F4 Mod question: Difficult with main character now talking?

[DoctorKaizeld]

 

What I meant is that you can't voice the protagonist with just any voice, they have to sound like the original voice actors. Having the other characters voiced is becoming necessary and even I'm being spoiled by it. But in the case of the protagonist's voice, can't people chalk a voiceless protagonist in a mod as an artistic necessity?

that's a part of why i dont want him/her speaking at all

[charwo]

I get that Qwerty, but you and I are part of a dying breed of old school RPG fans. If this were Mad Max: Beyond Morrowind, a new series as oppsed to being Fallout, it would have been scandalous to not have a voiced protagonist in 2008. Fallout purists like myself even criticized Bethesda for not having enough voice actors, having about a third as many as Dues Ex back in 2000. All of this saying why Fallout 3 sucks (and mods and DLC aside, it does)*. From a marketing perspective, it's nearly suicide in a AAA title.

*That said, Fallout 3 DLC is leaps above New Vegas DLC, although I dearly loved NV DLC.

[DoctorKaizeld]

 

Mad Max: Beyond Morrowind

this needs to become a thing

 

 

Fallout 3 sucks

fallout 3s reason for sucking fall into the following:

-poor voice acting... to be honest this was jarring to me, especially with all the big names in it (looking at you Liam Neeson)

-poor story i blame this on Bethesda picking up a sci-fi frachise when their known for fantasy

-few memorable characters same as above

 

though it's pros lay in the atmosphere of it all, i loved FO 3 but NV had better characters and story... though ironically, bad atmosphere and a generally boring uninspiring world.

 

 

Fallout purists like myself even criticized Bethesda for not having enough voice actors, having about a third as many as Dues Ex back in 2000.

im with you, but you have to remember that they just started the voice acting thing. wasnt FO 3 their second game to ever be fully voiced?

 

 

*That said, Fallout 3 DLC is leaps above New Vegas DLC, although I dearly loved NV DLC.

thye're all great (not you Honest Hearts, you know what you did)

 

the problem here is that unlike ME and DE the main character is no set and can be anyone... the individuality just isnt the same when you can hear the guy, girl, hero, villian, or a-hole (lets face it we all at one point play the anti-hero) talk... it's just not the same. though i still want to see how it was implemented. im not happy with the game being even more geared towards the console but i dont mind to much.

[Tony the Wookie]

If I wanted to use my imagination to voice a character and make him/her act exactly in a manner I want, then I would go write a book or build a mod... Both of which I do and very much enjoy.

 

If I am going to play a videogame, however, I want a dynamic experience that feels cinematic. I'm not paying $60 to use my imagination, when I can do that for free. I want to see cutsceens and hear reactions and experience something designed by someone else.

 

 

 

 

If I feel creative, I will go pick up my guitar and write a song. If I want to sit back and experience something, I will go to an Iron Maiden concert and let them do all the work.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Tony the Wookie

[DoctorKaizeld]

 

If I wanted to use my imagination to voice a character and make him/her act exactly in a manner I want, then I would go write a book or build a mod... Both of which I do and very much enjoy.

 

If I am going to play a videogame, however, I want a dynamic experience that feels cinematic. I'm not paying $60 to use my imagination, when I can do that for free. I want to see cutsceens and hear reactions and experience something designed by someone else.

i dont mod but i am an author so i kinda get where you're coming from, buuut that's where i have to point out the problem with what you said. the point of an RPG is that it is based around you playing a character. in ME and DE you are playing a predefined hero whose life choices and and general life style can be tweaked by the player, yet they are still the same person none the less (albeit more evil or goodie two shoes then the default version)

 

what made Fallout and KOTOR different was the fact that the character had a very limited back story and you started with essentially a blank slate. so what im saying is ME and DE are made to be cinematic and liner and Fallout and KOTOR are not.

 

 

If I feel creative, I will go pick up my guitar and write a song. If I want to sit back and experience something, I will go to an Iron Maiden concert and let them do all the work.

when im creative i pull out my sound board and edit music for fun or i write. also you sit at an Iron Maiden concert?

