Fortnite definitely looks and feels like a casual game. I’d bet that’s how it looks at first sight. Aside from being a free-to-play title, Fortnite’s massive growth came due to its excellent visuals and gameplay mechanics as soon as Epic announced the Battle Royale Mode. Ever since Fortnite gained traction, it Epic has been hard at work trying its best to keep the game as enticing they could. They’ve even went as far as announcing competitive tournaments for the game in an effort to cement the game’s potential for the years to come.
Typically most competitive shooters such as CS:GO offer excellent game mechanics as well as a very competitive environment to immerse yourself into. While CS:GO is definitely one of the most better competitive titles out there, there’s no doubt that the building mechanic Epic has introduced within Fortnite have paved the way for the game’s competitive scene. Games such as CS:GO require aim precision, timing and a keen concentration on sounds within the game which is the reason why 3D audio is so important.
Since the folks over at Epic Games want to move even further into the competitive scene, they’ve decided to announce that the Season 6 update is expected to bring some massive changes to the audio quality of the game. The update for Season 6 is expected to introduce spatial audio, a critical feature that would definitely award players who take it seriously.
With the help of spatial audio, players would be able to get a hint and a deep concentration of contrast within the sound waves to pinpoint the location of the enemy. Footsteps and gliders would play key roles in pinpointing the direction of an enemy with this new update, something that I have been missing for quite a while in Fortnite.
For now, Epic says that these new audio cues are expected to apply to footsteps and gliders. However, down the line, players should expect to see special audio effects for players in mid-air as well.
Given how sighed Epic is about moving the competitive scene forward with these new changes, I would be hard pressed to see where Epic decided to move their gameplay to with changes geared towards a competitive environment but not limited to just the audio cues in the game. Here’s the list of changes coming to the game retrieved from the folks over at Epic Games.
Season 6 – v6.00
- Footstep sounds
- More contrast between above/below steps.
- We want this to be easier to determine on the fly, especially while other sounds are playing (gunfire, harvesting, etc).
- More high frequency audio content to improve your ability to pinpoint the location of steps, and to prevent them from getting drowned out during intense combat.
- More contrast between above/below steps.
- Glider audio tells
- Increased awareness when an enemy is gliding in your vicinity.
- Doppler-based glider audio for incoming threats. This will create that “car passing by” effect when a player glides over top of you.
- Improved spatialization of both skydiving and gliding players.
- Ability to hear the open/close sounds of gliders from further away.
- Increased awareness when an enemy is gliding in your vicinity.
During Season 6
- A system to add audio tells for in-air movement options (falling, Bouncers, Shockwave Grenades, etc).
- In Fortnite there are a lot of options for players who want to send themselves flying through the air. We want to add sound to players as they fly.
- This will provide additional tactical information and reduce cases where a player launches behind you without you knowing it.
- Better info to help you predict where your enemy may approach from.
- Discover and address cases where sounds don’t play at all.
- Due to the chaotic nature of the game, sometimes important cues fail to play or are lost in the mix. We’re working on identifying and fixing cases where this occurs.
