EXPBG Ambient Sounds

0.4.3

Game 1.9 compatibility (Arma Reforger 1.9.0.37). Requires EXPBG Ambient Sounds Data 0.2.1 (unchanged).

- Compiles and loads on game 1.9: the clip and voice length fields were renamed, because 1.9 adds a core
  script type `Duration` with the same name. No change in behaviour or saved settings.
- Loads in large modsets on 1.9: game 1.9 limits how many distinct script container types all loaded mods
  may create together, and the full campaign modset crashed at script start. Ambient Sounds now adds none of
  its own (was 16): the clip bank, voices, chatter, hosts, broadcast schedules, music zones, war cohorts and
  category schedules keep their lists in container types the game already has. No change in behaviour, saves
  or settings.

0.4.2

Fixes from the 2026-11-04 audit. Requires EXPBG Ambient Sounds Data 0.2.1 (unchanged content since 0.2.0).

- Music Zone: a player who joins while a zone song is playing now hears it, at the same point as everyone else,
  within about 2 seconds. Before, a joining player heard nothing until the zone's next song.
- Music Zone: the server's master volume (`m_iMasterVolumePercent`) now also applies to a zone song that is already
  playing.
- Music Zone: *Play music now* is offered only on a zone that is On. On a zone that was Off it played for at most a
  second and left the zone counted as triggered.
- Music Zone: a looping zone with a song picked by name repeats that song, also in station shuffle mode.
- Music Zone, Workbench: the *Song* slider now uses the same numbering as the Game Master's Song list (0 = a random
  song of the station, otherwise the track ID + 1, 0-218); its description said "nth song of the station". Saved
  values keep their meaning.
- Car radios: a locked radio saved switched off stays off after a CDF Game Master Save load. Before, it came back
  switched on.
- Locked radios: a Game Master's station pick, *Play now* and queued songs on a locked radio now stick. Before, the
  radio went back to its locked station within a second. A station picked by a Game Master moves the lock; a song or
  queue plays out, then the radio returns to the locked station. Locking a placed radio still retunes it at once.
- Ambient Sounds: deleting a playing war module now stops its sounds within about a second for every listener.
  Before, they kept playing to the end, up to about 31 minutes for a war mix.
- Ambient Sounds: placed sounds, TVs and radios with a fixed recording no longer replay the shared timeline when a
  player joins or comes into range late, which removes small client hitches.
- Game Master and server texts no longer say that car-radio chatter needs EXPBG Gamemaster Tools (the recordings are
  part of this mod since 0.2.0).
- The unused server part of the car radio notice (removed in 0.3.3) is gone, and with it a script warning on every
  server and client start (an obsolete engine call). `m_bVehicleHint` in server configs still loads and does nothing.

0.4.1

Workshop listing only: a shorter, simpler description, and a second contributor who can publish updates. The mod's content is unchanged; only the version number differs from 0.4.0.

0.4.0

One Ambient Sounds Module instead of 28 single sound modules (owner request 2026-11-02). Requires EXPBG
Ambient Sounds Data 0.2.0 (unchanged).

- Entity browser: the 28 "Sound: ..." placeables (Russian radio 1-4, Chinese radio, Arab chatter, Hanoi
  Hannah, firefights, shelling, jets, drone, market, street singing and the others) are replaced by one
  **Ambient Sounds Module** (`PrefabsEditable/EXPBG/E_EXPBG_SoundModule.et`, the Sound Effects card).
- Game Master dialog: the placed sound's *Recording* row is now **Sound**, a dropdown with the same 28
  sounds (row values and saved IDs unchanged). Picking another sound also applies that sound's own audible
  distance, loop and pause, the values its single module had (for example Distant shelling 1500 m,
  Jet flyby 1000 m one-shot with a 60 s pause). Any of those three that the Game Master changes in the same
  edit keeps the value given. Radios keep their Recording spinbox.
- Old missions and saves: the 28 single prefabs keep their paths, GUIDs, class and settings. They moved to a
  second, unexposed placeable registry (`EAS_PlaceablesHidden.conf`, vanilla `m_bExposed 0`), registered
  after the visible one. So they stay placeable by the game, load from missions and saves, and can be
  duplicated, but no longer show in the browser.
- Tests: new native fixture `EAS_SoundModuleGameplay` (registries, module, presets), 13/0. Core build
  compiled; `EAS_PlaceableSoundsGameplay` 171/0 with the hidden registry; server + client smoke passed.
  Not run: the Game Master dialog by eye, and an older mission with single sound modules in a client
  (docs/TESTING.md).

