Sound Design - Clan vs Inner Sphere Weapons

[Mizzri]

Once sound design begins in earnest, are we going to attempt to make Clan weapons and Inner Sphere weapons sound similar, but disseperate enough to identify without seeing them? I mean, a PPC is a PPC no matter if it's Clan or Inner Sphere. But since the Clan version is obviously more efficient (in both range and heat) it should have a slightly different sound.

Just trying to get a feel for the sound team's direction.

[Chaoswolf]

since there are GREAT differences in styles of weapons favored by Clan and IS troops, obviously there are going to be subtle differences in the sounds (not required but would be very nice).

for example.

since a ER L Laser use by the clan generates less heat but has a greater energy output, there would be less of a *crack* as the inital beam was charged and fired, but the *hum* of the active laser would be slightly more intense.

frankly i know there would be acoustic differences, but this is a level of detail that has only been introduced in a *VERY* few novels.

....... (10 mins later)
just chatted with LC on the subject , and he agrees... this level of detail was never intended for anything but imagination.

Loremaster
aka Chaos

[Mizzri]

I guess my thought was that although the weapons are technically the same, since they are built and developed by different scientists, they should have their own sound. An M-16 and an AK-47 are both ballistic bullet weapons, they both have drastically different sounds. From a distance they might sound very similar, but in a firefight you'd be able to tell the difference, and that might be important, if say you heard one behind you, hehe. And that's exactly the thought I had for this game. If you hear a PPC that doesn't sounds like yours over your left shoulder, you might want to turn around and see what it's coming from. I assume the sounds engine will allow for subtle variations in pitch so that every PPC blast does't sound exatly the same - even a 1% pitch difference will prevent sounds from phasing. But Clan weapons should have a different, more refined character than IS weapons do. What chaoswolf mentioned about Clam lasers is right on the money - less crack, more hum.