Some effects that keep coming to me as something FH2 could really, really use:
1/ Larger plumes of smoke that shoot more foward when tanks fire
Gives tanks that extra awesomess. Smoke should be the tell-tale sign of a tank firing from range and from concealment such as hedgerows. These things weren't snipers, you could tell from the smoke once the tank fired. Such smoke should also add to the confusion in a desert combat
2/ Dust flying
And I mean in all things.. ie. A bullet smacks a wall next to you, more dust flies off than currently exists. You see it in war footage when say an mg is firing at a position, you see ALOT more flying off - Also, it is is sometimes impossble to see a near miss in FH2 save for some specs of dirt and the hole if you are observant enough. Apart from dissorientation, dust fliying off is one thing that clearly makes one duck
Apart from impact dust from walls, dirt kicked up by bullets of all kinds need to increased in size. A plane using mgs on the ground should kick up alot of dust, as should everything else, from a rifle to an mg.. higher plumes, please
An AP shell that hits the ground currently causes enough of a dust-rise, but perhaps it could be slower to settle (Something I see all the time since my PC is so slow)
Shell and bullet whizzes
I really don't get why the devs don't consider this worthwhile. I play FHSW ever so often and the one thing that gets me, once the FHSW soundpack is in place (0.3b), is the whizzes that tell you to get the fuck down. This also exists in all mods for BF2 SAVE for FH2. The sonic boom or whip sound really shouldn't replace everything you should hear.
Planes make a cartoony sounding bomb-drop which really should be no noisier than a mortar shell falling - If even - And mortar shells are, I think, a tad too quiet to cause the effect they should - These really should be considered for revision.
Shells from tanks, but especially howitzers and the 88 should make whizz sounds - Not only when they fly by, but when they are incoming. Again, the devs might want inspiration or 'extra faith' from the FHSW soundpatch to be convinced. The 88 airborne shell had a particular sound that the allies could recognize. A bit of research might be needed to get it right - Just get reference form what war vets say and try to use imagination to fill in the blanks. Other shells should reflect the gun calibre by the sound the make when inbound or airborne.
Explosions and cannon etc
Explosion sound at range should be somethine echo-ey. Like the nicest of the sounds you hear in El-Alamein's distant combat sounds.. ie the explosions. Also FHSW soundpatch has a good example of distant explosion sound which could give hints to what I mean
I think the 2.0 distant sound for the 88 might find use for the 88 at extremely long ranges - Currently it is simply the same sound, greatly quited. Same goes for 76mm and Tiger tank cannon - But it clearly needs more umph and reverberation afterwards for this to work
Plane engine sounds could also be increased in 3rd person and lengthened in distant so that a plane can be heard from long range
The Stuka horn - Been suggested countless times. Please, devs, communicate to us if that is really it cuz I don't have enough real life refs, but I've never been too impressed with what it sounds like currently
Plane mgs should also be given more umph... At least as much as tank mgs (German tank mg34s) and the Allied tanks really need revamping. The .50cal could use more body, not as jarring as PR (god forbid), but closer to that. The .30 cal could be an improved version of FH1's with more metal (Recall the Shermans that stopped the counter-attack in Band of Brother's Carentan? Not exactly that, but the strength of the .30 cal and its echo were nice). The British ones simply need to be a tad louder and with more reverb.
Same for all rifles... Some guns are perfect with their reverb.. but pistols (Especially the revolver and American's) could be almost as loud as rifles and with reverb. most rifles need reverberation too - And rebalancing. The No. 4 is bloody loud compared to everything else and its reverb is more of part of the sound than echo-sounding. Mgs simply need reverb, and the British heavy mgs could do with a bit more umph and definitely reverberative echo. A real gun sound would be less of a bang and more of a boom - FH2 doesn't need to make them that loud, but they definitely could make them more representative
A good reference is also Red Dragon.. I wish I had a link. There's a point where Edward Norton is teaching his wife how to shoot. The sound of the pistol really stood out compared to most others.
Also again, tank cannons NEED to be louder than rifles otherwise they don't do justice to the vehicle nor do they do justice to that lovely distant cannon blast sound introduced in 2.25.
Animation
Just a few animations that can really be fixed: third person animation on howitzers. I really don't think the player needs to sit on the gun (ref: BF2s Eve of destruction)
Animation for mgs where the player just moves his hand rather than his whole body to stay aiming behind the gun such as the chevy shot-gun position (Ref: BF2 vanilla).
Animations where the player model's arms crisscross into his chest or through each other... same chevy as well as some stationary mg positions, like that atop the m5a1.. Also, is it possible to have the whole body reverberate slightly, or at least the head, or helmet.. if that's not asking too much - But it will be tres cool if it could happen.
*Is there a way of having dirt fly in Normandy instead of dust that is so similar to that of North Africa - Can terrains have different dirt animations and colour? cuz, even for heavily grassy areas, and even sometimes rainy areas, the animation is tad too dry. Also for the rain, any change of having the player models shiny, perhaps using the lighten abondoned before 2.0 cuz it makes the rain effect more believable.
These are ofcourse only suggestions. I would really not want some stupid fanboy to come tell me, why don't I do them myself or the devs have something more important things to do. Again, suggestions - Certainly suggestions I would really like the devs to carefully consider as these affect gameplay ALOT, but its up to the devs to prioritize what needs to be done and what doesn't.
I did notice something that Lobo was right about and that I was very wrong about - FH2 sound effects, for the most part are alot better in all sense than FH1.. Even the sound of dirt as it explodes is better in FH2.
I really wish the devs would respond to this post. Recently I'm getting alot more of a feel that they are going about FH2 in the fashion of a commericial game and our imputs fall on deaf ears until people start complaining about them after a release, them MAYBE, they will be changed... A year and a half later by the NEXT release... Immediate feedback rather than having to wait for a new version is a lot better I think. that way we can iron out the creases and get a mod release that everyone loves.
