I've only had the game for about 2 weeks, but it's "always" been that way since then Also, to be specific, I can hear other sound effects besides "machine guns". Getting close to a capital ship will result in a hum/rumble, and clicking things/ships will cause their speech/sound to play as normal. It just seems to be other weapons effects that are absent.
I take it since you ask this question that there are other sounds in the game and it's likely my system? That's good to know.
Specs:
System Manufacturer / Model GIGABYTE / G7 MD
System Type x64-based PC
Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz, 2304 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 16 Logical Processor(s)
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU, NVIDIA compatible
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory 4.11 GB
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*Sound Drivers*
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Name NVIDIA High Definition Audio
Manufacturer NVIDIA
Status OK
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Name NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
Manufacturer NVIDIA
Status OK
--------------------------------------------------
Name Realtek High Definition Audio
Manufacturer Realtek
Status OK