Music starting when near unspotted enemies

[dragonmere]

I'm pretty sure everyone is aware that the 'drums' layer of the music starts up when you are coming into range with an unspotted enemy ship. I've noticed that different layers seem to be added potentially depending on distance to enemy, and if the enemy is shooting.

Is there any firm research on this? How close does the enemy have to be? What, exactly, is adding which layers to the music?

I'd like to be able to hear a few seconds of music and accurately know that an enemy is within "x" grid squares and firing on our ally, or what have you. Need a little more info!

Alternatively, is there some visual cue that I'm totally not catching? Sometimes I'd really like to turn the music off and listen to my own, but that puts me at a slight disadvantage.

[RearAdmiralZill]

I turned off the music eons ago, and it doesn't leave you at a disadvantage. Its kind of like turning it off in L4D2, and you have listen for the horde coming instead of a musical que giving it away.

The way I see it, everyone is looking for targets in the beginning regardless of range. That music only serves as a "Hey, better start looking super hard." Problem is if you do that already, you are on the same playing field.

In terms of what music ques go with what action, ill never know. Id rather hear what gun is being shot at me.

[dragonmere]

I feel like the fact that you can't spot while behind a ship component comes into play a little bit here.

On some larger maps with heavy cloud cover, the drum loop serves as my cue to step further away from the gun/hull and start systematically [circular pattern at varying magnification levels] clicking at the nearby clouds. Quite often I will get the spot on something I can't see yet.

In this case it's the same sort of info you get by an AI gunner shooting at something that noone can actually see. If it wasn't for that cue, I would most likely stay nearer my station and be visually looking for something.

[RearAdmiralZill]

I run a pretty tight ship, and 90 times out of 100, my gunner is on his gun, ready to shoot the target me or my engies spot. The only exclusion to this is when its been a long time without a first spot. Then we all start scratching our heads until we eye something.

Also, if you get spotted, that means they can see you, so you should see them. After that initial spotting game, it really just becomes a matter of memory and maintaining those spots. Re-spawns are easier, since you can kind of guess where they are coming from.

[dragonmere]

On a tight ship, I agree 100%. Music makes no difference.

It's when I'm flying with random low level/learning players. As captain or crew, there have been plenty of times when hearing the music  was our first alert.

As a captain, I find telling my crew "I know the ship is very close, but I don't have the spot yet" gets pretty good results. As crew, if I'm hearing drums but we don't have anything, I'm going to move to a slightly better vantage point and make damn sure I get the spot for our team.

[HamsterIV]

Here is my advice for flying with random low level/learning players who don't make up a tight ship: Threaten to flog them until they become a tight ship. Actually you only need one player who is really paying attention to make the spot, and that player doesn't have to be on your ship. Stick close to your ally, keep your eyes open as captain, and thank your crew when they make spots. If all else fails there is always the whip.

[Ariadne]

"I hear the Drums of War."
- Lt. Ariadne of the Ergonomic Cog

The drums do begin to beat when you're near an enemy.  There's also two layers of the sound, one at medium-long range and one at close range when shooting has begun.  Just hearing a slow, steady drumbeat means you're near an enemy but there's no exchange of fire between you, and they're not at point blank.  This probably means they're as unaware of you as you are of them.  A more energetic drumbeat means they are actively shooting at you or they're right up in your face and you need to get everything in order immediately.  While it's only a minor advantage, this can help you find enemies in cloudbanks, behind obstacles, or far above or below you that you'd ordinarily have problems finding.  This is especially useful for fighting defense-oriented teams since it can give you a heads-up you're about to fly into an ambush.

[N-Sunderland]

I swear I could hear Jaws music while playing on Flayed last night. I'm positive that the Destructoid stream was muted. Am I just imagining this?

[GeneralAmericanQuack]

To be honest, musical cues are the last thing on my mind when unspotted enemies are around. I've found that just one person paying close attention is all that's necessary.

[HamsterIV]

I swear I could hear Jaws music while playing on Flayed last night. I'm positive that the Destructoid stream was muted. Am I just imagining this?

I Hum the jaws tune over crew chat when I am sneaking up on a ship that hasn't seen me, but I wasn't on last night.

[N-Sunderland]

I swear I could hear Jaws music while playing on Flayed last night. I'm positive that the Destructoid stream was muted. Am I just imagining this?

I Hum the jaws tune over crew chat when I am sneaking up on a ship that hasn't seen me, but I wasn't on last night.

Last night? I made that post nearly two weeks ago

[Helmic]

"I hear the Drums of War."
- Lt. Ariadne of the Ergonomic Cog

The drums do begin to beat when you're near an enemy.  There's also two layers of the sound, one at medium-long range and one at close range when shooting has begun.  Just hearing a slow, steady drumbeat means you're near an enemy but there's no exchange of fire between you, and they're not at point blank.  This probably means they're as unaware of you as you are of them.  A more energetic drumbeat means they are actively shooting at you or they're right up in your face and you need to get everything in order immediately.  While it's only a minor advantage, this can help you find enemies in cloudbanks, behind obstacles, or far above or below you that you'd ordinarily have problems finding.  This is especially useful for fighting defense-oriented teams since it can give you a heads-up you're about to fly into an ambush.

Tight ship or not, it's a definite advantage to be able to play hot and cold against an opponent that's overconfident about his ability to spot ships and decided to disable the music.  It's particularly useful on maps like Canyon where it's not unusual for both teams to continuously miss each other.  It's not like the drums drown out anything more important, there's no real disadvantage to having them on.

It's a bit annoying how useful it is, actually.  While it's certainly there for a reason (don't want ships to hide from each other forever) it makes ambushes "artificially" harder to pull off.

[dragonmere]

I agree, Helmic.
For the last week or so, I've been regularly flying a fairly tight ship. I've come to a conclusion.  Regardless of your crew's ability, on canyon (and to a lesser extent, fjords) the music can make quite a bit of difference. Other maps, not so much. It remains to be seen if it will be an asset on the new Labyrinth map. Most likely not.

[N-Sunderland]

It will most definitely not make a difference. You can tell from the Cogs match (and from testing) that that map is all about rushing to the centre as quickly as possible. There's no time for sneaking around, and you can see the enemy ships coming from far away.

[Captain Smollett]

Well, they may not always matter a ton, but I always listen for drumbeats.  Even if they only give a 1 second warning it gets all my gunners on the guns and looking for the enemy.  As I recall it helped at least once in the Labrynth match as an opponent was coming around a building.