Here's an exceedingly random question!

[Mithradates VI]

Are there any plans to put in correct bird vocalizations into the battle/strat maps? All the birds are American species....I would not expect to hear a Cactus Wren in a Persian desert!

Just one of those thoughts that could add even more to immersion. If you decide to do this, I could probably give y'all a hand.

[Foot]

I have no idea. That might just be going to far!

Although that does raise an interesting question. Have bird songs changed drastically in the last 2000 years? If you can do the research and get good quality sounds for the suitable birds, we might try and put it in.

Foot

[Bootsiuv]

That would be kind of cool actually....I've never heard persian birds. :)

[Mithradates VI]

I have no idea. That might just be going to far!

Although that does raise an interesting question. Have bird songs changed drastically in the last 2000 years? If you can do the research and get good quality sounds for the suitable birds, we might try and put it in.

Foot

There might be some slight changes in dialects of various species, but overall, not much. The key thing, though, is that all the species of birds which CA put in for background noise are from the Western US...which kind of annoys me (I'm a closet birder as well as a nerdy gaming historian ).

Species shouldn't be too bad to figure out or research; recordings might be hard to find, but I may have some connections--I have a naturalist friend who actually is from Central Asia. I could possibly ask her to get some bird recordings this winter, if she goes back to visit family for the strat map...

Alternately, I could ask the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for them (they have an ENORMOUS collection of bird songs and calls). I have a connection there as well.

I'm game for this, if you think it would add to the mod (which I think it would, but of course I'm biased )

[Maeran]

"This morning I saw an eagle circle the camp three times before flying toward the sun. Such a portent truly shows who if favoured by the gods!"

"Yes, general. However this eagle looked bald."

"Er... Augurs? A clue here?"

Has anyone who knows how the sound files work (i.e. not me) looked to see if the birdsong files are easily replacable?

Frankly, I never noticed. Being a Briton I am familiar with neither the birdsong of the Mediterranean nor the West Coast.

[bovi]

Personally, I never noticed there are any bird sounds in the game .

[mcantu]

Personally, I never noticed there are any bird sounds in the game .

I did for the first time ever last night w/the beta...

dont know how I never did before

[Bootsiuv]

You've never scrolled over the nile and heard all of those delightful noises....like various birds and crickets. That's the only place I've ever really heard them, but I assume mesopotamia is the same way....perhaps some other parts of the map which I haven't noticed yet.

Next time your around those parts....slow down, and take a listen. Our forest friends surround us.

*Goes outside to hug a tree, or was that smoke some trees....I'm too stoned to remember right now* :P

[Horst Nordfink]

"This morning I saw an eagle circle the camp three times before flying toward the sun. Such a portent truly shows who if favoured by the gods!"

"Yes, general. However this eagle looked bald."

"Er... Augurs? A clue here?"

Has anyone who knows how the sound files work (i.e. not me) looked to see if the birdsong files are easily replacable?

Frankly, I never noticed. Being a Briton I am familiar with neither the birdsong of the Mediterranean nor the West Coast.

I could help with tits.

[Tellos Athenaios]

"Have birdsongs changed drastically over the course of 2000 years?"

My initial guess would be yes; after all it is sort of proved that birdsongs are related to accent: species a in location b sings differently from species a in location c. Hence, this makes it very likely birdsongs actually shifts over the course of time; and 2000 years is a helluva timespan. (Entire new languages developped, and entire other languages died out when we look at the humans.)

Luckily we can do a bit of very fickle research:
-we can examine how the ancients mimicked birdsong.
-we can examine how modern people do.

Slight problem: just how many reliable sources are there? Well there's only one in ancient Greek I would know of. Unfortunately it's not a "Companion to Birdsong" a la "What bird did that?"; it doesn't specify the species of bird imitated - and as far as I am aware it's simply ancient Greek pronounced to remind the listener somewhat of birdsong. (After all, it's a play called "Birds".)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And yes it's a comedy written by Aristophanes.

[Foot]

(I'm a closet birder as well as a nerdy gaming historian ).

That is probably the weirdest combination of hobbies I've heard all day.

Yeah, I'm game. I'll see what the text files say if you can get your hand on some bird samples we'll see what we can do.

That would be another extreme that EB has gone to.

Foot

[bovi]

That would be pretty cool for the release notes though. No birds were harmed during production of this game .

[Thaatu]

Hmm... Shouldn't be too hard, but I believe the team's bird expert died or something.

[Jarardo]

Hooray! Sounds good to me.

[LusitanianWolf]

I think I can help with European birds, Im studing biology, but also an history lover!!!

(I'm a closet birder as well as a nerdy gaming historian ).

Youre not alone...
But I also love to search and fotograph not only birds but all kinds off animals since wolves and deers to vipers and frogs

[Shigawire]

WoW a bird-watcher and history nerd, bad combination.

If you feel like it, you can make a "minimod" that edits ambience. I doubt you can have different ambiance based on the global position of the tile of the battlefield.

Haha thanks for the video with the Lyre bird I am Herenow.
I saw it once before, so awesome..

The Bower bird is also awesome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPbWJPsBPdA
Saw it on Animal Planet before

This is even cooler.. "Plumed bird of Paradise"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEh-zclVo44

And even cooler, the "Wilson's bird"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmmp3wrf9gg