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Quarterly Producer Letter for Q2 2024 ×

So no more voice acting for our characters?


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Nothing like watching your character stare at the NPC like some kind of hypnotized automaton. I HATE the old style unvoiced interactions. For the love of the Force give our characters their voices. This is awful, the blank, silent stare takes me entirely out of the story.

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Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, denajii said:

The entire new questline isnt voiced at all? Nothing?

funnily enough the only voice acting our characters do, is not in cutscenes but quest objectives. sometimes

 

not where it matters, but where it doesnt.

Edited by GeneralGyro
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I was hoping what happened in the last story(which I just did earlier lol)was going to stay consistent, very few kotor scenes with the majority being voiced, but this is.. unfortunate

I also read elsewhere that the Male imperial agent apparently sounds.. different?? Like it's not the original actor

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4 minutes ago, denajii said:

I was hoping what happened in the last story(which I just did earlier lol)was going to stay consistent, very few kotor scenes with the majority being voiced, but this is.. unfortunate

I also read elsewhere that the Male imperial agent apparently sounds.. different?? Like it's not the original actor

i wouldnt be surprised.

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I hope this isn't the case moving forward, I really dislike the kotor voiceless character thing. I can tolerate it for little one off things, or events, but for story? I look forward to hearing my character's voice, to the inflection and life the VAs put into the responses. It's like my characters no longer have any real sense of life in the story.

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Not to sound rude or anything, but... It's time we hear from @EricMuscoor @KeithKanneg about WHY the last three story updates have become a mix of of the KotOR style and normal style cinematics. Is it a cost thing? A result of the recent strikes? A new decision going forward? And can this decision be reversed?

I could understand it being used in 7.3, but why have a KotOR Style cutscene, then hear our character talking outside of cutscenes when doing quest objectives? Ever since the KotOR style cinematics were introduced, they were only used for side story stuff, and the main story was fully voiced. Now, it's a mix, with a majority of the cutscenes being in the KotOR style. I get that it's so there is more options in the cutscenes, but IF I had to choose between class references or fully voiced cutscenes, I think every player would choose fully voiced cutscenes.

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The short answer to why this is happening is that Broadsword doesn't have the budget to continue paying for voice actors (despite the cartel market being wildly profitable). If you've been following the state of SWTOR whatsoever then this doesn't come as a surprise other than the fact it took this long for a core feature of the game to go kaput.

 

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18 minutes ago, LtGeneralGezlin said:

Not to sound rude or anything, but... It's time we hear from @EricMuscoor @KeithKanneg about WHY the last three story updates have become a mix of of the KotOR style and normal style cinematics. Is it a cost thing? A result of the recent strikes? A new decision going forward? And can this decision be reversed?

I could understand it being used in 7.3, but why have a KotOR Style cutscene, then hear our character talking outside of cutscenes when doing quest objectives? Ever since the KotOR style cinematics were introduced, they were only used for side story stuff, and the main story was fully voiced. Now, it's a mix, with a majority of the cutscenes being in the KotOR style. I get that it's so there is more options in the cutscenes, but IF I had to choose between class references or fully voiced cutscenes, I think every player would choose fully voiced cutscenes.

They have to cover 48 different VAs every time they want the player to say a line. So yeah, it's a cost and budget thing, not as a result of any strikes or such.

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Posted (edited)

7.4 was still good for voice acting for our characters. I hope the 7.5 will be in the same way. I will try it later.

If Disney could realize the chance they have to have a full Star Wars game like this, the could put the money on the table but it's another debateIf Disney could realize the chanvce they

Edited by orichichan
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2 minutes ago, NicoleMay said:

They have to cover 48 different VAs every time they want the player to say a line. So yeah, it's a cost and budget thing, not as a result of any strikes or such.

And if it's a cost saving measure, then I'm not holding my breath for the difference to eventually be reinvested to core game development that could actually bring players back.

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Posted (edited)

If i'm correct main story on 7.5 have those Kotor cutscenes AGAIN? Just .. perfect .. i thought they going listen players to stop doing mixes. Can't believe still this happening ..

Edited by Trlance
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2 minutes ago, Lenlo said:

And if it's a cost saving measure, then I'm not holding my breath for the difference to eventually be reinvested to core game development that could actually bring players back.

