Sound Mod: Banshee-themed Sonic Attack sound effects

[AboveTheChemist]

One of my characters is a /sonic defender, and in concept she is a ghostly banshee-like spirit. From the outset, I never felt like the default sound effects of her sonic attack powers fit with that concept, so I endeavored to find a more fitting set of sounds. This mod is a work in progress. I personally only use a subset of the powers from Sonic Attack but I tried to find replacement sounds for each power so that others can use it for a similar concept. There are a few things to keep in mind:

 

1. These sounds are more representative of a feminine voice.
2. This will make anyone (and any NPC) nearby using powers from the Sonic Attack pool sound like a banshee, but it only changes the sounds you hear (unless those around you have installed the mod too). Unfortunately it's a bit of an 'all-or-nothing' situation so you'll have to decide for yourself if it is worth it.
3. I made every effort to ensure that the length of the new sound was roughly the same as the original sound, and to test the sounds in-game to make sure the sound mates reasonably well with the animation. Overall I am quite pleased, although I noted an issue with Shockwave below.
4. I have not fully verified that these modified sounds aren't shared with sound effects outside the Sonic Attack pool. There is a chance that these modifications may change some non-Sonic Attack sound effects (see my note about Amplify and Dreadful Wail below) and if I find any I will note them.

 

Installation

Spoiler

The current version of the banshee-themed Sonic Attack sounds is available via the City Mod Installer as Banshee-themed Sonic Attack sounds (version 1). Installing via City Mod Installer is the (strongly) recommended installation method.

 

Manual installation is via a .pigg file (named sonic_attack_banshee.pigg) available on Google Drive at the link below:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e7-l56S96DHvFjmgkXdygakXJcuebepz

 

For manual installation, locate the root folder for your CoH installation (which I'll refer to as <CoH Root Folder>). If using the new Homecoming Launcher, click the settings button (which looks like a little gear) in the upper right corner of the HC launcher. When the settings window appears, the installation location is shown at the top of the window. The following screenshot illustrates what you will see (the settings button appears in green here):

 

 

If using Tequila or Island Rum, you will either need to search for the install folder manually, or you should be able to check the properties of the shortcut used to launch Tequila/Island Rum, and the installation location should be listed there.

 

The .pigg file is a self-contained archive that functions identically to the .pigg files that contain all of the game data. It should be placed in:

<CoH Root Folder>\assets\mods

If your <CoH Root Folder>\assets folder does not contain a directory named 'mods', please create a directory named 'mods' within <CoH Root Folder>\assets and place the hc_vidiotmaps.pigg file within.

 

The final step is to modify your game launch parameters to tell the game to check your <CoH Root Folder>\assets\mods folder for the new mod by adding the following text:

-assetpath assets\mods

This is a one-time change so if your launch parameters have already been modified to add the above text, then there is no need to do it again. Instructions for locating and modifying your launch parameters can be found in the post at this link.

 

Removing/Deleting Old Installations

Spoiler

Users that had previously installed the banshee-themed Sonic Attack sounds either manually or using the CoH Modder tool will need to remove or delete their old installations in order for the new version to be visible in game. This is because the installation process now uses a .pigg file and the old process installed the mod files individually into the <CoH Root Folder>\data folder.

 

Old versions of the banshee-themed Sonic Attack sounds were installed to the following locations:

<CoH Root Folder>\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\SirenSong.ogg
<CoH Root Folder>\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\Sonic11.ogg
<CoH Root Folder>\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\Sonic12.ogg
<CoH Root Folder>\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\Sonic14.ogg
<CoH Root Folder>\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\sonicgale.ogg
<CoH Root Folder>\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\SonicMassiveBlast.ogg
<CoH Root Folder>\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\SonicScream1.ogg
<CoH Root Folder>\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\SonicScreech.ogg
<CoH Root Folder>\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\SonicSmallBlast3.ogg

Simply remove or delete these files and the new sounds should work properly in-game.

 

Further reading:

For those interested, I've listed below (behind the spoiler tag to avoid a wall of stuff) each Sonic Attack power, the original sound it used, as well as the sound I've selected as a replacement. I've also added the .ogg file itself for preview purposes. The .ogg files were found within the pigg files (viewed with Piglet) in sounds > Ogg, within either the Powers or Enemies folders as noted. All the replacement sounds are other sounds found in CoH and re-purposed for this mod. I didn't modify the actual sound effects at all, I just changed the filenames. For each, I took a copy of the 'new' sound, changed its name to that of the 'original' sound, and included it within the zip.

