Why do we hear random radio messages between strangers?

[lurker]

Unfortunately X4 has been built on the requests of players, but the only players left in the game were Rebirth players, so we are getting the rubbish they wanted.

Speak for yourself, I'm an X2/X3 player who didn't like rebirh but does like this.

Although I agreee that it would benefit from more variety, and that there would be no harm in having an 'off switch' for those who don't like it.

[mr.WHO]

I was a persn who wanted the readio chatter and I think it's implemented well in X4.

Hower I do thing that some volume level tuning in various scenarios (e.g. far in space, close in space, sittion on the station) is needed - Many times I found it either too lound or too quiet.

[Axeface]

Im shocked to see someone say they dont like it. Its one of the first things I noticed and I love it.
It could use more variety though, I think its actually quite important to do that. Also, many lines should be quite a bit quiety as to not confuse the player, like the drop your freight one.

Making it much less audible might also improve it a lot, more static, less (but normalised) volume, more cut outs... so most of the time its quite hard to actually hear what they are saying.

[Artean]

I enjoy them! And glad that station announcements are back too! Though the latter could sure use a good portion of reverb on them. Currently, they sound to dry given the large areas.

[Phinixa]

I absolutely love the radio chatter. The universe feels way more alive thanks to that. But I do agree: It needs to be more distinctive! Sometimes I myself get confused, especially if you have illegal wares on your ship xD.
I think a visual indicator on the talking ships could also help, just like in Freelancer where the bounding rectangle turned yellowish when 2 NPCs had a dialogue between each other.

[Zippo342]

I'd find it more interesting if I knew they weren't talking to me. As it is, I have problems telling. It's just, "Scanning your cargo. Drop your cargo." on repeat, and I don't know if they're talking to me most of the time.

[Norway174]

I think a visual indicator on the talking ships could also help

This is already a thing. If you look in the map, the "talking" ship has a speaker icon above their icon.

On another note, I love this feature as well. Someone earlier described it as immersion breaking. For me, it's the opposite, I think it adds to the immersion. And makes the universe feel more alive.

[Phinixa]

I think a visual indicator on the talking ships could also help

This is already a thing. If you look in the map, the "talking" ship has a speaker icon above their icon.

On another note, I love this feature as well. Someone earlier described it as immersion breaking. For me, it's the opposite, I think it adds to the immersion. And makes the universe feel more alive.

Oh didn't know that! though the icon may be hard to notice because everything is colored blueish xD