I have been very careful so far not to use any copyrighted elements in the client.
This is so that I can release the client onto the public domain, and people can use any element they wish to make other, better clients. I guess I could require some kindof license, like GPL, but I really don't want to require anything (even attribution) off people if they reuse my code, or any other part of the client.
If you'd be happy releasing sound effects onto the public domain, for anyone to use, then that would be wonderful 
I'd be more than happy to list you, and a link to your homepage, in the "Help->about" page, too
The alternative is our upcoming "skinning interface". People will be able to provide "skins" to the client, which will be sold through the website (skin creators will get a "royalty" from these sales, so it'slikely that these will need to be released under some kind of copyrighted license).
These skins will allow users to change the look and sound of their client. You might want to do the whole skin yourself, or create the audio part of a skin, and team up with a graphic artist.
Either way, we have the following sound events programmed in, that could trigger sounds. Files are not needed for all of them, and any missing ones will simply not be played.
Dwarf move.
Dwarf capture.
Troll move.
Troll capture.
Board rotation clockwise.
Board rotation anticlockwise.
Select piece.
Unselect piece.
We can easily add in extra events, and plan (if we ever get audio for them) to add at least the following:
game start
game victory
game loss
game end
incoming game challenge
game challenge sent
acceptance sent
incoming acceptance
rejection sent
incoming rejection
game quit
...and probably a lot more. If you want an event trigger, just ask (preferably BEFORE the skinning protocol is set in stone!) and we can probably add one in.
Unfortunately, Java 1.1 only supports .au format audio, and I think it may be further restricted to being 8-bit mono. Since each sound file significantly increases the download size, the files need to be very short.
The zipped size of the client is currently just 268kb including all audio and graphics: only about 16kb of this is audio.
However, there will be other client made by other people, which will also support the skinning, and will be able to cope with better audio. So long as the .au files exist, other clients can say they can cope with other formats, (eg mp3) and will be given them instead, if they are available.
The above was written in PM to reply to Toerag Jack's query about whether he could be of any use with the sounds.
I think its great being able to play this game for free.
Tomorrow i will begin work recording sounds that i think might be appropriate. Perhaps you could put this in the forum so people can suggest ideas.
I will send you the files once i have a few and i have no problem with releasing onto the public domain.
Hope to read many suggestions for sounds soon.
Cheers
Toerag Jack
Waytago! Hurray for community endeavours!
Can't wait to see... er, hear what you come up with 
(speaking of skinning, rich text coming out shortly: here's a preview. The "blink" and "marquee" tags are giving me trouble, as is the mapping of colour names to values: does anyone know the correct RGB value for "octarine"?.)[img][/img]
does anyone know the correct RGB value for "octarine"?.)
#888888?
oops, I mean #7a7a7a of course 
Sound ideas
Not sure if all of these would be legal as some of them are direct quotes from the book even if they are short.
But these are my initial thoughts.
Select Piece
Select troll -------------------------------Do I Get em
Select Dwarf------------------------------Let me At em
Move Dwarf -----------------------------------Running feet
Move Troll------------------------------------Stomping&dragging
Dwarf Capture-----------------------Throw IM!!!!!!!!!
Dwarf Capture(1 Dwarf) ---------- Stone cracking
Troll Capture ------------------Kick me inna Rocks eh?
Troll Shove ---------------------Go on, Get out der
Rotate Board Clockwise
Rotate Board Anticlockwise
Games Start --------------------Koom Valley
Game Win -----------------------Fanfare
Game lose ------------------------Crying
Game Draw ----------------------Its no fun In the rain
Troll win ------------------------HIM DIAMOND
Dwarf win --------------------------To kill a troll is an act of Charity
game end
incoming game challenge -------- Is that my cow?
game challenge sent ---------------Is that my cow?
acceptance sent -------------------Moo
incoming acceptance -------------- It is my Cow
rejection sent ---------------------Bugrit
incoming rejection ---------------- He is foul Ol Ron
game quit
does anyone know the correct RGB value for "octarine"?.)