 

Note that I have not modified the sound for Amplify or Dreadful Wail. Amplify is a buff that sounds reasonable as-is, and Dreadful Wail also sounds reasonable. In both cases I am certain those particular sound effects are used elsewhere in the game (the Dreadful Wail sound is used as the death wail of Circle of Thorns Nerva Spectral Demons) and I am hesitant to change either of them.

 

Spoiler

Shriek
Original: Powers > SonicSmallBlast3.ogg
New: Enemies > TOV_Banshee_Curse.ogg

 

New sound:

 

Scream
Original: Powers > SonicScream1.ogg
New: Enemies > TOV_Banshee_Lamentation.ogg

 

New sound:

 

Howl
Original: Powers > Sonic11.ogg and Sonic12.ogg
New: Enemies > TOV_Banshee_Castigation.ogg (Sonic12.ogg replaced by silence)

 

New sound:

 

Shout
Original: Powers > Sonic14.ogg and SonicMassiveBlast.ogg
New: Enemies > TOV_Banshee_Condemnation.ogg (SonicMassiveBlast.ogg replaced by silence)

 

New sound:

 

Siren's Song
Original: Powers > SirenSong.ogg
New: Enemies > TOV_Siren_DebilitatingSong_Attack.ogg

 

New sound:

 

Screech
Original: Powers > SonicScreech.ogg
New: Enemies > TOV_Banshee_Curse.ogg

 

New sound:

 

Shockwave
Original: Powers > sonicgale.ogg
New: Powers > ScreamPBAOE.ogg

 

New sound:

 

The sounds for Screech and Shockwave were recycled from elsewhere in the set. Screech uses the same sound as Shriek, and Shockwave uses the same sound as Dreadful Wail. I don't currently plan on using Screech or Shockwave in my build, so these were lower priority and I just couldn't find other unique sounds to fit these two powers. With Shockwave, the sound effect seems to begin about a half a second too early for the animation, but honestly even the original sound for Shockwave seems a little ahead of the animation, and the delay is so slight that in the heat of battle it will likely be less noticeable. If I find suitable replacements in the future, I will update the file, and of course if anyone has any suggestions I am happy to entertain them. For now, though, I at least wanted to use something that fit the overall theme of the 'banshee' set.

 

If anyone wants to explore other sounds in more detail, within the pigg files in sounds > Ogg > Enemies, there are a lot of Talons of Vengeance Siren sounds (the file names start with TOV_Siren_) that might also work. These were a bit too 'musical' for my concept (aside from using one for Siren's Song, which seemed fitting), but these might work well for a different banshee/siren concept. Also, in sounds > Ogg > N_DarkAstoria and in sounds > Ogg > NPCs, there are quite a few good male and female screams that might work. And of course there may be a file here or there that I completely missed that might be well suited for this concept.

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by AboveTheChemist
updated install instructions

[Solarverse]

I started using this mod the other day. Huge improvement and much more like a Banshee. Good job, man. Thanks for the mod!

[Ejlertson]

Any chance someone could make a playable preview of theese mod sounds? Im away from the home pc for an extended time and cant unpack them to listen.

Cheers

[Solarverse]

3 hours ago, Ejlertson said:

Any chance someone could make a playable preview of theese mod sounds? Im away from the home pc for an extended time and cant unpack them to listen.

Cheers

I am fairly certain this mod is already in the CoH Modd Tool.

[AboveTheChemist]

On 9/27/2020 at 7:06 AM, Ejlertson said:

Any chance someone could make a playable preview of theese mod sounds? Im away from the home pc for an extended time and cant unpack them to listen.

Cheers

I've updated the OP with a preview for each sound (I chucked it behind a spoiler tag because it was a huge wall). And it is in the CoH Modder tool (or should be, I gave PK permission to add it a while ago).

Edited September 28, 2020 by AboveTheChemist

[AboveTheChemist]

1 hour ago, alfonsobussom said:

I can't install these extensions in any way, can someone help me with this?

There are manual installation instructions in the top post. It's probably easier to install it via the CoH Modder tool, though, so that is what I would recommend.

[AboveTheChemist]

I have updated the top post to account for the new mod installation tool that Michiyo developed. Part of that update changes the manual installation process from a zip archive of individual files, to a single .pigg archive. Users will need to refer to the installation instructions in the top post to account for this new installation process. I also added a section for removal/deletion of the old installation, which will be necessary in order for the new installation to work. Going forward, I think this new installation process will greatly simplify mod installation, particularly for mods with multiple files like this one.