Certain sound effects in the game have had their volumes increased dramatically. Some such as the classic Datacron sound effect which are substantially more audible are useful in locating the sometimes elusive artifacts.

 

There are some new effects such as the protesting Twileks outside the Coruscant Senate Taxi area speaking in Huttese which follow you across the taxi area and into the plaza itself. This is annoying.

 

The possible BUG is the volume level of the Jedi Temple Fountain. I have not tested the Fountain Sculptural yet, but the Yavin Temple Fountain sound level remains the same as before. The Jedi Temple Fountain is extremely loud compared to what it was.

 

I cannot find a setting in the game preferences that will lower this, and I do play with game sound on. This may not have been intended. It is very intrusive especially in Strongholds where the environment is more contained such as the DK and Coruscant Apartments.

 

My Coruscant Apartment has two Jedi Fountains in the front room. The sound echoes very loudly in the entrance and in the front ante-chamber then going on down the hall. It definitely takes away from the tranquility of this particular SH, and it is ironic that it is the sound of running water which is supposed to be soothing. Also, the water sound is louder than my jukebox music.

 

I am hoping that this fountain volume increase is a bug associated with the intended increased sound effects that I mentioned and will be fixed in the very near future.

 

Thanks.

Yes, I noticed that a few minutes ago. My Tatooine stronghold now sounds like a water park.

The Sculptural Fountain is affected as well, as is the sound of the Tribal Campfire.

Several sound fx had their volume decreased, also strongholds don't have sound/music on their loading screen.

Yes, I noticed that a few minutes ago. My Tatooine stronghold now sounds like a water park.

The Sculptural Fountain is affected as well, as is the sound of the Tribal Campfire.

 

That's a great description. It sort of sounds cool in the huge desert space of the Tatooine SH, but in a Coruscant Apartment, it is really intrusive. This can't be working as intended.

The elevators to our ship hangars are also echoing across half the fleet.

I've played with every single option I can find, and aside from just turning down the game volume and playing music which many do, this LOUD FOUNTAIN is about to drive me out of my SH. Put a lot of work into mine, and they all include water decorations. The volume after being around it all evening makes me feel like I'm being water boarded. Please tweak this when you can. Edited May 28, 2015 by Daobarian

I may be just tired, but I believe I found a FIX.

 

Try picking up your Fountains or other Decorations that may be too loud, and replace them. I swear it seems to have leveled the volume back to the way it was.

 

Again I could just be tired and imagining it. I'll check in the morning.

 

Let me know if anyone else has success with this.

 

***EDIT: This does work. However, once you zone or log out, the volume will increase again.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Daobarian

Indeed, the Jedi Fountain and the Sculptural Fountain are ways to loud, they carry through several rooms now, while they originally were restricted to one room only.

 

Please fix this ASAP!

Edited May 28, 2015 by Mubrak

Not sure when it happened, as I don't have a fountain in my primary stronghold, but the sound from fountains has gotten very loud and can be heard from very far away. It would be nice if they could be toned down back to where they were originally. Edited May 28, 2015 by MaximusRex

Seems like the problem has something to do with whatever mechanic allows sound effect volume to scale relative to distance. Previously, the further you got, the quieter the sound. Now, I get the same volume whether I'm standing directly on top of a fountain or at the opposite end of the hall.

 

"Pick it up and put it down again" didn't work for the Jedi Temple or Sculptural fountains in my stronghold, btw.

Seems like the problem has something to do with whatever mechanic allows sound effect volume to scale relative to distance. Previously, the further you got, the quieter the sound. Now, I get the same volume whether I'm standing directly on top of a fountain or at the opposite end of the hall.

 

Yes, the fountains now work the same way as the jukeboxes: full volume over a certain number of areas (doors) then it abruptly ends. There must be a flag on the decoration that decides whether it's locational or global sound, and this flag was changed. Locational sound takes up more processing time, so this may be intended as an optimisation, but I'd rather have a silent fountain than an epic water-pipe burst.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Mubrak

Thanks for adding the technical opinions on what might have happened. My skills do not lie in that area, and it's appreciated.

I can also confirm, this happened in our Tatooine guild stronghold. You could hear the fountain from the next room. Usually it should get quieter the farther you are away from it but it just stays the same volume.

Fix all the others but leave the datacrons louder.

It's nice to have a reminder that you're near one when you drive past.

Fix all the others but leave the datacrons louder.

It's nice to have a reminder that you're near one when you drive past.

