Voice acting?

[Northen_Wolf]

Well u got my point ... Its kinda foolish that soldiers speak only english...

For example Chinese looking guy would speak chinese... I don't ask him to tell me a goodnight story, I'd like little comments on bf... Like i once asked is there possible to add some tag  "from where" to soldier once its created...

 Civilians should also make sounds, scream when they see an alien, run for they life, Searching for missing child/wife/man/sister, Crying at corpses... Whatever...

 Should there  be some base assistant who would say something like "entering to workshops" and on base attacks: "unknown life form(s) detected at living quarters A2" etc...

IMO no file of soldier is needed cuz we can see that in equip menu, but if some file is added then it should be something like :
Height: XXX Cm (XX inch) Age: XX years,
From: XXXX, Eye colo(u)r:XXX,
hair colo(u)r:XXX,
School(s) it passed [education: XXX at XXX school or army training base] (for fun only)...
When joined with army(Joined with army:),
When Joined with phalanx[Joined with palanx: XX.XX.XXXX),
How long time ago(in days or/and years)[Joined:,
Missions:XXX, Kills:XX  

Also ufopedia reading voice (that should be in english) would be nice but u should be able to shut him/her/it up....

i know its a lot of work, but what else is this project for to not show ur skills? and/or improve 'em (skills not alien belivers)

[sirg]

No, my position was that it's kind of weird that all the soldiers to speak different languages during combat. It's totally unrealistic. Besides, it would be like a tower of Babel, each with his/hers natural language. It's natural that each soldier learns some basic words in the accepted "official" language of that military organization, and uses those lines to communicate with the team. This isn't Age of Empires or Civilization IV, where each civ has its own voice set. If you like, some soldiers could have additional lines featuring their own language - everybody curses best in the native language but nothing more. Besides, it would be very difficult for a free project team to gather actors which speak Chinese, Indian, African languages, Persian, Japanese, etc. This game isn't developed by EA, so the devs have their limits. Even if you know people native from such countries, they have to feature some talent for voice acting. Thus, it's much more easier, and OK, to find one or two good voice actors, who can imitate accents and several voice tones, than a bunch of international professional cast of actors.

Think about how it is in a major soccer team in Europe - most of the players are from other countries, but still, on the pitch, they use a common language - Spanish, Italian, English, etc, usually that country's language. If a player doesn't know that language, he must learn the basics and most used words to be able to communicate with his team. It's natural for a military squad to follow the same principles. Any grunt will learn "yes, sir",  "roger that", "negative", etc quite easily.

I don't think creating a short bio file for each soldier would be much of a problem. Like you are saying - stats, some military background, reasons for joining the PHALANX, and yes, that's a good idea - a quick mission list.

[Northen_Wolf]

No, my position was that it's kind of weird that all the soldiers to speak different languages during combat. It's totally unrealistic. Besides, it would be like a tower of Babel, each with his/hers natural language. It's natural that each soldier learns some basic words in the accepted "official" language of that military organization, and uses those lines to communicate with the team. This isn't Age of Empires or Civilization IV, where each civ has its own voice set. If you like, some soldiers could have additional lines featuring their own language - everybody curses best in the native language but nothing more. Besides, it would be very difficult for a free project team to gather actors which speak Chinese, Indian, African languages, Persian, Japanese, etc. This game isn't developed by EA, so the devs have their limits. Even if you know people native from such countries, they have to feature some talent for voice acting. Thus, it's much more easier, and OK, to find one or two good voice actors, who can imitate accents and several voice tones, than a bunch of international professional cast of actors.

WHy am I confusing everyone?  :cry: Yeah, they talk english but few lines in theyr own languge, would be great like:
 When german gets hit he/she would say "Å¡hiÅ¡e"?  (dunno how to write it)[darn in german as much as i know]

  They would still talk in english, but add few words in theyr own languge when swearing or even using some words in theyr languge inside of english text... i know its difficult, and u guys are no EA (u are better), [btw was civ 4 made by EA?]

