[Audio Suggestion] Improve footsteps to be more terrain-relevant and to match footwear type

After coming back from a 4 month break from PoE, I noticed there are more Channels for Sounds (very awesome, sound team!), among other sound improvements I immediately noticed upon entering Twilight Strand to get re-immersed into the game again.

With that said in mind, one thing that still bothers me in PoE is if you're wearing metal boots, the footsteps of your character sound like leathery boots. In fact, that is what footsteps sound like all the time no matter what boots you wear and no matter where you walk with them: leathery boots. You never hear the components of otherwise metal boots (and even some armors, if I may add...)

Furthermore, the sound of your character's footsteps never match the terrain your character is walking on be it: dirt grounds, grassy grounds, shallow WATER (still no water splash sounds?), concrete grounds, etc.

Imagine how awesome the game can sound like with more relevant footstep sounds if/when a character wears metal boots or leathery boots in conjunction with more relevant footstep sounds pertaining to the proper terrain types with the Reverb Option toggled On (for those who like the Reverb effect).

Those are two things I would like to see improved in PoE's sound department to create an even more immersive gameplay experience to make players feel like they are physically playing within the game themselves.



Thank you for looking into this : )
HeavyMetalGear

This is something I would love to add, and has actually been on our wishlist for a few years.

Unfortunately the scope of the implementation is pretty large, especially if we try and provide accurate sound feedback for different ground types in a single area.

Hopefully we'll have some downtime soon and be able to revisit this.

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Andrew_GGG wrote:

This is something I would love to add, and has actually been on our wishlist for a few years.

Unfortunately the scope of the implementation is pretty large, especially if we try and provide accurate sound feedback for different ground types in a single area.

Hopefully we'll have some downtime soon and be able to revisit this.

Thank you for your time and response, but I am curious... Does PoE's Game Engine not have the equivalent of what are called 'Regions' (or 'Points', which virtually never 'Leak' when coded properly) you can 'place' on certain terrain types in concentrated or large areas in the Editor to where soon as the game code detects players are running in those terrain 'Regions' or 'Points' (being the 'Condition' that must be met), a relevant 'Sound' will trigger in the game code to 'Play' as the 'Action'?

I know you are one of, if not, the Audio Guy (perhaps you can run this by somebody on your team more experienced in coding), but if so, I believe a 'Regions' or 'Points' system like that would make coding/implementing sounds for terrain-relevant footsteps a lot easier.

With that being said in mind, until your team works on terrain-relevant footsteps, I think, at the very least, implementing different sounds between metal boots vs. leathery boots would suffice and be a lot easier.

If it is possible, perhaps you can create two separate game codes that act as a 'Character Check' system: one for all Metal Boots put in an 'Array' (do I have that right? Sorry, my coding skills are a little rusty), and one for all Leathery Boots put in an 'Array' with the 'Condition' being something like... 'IF player is wearing Metal Boots or Leathery Boots 1-50 'THEN' (being the 'Action') 'Play Sound' for Metal Boots / Leathery Boots 1-50.

I am just throwing ideas out there to make this process easier for your team if you do not already have the above stated systems in the Game Engine you use.