Saving Sounds (don't know if this is the right place or not)

[Lycantropus]

Hey all! Been doing my part (haven't sent in my cape and mask yet though- the wife and I have been talking about how elaborate we may want to make that) and have been doing my best to keep my SG informed and active. Even made my tabletop group take a break this past Saturday to attend the vigil and Champion server pic (and I was running the game). I saw me in the crowd, Leandro!! Great video!

I love this game, and while I've not been active on these forums (and I wished I'd gotten involved earlier to help with the Wiki- there's still so much left to add and fill in!!) I have been active on the City of forums and in-game, and of course my SG, doing what I can to keep spirits high for those who need it.

This request (question) came from a conversation I was having with some SG mates last night. I know Paragon Wiki has the extinsive soundtrack of songs for the game, and some ambient sounds, but what about a library of sounds for the rest? The sounds of powers, the little blips when a teammate types in Chats, in Tells, in League? The sound of a drop, or other little iconic tidbits that we hear all the time but take for granted? Are these archived anywhere?

It may seem silly, but I'd really love to have a catalogue of those sounds for posterity, and because I know I'm going to miss hearing them if Paragon City goes dark.

Does this already exist, or does this sound like a worthwhile goal if it doesn't? I have no programming experience and limited time, but will help any way I can with this if its needed. Likewise, I'd like to see a rush on the Paragon Wiki, helping fill in missing tidbits. Especially from the newer stuff, and possibly documenting the new content on Beta too. Is there anything special I need to do to contribute to the Wiki?

This is assuming, of course, that the Wiki will be left running for posterity? I'm presuming it will.

Sorry if this sounds negative, it's not intended to be. I just thought it was something to consider, and I wasn't sure if this would be 'okay' to post on the official forums (legality of having the songs and/or on the wiki and whatnot).

[SithRose]

You might want to talk to the folks at http://www.thecaperadio.com/ about that - I know they have many of the audio files extracted and use them in shows frequently. I believe Vangelus and Shecky would be the best ones to ask, but I could be working on out of date information. I haven't been on as DJ Leshya for a good 3 years at least.

[Sekoia]

The sounds are all stored client side so there's no risk of us permanently losing access to them. It's just a matter of doing the extraction work. My understanding is that there are many thousands of sound files though and that it isn't necessarily intuitive to correlate them to their purposes, so it likely won't be a simple task to extract them all and organize them in a usable, navigable way.

So while I think it's a worthwhile thing to keep in mind, I'm not sure it should be considered a high priority. If City goes dark, we'll be able to rescue the sounds after the fact.

[Patribot]

If you are just talking about all the game sounds, they are all on your computer already. They just aren't easily accessable. You need something called a Pigg File Viewer to get to them and extract them so you can save them as something more usable.  Source Forge happens to have one that even mentions CoH by name in the discription. I had to do this recently while working on my CoH Parody Song (Still a work in progress.) to get power sounds and such.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/piggviewer/

Oh, and to be in the safe side, I would copy those pigg files to a separate folder before you start messing with them. I doubt that just looking at them and extracting things will corrupt them, but I'd hate to have you need to repatch everything when you could avoid it.

Now, if you are talking about a central location that has all the sound already extracted and labeled on the internet, there's nothing that I know of. I really DO like your idea of putting them up on the Wiki (Maybe adding the sounds to power discriptions would be a good idea? And the background sounds to each location?) If this is your plan I wish you good luck.

[Lycantropus]

Thanks for the help! I'm glad they're client side. I think I knew that in the back of my head, but thanks! It's good to know they won't be lost if worse comes to worse (though if we can get that CNN article up... I'm hoping at any rate...)

I just really don't want to lose anything about this game if I can help it. I've been playing almost since launch, and have never had to take a break yet. I've always been able to find a way to keep the game fresh and entertaining. Having my little disfunctional family of SG mates has helped with that too.

Thank you again!

Lyc~