I was messing around with switching between the .fgd and .def files for AD in TrenchBroom2 today, and I found myself wishing that I could have the functionality of both in just the one. Is that possible?

Both formats have benefits, the FGD has really cool base function for repeating chunks of entity keys and the DEF format has the perfect idea for dumping huge amounts of detail text on entities without GUI restrictions. Both AD editor files has model keys and I believe TB2 can work with both formats.

I personally use the DEF editor file, so it will have the most information on all keys because that is where they are tested and updated. I do convert all entities to the FGD file, but it certainly lacks the extra details because the format really does not support it. There is just no ideal solution to this tbh. if you have ideas or suggestions on how to improve the situation then pester the editor coders for help. If enough people ask for changes, its more likely they will be adopted. 

I think the player footstep sounds could use a little TLC
I think something like q3's surfaceparms would be better
I'd like different sound sets for different surfaces.

I personally love the idea of footsteps in Quake, to hear a Shambler stomping around close by and I don't know exactly where it is. To hear zombies scrapping their legs along the ground and the misleading sound of tiny feet/claws as I am surprised when a fiend leaps out at me!

Playing Quake WITHOUT foot steps is just weird to me, the silent movement of monsters is like they are floating all the time.

The idea of using surface inspection to find out the surface name and then guessing what surface type it is, well its not a good idea. There is no standard to texture names (even id had issues) so its just guess work. The real solution is surface flags for brushwork, but that is not going to happen, too many things would need to change (editor, compiler and engine)

I totally agree that the current AD footstep sounds are not very good, they are from RMQ and really should be replaced with something else. Now if only someone would create a cool collection of footstep sounds that could be used in AD! :P 

Why couldn't you make a floor brush as a func_wall or func_detail and have a _footstep "bleh.wav" value.

Would that not be a progs only solution? 

Why couldn't you make a floor brush as a func_wall or func_detail and have a _footstep "bleh.wav" value

Sorry man, no one in their right mind is going to place footstep brushes over every possible floor/wall surface!?! Its nuts! Footstep material sounds is an engine feature, you are trying to solve this issue with a sledgehammer! 

I was thinking about a work around because you said:

"The real solution is surface flags for brushwork, but that is not going to happen, too many things would need to change (editor, compiler and engine)" 

So, the only practical solutions is a better sound set + randomization. I'd like to take a stab at compiling some sets for people to try. Can the sounds be from other games? stock libraries? Maybe I'll just record some :D 

FTE+DP have a sound playback rate argument that can be used to randomize the sound a little. Should make a single sound a little more palettable, but it won't affect QS/QSS sadly. 

Can the sounds be from other games? stock libraries? Maybe I'll just record some
I would prefer to replace the assets with something legal. I know it sounds crazy as there is already lots of illegal content in AD, but I just don't want to go to the effort of replacing something illegal with something else the same!

+ randomization
I originally had the sounds randomized but you might realize that Quake clients don't really do random stuff very well. I found QS would often select feet sounds several times in a row and that sounded worse to me. At least with cycling 5 sounds it is not extremely obvious. 

This is quakec right? You could keep track of which sound was played last and exclude it from the random selection the next time around. 

Or generate a cycle 20-30 elements long by hand that sounds random to the ear and has no consecutive pairs of the same sound. 

I would prefer to replace the assets with something legal.

Roger that.

you might realize that Quake clients don't really do random stuff very well

I wasn't aware, that's a shame :( IMO, the repeating sequence of sounds is much more of an issue than the character of the sounds themselves.

You could keep track of which sound was played last and exclude it from the random selection the next time around.

If someone decides to put the time into doing this, might has well have it exclude the last two played sounds. a 1,2,1 pattern is pretty obvious too... 

I'm pretty sure we all agree that monster footsteps is pretty cool. It's the player footsteps that some are annoyed by. 

I originally had the sounds randomized but you might realize that Quake clients don't really do random stuff very well. I found QS would often select feet sounds several times in a row and that sounded worse to me. At least with cycling 5 sounds it is not extremely obvious.

IMO the repeating cycle was by far the worst aspect of them. It just sounded like a sort of musical rhythm. Seconding metlslime's suggestion of extra QC logic to randomise but avoid playing the same twice in a row. 

 

"I'm pretty sure we all agree that monster footsteps is pretty cool. It's the player footsteps that some are annoyed by. "

Yes, that's what I meant. It's not so bad I want to turn them off, it just sounds odd. Not really in sync with what I feel like I'm doing. More of a pitter-patter sound instead of step-step-step. Hard to explain, I know. 

I'm pretty sure we all agree that monster footsteps is pretty cool. It's the player footsteps that some are annoyed by
Ok, that makes sense because the players footsteps are constant. Something worth randomizing with a table function. 

Speaking of, is there a way to adjust the player's footsteps volume? I find them slightly too prominent in the overall mix. 

A cvar could be added to set the volume from 0 to 1. 

that would require the ability to actually create cvars...

DP+FTE+QSS all have set+seta console commands to define cvars in your default.cfg.
combine with autocvars for decent fallbacks (in vanilla QS) (also helps performance if you're abusing them like crazy). 

Finally found time to make some footsteps. Sourced from a sound library I own, so all legal. It's a hard surface with a bit of grit underneath. Since this is just a draft there is no compression or eq or any other polish. They're not even sampled at the correct rate. Just trying to get an idea.

These are very dry (no verb) which, IMO, helps a lot. It's strange being in an open area and hearing such reverberous (is that a word?) footsteps.

If people like this direction and actually want me to take an honest stab at quality footsteps, I will. If not, I have plenty of other things with which to occupy my time :) 

Those sound pretty good man! 

+2 No Step Repeat
Added random sound selection for player feet sounds and lowered the overall volume.

A Step In The Right Direction
I like them and as you said without any echo they are very dry. I think the less reverb will work well for the lighter sounds, but the heavy stuff will certainly need some echo. 

Those sound pretty good man!

Thanks! It's in the ballpark but still not quite there IMO. A sound that will work well with disparate surfaces will never be wholly appropriate for any particular surface. I gotta keep that in mind.

Added random sound selection for player feet sounds and lowered the overall volume.

Awesome, that was 90% of the issue. I'll continue once the new update drops since the volume has changed. The sounds I uploaded compensate for the current volume. 

Quake Arcane Dimensions (Any%) in 19:28 by Cubeface21 - Shots Fired: Locked and Loaded
The speedrun is of all top floor levels :D 

Am I being a bad citizen if I change the health values on all my monsters to increase them slightly? i.e. 50 health on a monster_army, 85 on monster_army_grenade? The most drastic change I made was actually 100 for rocket grunts, seeing as that actually makes them stronger than grenade grunts...

I found it dissapointing that a regular grunt could be downed in one SG shot, which was the inspiration for tweaking these enemies. But that set me down the path of tweaking all these other monsters, and I worry that people won't like the results...

To judge for yourselves, I invite you to play my retrojam map, since I made similar changes to the monsters in that.