Also you should should understand that we can't have just 2-5 words or combination of words the units use as it gets boring soon enough, instead of negative, i propose:
"Negative" - when unit can't do certain thing
"No way, sir" (mam') - when unit can't do something and has certain level of moral(80-60?)
"No-can-do"(ich wil das nicht machen) - when player tryes to make something inpossible when out of TUs
"NO!"("niet" "nicht") - when unit has moral low and he can't do something
"Thats SUICIDE!"  --- when unit has got hit/moral low and u order him to move somewhere?
"Fuck you" --- unit is paniced or bersek...
/\
 I   Something like this, would it be accepteble? and possible with game engine and ufo:ai? and will there be (or is there) fear factor added ? [like when unit is scared he won't go stabing aliens, he won't go even near 'em?

I'D LIKE TO SAY SORRY FOR MY CRAPPY ENGLISH AND GERMAN (i have not learned german only've been watching rtl2 and mtv)
<emoticons>
< :idea: > Under "mission list", should it be just number of missions(Missions: (number passed) or missions: (click for list[like ufo assault 1,5,9,21, base assault 1,4, 5)
and how bout counting the wounded  being time, and total time in hospital?

How bout making missions and kills list clickeble? so u could see just number and  if u'd like then which alien killed on wich mission... Also adding friendly fire and friendly kills in "bio file"

 All non improtand strats (when joined, why joined, where joined, how long time back joined w army, which school (uni) he/she was) would be randomly generated.... Same as age and country tag could be also watched from that menu(BIO file). ITs nothing much of use in game but its  should be fun...  </ :idea: > </emoticons>

[sirg]

... i know its difficult, and u guys are no EA (u are better), [btw was civ 4 made by EA?]

You can't compare the development of almost any commercial game with the development of a free open source game which is made with passion, true, but in the developers' free time. Besides, think about the people behind Civilization IV - Sid Meier and his team... after so many successfull games, they can afford having their own companies and hiring professional actors, like Leonard Nemoy (1st officer Spock - Star Trek) to do their voice acting.

It would be great if the developers find enough talented people to make at least 2 or 3 quality voice sets. It's so easy to spoil a game with poor voice acting, so they should be picky.

Regarding the file for each soldier, I think those stats, including the "clickable mission list", are a bit useless. Some background won't hurt, but to much is pointless. Maybe, instead of counting how many aliens, civilians and pets a soldier has killed since birth, there could be a medal-award system. If the soldier kills more than 3 aliens in a mission gets the medal X, if the soldier makes more than 10 successful hits gets the medal Y, and so on.. but the medals should be awarded monthly. .. Just an idea...

[Northen_Wolf]

Regarding the file for each soldier, I think those stats, including the "clickable mission list", are a bit useless. Some background won't hurt, but to much is pointless. Maybe, instead of counting how many aliens, civilians and pets a soldier has killed since birth, there could be a medal-award system. If the soldier kills more than 3 aliens in a mission gets the medal X, if the soldier makes more than 10 successful hits gets the medal Y, and so on.. but the medals should be awarded monthly. .. Just an idea...

Is this only me or is this going WAY TOO OFF-Topic?<OFF TOPIC>(i like awards idea but how bout stunning stuff(read: "aliens and few "star trek" Spock too) too</OFF TOPIC>

Anyway, I just wanted that soldiers would say few words in theyr own languge... Most comments should be still in english, but few screams, swearings... why not? And i'd like ufopedia voice reading (if that isn't installed yet) but u should be able to force that reader to "shut up" as it might get annoying ....

[Reenen]

Ok, I read through the topic, and I want to add my 2c.

Voice acting (as in StarCraft when a unit is given an order) is great.

One first click they say: "Yes?", or "Your order?", and when ordered to walk say "on-the-move"  (or whatever). A grenade "Fire in the hole!".  On Fire "Die alien scum" etc.  Stun-rod would say "Buzz-off"  :lol:

These types of comments as I understand Sirg, should be heavily accented, or even in the unit's native language.  "Hasta-la-vista, baby"

However plot related voice acting should only be in english (if at all), and a ufopedia reader... well, I think it's a nice idea, but with all the translations... English only?  The game will be getting extremely big.  (But it is big already, so why not increase it more?)

[Northen_Wolf]

UFOPedia reader - reading ufopedia in english only, opion to shut that reader up (reading urself with out sound) UNDECIDED

Voice acting - Few taunts in local languge. Mostly in English.

ACCENT - UNDECIDED (uses english accent or local accent? [speaks some words in accents some not]

Medals award system - UNDECIDED/OFF TOPIC IMO it should give a little bonus to guys too(5 KOs[wo hurting alien first] = 5-10%+accur???), but we don't want reward system like GBA Tactcis ogre: KoL where u had to get rewards to get supermans....