0.3.3

- Car radio: the "Car radio" notice is gone (owner request 2026-10-31). It was a large, see-through white panel
  that covered the screen the first time a player drove a vehicle. The car radio itself and its key (Ctrl+U by
  default, rebindable) are unchanged. `m_bVehicleHint` in server configs still loads but has no effect.

0.3.2

Mission restart fix from the 2026-10-24 playtest audit. Requires EXPBG Ambient Sounds Data 0.2.0 (unchanged).

- Ambient Sounds: radios, TVs and placed sounds no longer stay silent for a player after a mission restart.
  The shared player for these sources kept its admission records from the last mission when the next
  mission ran in the same game world (an in-process restart, or a reconnect that the client sees as the
  same world). A client that still held the last mission's records could refuse the new mission's radios,
  TVs and placed sounds for the whole mission, while the server and other players heard them. The player is
  now reset when the world is cleaned up, as the war ambience already was, and it also starts afresh when it
  sees a new game mode or a world clock that went back.
- Ambient Sounds: the war ambience gets the same check for a new game mode or a world clock that went back,
  and its start limits and explosion spacing ignore times from a later clock. Before, a war ambience that
  outlived its mission (it is reset at the world cleanup, so this was not seen) would have stayed silent
  until the new mission's clock caught up with the old one.
- When either check has to step in (the world cleanup did not run first), the log shows one
  `[EAS] action=runtime-backstop` line.

0.3.1

Long-session fixes from the 2026-10-18 deep dive. Requires EXPBG Ambient Sounds Data 0.2.0 (unchanged).

- Car radio chatter stops on wrecks. A vehicle with Game Master chatter whose radio was off (the normal case
  for chatter) kept scheduling a new recording every few minutes for as long as its wreck existed, with a
  replication update each time and a server and client tick spent on it; clients also heard chatter from the
  burning hulk. Within a second of a vehicle's destruction its radio is now switched off and its chatter flag,
  recording and start are cleared, whether the radio was on or not, and the wreck drops out of the radio ticks.
  The Game Master radio attributes no longer appear on a wreck, and chatter cannot be switched on for one.
- Smaller saves. CDF Game Master Save no longer stores car radio settings that a vehicle spawns with anyway
  (radio allowed, not locked, volume 40 %, military "auto", no chatter, chatter net "auto", radio off), and
  nothing for wrecks. A vehicle whose radio somebody changed still saves exactly those changes and restores
  the same. Older saves load as before.
- Faster vehicle stream-in and clean-up. Each vehicle now enters the car radio registry once, without a search
  through every registered vehicle, and leaves it without one; static weapons and trailers, which have no car
  radio, no longer search it at all when deleted. Opening and closing the Game Master editor on a map with
  hundreds of vehicles and wrecks, and garbage sweeps that delete many wrecks at once, no longer cost a
  frame spike that grew with the number of vehicles. Deleted vehicles and radios leave the registry even on
  a server with radios disabled in the mission header (it compacts itself every 64 deletions instead of
  waiting for the radio tick, which does not run there).
- Ambient Sounds: the 33rd module no longer switches itself off. With 32 war modules (or 32 radios, TVs and
  placed sounds) already running, a further one used to be switched off and saved that way, so the Game
  Master's setup was lost on the next save. It now stays enabled, waits (one warning line in the server log)
  and starts within about two seconds once another module is deleted or switched off; a save keeps it
  enabled. A waiting war module starts its run time when it starts playing. A waiting module stays on the
  waiting list across a runtime restart.
- Ambient Sounds: war sounds come back after heavy fighting. Three refused starts of a war recording on a
  client used to silence that recording on that client for the rest of the session (the engine refuses
  starts while its sound sources are full, for example in large late-session fights). The recording now
  pauses for 5 minutes and then tries once again; if that try is refused it waits another 5 minutes. The
  client log shows the first and third refusal of a recording only, once per recording per session; later
  refusals and pauses of that recording are debug traces (owner decision #43, re-signed 2026-10-18).
- Ambient Radio module: the Game Master placing override (`EAR_Placeables.c`, which appends the radio
  placeables' own registry) restates vanilla's class attribute `[ComponentEditorProps(...)]` above
  `modded class SCR_PlacingEditorComponentClass`. A modded class without its vanilla class attribute can be an
  unknown class to the config loader, which then drops its entries (EXPBG Ambient Units lost every loiter prop
  that way). No failure was seen for this class in the 2026-10-14 full-modset logs; restated for consistency, so
  the component keeps its vanilla Workbench category, description and icon. No gameplay change.
- Ambient Sounds module: the same attribute restated in the module's own placing override (`EAS_Placeables.c`).
  No gameplay change.
- Tests: `tests/Test-RadioScripts.ps1` checks every `modded class` of both modules, the native fixtures and the
  e2e scripts against a table of vanilla 1.8 class attributes; a modded class must restate its attribute
  directly above the declaration, and a newly modded class fails until it is classified.

