Why is it still not possible to turn off the narrator?

[Yosharian]

I don't like the narrator's performance, I don't mean that as a slight on the voice actress but I just don't care for it.

 

I know for a fact I'm not the only one who doesn't like it.

 

It's understandable that the game would not release with an option to turn off the narrator, since this perhaps wasn't expected.

 

However, we are now months past release and there is still not an option in the settings to mute the narration.

 

I'm just wondering why?  Is it too difficult to code this in as an option?  Are the devs unwilling to give us this option?

 

A response would be nice.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Yosharian

[InsaneCommander]

Isn't there a mod for it? I'm not saying that you should use a mod, but that if there is already a mod, then I imagine it should be easy to implement.

[house2fly]

I just use the mod. Can you not turn off voice acting or lower the volume to 0 in the menu?

[xzar_monty]

This is a really good question. The narrator is very poor, and not giving the player an option to turn it off is just unnecessary.

[Achilles]

This is a really good question. The narrator is very poor, and not giving the player an option to turn it off is just unnecessary.

Right. You just create a button that says “Turn off narrator”. How hard can that be?

[aksrasjel]

Didn't D:OS 2 sidestep this issue by giving players the seperate volume slider for "Narrator" in the options menu? I wonder if the same thing can be done here.

Admittedly, I might be 100% wrong here, but I suspect that the narrator volume in Deadfire might be hardcoded into overall voice acting volume and seperating the two might be more problematic than it seems.

How does the mod work? Does it simply rename / remove the narration files or their triggers?

 

And for the record, I don't mind the narration - but it's more due to the fact that I really like Ashley Johnson. But I think even she was bored by being made to act as a glorified audiobook. It doesn't play to her strengths.

Edited September 19, 2018 by aksrasjel

[the_dog_days]

Why haven't they? Probably other priorities and while a popular opinion on the forums, the dislike of the narration isn't wide spread. (Honestly, I think she didn't the best voice work in the while game.)

[Yosharian]

Isn't there a mod for it? I'm not saying that you should use a mod, but that if there is already a mod, then I imagine it should be easy to implement.

 

 

I just use the mod. Can you not turn off voice acting or lower the volume to 0 in the menu?

 

I figured someone would mention the mod.  It hasn't been updated, and I'm reluctant to use a mod that hasn't been kept up to date, and risk losing tens of hours of playtime to an unfixable bug caused by a mod.

[daven]

Why haven't they? Probably other priorities and while a popular opinion on the forums, the dislike of the narration isn't wide spread. (Honestly, I think she didn't the best voice work in the while game.)

Huh?

[algroth]

Personally I don't mind the narrator at all, actually I rather like her tone and delivery. But if there is something I'd like to see removed, it's the "He says" unwritten lines that follow the gods' dialogues. I find it jarring and unnecessary myself.

[xzar_monty]

The problem with the narrator is extremely simple. She reads the text very slowly, a lot slower than I read, so I would rather read the text myself to get along with the game. But reading the text while the narrator is also reading that same text aloud, lagging behind me, is extraordinarily jarring. It has nothing to do with the quality of the narrative performance.

[Multihog]

Personally I don't mind the narrator at all, actually I rather like her tone and delivery. But if there is something I'd like to see removed, it's the "He says" unwritten lines that follow the gods' dialogues. I find it jarring and unnecessary myself.

The thing is, though, that there are other people who play this game. That you don't mind the narration doesn't mean that many people wouldn't benefit from and enjoy the option to turn it off.

 

As others have mentioned already, it's also a simple thing to implement, so there's really no excuse for not having it—especially considering how vocal people have been about it here on the forums. There's unquestionable demand for it. 

 

I'm going off on a bit of a tangent here, but I'm of the opinion that going for full voice acting was a poor choice on the whole. I always read faster than the voice acting plays out, so I either end up waiting for it to finish, which is jarring, or I skip half the voice line. How the old IE games, and PoE1, handled it was elegant: voice a couple of lines to give the player an idea what the character's voice sounds like, and leave the rest to their imagination. It's easy, an innate human ability, to imagine a voice for the rest of the lines. It also confers the additional benefit of being able to add more lines into the game or edit dialogue without it seeming inconsistent with the rest. On top of that, I'm sure the full voice acting cost a lot of money, money that could've been spent on other, more important things such as perhaps writing more dialogue. 

