So no more voice acting for our characters?

[supertimtaf]

18 minutes ago, VilianSW said:

For the sake of all that's holy, do not say that aloud, please xD There were moments/updates where the only thing that kept me playing was Theron's voice. Don't jinx it, I'd rather not crowdfund Troy Baker's salary just to keep him among SWTOR cast xD

If it makes you feel better, I'm fairly certain that Ri'kan is also voiced by him so if they're deep enough in a collaboration to have him voice two characters, I doubt he's going away anytime soon

[Kristallia]

One thing that bothers me little bit about the non-voiced cutscenes is that I cannot see the chat while on cutscene like I can with normal cutscenes.

[supertimtaf]

12 minutes ago, Kristallia said:

One thing that bothers me little bit about the non-voiced cutscenes is that I cannot see the chat while on cutscene like I can with normal cutscenes.

Thank you I'm not the only one who noticed this, it drives me crazy to talk with someone and just... "brb gotta finish cutscene"

[Sonicphoto]

I think most of the players understand the limitations of the game, the budget, the amount of voice actors across languages, etc and I always appreciate all they manage to do every update and always love what they put out within the limits. However, I think what players would like is an official word on it, where they discuss why they went with this direction, what other things have they considered but haven't worked out or not, just an overall nice official discussion post about feedback on the issue would be great for it. Personally, my issue with these KOTOR style scenes is the black bars themselves. It takes me out of the immersion when those black bars show up on my screen, I'm auto programmed to think this scene is not as important or as valuable when we see it so when it starts you automatically disengage. I would prefer instead if there was a way to at least remove these black bars and see the whole scene without them, keep the dialogue system and all, or only make them show up when is time for a choice to make, but during the whole cutscene it's just very distracting.

Another thing is voice acting usage, both here and in kessan's landing, there's dialogue of our protagonist talking to the companion while in gameplay, whether exploring or combat. I think most players rather have that budget of that dialogue be spent in cutscenes rather than just filled in the gameplay itself.  As a follow up to this, we don't need every cutscene of our character to have choices, there's dialogues that choices don't really matter or don't change anything. So, to help cut back on dialogue, I think we rather have less choices in normal dialogues than simply having our protagonist purely silent. And another thing is, without spoiling it, the final scene of this story is also another way around things, there's only one char speaking, no choices, but it has really cool exciting action. I wouldn't mind seeing my char talk less if I at least saw him/her do some cool action in cutscenes without the black bars. Which goes back to reducing choices of casual dialogue, and only have meaningful choices pop up.

[supertimtaf]

2 minutes ago, Sonicphoto said:

there's dialogue of our protagonist talking to the companion while in gameplay, whether exploring or combat. I think most players rather have that budget of that dialogue be spent in cutscenes rather than just filled in the gameplay itself.

I agree on everything except that part, as I found that it made for some good filler. Not the *best* there is, but it made the gameplay elements more pleasing than if there were none at all. While I do agree that they're not as high priority, I'd argue that removing them entirely would hurt the game in a different way. But that's only a personal opinion.

[VanessaBlackrose]

6 hours ago, MaximusRex said:

Not much else to say, the main questline should not have KOTOR style dialog.  What is more aggravating is that almost every other character and quest we come across is fully voiced.

agreed.

[eabevella]

2 hours ago, VilianSW said:

For the sake of all that's holy, do not say that aloud, please xD There were moments/updates where the only thing that kept me playing was Theron's voice. Don't jinx it, I'd rather not crowdfund Troy Baker's salary just to keep him among SWTOR cast xD

My bad *fingers crossed*

But seriously, if that happens, I'll finish my current prog and tell my group that I unsuscribe because they killed my man.

[eabevella]

The main quest NEEDED to be fully voice acted, period.

[JakRoanin]

Ms. Grey was all over the place. My BH almost every other female NPC. Mr. Baker was all over too. They're the highest of the highest paid VA's. Saying it's all budget is oversimplifying a complex issue that said... @JackieKo explanations are an order here. At least tell them they need to fix the jankiness of where they use KOTOR.

[KaloVort]

I prefer it that way. I can use whatever voice that I want inside my head while reading😋 It's also more KOTORish.

 

The problem is with the npcs... They don't voice them either. We got only alien talking npcs in the new spring event.

Edited May 30 by KaloVort

[cannibithobbal]

3 minutes ago, KaloVort said:

I prefer it that way. I can use whatever voice that I want inside my head while reading😋 It's also more KOTORish

 

At the risk of sounding overly salty, I hear this argument all the time, and frankly, if people prefer no voice they can either mute the game, turn down voice audio, or play one of the MANY other RPGs on the market where they do not voice your character (including KOTOR).  Those of us who want our character voiced cannot magically add a voice to the game when there isn't one, and have very very very few RPG options that we can play.

SWTOR has always had voiced player characters, that is how SWTOR works, that is SWTOR's strength and what makes the game it is.  Taking away my character's voice is taking away my will to keep playing new updates of this game.  Because if my character doesn't talk, they're basically not involved, so what's the point.

[Stradlin]

 

Imagine a tiny  fully voice acted story patch 7.8: Echoes In Empty Room.  Nothing but playerchar entering room and saying "sup Lana" and Lana replying with "hello, Commander"  and that's it. Four words spoken by two characters. Patch over. If playerchar is voice acted, it takes work from 51(!!!) voice actors to do these four words by two characters. That's quite a tall order from production values of a 10++ year old mmo really.

Edited May 30 by Stradlin

[SentinalMasterWW]

Weird Theory here, but my guess at the reason for a lack of dialogue is that this expansion like many others was rushed out. I think they wanted to tie it in with the Acolyte premiere given how they so hyped up this one armor set. I bet you they needed at least a couple more months to do VA Work for the story cutscences but Disney wanted something to generate revenue for the Acolyte show and told Broadsword they needed something out now. Thus they had to cut corners and do KOTOR style cutscences. 