0.3.0

- The crowd module moved to **EXPBG Ambient Units** (`29CFD45254FAEAC3`), whose Civil Protest Zones use it
  (owner decision: sounds stay inside the mod that uses them). The "Ambient Crowd Sound" placeable, the Civil
  Protest Zone crowd emitter, the crowd attributes, the crowd recordings (angry, talking, downtown, large and
  rioting crowd) and their notices are no longer in this mod; EXPBG Ambient Units ships them with the same
  prefab paths and GUIDs, so missions that placed a crowd keep it once EXPBG Ambient Units is loaded.
- The market, market seller, prayer and street singing "Sound: ..." modules stay here, still listed under the
  "Crowd" filter of the EXPBG Sounds group.
- Requires EXPBG Ambient Sounds Data 0.2.0 (without the five crowd recordings). Update EXPBG Ambient Sounds,
  EXPBG Ambient Sounds Data and EXPBG Ambient Units together.

0.2.2

- Names only: the audio pack is now called EXPBG Ambient Sounds Data (0.1.6, which no longer carries the
  Gamemaster Tools sounds), EXPBG GM Tools is EXPBG Gamemaster Tools and EXPBG CDF Compat is EXPBG CDF
  Gamemaster Save Compat; the repository is ExpBG-Tech/mod-ambient-sounds. No functional change.

0.2.1

- Danger Close FM (101.5) plays a new song: "Helldivers 2 Main Theme - A Cup Of Liber-Tea" (track 217,
  48 songs on the station, 218 in all). The radio song list, the Music Zone song list, the now-playing
  line and the shipped credits show it under that name. Requires EXPBG Audio Data 0.1.5, which carries the
  recording.
- War ambience: fixed a script error (index out of bounds) when a mix start was recorded before a
  sound had been picked or with no audio bank loaded.

0.2.0

- Renamed from EXPBG Ambient Radio to EXPBG Ambient Sounds. Same Workshop item (E55EB66BC1B173CA), same
  project and save data: existing radios, car radios and Music Zones keep working.
- Now includes the Ambient Sounds modules that were part of EXPBG GM Tools up to 0.1.22: the Ambient
  Sounds war ambience module, the chatter radios (Black, Red, R-123M, AN/GRC-160) with their player
  actions and the Game Master "Turn radio on/off" actions, TVs, crowds, the 28 "Sound: ..." modules and
  the crowd sound of the GM Tools Civil Protest Zone. Every prefab, resource path, class name and save
  key is unchanged, so missions, native saves and CDF saves that contain these modules load as before,
  as long as this mod is loaded. GM Tools 0.2.0 no longer contains them: load EXPBG Ambient Sounds next
  to GM Tools to keep them.
- The Ambient Sounds placeables are listed in the Game Master entity browser from this mod's own
  registry, so they no longer depend on the load order of other mods that change the vanilla systems
  list.
- Radio chatter on the placeable radios is always available now (it no longer needs GM Tools).
- Still requires EXPBG Audio Data (198987BE7BAC4C84); the Ambient Sounds recordings were already in it.
- Distant shelling, the firefights, the jet flybys, the premixed battles and all 28 "Sound: ..." modules
  now keep playing through their quiet passages instead of being cut off by the engine after a few
  seconds at long range (the distant shelling ended after 0.25 s and 10.9 s of its 131 s). An Ambient
  Sounds war sound the engine still ends early is logged as `evicted` (debug) instead of `finished`, and
  a premixed battle cut this way starts again for that player after 3 to 30 s. (#6)
- Less work on the first Ambient Sounds start of a session: at most one recording is played for the first
  time per update (another waits a quarter second), and the start no longer builds its event name and
  arguments every time; the debug play lines show `cold=1` for a first use. Nothing is preloaded. (#5)
- Tests: new server fixtures for the war playback rules and for all 28 placed sounds (start, stop, native
  save document and restore), Ambient Sounds join-in-progress checks in the client smoke run, and a
  listening checklist and first-use measurement plan in docs/TESTING.md. (#6, #5)

