SvnStrSlm Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) I wouldn't mind less VO if it mean more dynamic content and quicker content updates. To think VO doesn't slow down content updates is silly. How significantly it slows it down is another thing. Deffinatly required for flashpoints, ops, story and warzones. For all the pointless filler quest I could care less. In fact alot of them could just be a mission terminal that i can select like the daily and weekly quest currenty do. Edited May 24, 2012 by SvnStrSlm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xorcist Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 The Voice overs are really cool. However, it also hinders quite a few things. Playable species for example. Having the need to speak basic. The amount of paths a story can take you, because of time and costs. I thought it would be like choose your own adventure, but in many ways its not like that. Just about all paths lead to the same destination. I would've liked to see the story unfold as you make your choices, branching you off to another path. Like Back to the future, when the Doc explained the possible time lines. Biff stole the almanac, and changed the future. A butterfly effect. I'm disappointed that our choices don't matter as much, or hoped it would here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lionflash Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) I think VO are the future of MMORPG and I think that SWTOR is ahead of it's time in terms of having 8 stories, with both genders and 90% of all quests are fully voice acted. Most games would...and probably will, only have the major NPCs voice acted. Everybody's character will be a silent mute or have their dialogue as text. Which, honestly...would bother me. I've said it before, SWTOR has spoiled me in terms of VO with games. Bioware in general has done that. I'm almost offended when I find out my character doesn't speak. Edited May 24, 2012 by Lionflash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mokkh Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) The Voice overs are really cool. However, it also hinders quite a few things. Playable species for example. Having the need to speak basic. The amount of paths a story can take you, because of time and costs. I thought it would be like choose your own adventure, but in many ways its not like that. Just about all paths lead to the same destination. I would've liked to see the story unfold as you make your choices, branching you off to another path. Like Back to the future, when the Doc explained the possible time lines. Biff stole the almanac, and changed the future. A butterfly effect. I'm disappointed that our choices don't matter as much, or hoped it would here. I just said this in another thread but it applies here as well and I apologize if I come off as terse but I'm just matter of fact in my delivery: you have a "state function" (from physics.thermodynamics) mentality; i.e. it doesn't matter what you do because the outcome is the same. Well I can go to the top of the Empire State Building and enjoy the view but there is a huge difference in how I got there if I choose to free climb and scale the face instead of riding up in the elevator. I end up in the same spot, but the journey was entirely different. My potential energy ends up the same but the path was, in fact, totally different. If you think about it, there is a practical need to converge at the end of the story (although some class stories do have dramatically different end states) so that when content is added they don't have to do so from different pick up points. If they did not converge, it would exponentially increase the amount of stories necessary in order to tie in to previous ones. Edited May 24, 2012 by mokkh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adderdin Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) I think VO are the future of MMORPG and I think that SWTOR is ahead of it's time in terms of having 8 stories, with both genders and 90% of all quests are fully voice acted. Most games would...and probably will, only have the major NPCs voice acted. Everybody's character will be a silent mute or have their dialogue as text. Which, honestly...would bother me. I've said it before, SWTOR has spoiled me in terms of VO with games. Bioware in general has done that. I'm almost offended when I find out my character doesn't speak. Good one sir! Ahead of its times... hahahahahaha only thing its ahead of its times is the number of subscribers, someone could think, that they would get to such a low number of people playing only after 5 to 10 years and not after 6 months. As for VO, people space bar by everything beside class quest. Edited May 24, 2012 by Adderdin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lionflash Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Good one sir! Ahead of its times... hahahahahaha only thing its ahead of its times is the number of subscribers, someone could think, that they would get to such a low number of people playing only after 5 to 10 years and not after 6 months. As for VO, people space bar by everything beside class quest. I... disagree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitsinni Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I do think they need to have a feature to turn VO on and off. I personally like it but I know the majority of my guild spent their entire play time in vent and they felt the VO stopped them from being able to talk together which was the primary reason they played, just to BS on vent with some friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budukahn Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Unfortunately, full Voice Over is one of the few things this title does have over it's competitors. So yes, I would be bothered if they stopped with it. I was already a little dissapointed during the Rakhghoul event when my characters dialogue was just stock phrases from elsewhere in the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SvnStrSlm Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Good one sir! Ahead of its times... hahahahahaha only thing its ahead of its times is the number of subscribers, someone could think, that they would get to such a low number of people playing only after 5 to 10 years and not after 6 months. As for