Disable specials need a hotfix, sound cues must be reliable. It is unfair and frustrating in its current state

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Gameplay Feedback
1

So, I’ve been playing quite a bit lately and unfortunately that means the problems with the current state of the game become really apparent. I’ve gone over most, just to point out what I experience related specifically to sound ques. Input and experiences welcome, for I’m sure I don’t get the whole picture.

Specials, disablers

Leeches
Seems very reliable, it is rare to not hear them I think, if ever. Has happened a couple of times perhaps and just teleported in for a grab, but nowhere near others.

Gutter Runners
These fast moving, sudden hitting specials do come at you without a sound more often than I’d like. While it seems in big maps with open spaces, they make a noise more often - but when it is narrow and snug, like say Into the Nest with narrow corridors, it often is dead silent and you can hit without warning.

Packmasters
Infamous for not making a peep, barely a rattle and often spawn in sight out of nowhere as of late. While their sound can be difficult to hear amidst a horde or bossfight, I never had a problem hearing them in V1, so I don’t really see whats up. When they can march straight through a horde and grab and drag you through it, they need to have a reliable sound que.

Are of denial specials
Unfortunately in my opinion, the specials that are not as vital to eliminate as quickly as possible seem to be the most reliable with their sound que.

Rattling Gunners
Rattlings do however have a bit of a habbit of being quiet, sometimes I will hear them walking or be immediately shot at before I hear anything else.

Warpfire Throwers
Seems to be reliable, can pretty much always tell when one is coming from their distinct sounds.

Globadiers
Gas rats, might just need a new sound que. The one they currently have I believe easily falls on deaf ears when other things are at play, be it boss fight, hordes or other specials.

Blightstormers
Also suffers from the occational silent spawn, porting in and starting to speak only after having created his storm or dying, or even dying.

Berserkers, Monks,
These two could really use an audio que by the heroes, perhaps monks less so than Berserkers thanks to their shriek; but it is easy, very likely for new players, to underestimate what a threat these two enemy units actually are.

So yeah, item rewards and cosmetics aside: this is one of the most frustrating things about the game right now, packmasters especially; getting dragged through terrain or into the air and then plummeting to your death as it dies, in addition to them sometimes being silent as a light breeze, well it needs fixing. I should note, these last games I’ve played without music, and with nothing to deafen packmasters and gutter runners, they are silent when they really can’t be.

In addition, with the recent Sonnstill patch blightstormers and leeches have gone quiet.

21 Likes
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i know you’re not going to like my opinion on this, but i actually prefer the sound cues as they are right now. my opinion on each special and berserker:

Leeches: they used to teleport in to grab someone a few seconds after they made their harsh whispering voices, this has been changed so that it waits about 10 secs or more now. most people might miss the initial spawn whispers due to horde, and then later get surprised by the teleport because it would have already gone silent. the fun starts when you get 2 - 3 spawns at the same time, and people prepare for only 1 of them.

Gutter runners: they only give out a chittering locatable sound when running about on the ground. when they rear to pounce / land / repounce, there’s absolutely no sound. there’s a ruffle of clothing against the wind if they fly past you tho.

packmasters: they only give out sounds while running on the ground, the animation of climbing/dropping/hooking produces no sound. these sounds are distinct but soft: the rattle of skulls, sadistic soft laughing, a hackling wheeze.

blightstormers: painfully obvious to locate, my only issue with them is that their rhyming audio don’t stop even after killing them.

Rattling gunners: clanking/whining of the gun, a grunt after dropping from a ledge, sound cues are kinda equivilant to regular stormvermin in many ways.

warpfire thrower: this guy makes a lot of noise, i’m surprised people miss out on his location all the time.

gasrats: it’s a wheezing sound which you are right: gets covered by louder sounds, but still detectable if you’re near enough.

monks scream a hell lot, berserkers go YARRRRRrrrrrr. berserkers blend in with other troops unless u know what to look out for (bald head lighter skin and friggin dual axes ready to take your breakfast away) i think the main problem people face with these guys is underestimating the distance in which they should start blocking.

it’s actually the other way round for me: listening to these specials is what makes the game very fun for me. i feel that the sounds are very consistent in when they play and when they don’t, and the only times spawns activate out of thin air is during events for me.

i know you’re having sounds issues but just wanted to put out my feedback on this matter, it could be that stuff is broken for different audio cards.

