Simplify inventory sounds (more like 1.1) or add option

[ManaUser]

Simply put, I don't like all the noises items make when you handle them in your inventory in 2.0.

Power poles crackle, inserters whir, train signals chime... etc. But it all feels gratuitous and doesn't add anything for me. I would really like an option to disable these new sounds or perhaps tone them down to only "passive" material-based sounds.

Aside from simply "I don't like it", my argument is that audio feedback is an important part of UX for confirmation that your action succeeded and, despite theoretically providing extra information, the wide array of sounds actually do this job less well. When I say shift-click an item into a chest, I like hearing a sound that confirms it worked, and it communicates that more clearly if it's more or less the same sound every time.

So I think 1.1's simple sounds were preferable. I would of course be happy with an optional setting or, as above perhaps a middleground where wood/stone/metal objects sound different, but avoiding the more fanciful beeps and buzzes.

[Koub]

Note : this is the proper suggestion created from this discussion : viewtopic.php?f=5&t=116756

[Nemoricus]

Yeah, this has been bothering me a lot, too. Item selection sounds being the same as factory sounds messes a bit with my sense of what is going on. The lab is particularly annoying since it sounds like an active lab.

I much preferred simple sounds for item selection and placement, since they give better auditory feedback about what is going on.

I’ll be honest, too, this is not something I expected to dislike when it was first mentioned, but it is the thing in 2.0 that most bugs me right now.

[Koub]

Loosely related : viewtopic.php?f=6&t=117139

[kevina]

It bothered me so much that I have turned UI sounds off for now. It looks like there is already a mod to revert the inventory sounds at https://mods.factorio.com/mod/no_item_sounds. I have not tried it yet.

[zerwiport]

+1

[thedoh]

Loosely related : viewtopic.php?f=6&t=117139

This is my (quoted) thread and I want to be clear that I don't have any problem with the sound effects as is, in contrast to others in this consolidated thread. My suggestion was to even out the levels of the sounds, especially around putting items into and taking items out of chests being very quiet relative to other sounds.

[masa]

Very much +1!! I'd really love to have an option for this.

This has been bugging me a lot since I started playing in 2.0.x. When I move (a lot of) items by type from or to some other inventory, these different sounds are very "distracting". I'm used to the simple audio feedback of item move succeeding by expecting a single known sound as a response. But now I instead get back a range of "unexpected" different sounds. Basically I can't easily anticipate what I should be expecting as a feedback when I move lots of different item types in quick succession. It's an additional mental burden while playing, which is usually supposed to be my relaxing time of the day.

[Tinyboss]

I agree with this. I find the individual sounds jarring, especially the ones that are the "operating" sound like train signals. It wouldn't make a noise like that just from picking it up.

I feel bad, because like every other aspect of Factorio, these sounds were crafted with skill and care, and they sound great. But they detract from the clarity of the UX.

[jamiechi1]

I have been using the VolumeControl Mod to deal with this in the past. But I am thinking of disabling all of the UI sounds. I would rather just hear ambient sounds, and various machines when I get close to them.