Edited September 19, 2018 by Multihog

[house2fly]

 

Isn't there a mod for it? I'm not saying that you should use a mod, but that if there is already a mod, then I imagine it should be easy to implement.

I just use the mod. Can you not turn off voice acting or lower the volume to 0 in the menu?

I figured someone would mention the mod. It hasn't been updated, and I'm reluctant to use a mod that hasn't been kept up to date, and risk losing tens of hours of playtime to an unfixable bug caused by a mod.

all it does is replace some sound files, it's not going to break your game any more than adding some portraits would Edited September 19, 2018 by house2fly

[house2fly]

As others have mentioned already, it's also a simple thing to implement

 

So easy to implement that it has in fact already been implemented

 

[Yosharian]

 

 

Isn't there a mod for it? I'm not saying that you should use a mod, but that if there is already a mod, then I imagine it should be easy to implement.

I just use the mod. Can you not turn off voice acting or lower the volume to 0 in the menu?

I figured someone would mention the mod. It hasn't been updated, and I'm reluctant to use a mod that hasn't been kept up to date, and risk losing tens of hours of playtime to an unfixable bug caused by a mod.

all it does is replace some sound files, it's not going to break your game any more than adding some portraits would

 

 

From the Nexus:

 

The file "global.bnk" in this mod disables all combat sounds. 

Using the steam version.

 

 

Yeah piggybacking this comment to say that I'm having the same problem with a GOG version. New patch maybe?

 

 

If the mod doesn't work, it's not of any use.

 

 

 

As others have mentioned already, it's also a simple thing to implement

 

So easy to implement that it has in fact already been implemented

 

 

 

This is so obvious that it barely needs to be stated, but nevertheless: obviously I want a setting that turns off the narrator only, rather than ALL VOICES IN THE GAME.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Yosharian

[Multihog]

 

As others have mentioned already, it's also a simple thing to implement

 

So easy to implement that it has in fact already been implemented

 

 

It says  "voice", not "narration". What do you suggest? Every time there's a segment with narration, am I supposed to load the game (because you can't open options while in a dialogue window), provided I saved just before, go to the sound options, and turn down the voice volume. Then, afterwards, I'm supposed to go back and turn it back up? Seems like a lot of tedious micromanagement for something that could have its own universal slider. 

Edited September 19, 2018 by Multihog

[house2fly]

So what would specifically be easy to implement is isolating all the narration files, reclassifying them as something other than voice acting so they're not affected by the voice acting slider, and putting in a separate slider to affect only those files. The guys who can't figure out how to open a mod folder and delete one file from it think this would be a piece of cake.

[Multihog]

So what would specifically be easy to implement is isolating all the narration files, reclassifying them as something other than voice acting so they're not affected by the voice acting slider, and putting in a separate slider to affect only those files. The guys who can't figure out how to open a mod folder and delete one file from it think this would be a piece of cake.

I see where you're coming from, and I'm sure it would take some effort, but based on the apparent demand for this feature, I think it would most likely be well worth it to implement into the game natively. 

[daven]

Just do it the good old fashioned way, whenever she speaks put your fingers in your ears and shout LALALALALALALALA

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

Hahahahah.

 

I've said it already:

 

I'll mash my face on the keyboard clicking that mute Narrator option :D.

 

She's not bad, but it's only reasonable to provide the option.  

[algroth]

 

Personally I don't mind the narrator at all, actually I rather like her tone and delivery. But if there is something I'd like to see removed, it's the "He says" unwritten lines that follow the gods' dialogues. I find it jarring and unnecessary myself.

The thing is, though, that there are other people who play this game. That you don't mind the narration doesn't mean that many people wouldn't benefit from and enjoy the option to turn it off.

