Voice Acting?

[Dwarfare]

I searched but came up with as little as I went in with, so I guess I'll post.

 

I was wondering, will there be much voice acting in the game (If you feel that it's a bad thing, all I feel I need to say is "You dare to attack me here? You will suffer! You will ALL suffer!")? Will it be prevalent throughout, or more like Baldur's Gate and whatnot, with certain parts by NPCs spoken during cutscenes, flavor chat as you walk about the cities? What about vocal banter between your companions?

 

What about the PC? A few custom voice sets to choose from for all the little in between bits (combat, commenting on the weather and that woman in the red dress) in order to stylize him/her a little bit more towards your ideal? I'm assuming non-spoken text from your dialogue selections, though I could be wrong, there.

 

Or is this all far too early to tell?

Edited October 17, 2012 by Dwarfare

[Coincidence]

I believe they said the "important" things will be voiced, but generally it will just be text you read.

[Sylvius the Mad]

I believe they said the "important" things will be voiced, but generally it will just be text you read.

And I would take that to mean: a BG or NWN level of voice-over. They'll probably voice opening lines and character-defining lines, but most lines will not be voiced.

[Keyrock]

I believe they said the "important" things will be voiced, but generally it will just be text you read.

And I would take that to mean: a BG or NWN level of voice-over. They'll probably voice opening lines and character-defining lines, but most lines will not be voiced.

Pretty much. Probably only major characters and main quest type stuff, and, like you wrote, a few opening lines or a paragraph or two at most. Definitely not anything past where out character(s) get to make a choice of replies since the devs have actively said how much easier it is to do branching dialogue when it's just text.

[jivex5k]

Personally I want the PC to be silent.

I hated choosing a voice when none of them sound like me.

I don't want to hear a grunt, groan, or annoying battle cry when I click.

But by all means put it in the game for others, just give me the option to disable it.

 

VOs, leave them as sprinkles so the dialogue can be richer and more varied.

Edited October 17, 2012 by jivex5k

[jarpie]

I wouldn't want ANY voiceacting in Project Eternity, just waste of the small budget.

[Keyrock]

Personally I want the PC to be silent.

I hated choosing a voice when none of them sound like me.

 

VOs, leave them as sprinkles so the dialogue can be richer and more varied.

I imagine that we will however have the short dialogue bits that characters make in combat, when hurt, when selected, etc. (e.g. follow me everyone, I'm really hurt here, taste my steel!)

[Ieo]

Obsidian already confirmed (somewhere, interviews, so many) that the VA level will be same as BG, only the beginning bits and the rest text. Which is great. Lots of reasons to do it that way, too, but I can't be bothered to cite at the moment. --> This is for the party NPCs; I don't remember hearing anything about PC voice specifically. Probably BG level, would be my guess.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Ieo

[Coincidence]

Obsidian already confirmed (somewhere, interviews, so many) that the VA level will be same as BG, only the beginning bits and the rest text. Which is great. Lots of reasons to do it that way, too, but I can't be bothered to cite at the moment.

 

Voice actors are very expensive and kind of force you to write less dialogue?

[Keldorn]

Not only is limited voice acting good for the relatively small budget of Project: Eternity, it also solves the potentially huge problem of bland voice acting (over time). Sure, everything voice acted may seem great at first, but once you've spent several hours in the game, it kind of gets tedious! I was annoyed tremendously by the voice acting in Oblivion, and even - but somewhat less - in Skyrim. Not only because of the repeating dialogue (which is more comfortable to read than to hear), but also because of the repeated use of the same voice actor/actress!

 

I enjoyed the way Baldur's Gate was voice acted.

[lolaldanee]

honestly i think the "only the beginning and not the rest of the dialog" thing is not that great an idea

i'd rather see it if they would do the important dialogs complete, and not so important ones not at all

having half the dialog voiced just seems odd to me, and always has

 

aaah to bad there isn't the money for full voice acting

[Piccolo]

The less voice acting the better.

[Ieo]

Obsidian already confirmed (somewhere, interviews, so many) that the VA level will be same as BG, only the beginning bits and the rest text. Which is great. Lots of reasons to do it that way, too, but I can't be bothered to cite at the moment.

 

Voice actors are very expensive and kind of force you to write less dialogue?

 

Yep.

 

And the cost skyrockets alongside logistics issues as dialogue is refined and edited down the line, meaning VA has to be redone; I believe it was Avellone who described how, with full VA scheduling and whatever, that aspect of the game had to be locked down months ahead of time compared to textual dialogue content that can be continually tweaked right up into beta. Interesting stuff. And I think it was a Feargus Q&A that mentioned the average VA costs.

 

Honestly, I think one of the most fascinating things about the Kickstarter was that many aspects of the game development industry are made more transparent to otherwise unknowing and overly demanding players...

[Ruka]

BG Style: If Morgan Freeman voices one of your party members for free of charge then yes! Seriously though, the budget isn't really big enough to include a lot of va so I wouldn't mind reading text.