I think it's less investing in other parts of the game, and simply a low budget on EA's part. Gotta make cuts somewhere, and not having to do 48 voice lines every time the player speaks helps.

All the more reason I honestly think expansions should be paid again. I want this game to have more resources to make sure the game goes off with a bang and not a thud when it eventually preps for maintenance mode.

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13 minutes ago, NicoleMay said:

They have to cover 48 different VAs every time they want the player to say a line. So yeah, it's a cost and budget thing, not as a result of any strikes or such.

I'd rather hear something official than just theories. Everyone else can be voiced, but NOT the main characters? Yeah, I don't buy that.

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1 minute ago, LtGeneralGezlin said:

I'd rather hear something official than just theories. Everyone else can be voiced, but NOT the main characters? Yeah, I don't buy that.

Not a theory. Just how it works.

Every other character voice needs only 3 options, one for each supported language.

The player needs one for each origin story, each gender, and each language. So 48.

It's just basic math and economics. No conspiracy here. I'm sure there's some older dev post or stream snippet back when KOTOR style conversations were much newer. They've been around since 4.0.

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2 minutes ago, LtGeneralGezlin said:

I'd rather hear something official than just theories. Everyone else can be voiced, but NOT the main characters? Yeah, I don't buy that.

Most likely coming down to issues with the old cast. They recasted the male imperial agent, which means that the silent cutscenes are a result from him not working on the project anymore and them struggling to find a replacement. This has been very blatant for a while, especially on galactic seasons stuff where every talking NPC is either a droid or someone not speaking basic, because those are voicelines present from the start of the game, not needing to be recorded from scratch.

Doesn't take much to figure out that they don't have any more money, that they can't hire any new VA for new NPCs and that they probably couldn't afford keeping the male imperial agent. I don't know how much everyone is being paid, but some time you may pay someone a bit more than the rest because of... Well contracts, fame and all that. I don't know the specifics, but it's been obvious for a *while* that they were running low on budget for VA. I don't know why it took people so long to notice it.

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11 minutes ago, supertimtaf said:

which means that the silent cutscenes are a result from him not working on the project anymore and them struggling to find a replacement

I doubt they'd avoid doing VA stuff for the player if it was a single voice actor holding it up. They would've recasted earlier. 47 VAs available and 1 who isn't? That's an easy call to make imo.

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The KOTOR styled "cutscenes" in the main story is a f****** disgrace.

11 minutes ago, supertimtaf said:

Most likely coming down to issues with the old cast. They recasted the male imperial agent, which means that the silent cutscenes are a result from him not working on the project anymore and them struggling to find a replacement. This has been very blatant for a while, especially on galactic seasons stuff where every talking NPC is either a droid or someone not speaking basic, because those are voicelines present from the start of the game, not needing to be recorded from scratch.

Doesn't take much to figure out that they don't have any more money, that they can't hire any new VA for new NPCs and that they probably couldn't afford keeping the male imperial agent. I don't know how much everyone is being paid, but some time you may pay someone a bit more than the rest because of... Well contracts, fame and all that. I don't know the specifics, but it's been obvious for a *while* that they were running low on budget for VA. I don't know why it took people so long to notice it.

WHAT I though the male IA sounds super weird, but they recasted him?!! My fav VA in this game???!!!

 

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2 minutes ago, NicoleMay said:

I doubt they'd avoid doing VA stuff for the player if it was a single voice actor holding it up. They would've recasted earlier. 47 VAs available and 1 who isn't? That's an easy call to make imo.

It depends. Maybe no one wants to work for the small salary they can offer. That's also possible.

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Just now, supertimtaf said:

They just made a post on that on the dev tracker yes

No disrespect to the new VA and it might be the original VA doesn't want to take the role anymore but I HATE how I have to know this AFTER the patch is out.

F this sneaky surprise bs BS keep doing.

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Just now, eabevella said:

No disrespect to the new VA and it might be the original VA doesn't want to take the role anymore but I HATE how I have to know this AFTER the patch is out.

F this sneaky surprise bs BS keep doing.

at least we still have the original stories to enjoy the voices at their prime

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