I said the above to state my opinion about the narrator, not to argue against there being an option for turning the narrator's voice off. More to the point, though, I was going on a bit of a tangent myself, as you are about full voice-over (and which I generally disagree with too - I think it added a lot of immersion to the game and was by and large very well performed - and whilst I see the value of leaving much to one's imagination, I also believe there is great value in a performance as a means of delivery for those lines), and was actually addressing my one gripe about the narration which are the unscripted "they say" lines that follow each of the gods' dialogues.

 

So, more on this minor gripe of mine since I was writing from my phone in bed yesterday... I'm struggling to figure why they felt the need to add these lines into the voice-over and not to the text itself, this feels like a last-minute addition perhaps driven by a feeling that the enunciator of said lines wasn't clear enough? Though it's strange, because not only does the writing present each character pretty clearly, but the identity of the enunciator is further corroborated by the very distinct voice performances for each and a solid visual aid, whereby the enunciator is always in colour against an otherwise monochrome illustration. It is especially jarring too because unlike any other piece of dialogue or narration in the game, these moments are unique in the game inasmuch as they are the only situations where we have voiceover but no written text - so why not add said text if the devs felt the need to further clarify the enunciators and so on? This is a weird choice all around, not to mention a superfluous addition, and which feels distinctly out of place with the decisions taken throughout the game regarding text and voicing otherwise.

[InsaneCommander]

If the mod doesn't work, it's not of any use.

 

If the mod is causing problems then disabling the narrator is not as simple as it seems.

 

I don't mind listening to the narrator, but if I did I wouldn't risk using that mod either.

[Multihog]

 

 

Personally I don't mind the narrator at all, actually I rather like her tone and delivery. But if there is something I'd like to see removed, it's the "He says" unwritten lines that follow the gods' dialogues. I find it jarring and unnecessary myself.

The thing is, though, that there are other people who play this game. That you don't mind the narration doesn't mean that many people wouldn't benefit from and enjoy the option to turn it off.

I said the above to state my opinion about the narrator, not to argue against there being an option for turning the narrator's voice off. More to the point, though, I was going on a bit of a tangent myself, as you are about full voice-over (and which I generally disagree with too - I think it added a lot of immersion to the game and was by and large very well performed - and whilst I see the value of leaving much to one's imagination, I also believe there is great value in a performance as a means of delivery for those lines), and was actually addressing my one gripe about the narration which are the unscripted "they say" lines that follow each of the gods' dialogues.

Oh yes, I also appreciate great delivery. Absolutely. 

 

It's just that I don't feel like voice acting adds much to this type of game, which could be described more aptly as book-like rather than movie-like. I don't feel it complements that type of design very well. You're just looking at a text box anyway, which doesn't really leave much room to connect with the voice. Also, you'll probably want to read faster than the voice acting plays out because you most likely aren't accustomed to reading at a snail's pace, unless you're a slow reader. 

 

In contrast, for a fully 3D game with facial animations and cinematic camera angles, it's absolutely crucial, and convincing delivery is everything.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Multihog

[Achilles]

 

If the mod doesn't work, it's not of any use.

If the mod is causing problems then disabling the narrator is not as simple as it seems.

 

I don't mind listening to the narrator, but if I did I wouldn't risk using that mod either.

My understanding of the existing mod is that they replaced the existing sound files with null placeholders. Another approach would be to edit all the relevant conversation files to set each and every one of the VO values to false. So yeah, it is complicated.

[Wormerine]

The problem with the narrator is extremely simple. She reads the text very slowly, a lot slower than I read, so I would rather read the text myself to get along with the game. But reading the text while the narrator is also reading that same text aloud, lagging behind me, is extraordinarily jarring. It has nothing to do with the quality of the narrative performance.

While I can understand someone not liking the performance (though personally, I disagree) this is the weirded argument to be made, and I see it pop up over and over again.

 

Of course you can read it faster. Reading is faster, than reading aloud. Sure, she takes extra time, as she builds a scene, and creates atmosphere, but that is a weirdest criticism of voicacting I can think of. She is performing, not being a google translate "read" function.