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Following scenario happens way too often: Guy gets pounced > Gutter runner call-out line plays shortly after > Gutter runner gets killed > Gutter runner spawn sound plays.
The other times its mostly: Spawn sound plays while he is already mid-air pouncing, giving you literally no time to react to audio. Spawns right next to you sometimes aswell. And, imho, they should NOT be allowed to pounce straight through chaos warriors, marauders, stormvermin, bosses. They need collision.

They are outright BS in many cases. Had one summon his vortex in hunger in the dark through the planks behind which the first grimoire lies.
Then, not too long ago, we were playing righteous stand last part and defending the doors (i dont care its regarded not as good as the corner, dont comment on it) when a blightstormer summoned a vortex from all the way back at the statue though the church bench on the left. Completely unhittable. You can imagine how that run ended.

The problem seems to be that he can start to summon when he has any sort of LoS. Doesnt matter if its only a pixel inbetween level geometry. That needs to change to avoid aforementioned situations.

Except these sounds are mostly just not playing. Multiple times in a horde i just mind my own business with my team, defending back to back, then a packmaster either spawns right there or sneaks up without a sound and plucks either me or my teammate into the horde where the hyperstacked slaves or fanatics instagib whoever is caught as they clip by with very little the team can do because of the good 10 bodies inbetween the packmaster and them. And then PM has ridiculous amount of HP together with his resistant type armor that some weapons (Brace of pistols, grudgeraker) are hopeless to kill him in time.

Regular chaos marauders go YARRRRrrr more often than berserkers do. They are dead silent while running, creeping, even attacking. And they are way too indistinguishable from regular marauders in the heat of battle.

Thats something I loved about V1. It was a part of the game that made me feel getting better and better, knowing where specials would come from by listening and then shooting them on sight. But in most cases in V2, there are alot of issues with sound. And that is the reason why I am so upset and bring up these issues whenever I can.

7 Likes
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Currently, it is in an unacceptable state and far too many specials, specifically disablers even spawn in without a peep. If it was a soundcard issue, then it is multiple ones because several of my friends too experience a lot of these things(one with a completely new rig) and I dare say it is on fatshark to get their game to work right.

As for monks, yeah probably not needed; though I’d welcome any additional dialogue myself. But berserkers, are completely silent to me. The swinging of their axes make more noise than anything else they do. I sure don’t hear them, only regular chaos scream.

I would love to listen to them, if they actually made sounds. Disabler specials are the ones that make bad things happen to your team fast, and if they are not reliably making their presence clear it is frustrating and unrewarding. No longer is it your fault you didn’t pick up on it, when you get pounced through a horde with no idea it was there at all.

As for opinions well, I rarely if ever get everything right and appreciate input, but can’t help but feel jealous about a game running so well, I in fact even find it hard to believe the sounds specials make are so reliable to anyone, gutters and packmaster specifically.

3 Likes
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I would agree if the sound cues actually played at all.

It happened to me just yesterday that I got pounced on by a Gutter Runner out of nowhere and the “Attack from the shadows!” whisper sound cue played 3 seconds later when I was already on red health.

And the day before I had a storm spawning just under my feet while I was fighting a horde, without any of the sounds that announce a Blightstormer’s presence.
But to make it even funnier, while I was going for a spin a Leech Sorcerer (who also appeared without making a sound) sucked me out of the vortex!

The latter may have been the horde “cancelling” the special sound. That happens regularly with Packmasters: they mix in the horde and they won’t make a sound.

I have a pretty good SoundBlaster card and Sennheiser headphones that I use for semi-pro music production, so it’s very unlikely that I “missed” the sound cues. They just weren’t playing.

