Since launch, whenever a player character fell more than a certain distance, a voice sample would play to suggest exhilaration or fear. It could always be heard on goggle dives and I heard it countless times when jumping from Garrison vista into the water in WvW.
Sometime maybe about a month back that sample ceased to sound. I have three accounts and over a dozen characters and I haven’t heard it on any of them for a long time. It might be a bug or perhaps it’s an undocumented change. If it’s the former, it would be nice if it could be fixed. If the latter, why?
(This was mentioned by another player back in April but replying to that thread gets a warning not to revive it due to age, hence I have started a new thread lest it be forgotten entirely).
With the inclusion of on-demand gliding as a game mechanic alongside the diving goggles mechanic and given the fact that there are quite a few other ways in which the player can fall, knowing well that they will survive or take no damage, these falling gutturals were removed from all characters as they make no sense and serve only to make your character sound weak-willed at best. We doubt they’ll be making a return ever.
With the inclusion of on-demand gliding as a game mechanic alongside the diving goggles mechanic and given the fact that there are quite a few other ways in which the player can fall, knowing well that they will survive or take no damage, these falling gutturals were removed from all characters as they make no sense and serve only to make your character sound weak-willed at best. We doubt they’ll be making a return ever.
That’s quite a shock. There was no need to do this.
With the inclusion of on-demand gliding as a game mechanic alongside the diving goggles mechanic and given the fact that there are quite a few other ways in which the player can fall, knowing well that they will survive or take no damage, these falling gutturals were removed from all characters as they make no sense and serve only to make your character sound weak-willed at best. We doubt they’ll be making a return ever.
There’s no way to just disable the screams for the Maguuma Jungle zones where gliding is used? I always get a laugh from any of my characters when they fall unexpectedly, like for example in Edge of the Mists when I sometimes forget to watch my paths and end up falling to my death from a well placed hole in the ground.
With the inclusion of on-demand gliding as a game mechanic alongside the diving goggles mechanic and given the fact that there are quite a few other ways in which the player can fall, knowing well that they will survive or take no damage, these falling gutturals were removed from all characters as they make no sense and serve only to make your character sound weak-willed at best. We doubt they’ll be making a return ever.
That’s quite a shock. Were was no need to do this.
To the above and others, did you even bother to read Cody’s response? With the addition of gliding, and the existence of diving goggles and numerous methods to avoid death/minimize damage from falling, the “falling sounds no longer make sense and only serve to make your character sound weak-willed at best”, to quote. The response provides a reasonable and common sense answer.
I have to voice my stance against this. Dark Jericho has already said the major points.
As negligible as something as this may seem, it is flavourful. Surely there is some way to have the trigger for falling screams accommodate for the gliding system. Removing them entirely is dismaying and seems as if it would only appease a vocal minority that would get seriously upset about it, if such a group exists. So far it has existed for almost three years and has only delighted those who witness it (and perhaps find ways to consistently manipulate it). There has always been the dialogue volume slider.
Anet continues the apparently proud and certainly frequent tradition of removing more content from the game than they add. We’re still waiting for our idle animations to be returned, why don’t you do that before stripping even more personality away from our characters?
NEVER FEAR!!!! I am fluent in Anet’nese! So allow me to translate for those who need it…
Rather than code for when it was appropriate to have the falling scream in the new release, it was easier to just remove it period, so we did. (Same as we did for the human animations.)
There you go; that’s a pretty decent translation.
But on a serious note… thanks, Cody, for at least being up front about what your intentions are regarding the topic of this post.
First no fall damage from walking down stairs and now this? Descending has never been so peaceful!
I will miss waypointing while falling and having my character suddenly appear screaming among a group of confused strangers, though.
Light of Honor [Lite] – Founder / Warmaster
Sorrow’s Furnace Commander
“You’re the mount, karka’s ride you instead, and thus they die happy!”-Colin Johanson
With the inclusion of on-demand gliding as a game mechanic alongside the diving goggles mechanic and given the fact that there are quite a few other ways in which the player can fall, knowing well that they will survive or take no damage, these falling gutturals were removed from all characters as they make no sense and serve only to make your character sound weak-willed at best. We doubt they’ll be making a return ever.
That’s quite a shock. There was no need to do this.
To the above and others, did you even bother to read Cody’s response? With the addition of gliding, and the existence of diving goggles and numerous methods to avoid death/minimize damage from falling, the “falling sounds no longer make sense and only serve to make your character sound weak-willed at best”, to quote. The response provides a reasonable and common sense answer.
Well, as a WvW player, I still have the full “use” of falling damage and it’s inevitable death. It was always a goot indicator, that I jumped down too high. (^.^)
Rather than code for when it was appropriate to have the falling scream in the new release, it was easier to just remove it period, so we did. (Same as we did for the human animations.)
Pretty much. While I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the fearful, terrified screaming, it seems really awkward now for them to fall long distances in complete silence. Even with gliders, I imagine it to be strange to be flying around and not vocalizing any emotion. We may all be jaded like that, but I’d prefer that at least my fantasy game characters aren’t.
i’m quite happy about this removal , Norn version and sylvari female ‘falling cries’ are particularly horrible. In AC dungeon if you stand on a gravelings burrow while it gets destroyed your toon scream like no end … but thank you its over.
Good choice. It bugged out very often. Like, when jumping out of a portal it was triggered but it had some kind of ICD which triggered the scream only every 20 second or something. Jump+infiltrators arrow also triggered falling scream. I’m glad to not hear this anymore.
I loved that scream! My guildies and I used to open our mics and share our screams to uproarious laughter on teamspeak! Elrey.5472 has a great idea above- can it be so simple? That way, if we hear the sound, we’ll know death awaits on landing. Please, please, please?
The falling scream was, and still is important. It showed that our character is not perfect and awesome all the time.
The concept of player-character powerlessness and its importance both to character growth and to feeling heroic was discussed recently by the games analysts at Extra Credits.
It feels to me like Anet is trying to remove elements from the game that show the player character as anything less than infallible. This also happened when the personal story was changed, that the parts that concerned the player character’s failures were removed. Even though they are now re-adding the Greatest Fear plotline, the fact that they were willing to remove it in the first place shows this new trend at Anet.
Having an almighty, all-powerful player character is no fun for me. Character flaws and weaknesses, and more specifically, how that character overcomes those weaknesses are what make a character compelling.
The thing is, Arenanet is trying to remove all the bits and pieces that make Tyria a “living, breathing world” in an effort to make all player characters more automaton-like. It’s small things sure, but it is the small things that make it living, breathing, memorable.
The thing is, Arenanet is trying to remove all the bits and pieces that make Tyria a “living, breathing world” in an effort to make all player characters more automaton-like. It’s small things sure, but it is the small things that make it living, breathing, memorable.
So true, so true! And honestly, its another reason to keep my sound off, i cant hear what isnt there if i dont have my sound off anyways, thanks minipets for doing this to me. I love listening to the falling sounds of my charr as SHE FLAILED THROUGH THE AIR. Because you know, people dont scream when they fall…
The pvp community reminds me of what Obi-kittenenobi describes Mos Eisley as from star wars.
So allow me to translate for those who need it…