[Coincidence]

Morgan Freeman should voice every single character in the game. Including the women.

[BrutaleBent]

As I'm an avid BG2 fanboy, I think it got just the right amount of voice acting needed to make it great. The more the sweeter, if done right, but I understand budgets... and stuff... >.>

[el pinko grande]

I'd like a few lines of dialog for each companion NPC when you first meet them, and maybe some battle shouts as well. I feel like having a voice associated with the NPCs is a good thing. But otherwise, it's not something I want lots of the game's budget going towards.

 

The PC should definitely be silent, except possibly for some battle cries.

[Ieo]

Morgan Freeman should voice every single character in the game. Including the women.

 

It's pretty bad that when I see "Morgan Freeman" and "voice acting," I think of penguins, isn't it?

 

PC should be silent for the quest dialogue, but I would like more soundsets for the battle/selection VO than BG/IWD.... Not many selections I liked for that.

[Dwarfare]

I would certainly like some voiced combat bits, which is like BG, and a largely voiced antagonist.

 

For example, David Warner's portrayal of Jon Irenicus really made that character for me. If his lines had only been text, I doubt that I myself could've imagined anything quite as perfect as he made it, nor would I have enjoyed the rest of his non-voiced dialogue nearly as much as I did without Warner's interpretation to serve as a template for it. Having some bit of (good) voice acting for all major characters who are to have a fair amount of dialogue would be incredibly helpful, in my opinion, towards giving the player a better feel for the tone of the character (tone in this sense being both how he sounds and what kind of person he is). You can read something and take it a hundred different ways, in a hundred different styles, but when you hear it, it's quite a bit more visceral, gets me in touch with who this character is and what he is like much better than text alone.

 

That isn't, of course, to say I'm in favor of voicing all lines. A little something at the beginning to give you a better feel for the character, tidbits interspersed here and there at important points, where voice acting would really have the most effect (Jahiera's lines spring to mind, when she finds a certain something has happened in Irenicus' dungeon. Sorry, Jahiera. No smoke. No mirrors). That would, in my opinion, be quite perfect, and avoid devouring the budget while getting the most out of the characters.

 

Although, all things considered, I suppose I could also say that the phrase "Do it like Baldur's Gate" can never really go far wrong in my book.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Dwarfare

[Conconhead]

I love voice acting, don't get me wrong. I do v/o work on occasion. That said, it's a bit game-breaking. I don't envision my character talking like that... 'I wouldn't say that!? Why do I sound so stupid?' I LOVE the v/o on SW:TOR - but it's a little annoying that every Class has the same male/female voice. If you have more than one Jedi Knight or Bounty Hunter in your party of the same gender, they'll both sound alike. My twi'lek is supposed to be a lowly servant. Why does she sound all haughty and superior?

 

I wouldn't mind if there's v/o for some of the game, but the main character shouldn't have to talk. I do like it when there's 'noise' options -like if I'm hit I'll make this sound, or go oooh when I find this item, or this kind of cheer when I am victorious. But don't force everyone to 'sound' alike.

[Ethereal]

I'd rather there be no voice acting outside of background ambiance. SWTOR proved pretty well that the cost of expanding fully-voiced games is just astronomical, and I don't want this to become a game that can never be more than its original form. Let Project Eternity live! Live! Live and Grow!

Edited October 17, 2012 by Ethereal

[Karkarov]

Yeah a Baldur's Gate level of VA is what they should do and it is what they are doing. Good on Obsidian.

[Zephyr Falcon]

Voice Acting at key points and when introducing important characters. Simply hearing the tone of someones voice can tell so much about a person.

 

I really want to see lots of variations when it comes to the activation and reaction sounds of the party members, since those are the sounds I'm going to hear constantly throughout the game. So a constant repetition of "It's me, Imoen" can wear you down like water wears down a stone.

 

And in a game with less VA content-based modding can be far easier and better integrated. I'm reminded of some very good DA:O or Skyrim mods that are hampered by poor (or rather non-professonal) voice work. Compare that to the massive banter mod for BG1.

[Pshaw]

I personally like voice acting so long as it's done well. Mass effect did this the best in a game with choices but even so it had lots of ambigous dialogue that covered both the 'good' and 'renegade' choices in order to save on VO costs. Still I prefer it over DA:O or Kingdoms of Amalur where my main character stood around mutely while everybody else around him was fully voiced.

 

Still NWN and BG were just fine in terms of voice acting. I'd rather have it this way considering the budget as the VO costs would cut a huge amount of content.

[Kuroiryuu]

I'm perfectly happy with Baldur's Gate levels. Enough to give us more of a taste of the characters and events, but not so much that it constrains the writing.

 

I really want to see lots of variations when it comes to the activation and reaction sounds of the party members, since those are the sounds I'm going to hear constantly throughout the game. So a constant repetition of "It's me, Imoen" can wear you down like water wears down a stone.

 

Ugh. So very, very true.