0.1.6

- CDF Game Master Save restores radios as they were: a placed radio switched off during a picked
  song comes back off and silent (it no longer plays the song again), a save keeps a song only while
  it really plays, and a radio's song queue is kept. Restored car radios start on a random station
  like new ones, not all on the first station. Music Zones keep their trigger state: a zone that
  already played does not fire again for the first player after a reload, and a zone song that was
  playing goes on where it was. These are stored as save-only attributes the Game Master dialog does
  not show.
- Car radio notice: shown once per player per server session (also across reconnects), the first time
  he drives a vehicle, a few seconds after getting in; never for passengers. It is a small notice at the
  top of the screen with the player's current key for the radio panel, so it is seen even with the
  game's hints switched off. Radio refusal messages use the same notice.
- Less network and script work: Game Master edits that change nothing no longer update the radio,
  internal revision counters are no longer sent to clients, the station schedule does not run while
  the mod is switched off, debug lines are only built with debug on, saving skips the radio checks on
  characters, groups and waypoints, and the song picker no longer searches every row on a click.
- A radio's update reaches the playback and an open radio panel once per frame instead of once per
  changed setting, and the radio actions no longer copy the radio's state every frame while you look at
  the radio.
- A player who joins while radios play now hears them fade out at the mission's range: a radio that
  started before the server's settings arrived restarts at the same moment of the song with the right
  range.
- Music Zones: after a mission change the first zone song mutes the game's ambient music again (it could
  stay unmuted before).

0.1.5

- Radio presets are saved with CDF Game Master Save: placeable radios (power, volume, station, lock,
  song), car radio settings and Music Zone module settings are now editor attributes CDF keeps and
  restores (the save system's restore is accepted on the server; Game Master edits keep the same
  checks).
- Music Zone: new On switch, OFF by default, so a newly placed zone plays no music until the Game
  Master switches it on (it then plays when the first player enters, as before). Switching it off stops
  its music.

0.1.4

- Radios no longer cut off or pop in at the edge of their range. A placed radio's and a car radio's
  sound now fades to silence at the mission's range (vehicle or prop range, rounded to the nearest 5 m
  between 20 and 60 m) instead of always at 60 m, and the radio starts again as soon as a listener is
  back within its range, at the same moment of the song. Leaving the range clears the restart delay,
  and a start refused at the edge of hearing is retried on the next 2 s check instead of after up to
  30 s. Starts fade in over 0.6 s; stops for distance, the voice limit, muting or a song change fade out
  over 0.8 s. Switching a radio off still stops it at once with its click. Radios are somewhat quieter
  at middle distances when the range is set below 60 m.
- Car-radio military chatter starts within 30 m (keeps playing to 35 m), with the same retry rules.
- Music zones: a song the audio engine ends early is started again at the shared moment (it went
  silent before), and a volume change crossfades instead of cutting.

0.1.3

- New entity browser art: the Music Zone module has its own card and gold icon
  (it showed the EXPBG badge before). No behaviour change.
- The audio dependency is EXPBG Audio Data 0.1.3 (the 0.1.2 note named 0.1.2 by
  mistake; that version was never published).

