I thought the volume associated with the footsteps of each is different with each hero. I.E. A Brig doesn’t hear a Tracer’s footsteps as loudly as she would a Widow, because Widow is a counter to Brig. With certain heroes, Tank footsteps are very loud and flankers are quiet, maybe these “bugs” are because even though there is a hero VERY close to you, the game doesn’t consider it because there is say a Tank sort of close, you will hear the Tank footsteps instead. Just something i’ve noticed.
I think that is a sound problem.
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Because everyone is a bot =]. And expects someone else to deal with it. When they should at least try and see if someone is taking care of the issue, but most dont even check. Seriously, if I’m not watching the flank, then no one is.
Gets shot in the back
Continues shooting forward and not repositioning.
I don’t understand it, you NEED to be aware of everyone’s position on the map in order to play properly.
Anyways, I’d love louder footsteps, as well as a reduction in ambient sounds. Maybe make reloading your weapon louder as well.
Also would like to be able to press Ultimate Status key and have it display the times on my cooldowns or if they are available or not.
I talked about this months ago, and elitist trolls told me that it’s just me and I should check my hearing… thanks, community.
I literally cannot hear Reaper’s footsteps whatsoever. The only audible ques i hear from Reaper are his voicelines and when he drops down from some vertical distance. Some people deny this, others say that it’s intended to balance him. Honestly, all I want is for the lying tip “The most dangerous enemies have the loudest footsteps” to be removed.
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i stopped reading at “free flank”. describing anything reaper does as “free” is hilarious.
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Yeah there’s a megathread about these audio cutoff issues in the bug forums right now with lots of posts from people experiencing similar issues (no ult sounds, footsteps, health pack sfx, etc.), if anyone is experiencing this issue please add your voice to the megathread:
Same when you have a pharah flying above you head and you cant hear her.
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They fixed this problem???
On the patch note 09/10/2018:
Updated the audio mix to add more clarity and dynamic range for all sounds in the game
Developer Comments: Developer Comments: We’ve added more heroes and features to the game, so the audio mix has become more complex, which required us to rebalance sounds across the game. In this update, we extended the range of third-person weapon sounds, increased the range of first-person weapon impacts in the world, and generally balanced third-person footsteps and ability sounds.
I still have this issue. I cant hear enemy steps. And i cant hear my team ults, or the phrases are uncoordinated.
Pretty much.
Reaper doesn’t need to even crouch to not make any sort of noise, same with mccree. Pharah jets are totally silent, have been forever.
But god forbid you happen to be mercy or widowmaker, then everyone will hear those CLICKETY CLACK footsteps like there’s a rampaging rhino around. Also tracer blink sounds you can hear from spawn.
Please blizzard fix your dang audio, it’s been longer than a year.
What’s that, overwatch 2? Oh right…
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The game only has limited slots for threat priority.
(Incorrect video removed. Jump to below post)
the play by sound 2016 panel informs us that there’s only about 5 threat priority slots, which can be taken by turrets and enemy heroes as the sound is dynamically mixed in real time.
Then someone has probably intentionally tweaked reaper, mccree and pharah threat levels below that of a frikken mercy, because they’re practically silent whenever they happen to move around.
Sound design has been so broken for so long. I shouldn’t have to rely on game arbitrarily deciding that this torb turret at the distance is higher priority than the mccree who’s walking behind me or the reaper that shadowstepped above our team or the pharah who’s hovering just behind this little window on lijiang, ready to blast us away with barrage.
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My friend and I were just talking about this issue; I used to never get snuck up on, I played a lot of widow and I was great at hearing for footsteps. These days, Reaper can literally pop up right behind me and I haven’t heard a peep out of him, and I have no idea why. I thought that maybe they changed something about how sound clips around corners but I don’t play enough these days to really investigate it myself.
Think you meant to post this, not the concert only segment 
- the explanation is at 38:50
Personally I hate the idea that footsteps are mixed down based on threat levels. That doesn’t seem right to me. IMO footsteps should only be mixed down based on their distance exclusively. It’s absurd that the game gets to arbitrarily decide I don’t get to hear a roadhog behind me because it thought Tracer stomping around above me was more important.
It also seems very contradictory to me. Blizzard strikes me as the type (based on their actions) to be very hesitant about enforcing certain playstyles. 2-2-2 came only because people fought tooth and nail for it and the problems of not enforcing it were just too much. They have yet to even acknowledge community defined playstyles like dive in any real capacity.
Yet here they’re placing arbitrary threat levels on certain actions, essentially nudging people (Very strongly) towards certain reactions (or away from them, in the case of mixed down/inaudible effects). For example, in their clip when Widow is firing at Soldier, it’s practically the only thing you can hear at all. And that’s with only three other heroes on the screen. They’re quite literally nudging you towards the reaction “ignore everything else, and focus on widow” rather than letting people naturally build this reaction. What if widow isn’t important? What if you’re actively dodging the widow shooting at you, and you’re trying to protect someone with a much greater importance, yet you can’t hear the person sneaking up on them because their footsteps have been mixed down thanks to 3 purple pixels on the other side of the map? It’s nonsense.
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What an incredibly horrible system.
Sound shouldn’t have a priority system unless it means if they’re getting closer, you have priority on hearing them.
Like every other shooter on the market.
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Oh whoops >.<
Shoulda checked beyond the first few seconds or so. Heard the intro and was like “yup this is what I was going for.”
It would help if the ambiance and your character sounds weren’t so dang loud.
This whole footstep issue is getting on my nerves. I don’t even think sounds are based on the threat level anymore like that video explained. I’ve had hanzos come up behind me just about point blank range, and I hear zero foot step sounds, I’ve had symmetras who come up behind me and are microwaving me to death and I don’t hear the beam sometimes, and her footsteps are basically inaudible. Same thing with mcree, reaper especially, roadhog, sometimes tracer, pharahs jets sometimes, all while their sneaking up on me. If an enemy is sneaking up on you at almost point blank range isn’t that your “biggest threat”, so shouldn’t you be able to hear them?
The audio in this game needs a complete overhaul, even the directional audio doesn’t always sound right, or things will cut out mid sound if you turn a certain way. It sucks.
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agreed. it’s so awful when the entire cast is completely silent if they’re coming up on you from behind (without crouching, might i add), and yet you can hear the enemy mercy’s footsteps from across the objective. Or, you can enemy rein grunting from being shot at across map, but can’t hear him when he’s ulting point blank or from behind you.
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Today had a roadhog stomp and kill someone behind me and I didn’t hear a single peep because people were fighting one level lower.
One might think I should be able to hear footsteps that are directly behind me but apparently its not a priority, haha…
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