So as you all know, animals make sounds, and I feel as if this would be the case for extraterrestrials as well. So my question is, how will sounds work? Will there be a list of sounds you can choose from?
And another question, will there be specific calls (For example, The Isle has 1 as broadcast, 2 as friendly, 3 as threaten, and 4 as help)?
This is probably something thatās been considered before, although a quick search across all our forums hasnāt found any past discussions.
None of us really know since itās too far in the future for us to have a rigorous concept yet. If I had to guess, Iād say you will pick from a specified list of sound types, perhaps with some modifiers such as frequency or length. Who knows, maybe weāll even allow the player to record their own?
Ooohhh, i could have a bird that sings darude - sandstorm with this idea?
Also on the topic of communication we should also think about how the environment would cause senses to develop. Like how bats are mostly blind from being in caves so much and how some animals are bioluminescent. Say a planet had a lot of thermal vents (for the purpose of having an energy source) and little light would reach the surface do to some light blocking clouds, the creatures that evolved there would have no need for eyes like we have here on earth. These creatures may evolve to see in Infrared light or would use sonar so āseeā. These things would make it so that some forms of communication simply could not happen, like bright colors or fur patterns.
Maybe animal noises could work similarly to voices in The Sims. Just a random though 
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I can only imagine a microbe going:
āBarnibi Zoombay Zaweeb ah Gwebbā
I was imagining more whale noises
More like high pitched whale noises
Make this an easter egg!!!
Go program it yourself once weāre at 2.0.0.
I think there should be preset soundtypes, but that can be modified with pitch and so on, like @Oliveriver said. With that said, not all animals can make the same sounds, so the type of mouth (jaw, teeth, tongue, vocal chords, you get the idea) probably narrows down your choices to more biologically suited calls. As for what each call does, you can probably enter a call editor where you mix the call so itās different for each situation, whether itās a mating call or a territorial call.
Although, not all creatures use call for the same reason, so the number of uses for your calls will probably be determined by how your creature socially acts. For example, is it a pack animal, or is it solitary? Does it contest the leader of the pack, or does it defend its territory? Does it coordinate with the hive? These are all important questions that can determine if you can roar or only squeak.
A really intuitive, but excessive way to create sounds within a creature would be custom made āvoice boxesā these could obviously beā¦ well, voice boxes, but could also be akin to crests in some dinosaurs. The simulation could blow a fluid through this at a designated point and the way it bounces off the interior would affect the noise. This is completely excessive like I said and if we donāt make this possible with all body parts it would seem out of place, but I still think itās cool to talk about.
Obviously, a sound builder in the behaviour editor. Like, Cāmon guys, the choice is clear. Just a builder that allows you to create different frequencies that you can assign different hotkeys for. The devs can literally add a default wave where you can increase the time and frequency length shown on the builder graph, and just pull the curves. Then you can play a preview. Idk how hard it is to make a sound reader software, but it canāt be as hard as converting to another engine, right? (Also, when I say it was obvious it was meant as a joke). However, there will be limits, as too all you guys are saying. Sounds develop through vibrations. If there are no vibrations, no sound is created. Also, sound travels through mediums like air and water, Basically fluids are where it moves best. So if you have an low pressure atmosphere, sound will be quiet because in space, no one can hear you scream. It will also depend on the organismās audio detection systems. If the creature canāt sense audio, sound wonāt matter. If you do however, how will sound be applied to the player themselves, not the creature? Maybe the sounds can be heard on the speaker, sounds out of our hearing range scrunched, spread, or translated to be audible to the human ear. Perhaps their can be sound markers like in most shooter games, where the better you hear the sound, the more visible the marker will be. Maybe a combination of both? But presets sound sad and boring. 1 star, would not by again.