4 Likes
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Played 3 games last night and we didn’t even get sound ques for hordes… I’ve never seen that happen. No music or anything, turn around and an entire horde is coming up behind you. Oh, and what’s that… A rat ogre came from behind while we were dealing with the stealth horde. lol… not one of the characters said anything about the boss until he had already smacked the BH off the bridge on the map, Into The Nest.

gg

4 Likes
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I very rarely hear a horde when there’s a boss active.
And when horde sounds play in that occasion, it’s not the scream/horn/bell at the start of the horde, but just some muffled grunting of when they are already breathing on your neck.

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Yea, but you use to nearly always hear the horn/bell etc, now it seems so rare. Even ambushes you’d hear the noise and know one is coming.

1 Like
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It’s been more difficult to hear some specials since one of the latest patches. Mostly hooks, gutters, leeches, and storms for me.

Can’t give an accurate statistic but it feels like it happens at least 2-3 times per run.

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Except that Gutter Runners should’ve been dead silent.

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I’ve noticed in a lot of games that there is a pretty noticeable desync between when an assassin rat can pounce you and when his spawn sound even plays. There have been games where I’m already getting stabbed before the ‘always sneaking, always stabbing’ sound even plays. This always seems to happen on the graveyard in righteous stand and while fighting a boss in the final boss spawn area in screaming bell, probably because both areas are too open for a special to spawn out of line of sight so the assassin rat is just automatically pouncing as soon as he exists.

12

I experience this, too. One really cannot prepare or be on guard for an assassin that flies through the air and pounces you from outside your field of view, (105 in my case) without a single sound.

For sure, it happens consistently.
“Oh, a gutter runner just flew through the air above us.”

2 Likes
13

Add incoming-hit-from-behind sound being unreliable to the list please.

2 Likes
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There are usually two sound cues for specials. The first one is the most important, the hero who is near the special tells you about the spawn. When that happened, you should already be vigilant and look around. After that, you usually hear the sound of the special.

If people really claim, that they dont hear any of this on a regular basis, i would really like to see proof.

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I regularly get the first sound cue seconds after I have already been pinned down by an assassin.
By “regularly” I mean at least a couple times per day, which is maybe 25-30% of my games.

My PC isn’t powerful enough to capture a video whilst playing, but sceptics wouldn’t believe video proof anyway.

1 Like
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I’d just like to add -

Disablers namely Sins and Packmasters are impossible to hear in the middle of a horde, and you will never see them coming if they spawn on the other side of the current horde you are facing. They will simply spawn quietly, pounce unseen through the middle of the horde, then you will proceed to take hits from every enemy in front of you whilst disabled. I’m not sure if that’s a design choice that it’s hard to make out specials in hordes but it’s the only way I tend to loose runs and is VERY frustrating.

1 Like
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I am watching j_sat regularly and he doesnt seem to have this as regular problem. Same like me or any of my teammates.

The only sound cue i have problems with is the attack from behind one.

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Sorry buddy, but you and your friends are obviously lucky to not have any of these issues.
Besides, is it really that unimaginable that V2 has these problems? I think not, when you consider the state of the game upon launch and even now.
Or would you rather just call everyone else bad players and say everything is working as intended?

And in any case, me and my group of friends have problems with silent specials, and it is obviously not only us, completely opposite to you and your buddies. That doesn’t mean it is the case for everyone, but that goes both ways.

3 Likes
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Oh, i am not denying that these problems exist, but i would still like to see an actual proof, that this problem happens regularly. I mean, not hearing the first and second sound cue to have such problems with specials should be huge.

1 Like
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Same with our group, the only specials that need a fix is Blightstormers because they many times cast from outside of the map. But the rest of them are fine. If I get hooked it’s not because they are silent, it’s because I’m either preoccupied or they leap over a wall I’m standing next to and grab me. Same with gutter runners. And leaches are so loud that I honestly don’t think we’ve been grabbed by one in over 100 games.