In Skyrim, when you are happily frolicking through the forest there is birdsong, mandolin music, and the rustling of the breeze. When you get attacked, or enter combat, the music takes a dramatic tone and the relaxation is over.
This is a decent system, but I think Destiny could do it better.
Make it so that ambient sounds, not music, portrays the mood (hear me out, I'm only talking about when you are exploring, not when you are in an epic moment of battle).
So while you are walking around in the jungles of Venus, your footsteps make a gentle *crunch crunch* and you can hear the sound of your armor (or cloth) flexing. The birds sing in the trees, ambient critters scurry about (space squirrelz!), and basically you are very aware of everything around you.
Then suddenly you spy a Fallen scout ahead.
You whip out your sniper rifle, crouch, and BAM!
No more Fallen.
But you no longer hear the sound of birds, the critters have de-spawned in the underbrush, and maybe a slight change in the sound of your footfalls. Hearing becomes more selective, filtering out unnecessary things, like the breeze, while you hear the echo of your gunshot rumble around the forest.
This is based upon what it feels like when hunting in real life (something I do quite often). In Destiny it can be assumed that we will have hearing protection so gunshots and explosions won't cause much ear-ringing, but when your adrenaline hits your attention becomes focused, the breeze doesn't matter, the report of your gun spooking the enemy/animal matters, your pace quickens, and your movements become slightly twitchy. [b](I don't mean that when in the heat of combat everything will seem scary and fast, but rather that when out of combat the mood will be relaxing enough that fighting will seem more blunt and jarring)[/b]
Thoughts? (there could certainly be more little things, but I'd like to hear what you think)
EDIT: One more thing, this same ambiance could be affected by your enemies, for instance a far off explosion of some Cabal mining could make the critters restless, and the ambiance more quiet and brooding.
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Just posting over a link to my post as they appear to be sister posts. I believe that sound has much to do with the immersion factor in the game, like in BF3 where you would hear gun fire in the distance. If you were to look down a long open space like the wall in Old Russia, it would be neat to see another fire team crossing a bride, even if it were just NPC's. If you were just exploring to hear gun fire and chaos in the distance would be a constant reminder that danger lurks all around you. If you were exploring and you could hear birds chirping, then they stop, and THEN you get attacked. That would blow my mind. The Last of Us was incredible for the music and the ambiance, it was a game that actually caused me to get stressed while playing. I don't want Destiny to stress me out, but I want to get involved in the world, I've always been a fan to role play and when I play an mmo, I become the character. That is one of the reasons why I am so excited with Destiny that they are putting so much effort into customization. Have the customization with a living world and ever changing ambiance...