Random Bio file -UNDECIDED/OFF TOPIC -I like it). Where is unit from? how old is he/she. When did join with army, When joined with phalanx?, What weapon he uses most? Pointless data, that stores some Important things (like unit accents, fav weapon) other data is just for fun generated randomly.

IDEA

how bout making those accents/reading downloadeble so the guys who would dl em could hear accents <-- That would maintaince low Size of file for orignal ufo and would give chanse to those who would like to hear accents?

[GIJOE317]

Can we get some 'short' sounds when an alien, citizen, or team member
dies?

[Illarane]

*waves hi since this is his first post*

I'd be happy to provide, either personally or from other people if possible, some voice acting or process and/or otherwise deal with sound recordings if they're wanted.  I've got a small recording studio at home and a few years' worth of recording and production experience.

Anyone got any specific (non-copyrighted, Reenen ) stuff that would probably be used?  If so, I can do some sound clips a la Command and Conquer (static at the start of/end of/throughout recordings) and dump them somewhere they can be accessed.

WRT UFOpedia reader, perhaps having it as a separate download would be a good idea, if it does get produced.  Experience in the Wikipedia project tells me that it takes about twelve hours to record, edit and touch-up a three page (at 1024x768) article, so, depending on how much goes in to the UFOpedia, it could take anything between a month and a year to complete.

Edit: *grins* Cannon Fooder?

[tempsanity]

Great! Can't wait for the results mate

[Winter]

WRT UFOpedia reader, perhaps having it as a separate download would be a good idea, if it does get produced.  Experience in the Wikipedia project tells me that it takes about twelve hours to record, edit and touch-up a three page (at 1024x768) article, so, depending on how much goes in to the UFOpedia, it could take anything between a month and a year to complete.

Considering the fact that we've already got a novel's worth of material for the UFOpaedia, and we're maybe halfway with the storyline, I think it'd take a while to record audio for all of it . . .

It would be awesome, though, if we had different voices for each character in the UFOpaedia.

Regards,
Winter

[Illarane]

Hiya guys,

Just to let you know, my laptop went to the land of not-GDI recently as the direct result of a repair company, so I'm getting a new one off them.  Downside is this is taking ages and I'm thus without a machine capable of editing anything more complicated than a fart.

Will let you know once I have the new toy and something substantial to show.

Ben.

[Destructavator]

Hi,

When you get your hardware, feel free to contact me - perhaps we can pool together all the soldier voices I made with anything you can create so that they are all processed the same way with the same FX, not to mention that we need more than just one human voice to work with in making recordings.

If possible, it would be nice to have several male and several female actors doing voices - I'm not having much luck where I live finding other people who can do recordings.

Perhaps there could be a notice posted on the main project page that we are looking for voice actors?

Just an idea...

[Moredeth]

just wouldn't it be a nice idea to have a list of "text-line" that we want?
maybe have a wiki page for voice acting with the line, and the different accent, so people could upload their sample and it would be [to evaluate], then [accepted] and finally [edited] for the radio effect.

actually i already pmed both of you guys for acting so just waiting answer and then will send you samples.

[Destructavator]

OK, I see we now have several people who are interested in making voice files, but before we start recording away random samples, I think we should get some input from the coders as to what groups of sounds we should work on.

To give you an idea what I'm talking about, here are some proposed groups:

- voices for when a unit is clicked on ("Yes Sir?," "Ready!", etc.)
- voices for when a unit is told to move ("Moving Out," etc.)
- voices for when a unit shoots an alien
- a group for when the shot alien is killed or taken down successfully
- a group for when a hostile unit is spotted

If we plan groups like this I think it would be much easier for the coders to implement the soldier voices, rather than just a huge pool of random recordings.

Perhaps we should wait for the audio coders to post some input here first on what they think they can implement and what they don't think would work, before we start recording away.

Once we get this point cleared up, I heard from my web hosting service that there is a way to grant ftp upload access to some folders on my site, I could then allow anyone interested in doing voices to simply upload their recordings there, and then once I process the files I can make sets available for people to download and evaluate for use in the game.

Or, if anyone has a better idea about how to plan this, feel free to speak up.