Audio cues and/or ambience to warn of approaching/imminent Temportal Storms

[Native Copper Bits]

I sadly had my last two of my hardcore worlds end due to not hunkering down, because I wasn't paying attention and failed to not spot the textbox warning for an approaching Temporal Storm, so I was heavily unprepared for when it arrived. Vintage Story has a lot of downtime moments, like waiting inside your home while pottery is cooking outside, so a player's attention span is usually low and heavily relaxed. Players would be so relaxed, that players could miss the very important, but also very random and sudden, warning of an approaching storm in the textbox that will only pop up for a few moments. If a player is relaxed inside the safety of their home, they could be alt-tabbed with a quick Youtube video or responding to a DM in times like that, letting the game run while their crops are growing or food is cooking. And to be honest here, a chatbox notification isn't very immersive for a game like Vintage Story.

Here's a timeline example of what I mean. Assume the player is at the pottery age, just before early copper age:

1. Player sleeps, and wakes up before the sun rises, it's still night.
2. Player decides to throw in some cattail roots onto the campfire and waits for the sun to rise.
3. Player alt-tabs and looks away for a few moments while their food cooks. They're safe inside, so there should be no risk.
4. A message appears, and then fades away, a notice that a temporal storm will happen today. The player was looking elsewhere and did not see the message.
5. Play comes back and continues to play as if nothing happened; makes pottery, waters crops, and gathers berries.
6. Player then decides to explore a nearby ruins that is a fair distant away.
7. Player treks towards the ruins.
8. Player is now filled with fear as they now see the "A heavy temporal storm is imminent" alert in the chatbox, realized they have missed the initial warning this entire time.
9. Player panics and wonders if they has enough time to sprint back home, or entomb themself with packed dirt.
10. Player chose poorly and picked the former, the storm happens and monster that can outrun them one-shots them.

I would like for there to be some sort of audio cue, maybe some subtly dreadful ambience during when the "A temporal storm is approaching" appears, which can slowly ramp up when the temporal storm reaches imminent levels. Or maybe upon waking up, the player will hear faint but eerie bell toll, a cautioning cue to maybe stay closer to home for that day.

Edited March 2, 2025 by Native Copper Bits

[Medved7]

maybe you just have visions, say, 5 minutes before a storm and for 1 minute. in the form of distortions naturally without the appearance of monsters

[Chiaro]

Yes, some kind of combination of visual and audio cues that increase in frequency before the storm hits would fit the game and make it more immersive than the chat messages.Hope it gets implemented at a point, shouldn't be that difficult I suppose.

[Native Copper Bits]

Just now, Chiaro said:

Yes, some kind of combination of visual and audio cues that increase in frequency before the storm hits would fit the game and make it more immersive than the chat messages.Hope it gets implemented at a point, shouldn't be that difficult I suppose.

I've noticed how this is an frequent request in the suggestion forum, so maybe it could get added in the next major update, since so many people are asking for it.

[Maelstrom]

20 hours ago, Chiaro said:

shouldn't be that difficult I suppose.

Not necessarily.  In my experience sometimes what seems like the simplest of changes creates a nightmare of cascading changes that causes me to wish I had never started this simple little change.

[Thorfinn]

Not so much on the visual thing. There are lots of people who simply cannot tolerate any of that, and so beg and plead for ways to shut off things I had no idea would cause problems like happens when swimming, for instance. I'd think "glitches in the matrix" would also be problems for them. Could you do something like phasing in sepia tones? Sure. I wouldn't make it abrupt or you will have people whose epilepsy-type conditions are affected by that.

Sounds? Maybe some of those garbled sounds you get during storms become more common. 

By far, my favorite solution to the matter is either something largely unobtrusive like  @Rhonen's HUD Clock (or, currently its interim stand-in) or the temporal gear right in the center of your HUD slowly getting rusty streaks, and once it is no longer green, but fully sepia, the storm is on.

[Thorfinn]

Oh, incidentally, I'm pretty sure that text box shutting down is something you control. You can set it so that you have to close it, instead of the default of it closing automatically.

That said, I don't really like text box notification. My guess is they just haven't decided what they want to go with for storm warnings, and nothing suggested thus far is quite it. Thus, at the moment, I'd think HUD Clock is the best answer. You don't even have to include the stuff you think is cheaty, like time or wind or temperature,  if you prefer hitting "C", but I'm pretty sure you can disable everything but the Storm warning.

[Maethius]

I love the idea of the rusting Temporal Gear, as well an audio cues that don't take you out of the world. After all, if you wander around in the dark like an idiot (pointing to myself last night!) suddenly your gear spins like crazy, the "rift" tones sound, and things instantly distort because you were smart enough to back into a rift... all of those features, I should think, can be used as a storm approaches; the rift tone plays as a message is displayed and the gear begins to rust all at the same time. The volume of the tone could increase as the storm nears as the message ticks down how long to the storm and perhaps the message could indicate anything from, "It feels as though a light temporal storm is approaching," to "You feel a sickening terror chilling you to the bone; this storm will be apocalyptic!"

I've always found it a difficult thing in games to indicate to a player what a character would sense as opposed to what they can actually see or hear.