0.1.2

- Workshop listing: a short feature list, licence Arma Public License (APL).
Maintenance release: the audio dependency is now named EXPBG Audio Data (same item); no functional change.
- The audio pack `198987BE7BAC4C84` (formerly EXPBG Ambient Radio Audio) is now the Workshop item
  **EXPBG Audio Data** 0.1.2: the same music and audio project, plus the EXPBG GM Tools sounds, which moved
  there so that GM Tools and this mod share one data mod. Nothing changes for this mod's scripts or radios.
- The Workshop description no longer carries a version number.

0.1.1

Still requires EXPBG Ambient Radio Audio 0.1.1; the audio pack is unchanged.
- Placed radios start switched off: a radio placed by the Game Master (or in a mission) stays silent
  until a player or the GM switches it on. The radio component's *Autoplay* setting is now off by
  default; mission makers can still tick it on a radio in the world.
- Changing the volume applies to the song that is playing (radio panel, *Volume up/down*, the GM
  *Volume* and *Radio volume* attributes, the master volume). It no longer waits for the next song or a
  skip. In the radio panel a slider moved with the mouse, the keyboard or a gamepad is applied within
  half a second while the panel is open, and an update of another radio or a station no longer resets
  it; a change made just before getting out or walking away is dropped instead of being refused.
- Car radios are quieter: they start at 40 % (placed radios stay at 60 %), their sound is 6 dB quieter
  than a placed radio's, and the vehicle's own occupants hear them a little quieter still (applied as
  soon as they get in or out). Players can turn them up in the panel as before.
- Car radios are now really positional: a mono point source on the vehicle's dashboard that moves with
  the vehicle and fades with distance like the vanilla radio (1/r from 1 m, out to 60 m). Placed radios
  keep their 0.1.0 loudness and fall-off and also play as a mono point source. The air absorption of
  both follows the distance while a song plays. The sound comes from a new audio project in the core
  (`EAR_Radio3D.acp`), which plays the audio pack's songs, so no new audio pack is needed.
- The song queue holds up to 10 songs (was 5). The song picker shows all ten, and a full queue says so.
- Music and car-radio chatter each have their own voice budget: each player hears the nearest radios
  with music (placed radios and car radios, 6 by default, as before) and, in addition, the nearest car
  radios with military chatter (4 by default, new server setting `m_iMaxChatterVoices`). The separate
  budgets keep music from taking the chatter's place.
- Radios no longer restart their song or replay the switch-on click when a player or the Game Master
  camera moves around the edge of their range: a radio keeps playing 5 m past its range, and the click
  plays only when the radio is really switched on.
- Radio music holds its place when many other sounds play nearby (generators, building work, battle
  noise) and when it is turned down or heard from far away, instead of being dropped and started over.
  If the game still drops it, it picks the song up again at the right point, waiting a little longer
  each time (2, 6, 15, then 30 s, also when the radio is turned down and up again or a nearer radio
  takes its voice in the meantime) instead of retrying every two seconds.
- A radio turned down to 0 % no longer retries playback every two seconds or blocks another radio from
  playing. Turning it up resumes the song at the right point, without a click.
- Car-radio military chatter (with EXPBG GM Tools) now starts whenever a player comes within 27 m of the
  vehicle while at least 20 s of the recording are left, not only in the first three seconds of a
  recording. It plays from the start of the recording (the recordings cannot start in the middle) and
  comes back when the game drops it, again while at least 20 s are left (after 2, 6, 15, then 30 s
  while that keeps happening, counted afresh for each recording). If the game only rates it inaudible
  for a moment, it tries again two seconds later. Up to 4 vehicles play chatter at once, nearest first.
- Less work in the background: the server's once-a-second radio check and each player's two-second
  playback check now skip every vehicle whose radio is off, instead of reading the radio state of every
  vehicle in the mission, and a vehicle that streams in with its radio off no longer triggers an extra
  playback check.
- Known limitation (unchanged since 0.1.0): radio settings are not part of a Game Master session save.
  After a saved session is loaded (vanilla or CDF Game Master save), placed radios and car radios start
  again with their defaults, now switched off; in 0.1.0 placed radios came back switched on.

0.1.0