VO, people space bar by everything beside class quest. While what Im about to say is opinion, I do feel that for what SWTOR has it is rather high quality. Yes there are some short comings feature wise and obviously there are bugs, like every *********** game ever released , but what they have given is a quality product that will be built upon and improved over the months to come. I think Sparky Anderson put it best when he said, "Talk to me about my team after 40 games. Thats when i can tell you if we are good or not." For those who don't know who he is, he was the coach of the Reds and the Tigers and one of the greatest coachs in baseball. Right now SWTOR is at the 20-30 game mark to me and with the downsize in dev team i think there will be more focus on one idea at a time. Even on the podcast they were talking about people talking anout stuff that will just not be in game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abominant Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Ironically, I was thinking about posting this topic as a suggestion. Personally, I think that too much work went into the VO for this game. It is fantastic, don't get me wrong; it's second to none and alot of it is better than most of the movies out there. They really delivered in that aspect. But in the same breath, I think a majority of their resources went into the VO where, in my opinion, they could have used those resources elsewhere. While the cutscenes and NPC interations feel lively, the actual world itself feels quite dead. I also felt that there wasn't a whole lot of separation between my Class quests and World quests. Looking back, it all just sort of blurred together, with only a few major plot points sticking out. I think that by having VO for the Class quests only, it would make them stand out from the rest of your adventures and when you are leveling a new character for the dozenth time, you are not stuck watching the same cutscenes over and over again. Yes, you can spacebar through it all, but it doesn't feel right to me. Perhaps, they could simply have one major quest chain per planet that would be fully voiced and would offer all of your Lightside/Darkside and morality choices which would have a much bigger impact on the outcome of the plot than they currently do with the rest of the quests being the standard 'click the NPC and read the description'. As it stands now, there are rarely any choices you make outside of you class story that really affects anything in the world. By having one major plot per planet, they could focus on that. The standard quests could simply be side-quests that are either related to this major plot in a smaller way, or filler content that ties to the planet you are on. Having a complete VO conversation for EVERY NPC you meet in the game works great in single player games where you have more flexibilty and are not limited to having it fit into a multiplayer world. But in an MMO, it really is just a fancy way of saying "go out and kill this and collect that, then return back to me". The extra resources they would have from a change like this they could put towards making the planets feel more lively, which they currently do not. And it would give us a reason to go back to them, which we currently don't have. A change like this would not affect the story immersion in any way. In fact, since there is much less of it, the voiceover conversations you DO encounter, would be that much more memorable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SvnStrSlm Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Ironically, I was thinking about posting this topic as a suggestion. Personally, I think that too much work went into the VO for this game. It is fantastic, don't get me wrong; it's second to none and alot of it is better than most of the movies out there. They really delivered in that aspect. But in the same breath, I think a majority of their resources went into the VO where, in my opinion, they could have used those resources elsewhere. While the cutscenes and NPC interations feel lively, the actual world itself feels quite dead. I also felt that there wasn't a whole lot of separation between my Class quests and World quests. Looking back, it all just sort of blurred together, with only a few major plot points sticking out. I think that by having VO for the Class quests only, it would make them stand out from the rest of your adventures and when you are leveling a new character for the dozenth time, you are not stuck watching the same cutscenes over and over again. Yes, you can spacebar through it all, but it doesn't feel right to me. Perhaps, they could simply have one major quest chain per planet that would be fully voiced and would offer all of your Lightside/Darkside and morality choices which would have a much bigger impact on the outcome of the plot than they currently do with the rest of the quests being the standard 'click the NPC and read the description'. As it stands now, there are rarely any choices you make outside of you class story that really affects anything in the world. By having one major plot per planet, they could focus on that. The standard quests could simply be side-quests that are either related to this major plot in a smaller way, or filler content that ties to the planet you are on. Having a complete VO conversation for EVERY NPC you meet in the game works great in single player games where you have more flexibilty and are not limited to having it fit into a multiplayer world. But in an MMO, it really is just a fancy way of saying "go out and kill this and collect that, then return back to me". The extra resources they would have from a change like this they could put towards making the planets feel more lively, which they currently do not. And it would give us a reason to go back to them, which we currently don't have. A change like this would not affect the story immersion in any way. In fact, since there is much less of it, the voiceover conversations you DO encounter, would be that much more memorable. I really like this idea. I always felt the same way when playing the game. In fact the other voice acting pulls me away from my class story often finding my self confused on why I'm doing something in the story. I think story quest and one or two in depth panet stories would really make it more special and less resource intensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBBP Posted May 24, 2012 Author Share Posted May 24, 2012 Funny how this question has popped up after the Layoffs. Sounds like a Bioware plant testing the waters of how to cut the budget to save the future of the game. Your tin foil hat is on too tight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gokkus Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) I guess I would miss being able to respond and you would miss out on some LS/DS points perhaps too. Yes, I would be bothered by it despite having listened to some of them 5 times now. Edited May 24, 2012 by Gokkus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llesna Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 This would bother me immensely. Don't get me wrong, I always have subtitles on and don't always have on sound, but when I want to listen, I really want to hear what everyone is saying, my characters included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nartiuslightlord Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 If they did then the vocal minorty has won a major battle in making this game about circumventing content becuase they don't have the time in the race to 50 to bother to read. It would break from the promises BW made those of us who love the game due top the VO and would pretty much be a sign we are going xserver in time and F2p arena based PVP wannabe systems just to pelase the lazy who hate things that make them have to earn something instead of it being handed to them like Wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abominant Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 In fact the other voice acting pulls me away from my class story often finding my self confused on why I'm doing something in the story. Exactly. It blends together and you lose the main focus for why you are there and what you are doing. Often times, I would finish my class quest halfway through a planet, and by the time I returned to my ship's holoterminal, I had lost the sense of urgency and flow of the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhauric Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Wouldn't bother me. I am all for story but if you have done the quests already chances are you are not going to always sit there and listen to it again. How many times do you want to hear that little pig race thing squeaking on Coruscant? I have a number of alts and all I do is space bar through the quests that I have already done multiple times. Only on class quests do I stop to listen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedlosson Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I don't think I would mind if the side quests and world quests were scaled back to being the classic wall of text to read rather than a full-blown cut-scene. I love the class stories and what VO does for them, but if it helped with development resources, I would not mind seeing the side and world quests scaled off of full VO. I would be bothered quite a lot. Full game VO is one of the main reasons why SWToR got my attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SvnStrSlm Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I guess I would miss being able to respond and you would miss out on some LS/DS points perhaps too. Yes, I would be bothered by it despite having listened to some of them 5 times now. You can still have your choices for points, social and alignment, and affection it would just be text based. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gokkus Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 You can still have your choices for points, social and alignment, and affection it would just be text based. Similar to interacting with Alien species at present? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyla Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Exactly. It blends together and you lose the main focus for why you are there and what you are doing. Often times, I would finish my class quest halfway through a planet, and by the time I returned to my ship's holoterminal, I had lost the sense of urgency and flow of the situation. Dunno, never sensed much urgency when going back to my ship, as thoses are in-between moments, you just finished a subplot and is going to the next. And well, you aren't done with a planet, you probably get one min per quest of VO and spent 10+ min per quest travelling, fighting, ... and the reason you lost the "flow of the situation" is that one min of VO ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kthx Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 instead they are sitting there figuring out how to make mouth movements look right for the voice over work, id rather have the new content,and not the shiney cut scenes. The synching of lip movement to voice is handled automatically. See, for example, http://www.annosoft.com/. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentinelDranoel Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I don't think I would mind if the side quests and world quests were scaled back to being the classic wall of text to read rather than a full-blown cut-scene. I love the class stories and what VO does for them, but if it helped with development resources, I would not mind seeing the side and world quests scaled off of full VO. It would bother me immensely, and is counter-productive to what this game is about. So wear out your spacebar or ask for a option where you can cut off Voice Options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkinnunzero Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I would unsubscribe immediately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaith Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I don't think I would mind if the side quests and world quests were scaled back to being the classic wall of text to read rather than a full-blown cut-scene. I love the class stories and what VO does for them, but if it helped with development resources, I would not mind seeing the side and world quests scaled off of full VO. Hate this idea. The voiceovers and interactive FMV are two things that really make this game stand apart from every other MMO out there. Go big or go home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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