Fuzzball_7 wrote:

I've noticed several recurring issues with the music tracks in this game. I say music specifically, as the UI sound effects and character voices generally seem to be fine. (Except bugs 3 and 5; see below.) Obviously these aren't game-breaking issues, but they do detract from the wonderful atmosphere present when playing.

1) The biggest issue I've come across is where the game's soundtrack will take on a muffled quality. The music will sound like it's pushed to the background and is distorted. It's kind of like the effect that occurs when you turn on the Economy/Hacking Scan View, but is present all the time. In fact, when the music is in this muffled state and you then turn on the Scan View, the music seems to block out all together!

Unfortunately, I can't work out a specific trigger that is causing this. I have a feeling it occurs when a game pop up appears while I'm doing something with the Hacking Scan View, but I'm really not certain. It's also inconsistent as to when this bug fixes itself. Sometimes I find that later music tracks are playing normally, but often the issue will last for a while, even when the current music track ends and a new one begins. I even one time quit my game to the main menu and noticed the music playing there was muffled as well! Fully exiting to desktop restores things to normal, but this issue does keep reocurring.

Anyone else get this?

Yeah i got this too.

2) When encountering a Nakalim empire for the first time and the pop up appears, the music jingle that plays is the theme for the Umbral Choir. Not the Nakalim's own theme.

https://www.games2gether.com/amplitude-studios/endless-space-2/forums/114-bug-reports/threads/34801-first-encounter-with-nakalim-plays-umbral-choir-music-1-5-5-no-mods-all-dlc?page=1#post-288393 

5) Further, when playing against a United Empire player that has transformed into Sheredyn or Mezari, whenever you have a diplomatic interaction with them the Zelevas character stays silent. It's a shame that we no longer get to hear any voice clips just because they are technically no longer the "United Empire".

https://www.games2gether.com/amplitude-studios/endless-space-2/forums/114-bug-reports/threads/34599-united-empire-lost-its-voice?page=1#post-287180

Sublustris wrote:

Isyander talks rather quite compared to other diplomatic leaders. I can barely hear him.

Yeah, true. I have the same issue.

Here's a save file I have from a turn just before the quiet/muffled music bug occurred:

United Empire 7 (Music Bug Test).sav

Ending the turn will cause the end of the Academy Quest Finale (my team, Defenders, wins), and I noticed the muffled music occurring when I got back to gameplay. Maybe repeating these steps will replicate the bug, but I honestly have no idea.

Interestingly, in this particular occurrence, the music seemed to go back to normal during the middle of a track! Maybe while I was going in and out of diplomacy menus? I honestly can't tell.

This does seem to be a bug that affects things game-wide. When I loaded this turn from the middle of an active game, the new music track that started up was muffled. Same when I quit to the main menu.

An update! I've found some more details regarding some of these bugs. In the (perhaps vain) hope that the dev team are looking at and trying to fix the game's bugs, I will post updated details here:

1) I think I've found the cause for the game's music becoming muffled! I noticed the music would always become muffled whenever a pop-up from the Academy occurred and Isyander's voice actor spoke something. (For example: Whenever the Nakalim gift the Academy a system.) I think the game is pushing the music to the background for when Isyander speaks, and then "forgetting" to bring the music back to the foreground. So this muffled music is meant to be temporary (just like when you engage another empire in diplomacy), but is never fixed.

I think a found a consisent method to restore the music to normality too... You have to engage with Isyander in diplomacy, and the voice actor has to say something. Unfortunately, when you open diplomacy with Isyander, he doesn't always speak...

2) I've noticed as well that when encountering a Hissho empire for the first time in a game, it plays the Vaulters' introduction music. So I guess the Vaulters and Umbral Choir got introductory music for when you meet them, but the Hissho and Nakalim didn't?

3) The Hissho's voice acting dialogue when you first encounter them is also slightly different to the text given. So I guess not every empire speaks exactly what is written, but for the Nakalim the difference is quite pronounced.

5) I recently played a game where one of the AI empires was the United Empire, who transformed into the Sheredyn. I noticed at first that Zelevas was still speaking voice lines while wearing his Sheredyn armour. However, later he was silent. I think what happens is that Zelevas keeps speaking after he transforms, until you quit the game or load a save. From then on, he will always be silent in that game.

I have the same problem with 1). Cant say speaking to Isyander helps me too well