44 megs or something like that. hard to believe games like the original DM was that small and still great. some years ago i bought up a few disks with all the amiga games, so every once in a while i'll load one up with the emulator and give a listen. i loved Persian Gulf Inferno, talk about a game that saw the future wars coming. they should have made an oil rig coin for it

[Simon]

Amiga + External sound + Mummies = "DUM-DUM" + change of pants

[Chaos-Shaman]

hehehehe, i remember those days

[Seriously Unserious]

as do I. The ones that startled me the most though were the Coutles with their scary hiss, and the pain rats with their loud roar. but let's not underestimate the power of the Beholder's lightning sneak attack, from behind, with no warning BOOM! a lightning bolt explodes on your party.

[ebeneezergude]

The coatls sound used to freak me out (I was about 9 at the time...), especially the first time I heard it . Your party is weak and scared, then you hear this fast moving thudding sound coming from somewhere... Panic inducing.

[Ameena]

As I played the Atari version, it was only certain vocalisations I had to worry about, since footsteps weren't included. The Scorpion noise I still find freaky, and the Giant Rats too but only because they have the same sound as Dragons, so I have an instinctive response to it because of the possibility of being abruptly blown up by a Fireball .

[Seriously Unserious]

I hadn't seen a dragon the first time i got bit by a rat, so I didn't know about the abruptly being blown up by a fireball thing, I just knew that at the time I first encountered the pain rats, they packed a mean bite more then capable of killing my party and was freaked out about my party being abruptly being eaten alive by these huge horse-sized rats.

Of course, when I did find out about the dragon on the bottom level, the roar of the rats became doubly frightening as it sounds the same as the roar of a fireball spitting dragon abruptly blowing up my party... or abruptly biting them and swallowing someone whole (killing them in 1 bite)

The coatls sound used to freak me out (I was about 9 at the time...), especially the first time I heard it . Your party is weak and scared, then you hear this fast moving thudding sound coming from somewhere... Panic inducing.

On the Amiga version they also were accompanied by a whooshing sound from their wings flapping around which was also pretty intimidating...

[Chaos-Shaman]

those coatls are perfect to put inside walls for scary sound effects, gives a great feel to what's going to happen next. acutally i used that effect to add atmosphere, since you can give whatever sound to a footstep. it's an interesting way to add that bit extra for the scare.

[Ameena]

I did something similar in one of the dungeons I started making, years back - I'd made little two or three-square sections of corridor in the middle of nowhere, inaccessible but close to areas where a player's party would be walking. I'd put a Thief or two in them so they'd run up and down, making footstep noises (this was in RTC, where the mobs all have footstep noises) in the hopes that I could freak out some players that way . Of course, I didn't really get very far with the dungeon (or with any of the others I started making) but I thought it was a fun little idea anyway .

[Seriously Unserious]

That would add a good set of mood sound effects. Of course, there is also the option of using an ambient sound wall item or a localized sound floor item as well. Those wouldn't produce as realistic and organic a sound effect as the monster in the walls approach, but could be done, say in an area where there's no room for a monster in the walls but you still want a sound effect to really create the right mood. Still, hiding a wandering monster in the walls is something I'll keep in mind as a sound effects option. You never know when, where, or in which dungeon of mine something like that might appear

[Chaos-Shaman]

SU, you're on the right track, the directory i'll send you has some sound effects you may want to use. i am still in the process of gathering sound effects, i want to make my own. i've always loved the idea of doing it.

[MasterWuuf]

I started DM on the Atari ST.
A couple of the sounds seem to have had an effect on me, even when my group was in no immediate danger.
The scorpion sound is the one I remember best, as far as 'drooling from fear' goes.

I've already mentioned the terror I experienced, about two in the morning, when I was resting my group
and a group of skeletons started hacking at me (sneaky little varmints!).
Almost jumped backwards out of my chair.

That was the moment I was sure DM would be one of my favorites.

[Seriously Unserious]

ahh, yes, as pure sounds go, the scorpion is the worst. I still don't like to go toe to toe with a scorpion even when my party's so powerful it's no threat to them because of their attack sound. So I prefer to keep my distance and attack them with ranged spells and weapons. Of course, the fact that scorpions are also among the faster monsters in the game doesn't help with that, or that they are often set to spawn in many areas where they are found.

[MasterWuuf]

Seems about four or five top level fireballs puts them in their place.

