Voice Customization

[Amunra-amunray]

It would be great to have some Cartel Market items that allow for voice customizations, so they would not be soo the same across all characters or companions... granted kudos to the original voices, but it would be a great money maker me thinks and would add a great asset to SWTOR...

[SteveTheCynic]

OK, but what about the cost to record all the lines said by, say, the Sith Warrior, for the *whole* story? To say nothing about any costs for the players associated with downloading it, etc.

[Amunra-amunray]

OK, but what about the cost to record all the lines said by, say, the Sith Warrior, for the *whole* story? To say nothing about any costs for the players associated with downloading it, etc.

 

That is understandable not suggesting 1000 new voices, just a few that are different than ones standard in the game that could be customized to a comp or your character....and not MP3 formats either its just another like comp custos that you can add to your toon... or companion using a box method...

Edited May 28, 2020 by Amunra-amunray

[Goreshaga]

You already have 16 PC (4 classes on each faction for both gender)

34 basic speaking vanilla companions + 5 KOTFE/ET companions (-1 in english as Theron and Zenith share the same VA)

 

That means you already have 54 voice actors for the PC and their companions only, in english.

Then add to that the 55 french and 55 german VAs.

That means you already have 164 VAs only for the PCs and their companions.

 

Then take into account all the lines that'd need to be recorded on already existing and future content.

 

So while i'd like to be able to choose between 2-3 different voices at least for my PCs, adding more doesn"t seem really reasonnable in term of costs.

[FlameYOL]

You already have 16 PC (4 classes on each faction for both gender)

34 basic speaking vanilla companions + 5 KOTFE/ET companions (-1 in english as Theron and Zenith share the same VA)

 

That means you already have 54 voice actors for the PC and their companions only, in english.

Then add to that the 55 french and 55 german VAs.

That means you already have 164 VAs only for the PCs and their companions.

 

Then take into account all the lines that'd need to be recorded on already existing and future content.

 

So while i'd like to be able to choose between 2-3 different voices at least for my PCs, adding more doesn"t seem really reasonnable in term of costs.

 

It definitely isn't, with as much VA as we have we'll definitely not be getting 2nd options.

[Soljin]

It may be possible to add a voice modulation slider for the current voices?

 

Rather than recording new voice overs instead allow pitch and modular adjustments to the current voices? Similar to what some helmets already do in the game but expand the effect range and let players adjust it?

[SteveTheCynic]

That is understandable not suggesting 1000 new voices, just a few that are different than ones standard in the game that could be customized to a comp or your character....and not MP3 formats either its just another like comp custos that you can add to your toon... or companion using a box method...

I wasn't suggesting 1000 different voices either. Think about how much total speech a player character has during the story, and now double it because there are two VAs instead of one. Now multiply that extra workload for all current and future content by 48 (eight classes, two sexes, three languages). That's *expensive*, to say nothing of problems that come from the world health crisis that has delayed 6.2.

 

Now, if you're talking about just "combat grunts", it might be less problematic, since those haven't changed in a long time, and there aren't very many for each class.

[Erevan_Kindelar]

I would like to see this option, but realistically it is not the biggest thing I would like to see from the game; and given the expense it would involve to re-record the dialog for the characters and companions, in order to implement this request EA would certainly cut something from somewhere else in the budget. Other changes might be folded into the standard development schedule, but this would be quite a big undertaking that probablt cannot be swung that way.

So if I am going to pray for a ne wset of character/companion voices or, let's say, a rewrite for a new engine and 64-bit client, I will go for the new engine and 64-bit client... even though the cost of that project would be an order of magnitude or two bigger than the voices... but I can dream!

[jedimasterjac]

I will go for the new engine and 64-bit client... even though the cost of that project would be an order of magnitude or two bigger than the voices... but I can dream!

 

It's not just cost, it's the fact that "rewriting" a game to a new engine is literally just making the game over again, including many of the assets, and virtually everything else. There's no reality where that is ever worth it in terms of money or manpower.

 

That doesn't even get in to the fact that there's no way to preserve our old characters, our inventories, etc.

 

There's a reason lots of MMOs have had massive reworks yet they maintain their engine.