 

Actually I find this makes it harder to center in on where datacrons are located, since the sound no longer scales with distance. Instead of being a guide, it's just noise.

The ambient sound volume with distance has been borked/turned off. All fountains do this now. From OP's post there are more objects doing it as well. I posted specifically on the fountains just now. Before I saw this post. My Strongholds now sound like a full men's room, during halftime, at a Football game. Edited May 29, 2015 by Lagboot

Not just the stronghold decorations, all the ambient-sounds that have no own volume-slider show this behavior:

Datacrons, street lamps in Anchorhead, water- and lavafalls on Makeb. This is really annoying.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Mubrak

Well, glad I found this thread! Now I know I'm not going crazy. I was wondering why I could now hear my Jedi fountain on the second floor of my stronghold, when it is actually located on the first floor!

I'd like to add some more Audio problems I've noticed in the last week mainly moving around during the Bounty Week from Fleet to Capital worlds. I don't have the technical jargon to best describe what is going on. So, if someone wants to jump in and "translate," that would be great.

 

The Yavin Temple Fountain is NOT bugged from my perspective at least. The Reconstructed Hypergate is VERY loud now. It's not distracting, and I wouldn't mind it staying that way. The Czerka Enforcer police mount's "siren" can be heard half way across the SH but not up close. That's all the SH audio problems I have noticed in addition to the prior ones.

 

The two additions to the Coruscant Senate Plaza and DK City Center need to go or be toned down. They may be adding to a story arc which is great, but the sound is out of hand. The DK sound is ironically a siren which isn't too bad, but the Senate Plaza Twilek Protesters who have their leader yelling in that GAWD forsaken jibbership of Huttese needs its area and volume reduced for sure.

 

These are cosmetically annoying. The BUG which needs to really be addressed has happened to me a few times. It mainly occurs when I move from Stronghold to Fleet to Capital World back to Fleet and back to Stronghold. OR it can occur anytime in that cycle. When this happens, small sound effects like the sound of running on whatever floor surface becomes muted almost to inaudibility. Other ambient sounds become MUCH louder.

 

I am forced when this occurs to reboot my entire client. Rebooting the character alone does not clear this bug nor will anything else I have tried. This occurred ONCE before with me back in March. It happened repeatedly when I went to Ilum, ported to the Gree Vendor area and back to my Stronghold. It was fixed apparently because this never occurred during the Gree Event in May.

 

This last patch has really done a number on your game audio, and you guys really need to address it. Not only is it annoying in some areas, but it's just down right inconvenient when I have to relaunch the game client. I am using a Creative Sound Blaster card with a current driver. It has been working just fine for the most part until this last patch.

 

Thanks.

Can confirm that the Fountains are still loud as heck. It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't using my SH for all my GTN needs. The sound is driving me batty.

This better be fixed before Yavin SH release. All those waterfalls would make us cry for plumber decorations.

In my DK stronghold I have three different fountain decorations (Jedi, sculptural,Yavin), the campfire, and the ziost rift. They all can be heard simultaneously across the entire floor on which they have been placed on, at full volume, no matter where you stand. It makes staying in the SH for longer than 5 minutes a real torture. As others have pointed out it's the same with most (if not all) fountains/waterfalls/fires out there in the game world as well... It's been going on for quite some time now and it would be nice to get a fix before the new stronghold is released.

In my DK stronghold I have three different fountain decorations (Jedi, sculptural,Yavin), the campfire, and the ziost rift. They all can be heard simultaneously across the entire floor on which they have been placed on, at full volume, no matter where you stand. It makes staying in the SH for longer than 5 minutes a real torture. As others have pointed out it's the same with most (if not all) fountains/waterfalls/fires out there in the game world as well... It's been going on for quite some time now and it would be nice to get a fix before the new stronghold is released.

 

Not trying to toot my own horn, but my Cor, Tat and DK SHs are in the top five prestige lists respectively on my server. I've put a lot of work into them. I haven't bothered with the NS Stronghold at all, and I was planning on doing a Yavin SH. However, with this "water water everywhere" sound bug, I'm not going to consider it until they FIX this annoyance.

 

I was going to make use of quite a few fountains, but just having a few in my Cor SH nearly makes me want to hurt a kitten (figuratively). I can only imagine how my sanity would fare in a Temple full of echoes, built in waterfalls PLUS a plethora of fountains that I placed. So, I'm hoping for an update next week that will address this.