What is boggling is that the 3 minute cutscene for the date night "update" had full VA work, sooo they got VA's to come in for that but not for a big story update? 

Honestly though not surprising they are cutting even more corners, the only thing the dev's pay attention to is their cash shop, but that is most likely EA hounding them to do so.

[JakRoanin]

Okay now before there is even more over reaction let's try sticking to the facts. 

1. There has not been a cancelation of PC Voice Acting.

2. They just hired a new VA for Male IA

3. The way they divvy up the VA parts with the KOTOR parts is really really, really, weird! 

Now how could things be improved involving a balanced approach...

1. When in cutscenes with Galactic Powers, and or the Main Secondary Character (ie. Sahar in this update,) PC should be fully Voice Acted.

2. When dealing with bonus quests, side missions, Dailies, or Events IMO PC doesn't need Voice Acting.

3. Devs should stop being so weird about when PC gets to talk and when they don't!

[cannibithobbal]

14 minutes ago, JakRoanin said:

1. When in cutscenes with Galactic Powers, and or the Main Secondary Character (ie. Sahar in this update,) PC should be fully Voice Acted.

2. When dealing with bonus quests, side missions, Dailies, or Events IMO PC doesn't need Voice Acting.

Totally agreed.  Optional side stuff, voiced would be lovely but unvoiced is... fine.  Cutscenes with major characters in the main story where big stuff is happening???  OUR CHARACTERS SHOULD BE TALKING!!!!

[JakRoanin]

I just find it hilarious that people automatically assume they're ditching PC VA entirely. Do they even bother to know how many NPC voices our PC VA's do? So, that's obviously not the issue. Doing my BH today it was like she was almost every female Voice. Obviously the way they divvy it all up is screwy but it's not a lack of resources, and they're not scrapping the whole thing. No reason to burst a blood vessel yet.

Now, the no loot, and no crafting nodes, that makes my eye twitch! Oh and Lana threatening mayhem, when I didn't say she could. "You work for me blondie."

[cannibithobbal]

26 minutes ago, JakRoanin said:

I just find it hilarious that people automatically assume they're ditching PC VA entirely.

For the record, I am not panicking thinking they are ditching them entirely, I simply believe that in main story content, they shouldn't be ditching them AT ALL, for ANY cutscenes, and the sheer number of cutscenes without voicing in the recent updates (especially 7.5) is frankly ridiculous.

[JakRoanin]

I'm not saying you specifically were there are some other posts and threads that are pretty out there that's all.

[eabevella]

It's weird that BS had the Hutt and Rodian character speak basic: actual voice acting work.

At the same time, immersion breaking KOTOR style cutscene where our player character is mute.

So my issue is:

1. the MAIN QUEST should be FULLY VOICE ACTED.

2. Sidequests can be KOTOR style cutscenes since it's been there for years and there's no stopping it, and if BS has to cut corner somewhere, then so be it.

3. Basic decency and communication when BS makes a huge change such as replacing a MAIN CAST.

[cannibithobbal]

11 minutes ago, eabevella said:

1. the MAIN QUEST should be FULLY VOICE ACTED.

2. Sidequests can be KOTOR style cutscenes since it's been there for years and there's no stopping it, and if BS has to cut corner somewhere, then so be it.

3. Basic decency and communication when BS makes a huge change such as replacing a MAIN CAST.

Yes, yes, and YES.

[JakRoanin]

Well, I guess I would freak if it was Fem Agent so I get it, but we really do not know what happened or the contracts or anything so, who knows. I hesitate to call it malicious intent. Then again what do I know, that's why I hesitate. But I like the new VA he sounds less smarmy.

[miiinaa]

48 minutes ago, eabevella said:

It's weird that BS had the Hutt and Rodian character speak basic: actual voice acting work.

At the same time, immersion breaking KOTOR style cutscene where our player character is mute.

So my issue is:

1. the MAIN QUEST should be FULLY VOICE ACTED.

2. Sidequests can be KOTOR style cutscenes since it's been there for years and there's no stopping it, and if BS has to cut corner somewhere, then so be it.

3. Basic decency and communication when BS makes a huge change such as replacing a MAIN CAST.

YES. It's so dang odd that everyone is speaking but PC in the main quest. Really takes me out of the immersion, super jarring. All the side quests can be KOTOR styled instead. And, I hate how there's random story dialogue outside of cutscenes while you're in the world when it was perfectly doable to condense it into a fully voiced cutscene. 

BS needs to communicate better.

[KyraMalakai]

I really don't like not having my character being voiced afterall that is the most important thing to me in the game a fully voiced story, the fact that to say one line it is needed 48 different actors is not really my concern, the moment my girls go silent will be the moment my money stops going to Bradsword.
That being said I believe one of the reasons of the kotor cutscenes in the middle of story is due to the fact that the daily area and story are no longer two separate entities instead they fused them together probably to make the story look longer but by doing this they break immersion, personally I would rather a short story but fully voiced from beggining to end and the daily area separated with kotor style.
But despite all this nothing justifies my Darth Nox being silent while on a holocall with the dark council.

[FlatTax]

Core story progression is going largely un-voiced by our protagonist. It feels like the voice acting that is present are scraps from earlier recording sessions.

Appalling, and paying $155.88, year over year...

[Toraak]

Don't get me wrong I like the voiced quests including characters, and don't bother reading dialogue in any MMO. With that being said, if it allows Broadsword to make more actual new content I'd have to at least consider the possibility that it may be good for the game.

 

If not enough new content is made, more people leave.