[Ameena]

I totally agree about Scorpion noises - them and Dragons (and, as a result, Giant Rats/Hellhounds) have the scariest noises, though the latter mainly because hearing it in the distance means you have about a second or two to dodge to one side before a large Fireball explodes in your face...and if you dodge the wrong way (because you have no idea where the Dragon is just yet), you might just step into said Fireball .

[Seriously Unserious]

Or if you're caught in a long, narrow corridor, you won't have anywhere to dodge to, so you'll know you're about to be hit by said fireball and there won't be a thing you can do about it, unless you just happen to have a fireshield spell handy at the time... when I'm in a known dragon area I usually do, actually. or a known demon area, or lord chaos area, or vexirk or any other area where I know there are fireball throwing monsters around. I've cast enough fireshields that CSB's viper demons' fireballs were totally ineffective against my party before, and it was then that I realized just how useful that particular priest spell could be.

Some of the things that have startled me the most though have been those silent monster suddenly attacking my party from behind. Nothing will make you jump like a ghostly sneak attack, or a beholder's lightning bolt suddenly exploding all over your party from out of nowhere.

[Ameena]

Being hit by a Dragon Fireball when in a long corridor is usually unlikely, I've found - there are a couple of instances where it's possible (eg Dragons' Den), but generally Dragons start off in open spaces and will only end up in long corridors if you train them there. Beholders, on the other hand...

[Seriously Unserious]

There's also custom dungeons where dragons and long, narrow corridors meet up as well. Down is one of them, but there may be others too.

[Ameena]

Ahh, I wasn't thinking of custom dungeons. Good point .

[Seriously Unserious]

lol, yeah, and it takes one cruel designer to develop a dungeon that mixes dragons and long, narrow hallways.

[Chaos-Shaman]

or a giggler dragon, runs up, steals from the player then morphs into a dragon to attack, then if the player moves off, on the dragons next footstep it drops items and morphs back to the speedy giggler. giggle giggle

[Seriously Unserious]

That would be cruel.

Another one is mixing thicket thieves with imps. I know that from personal experience, having played a dungeon where that was done in one area and it was complete hell. I needed good weapons in hand to deal with the imps, who, for those not familiar with that type of monster, are immune to spells and cast a darkness spell, and the thicket thieves are just about as fast as gigglers and can steal like gigglers, but also have a damaging attack. Getting surrounded by imps plunging you into darkness while at the same time having thicket thieves stealing your best weapons right out of your hands and then slicing and dicing your party with their daggers and you can't see how many of them there are or where to point your thief-roasting fireballs. Oh yeah, and did I mention that they all re-spawn? MINE! MINE! MINE! My party died more then a few times in that area I can tell you.

[Chaos-Shaman]

hehe, sounds cruel.

how about a monster that instead of killing a character on an attack, it recruits the character which drops from the party and turns them into an enemy monster, ohhh that sounds fun...

[Ameena]

Haha yeah, they could be turned into a zombie or something, and you'd have to kill them in order to get their bones for resurrection .

[Chaos-Shaman]

i think it's all possible, what is the best way to drop items is the tough part. it be great to get into the sound part, i am not sure what are the best programs to use, mucked around with it a bit years ago. the sound is everything, necessary for atmosphere, and to me is most effective in getting the player involved with a little jolt

[Seriously Unserious]

I think "remover character from party" action has 2 version, one that takes the items with it, an another other that doesn't. That would be pure evil. but what would happen when the party's down to just one member?

How about a monster that summons other monsters as an attack? Now that would be evil to the power evil. IE (evil^(evil)) where the ^ indicates an exponent.

[Chaos-Shaman]

I think "remover character from party" action has 2 version, one that takes the items with it, an another other that doesn't. That would be pure evil. but what would happen when the party's down to just one member?

How about a monster that summons other monsters as an attack? Now that would be evil to the power evil. IE (evil^(evil)) where the ^ indicates an exponent.

just use the MIN Character Size, just reverse the Max Character Size so it can't go below 1, i tried and it wouldn't anyway, but my counter kept going. i tried that the day doing the NPC and it does remove the character back to the mirror. when you look at the next test dungeon, you'll see what i did, and i'm sure you will make it work perfectly.
you mentioned that you had sound programs SU, if you could find them and send it to me, would be great. what are the best programs to use, i need to know what others would use. it's an area i know i'll enjoy.

[Chaos-Shaman]

i think the summon other monsters is already been done, but if not, easy to do.

[Seriously Unserious]

I know it's already been done, I've done it in a test dungeon, and yes, it is easy to do.