Whats sorely lacking in this fantastic game?: SOUND

I agree on the sound aspect or at least what you mean by it. more battle chatter would be very nice and up the immersion. homeworld did this very nicely imo.

expanding on that part about sound, It would be very neat should a redo of the voice commands be done, if different levels of cap ships had different commands based on level, giving the feel that more experienced crews are actually more seasoned and ready to fight.

I can't say I agree with the second part of your suggestion.  anything to lengthen the game, especially the early game, is generally bad for Internet play.

make a sound mod, import files from HW and EVE, that should get u a fun experience.

strike craft need chatter like in homeworld 2!

Cool suggestion in regards to sound

Signed!

I agree, especially about the strikcraft chatter!

I like this game, but I've always really, REALLY hated the voices. They came very close to keeping me from buying it in the first place.

I play Advent, and I don't mind little girls, but every time I hear the voice of the guy who did Starscream, or the Ninja Turtles (no lie) I want to claw my own ears off.

And who can forget a unit that responds to you with "What NOW, commeaander?" (TEC Carrier)

"What now? You're fired, that's what now."

another good thing about homeworld 2 was the units would talk to you without you acctualy giving them an order so you knew what was going on.

like if they spoted an enemy ship they would go for it! but also tell you they was "going in"

i like that because they seemed more real

When you install Homeworld 2, there is a file called “Music.big” in the “Data” folder. I used Finalbig to extract all the files. Every “.fda” file is an audio file. I renamed the “.fda” files to “.aifr” and opened them in Winamp with the Relic AIF plugin. Then I used the Filewriter output plugin, set it to output to mp3 with the LAME mp3 encoder, and played through all the “.aifr” files (which caused Filewriter to make MP3 files from everything that was played). Then I just renamed my MP3s how I wanted and presto! - I have the Homeworld 2 Soundtrack!

Thanks people I agree with all your comments. I never tried HW or EVE but it sure sounds like the sound factor hasn't been lost in these games. I hope the developers have read this post. IMHO, sounds are so important in a game. especially one such as this. I want to feel like I'm a commander of a galactic fleet and I do feel like that with this game but the sound just doesn't add to the realism at all. To the developers...you really missed the ball on this aspect of the game but its not something that can't be fixed. How about a sound addon? Votes anyone? I'd preorder it if it was in the making! And I'm sure ALL of the SoaSE fans out there would! Get rid of the cheezy sound bites, there simply not of the caliber of this game..er..should I say simulation. Command and control, graphics, at least for more main stream puters, are there in this game. Sound, no. And IMHO keeps this game from being a 10.

Something to think about. I see so many events that need sound bites that can really, really, enhance the realism of this simulation. Lets make this game a 10!  

I completely agree about the sounds.  And while reading your post I thought you were going to go in another direction with it.  I'll explain what I was picturing before I finished your post.

When I zoom in enough to see the contents of a planet I'd like sounds that give me an idea of what's going on, not just fleet to fleet combat.  I'd like to hear the sounds of freighters talking amongst each other (ala Freelancer), I'd like to hear the voices of my exploration vessels when they covering previously undiscovered territory, and I'd like to hear the background "hum" of many voices and machines on orbital structures when I zoom in on one.

As far as combat goes, it would be cool to hear warning sirens and evacuation orders on capital ships when they are very low on hull.  I love the idea of battle chatter from strike craft and sounds when launching squads n' such.

Other sounds that could add to it would be adding a very low rumble when zoomed in near a sun, some eerie noises in magnetic clouds, and some kind of barely percievable distant sounding undertone when zoomed way out of the solar systems.

Now your talking, I wasn't thinking along those lines but I totally agree with you. I was thinking from a Galactic Fleet Commander point of view. Similar to what is portrayed in Battlestar Galactica series, where your Adama and your listening to the feedback coming back from your stirke force. But I totally agree that the developers missed the boat on this one too, background sounds are really missing in this game. Especially your suggestions they all sound great!

I started a post to VOTE for a sound add-on called

 Everyone is welcome to add there vote and comments. Lets see if we can make a 10 out of this game!

programmers are generally visual artists. So developing sound and music is actually often a difficult process for game design teams.

Yeah, some of the sounds can be repetitive.  Although 90% of the time, I'm zoomed out to where everything is just icons, so aside from the voices, I wouldn't notice if they changed it, lol.

I' fine with background sounds and you know there is always the argument that is space there is no sound. of course in space there also should not be explosions like this I guess, but whatever.

what I would to add and what I saw here mentioned as well is that apart from purely artistical value, unit sounds and battle chatter may in fact become an important element in gameplay. because it can and should comment on the course of a battle. for example, if you heard one of ships go 'the enemy has received reinforcements, requesting new orders!' or 'looking good, we have the upper hand here' or 'the enemy is starting to pull back, shall we pursue?' then it not only adds flavour to the game, but also gives you important information. when you think about it, most strategy games rely solely on visuals to display information. healt bars, damaged looks on units, but there are relatively few acustic cues as to what is going on in battle. most of the cues are on a more strategic level such as finished stuff, incoming enemies, pirate notices or new diplomatic offers.

of course, a counter is that too much information on too many channels creates information overload and there is the choice what messages and information get priority, but surely that can be worked out too.

Like in World in Conflict when you zoomed up to your units you could hear them talking to eachother (Or in combat yelling at eachother). That was a genious piece of immersion right there.

Could you add something like that to sins? I know most sound right now is triggered by clicking or giving orders. Is it possible to have them give off different sound clips all the time?  ie. a sound clip is triggered when an enemy ship enters your gravity well. Could we change it so that units give off sound clips when they engage enemies, spot enemies, take too much damage, destroy an enemy?

I'd love more battle chatter and more music, hopefully the micro-expansions will add this.