#888888?
oops, I mean #7a7a7a of course 
Re: Sound ideas
Not sure if all of these would be legal as some of them are direct quotes from the book even if they are short.
But these are my initial thoughts.
I think you could claim reasonable useage
Rotate Board Clockwise
Rotate Board Anticlockwise
surely you mean spinwise and widdershins tho i think the grinding noise at the mo is more apropriate but if you could do it in stereo left to right and right to left as appropiate that would be better as too much talking i think would detract from the game and the spinning of board is somthing you do whilst trying to judge position and thinking.
Other than that i quite like the sound ideas
SANEAlex
Yeah i didnt mean say spin board clockwise
i meant i have no idea what sound to make
same with game end and game quit
i could just stereo the noise already there to make it left to right r to l
seems like and easy idea.
I recorded lots of the ones i wrote today got a good step for the trolls.
So far it comes off as a bit warcraft 2 ish
trolls sound a little like orcs peons or whatever their called
and i seem to be unable to make a dwarf sound anything other than scotish
a true dillema.
but it should hopefully be togther shortly
Heee - looks like it's gonna be fun to hear!
Yeah i didnt mean say spin board clockwise
i meant i have no idea what sound to make
same with game end and game quit
i could just stereo the noise already there to make it left to right r to l
seems like and easy idea.
I recorded lots of the ones i wrote today got a good step for the trolls.
So far it comes off as a bit warcraft 2 ish
trolls sound a little like orcs peons or whatever their called
and i seem to be unable to make a dwarf sound anything other than scotish
a true dillema.
but it should hopefully be togther shortly
I think the dwarfs are more meant to be Welsh (the little blue guys are more Scots) tho possibley Welsh with Scotish weapons battle axes(same Celtic traditional weapons) and chain mail etc and if you pardon the pun throwing a dwarf it would be more appropriate casting the Di
IIRC the Welsh can look almost elvish ("Hey, are you Elvish?"). Harp users. Very soggy, though. (Soul Music's hero was from Llamados)
IIRC the Welsh can look almost elvish ("Hey, are you Elvish?"). Harp users. Very soggy, though. (Soul Music's hero was from Llamados)
Yes those are the ones above ground but a lot of the early discworld dwarfs seemed to be based on welsh miners before the major transison to uberwald that had more of an eastern block feel. But as pTerry has said in discworld they can be more than one trouser leg of time or words to that effect.
SA
Very interesting discusion on welsh and non welsh dwarves
hindered only by the fact i dont even know how to do a welsh accent
but that really should stop you
lol
Ah, yeah: good call
Though the Dwarf archetype has always seemd more a Norse thing to me. Sortof, short-dark-Norse, though, not tall-fair-norse.
When recording sounds, it's important to ask "How much can they be shrunk, when converted to 8bit mono .au?"
While audio of any size is fine for skins (a 10M skin is fine, though may not be hugely popular), small will always be better - remember, not only the player, but also their opponents will be downloading the skin. If the download is too big, then they will never bother.
My main criteria when choosing the existing sounds was "what public domain sounds are the smallest?" - only once I had a collection of really tiny sounds did I search through them for sounds that might be closest in meaning to what I wanted. All of them are 1kb to 2kb, other than the troll move, which is 10k - I just couldn't find anything suitable that was smaller
Another thing to ask is "will this sound be annoying once it's been played 1000 times?" (the answer is less likely to be "yes" if the sound is short).
Another thing to ask is "will this sound be intelligible when overlaid with other sounds?" The only sound which is regularly overlaid is the dwarf capture, where up to seven can be playing at the same time. I suggest "Ow!" or something like that for that one: Hamlet's soliloquy is probably inappropriate here, as it would be an unintelligible mess when seven of them were playing at once.