Edited May 28, 2020 by jedimasterjac

[Amunra-amunray]

It's not just cost, it's the fact that "rewriting" a game to a new engine is literally just making the game over again, including many of the assets, and virtually everything else. There's no reality where that is ever worth it in terms of money or manpower.

 

That doesn't even get in to the fact that there's no way to preserve our old characters, our inventories, etc.

 

There's a reason lots of MMOs have had massive reworks yet they maintain their engine.

 

Rewriting everything is a farse, any code for certain parameters is blocked chained. It also could potentially cost a good amount of cartel coins, which in turn could provide a money maker for the game developers... didn't say it would be easy. but it would of interest I feel a large player base that is swelling in the game now...

Edited May 31, 2020 by Amunra-amunray

[Erevan_Kindelar]

It's not just cost, it's the fact that "rewriting" a game to a new engine is literally just making the game over again, including many of the assets, and virtually everything else. There's no reality where that is ever worth it in terms of money or manpower.

 

That doesn't even get in to the fact that there's no way to preserve our old characters, our inventories, etc.

 

There's a reason lots of MMOs have had massive reworks yet they maintain their engine.

 

Several MMOs have gone through re-writes to improve the graphics, and even a complete engine change. The two that come to mind for me personally that have vastly updated their graphics quality during live running are WoW and EVE Online. So it can definitely be done, if there is a will to do so at the corporate level.

 

I fully accept that this will never happen with swtor - we first started tabling requests for engine optimizations even before the public launch, and Bioware have been very consistent in their "Ahh, yeah... let's not go there" response. So I know it will not happen. I also know that a complete re-do of the voice assets in the game will not happen, for basically the same reason - the cost of investment versus the return on that investment just does not make sense.

 

Having said that, I also "knew" that CCP (the EVE Online developers) would not do a complete gfx overhaul and engine re-write the first time in 2007, and then they went and did it. That was apparently mostly because the player base campaigned for it, and CCP decided it would be a good idea. The moral of the story is, if you don't ask, you won't get. If you do ask, you still might not get, but a chance is better than no chance."

 

And if I can only ask for a voice asset redo or a gfx engine update, I know which one I would prefer.

[Soljin]

Seems like this post got hijacked. For the record I would support voice sliders for pitch and modulation of the existing voices. I don't think recording multiple voice overs per class is a reasonable expectation.

 

the 64-bit conversation belongs in the 64 bit thread that does already exist.

[DarkTergon]

Seems like this post got hijacked. For the record I would support voice sliders for pitch and modulation of the existing voices. I don't think recording multiple voice overs per class is a reasonable expectation.

.

 

Do you mean like one of those programs where you record your voice, but caan change it yourself, to sound like different having different voice choices would be fun, if it were along these ideas, and didn't cost too much. I can imagine a body type 3 warrior, pureblood, looking menacingly down at us, then this little squeaky voice comes out.

[jedimasterjac]

Rewriting everything is a farse, any code for certain parameters is blocked chained. It also could potentially cost a good amount of cartel coins, which in turn could provide a money maker for the game developers... didn't say it would be easy. but it would of interest I feel a large player base that is swelling in the game now...

 

There's no way that significantly increasing the amount of voice actors that need to re-record every single line of player dialogue in the game is cost-effective. There's virtually no amount of income or swelling of a playerbase that would justify the investment.

[Soljin]

Do you mean like one of those programs where you record your voice, but caan change it yourself, to sound like different having different voice choices would be fun, if it were along these ideas, and didn't cost too much. I can imagine a body type 3 warrior, pureblood, looking menacingly down at us, then this little squeaky voice comes out.

 

With certain helmets already modulating character voices I'm pretty sure they could add some voice effects with sliders on the existing voices that would make for some pretty cool custom voices.

 

The Darth Malgus reborn Helm has a pretty wicked voice alteration on it for instance.

 

Pitch would be fun too though they would have to be careful with that one...Make sure there is a reset to default button.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Soljin

[Ylliarus]

Sure, the idea is cool, but this would bankrupt the game. The amount Bioware would make off of such a thing would never compensate the cost of implementing this and then maintaining it. The company is already on a tight budget and this would break the bank in an unimaginable way.

 

So no, thank you. The voices we have now are more than enough and frankly, these voices have become so iconic to the classes that I wouldn't want anyone else to voice them.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Ylliarus