Mute themes

[Gulte 3]

 

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

/ignore

 

or delete the audio files

[KnifuWaifu 499]

/ignore list fills pretty quickly when one dedicates it to blocking out broken/offensive themes.

 

I like this idea, but I would actually rather see a Volume Slider for themes in the Audio Options than an outright mute (which is why I don't like deleting the audio files). 

 

People make such great themes in APB but as always an over large group like to ruin it and created their own ear-no abominations, at least having themes on a softer volume lessens any permanent hearing damage that could occur from these trolls. Also I've said it somewhere else but even those "good" themes where players have put effort into it to make some nice music have the unfortunate business of that creator doing it with the Theme Editor's volume set to max. So no matter how nice the theme is, eventually the too-loud notes start to grind against your ear drums and you end up ignoring these players too. 

 

If we're going to be totally serious - this is an issue that should be given way more attention than hackers/scammers/abusers. 

 

A hacker hacks the game to give themselves a virtual unfair advantage and causes us to lose or dislike the game - but doesn't harm us physically irl other than our bruised egos and hurt feelings. 

A scammer takes away our virtual worth/wealth which we worked for, it may hurt us financially irl - but it doesn't harm us physically, all we did was lose some items/cash, we can recover from that.

A abuser makes some image or says or types something that insults us or some group in some way, we're emotionally hurt - but it doesn't harm us physically, we can seek support and get over it.

 

A theme troll's sole purpose is to physically injure the delicate structures within the human ear which causes permanent hearing damage and loss  - they are hurting us physically in the real world. Why there is no seriously punishment and action taken against this sort of behaviour is enough to make me want to rant about it in the suggestions forum (but seriously this upsets me). 

 

I shouldn't have to play an online video game in fear of being physically hurt in real life with my hand hovering over the mute button because some sick people think it's "le trolololing" to blast players they've killed with broken/offensive themes. 

 

I know there is /ignore and the /report function, but I've stated before - these are after-the-damage-has-been-done solutions. I have to be exposed to the ear-no in order to expose it and report it. Hell there have been many matches while I was sitting still after dying to a theme troll trying to type out a report (and clear my ignore list to stick the silly person on it) when they pop up and kill me again and boom second dose of ear-no. 

 

We need a way to protect us before the damage is done because the sad truth is that these types of players will not be stopped. In fact this week I met two brand new players who both sported the same ear-no troll theme - it was clear they only wanted to hurt people and who knows how many ears they raped before they got bored and logged off. 

 

My /ignore list is full and I'm getting so worked up over this now I'm going to tag important people. 

 

 

Edit: So glad they've addressed this issue in the 2nd LO Q&A, it's a shame that it has come to just blocking all themes, but toxic players gonna toxic. Also ima keeping this up as a reminder until we actually get the Mute Theme option.

 

The Best Edit: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Little Orbit have allowed us to Disable Themes so I can delete this from my signature and all of the above is no longer needed - it was still very mean of toxic players to do this but now LO have given us a means of protection from them - thank you Little Orbit, you are beautiful people. 

 

@MattScott @Lixil @Selali

Edited August 27, 2020 by KnifuWaifu

[_chain 176]

adding small quality of life things like these will probably do more good to the game than just telling everyone to fill their ignore list lmao.

[LewdLemming 27]

This would be VERY nice to have.  I use a good headset to play and when the shrill kill themes play it physically hurts.

 

Back around 2011-2013 when I first started playing, and before I quit the game (lag being the main reason) there was a workaround for this issue.  You used to be able to delete (or just rename) one of the audio folders and you wouldn't hear the kill themes any more.  Unfortunately, I can't remember which folder it was.    And Googlerizing the issue hasn't helped me find the correct folder.

 

I deleted a couple of audio folders in my apb folder, but when there is a patch it just re-downloads the files.  This never occurred back in 2011-2013 as there were numerous patches, but the audio folder I had renamed was never re-downloaded.

 

All that to say, I'm with the OP on this ... please add a "mute themes" audio option.

[KnifuWaifu 499]

ima just add here after listening to the 2nd LO Live Stream, I am very excited and thankful that this issue has been addressed and there are plans to add in a theme mute button. While I'm not one to take 100% of the credit, I actually am, you're all welcome, pay me in JTs plz, i'll still keep the link in my signature with the intention of removing it when the feature is eventually added (or I find something to replace it.)

 

 

Edit: Removed from signature!

Edited August 27, 2020 by KnifuWaifu

[KnifuWaifu 499]

Look at me thread-necroing. Just wanna give a head up that Little Orbit have implemented this suggestion and thank them and everyone for this QoL improvement. 

Edited August 27, 2020 by KnifuWaifu

[StevenDeckard 280]

I agree - it is one of the BEST additions (and definitely a "quality of life" addition from my point of view) ever made for APB. Big thank you from me for finally adding this option.

 

Only thing left in my humble opinion is the option to also mute music forced on us by other players broadcasting it (if someone wants to listen to their music that is fine but please do not force it on others). There have been countless of occasions where people almost begged others to have mercy and switch off their music.

Edited September 10, 2020 by StevenDeckard

[KnifuWaifu 499]

53 minutes ago, StevenDeckard said:

Only thing left in my humble opinion is the option to also mute music forced on us by other players broadcasting it (if someone wants to listen to their music that is fine but please do not force it on others). There have been countless of occasions where people almost begged others to have mercy and switch off their music.

I agree that player made music is yet another area where an amazing tool of creativity has been ruined by a few toxic idiots and yes like how players have the option to Broadcast Music, all other players should have the option to refuse to listen to those broadcasts. 

 

Car music is actually pretty tricky to control at the moment, if you're in a match with them - it's pretty easy just blow up the vehicle, also if the music is particularly toxic (high-pitched or loud repeating notes) than you can report that player. Although if you're not in a match - the vehicle is near indestructible, and add in the fact that a player can park their toxic music spewing vehicle anywhere and abandon it, so you'll never know who is playing that music and can't report them.

 

Options are never a bad thing, ultimately I'd prefer a volume sliders, or have the volume slider in the Music Player also react to player broadcast music, I mean most cars have all these weird customisation for stereos, it's a shame to block out a whole massive part of the game because some idiots can't control themselves. 

 

I think it's just more reason for the Music/Theme editors to have some sort of quality control built into them but at the end of the day toxic players have more time on their hands than LO's developers so even if the Editors are super locked down with magical-anti-toxic-music technology, the dickheads in game will still find ways to hurt other players, so a Mute button is really the cheapest and most effective option.

 

It's just so shitty that those toxic few really ruin what is one of APB's strengths - customisation.