The Orchestra of war the sound of distant battle in MP

[walker 0]

Hi all

I was playing the latest beta version of Berzerk on the 60 player DAO test server today. This and the TBG server are full 24 hours a day and hard to get on to.

And what impresses me most about ArmA II is the sounds of distant battle.

I was up defending the the new Radio Tower which is about a mile or so from the main towns and a much better location. I was stood guard with an AT missile watching the flank of Pop Ivan and looking at the Stary Sabor, Novy Sabor, gap watching the distant battle. Tanks brewing up. I sniped a few. Vehicles rushing from one town to the next.

I could hear the solid pounding of the tank HE rounds hitting the cities a big bass boom every 5 or so seconds and the duff, duff, duff of the automatic grenades.

When you are in the towns you are far more concerned about the sniper on the hill or infantry man round the corner. Your too busy listening for the supersonic crack of incoming rounds and distinguishing AK from M16/4. Listening for footsteps in the house or on the road. All the other stuff is still going on but you have tuned it out to concentrate on the real threats. If a tank round hits you either you were stupid and deserved it or you were just unlucky. I tend to find the better cover spots or move to the outskirts of town as soon as we have won a flag battle and the prep fire poundings restart. Crounching in my hole hoping I do not get hit, waiting for the lull that means another infantry assault has begun.

As to Armor dominating the battle. They just don't. In towns Armor is dead meat, easy pickings for AT tank hunter teams. Most tank drivers have now learned that. A town is a place to visit for a few seconds. Then you need to run. It is infantry who cap the flags and score the real points. Yes tanks sit outside the towns which soon become ruins as they pound away prep firing for their next infantry assault along with the grenade launchers. But the ruins just make it easier for the infantry to hide.

The turning off of 3rd person view was the big nail in the tanks coffin. Snipers make them stay buttoned up once near the battle. They have become deaf to the orchestra. A moving turret is an engine on. An infra red signature for the hunting choppers and a deafening noise that masks their approach. In their buttoned up commander hatch they nervously scan the outside with their only remaining mobile eyes watching for the red dot of the approaching chopper in the radar warning while scanning every bush for that hunter wolf of an infantry man creeping up on them with an AT or even some smoke and a satchel charge.

The tanks now have more trouble picking off infantry in the streets of towns. The infantry are over the cover concealment hump and no longer the cannon fodder they were. The infantry have become wary prey and a cunning foe. For the tank it is turnabout, the tank hunters unseen in the ruins of the towns, scan the Forrest edges where the tanks lurk. So every time you play; the tanks have to pull back further. The only tanks that survive now are those that work with an infantry screen.

BUT the battle it is an orchestra of war, from its HE bass booms, to the rhythmic thop, thop, thop of the choppers, to the crash of walls falling under tracks, to the whoosh of rockets and the staccato crack of incoming MG rounds.

It is a wonderful, wonderful noise and I have got to say I am loving it :)

Kind Regards walker

Edited July 23, 2009 by walker

[haberman13 10]

I noticed what you describe last night, I was blown away.

Very real deal.

Thanks for the nice read.

[walker 0]

Hi haberman13

I cannot think of another developer who has spent so much effort on creating a realistic sound scape.

Kind Regards walker