Another rant post about audio

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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Audio issues in this game have lasted long enough.

Poxbursers are still completely silent up until they go through their animation. This has been a bug since early 2024 and leads to a lot of technically unavoidable scenarios.

Trappers are either not making their cackling sound when they spawn, or it’s just so quiet that it can’t possible be heard while engaged in a fight. Making no noise when running up to your team until she’s already firing the shot. And trappers are naturally more dangerous when dropping from or coming up onto height because they immediately go into their net shot with no wind up.

Pox hounds are still insta-pouncing without doing their wind up and this has been a bug for a very long time. This technically falls under audio issues.

Flamers appear completely unnanounced just like the other specialists, and you don’t hear them until they’re already attacking. I can understand if some people think this is fine though. (Don’t freak out this is my discord not yours)

Ninja Crushers and other flak/mauler enemies target swap ice skating over to your team with absolutely minimal noise. This can also apply to Monstrosities too to an extent. Chaos Spawn grab has always had an abnormally wonky hitbox where you have to dodge to the left of it like this is dark souls or something. I have a hard time believing this isn’t another bug or oversight they decided to keep in the game.

Also fun fact this captain shield bug is still in the game

Mutants, since I started playing this game about 2+ years ago on the initial talent tree reworks, have always sounded much further away than they actually are. Their audio does NOT match where they are and honestly I can’t believe this isn’t a more talked about issue.

With how long these problems have persisted in the game I’m completely convinced they’re kept in as a way of adding difficulty to the game, despite how artificial it is. I don’t know how else to explain the persistence of these problems.

With no exaggeration, the VAST majority of my losses and damage taken in general are from these buggy specialists. I literally can’t trust my ears because of how inconsistent the game is already. And it’s only getting worse with each patch. All of these small bugs and inconsistencies with the games piling up are, in my opinion, THE SINGLE BIGGEST ISSUE WITH DARKTIDE at the moment. Completely destroying the integrity of the game.

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Trappers, problematic since 2022 ; do something about it?
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Problem is, most of these audio cues work fine at low intensities. But crank it up to Damnation Hi-Int, or any Auric or above, and poof, most of these extremely important audio indicators vanish into thin air if it gets a little crowded.

Their audio engineering and prioritization is just fundamentally terrible.

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I suspect this one is pathing related as it always happens if they’re already lined up in a run towards you before the pounce. It happens if they round a corner and happen to be directly facing you just before the ensuing pounce too.

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they won’t be fixing anything until the end of february, like every year

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I would not hold our breath for any fixes. Whatever this is the game engine issue, audio hardware limitation, or simply unavoidable due to some other reasons…this issue is here to stay

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I’m pretty positive the trapper’s extremely faint audio clip that plays when she’s moving was deleted. I was watching an old clip where one missed a net, ran a few steps away and every single step she made had a rubbery squeak. Where did that go?

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I posted this elsewhere recently, but these days I get backstabbed by a completely silent crusher or mauler at least once per game. This didn’t used to happen nearly as often. I don’t think these were meant to be stealth enemies.

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This is why I sympathize with people who use Spidey Sense, at least regarding Disablers+Bursters and the Overhead warning

This is why I personally run the Cackling Trappers mod as well. Missing audio really screws over gameplay at the highest levels

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Yeah audio attenuating when spawn noises play, positional audio straight up not working at all from any distance for any enemy, sounds not playing because the engine or game can’t handle above a certain threshold, specials and elites not making noise because the sound doesn’t play, all of it is just fundamentally broken audio.

Even just remove the weird unnecessary only included so the menu option does something difference between stereo and stereo headphones and dynamic range profiles in audio options because they serve nothing but to break the audio clarity and positioning.

Audio and input lag have got to change at some point, because it’s incredibly broken and only gets worse with every patch it’s ignored. Tech debt is growing uncontrollably at this point.

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Silent Poxbursters, how riveting!!!