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I'm sorry if this has been a topic before (likely has), I spent some time searching and apparently lack the right keywords.

So I'm having colossal issues with creating ambient sounds for buildings. I've copied the default Geothermal Plant ambience setup, the clip paths are fine and so on. Everything should work as intended and this has been confirmed by a more experienced modder who looked at the .xml files.

But things aren't working. Here's the issues:

1. With .mp3 files, I couldn't get them to work properly at all. I tried them more than a week ago and I can't remember the details, but if I recall correctly, they just played the start .mp3 file and then nothing. Deconstructing and reconstructing the building didn't give any sounds at all afterwards.

2. With ogg vorbis, things went little better. I could get them to work so that the the sounds start and the sustained sound is looped after that. However, were I to deconstruct a building and reconstruct it (manually or devconsole), it would only play the sustain sound afterwards.

3. I tried today with .wav instead, maybe that would help. It didn't. Now it plays only the starting sound and does what happened at 1. I also tried to construct many of these buildings without deconstructing, I got off multiple start clips, but after some point (I guess when the first audioclip fades out), I can't get them anymore.

This is honestly bit frustrating and chaotic... there's literally no input about what the issue is and this whole thing seems like a mess.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING: I am not talking about using only sustained sounds which work perfectly fine in many mods and I'd imagine would also work if I did sustained sounds only. I'm talking about three different soundclips in identical way to that of Geothermal Plant. At the start of the building, it plays one-shot sound that is "start" and it also seems to start playing the "sustain" sound at that exact time as well. I'm saying this because lot of folks might want to ask me to check a mod X which uses ambient sounds for buildings — lot of those mods use _only_ sustained sounds without start / stop! So please, make sure that if you suggest me to check out a mod, that mod should also have start/stop files.

PS. I am also not sure what stop files are for, but I am imagining that they are for building breakdown events. I have not yet tested triggering them.

Thanks in advance,
mellowautomata

EDIT: There was a fourth problem but actually that was just my bad, had the game paused while testing and sustained sounds don't play when paused, only one-shots it seems.

I was wondering, as an amateur sound designer (with proficient tools and 6 years of knowledge in using them as a music producer & composer / sound designer for amateur theater), whenever modders here ever look for sound designers? It would be kind of interesting, even out of pure curiosity, to try and work for something (of rather small scale to begin with) to see whats it like.

Seeing all these crazy mods out there, in particular thinking about overhaul mods such as the one that is based on Cthulhu Mythos, I'd imagine that at least to some degree sound designers could be useful. Am I wrong?

I find that these ships are just far too rare and there is something definitively wrong. I tried out playing with all storytellers and the result is always the same: once your colony is established and wealthy, good luck getting tradeships. At worst, you'll have only one during five years of gameplay. Even in best case scenario, that means that the smallest possible interval would be 2,5 years. I haven't tested systematically whenever this applies to every storyteller (Randy in particular), but there's one thing for sure: it takes too long for all of them.

In all honesty, I think that there should be means to improve this situation. No matter how OP bionic implants seem, for example, endgame gets still far too boring if it's all about you waiting for those trader ships. Heck, maybe make implants far more rare stock among trader ships and instead make it a mechanic that is more about caravans as well. Have bases that have bionics stocked, which you can assault or trade with. Or have those quests with implants and a lot of difficulty.  It does not matter.

But as for trader ships, I think there should be something else than simple frequency increase. I'd much more enjoy a system where you can actually attract them through various ways. Let's say, for example, that the more wealth you are broadcasting through your comms beacons, the higher chance there is for a trader ship to come by... as well as a higher chance there is to be raided by pirates. And to enhance the system, the pirates could also pack a lot more punch depending on the amount of trading that you did with the trader ship. Or maybe each item could have an associated value that determines the impact on the raid; bionics have a huge impact / cost factor, something like rice instead very little.

Whatever the system is, I personally don't think the current system is reasonable. Most often when you're at the point of having to wait long times for trading ships, you're not really anymore at the same kind of risk as you should have established colony and a good stock for all kinds of situations. You might lose a colonist here and there between the tradeships, but very little should have catastrophic potential anymore.