Calm wind was 8.6 dB louder than the footsteps. After re-leveling, footsteps sit 6.5 dB above it, with the “peaceful calm” option chosen in playtesting. Wind and birds also used to keep playing on the main menu; they now fade out there. A new Audio tab added master, ambience and effects volume with mute, reset and a test sound.
Routing sounds through those new volume controls changed the character of the footsteps. It was heard at the very next playtest and reverted, which is a good argument for playtesting after changes that are meant to be invisible.
The generated footsteps themselves had drawn repeated complaints. They were replaced with 93 recorded steps from two public-domain libraries, Nox Sound Essentials and BigSoundBank, each cut to one clean step and leveled, with walking and running sets for forest floor, grass, rock, water, gravel and snow. Generated worlds had been playing forest steps everywhere, plus splashes from an invisible river left over from an early test map. Footsteps now follow the ground under the player.
Eleven ambience loops chosen in review now change with the time of day and the terrain. Those loops and the wind are still generated placeholders, and there are only six walking takes for water.