[charwo]

The Mad Max thing is from Honest Trailers:

As for Fallout 3, the voice acting wes the LEAST of the problems. Bethesda makes good games and good lore (though not to my taste) Bethesda makes SH!T STORIES.* Liam Neeson did a flat job because James is a wasted character. All of them are. Liam Neeson has to say things like "Your my son, and I love you, but I'm so disappointed you committed genocide for the pettiest reasons imaginable. But it's OK. My children a genocidal maniac and I have to accept it, because the script says so/" I wouldn't put effort into it either. Obsidian makes good stories, Bioware makes good stories, and Bethesda seems to have gotten it's act together because I don't feel like Skyrim is a chore to play.

If a voiced protagonist helps them focus on telling a good story, great. Cause an RPG is basically a choose your own adventure book form. There's no reason to explore, fight or loot if you don't have a good narrative to drive you. Fallout 1 and to a far lesser degree 2 (I'm that kind of purist) created a narrative so compelling, an enemy so hated (the Wasteland) that I slogged through Fallout 3 just to kick it in the balls again. They need a focus, not an excuse plot, like Fallout 3, and if the voiced protagonist helps them focus, and I think it has, it's better for it.

*I loathed Morrowind for this reason, I was not inspired at all.

[DoctorKaizeld]

 

As for Fallout 3, the voice acting wes the LEAST of the problems. Bethesda makes good games and good lore (though not to my taste) Bethesda makes s*** STORIES.* Liam Neeson did a flat job because James is a wasted character. All of them are. Liam Neeson has to say things like "Your my son, and I love you, but I'm so disappointed you committed genocide for the pettiest reasons imaginable. But it's OK. My children a genocidal maniac and I have to accept it, because the script says so/" I wouldn't put effort into it either. Obsidian makes good stories, Bioware makes good stories, and Bethesda seems to have gotten it's act together because I don't feel like Skyrim is a chore to play.

agreed... though lets face it, if James said the line " I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have caps. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a dream for people like you. If you fund my project now, that'll be the end of it. I will not charge you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will clean your water."

 

or something like that; no one would have been able to say he was a wasted character... okay they can but at least there would be a reason to like him in some way.

 

 

If a voiced protagonist helps them focus on telling a good story, great. Cause an RPG is basically a choose your own adventure book form. There's no reason to explore, fight or loot if you don't have a good narrative to drive you. Fallout 1 and to a far lesser degree 2 (I'm that kind of purist) created a narrative so compelling, an enemy so hated (the Wasteland) that I slogged through Fallout 3 just to kick it in the balls again. They need a focus, not an excuse plot, like Fallout 3, and if the voiced protagonist helps them focus, and I think it has, it's better for it.

fair argument.

 

 

The Mad Max thing is from Honest Trailers:

oh i know, i still want it to be a thing

[Tony the Wookie]

 

i dont mod but i am an author so i kinda get where you're coming from, buuut that's where i have to point out the problem with what you said. the point of an RPG is that it is based around you playing a character. in ME and DE you are playing a predefined hero whose life choices and and general life style can be tweaked by the player, yet they are still the same person none the less (albeit more evil or goodie two shoes then the default version)

 

what made Fallout and KOTOR different was the fact that the character had a very limited back story and you started with essentially a blank slate. so what im saying is ME and DE are made to be cinematic and liner and Fallout and KOTOR are not.

 

 

 

Well, now, in the modern world, Fallout 4 is playing as a predefined hero whose life choices and general life style can be tweaked by the player, yet they are still the same person none the less.

 

Fallout 1 and 2 were another age, much like 2D platformers and sprite based graphics. They were great back in the day, but we are talking about a time when you would have to get off the 'family room' computer so that someone else could use it, and you couldn't surf the internet and use the landline phone at the same time... A time when cellphones were a luxury and there weren't even mp3 players on the market yet.

 

KOTOR evolved with the times and became Mass Effect, and Mass Effect was great and its 2 squeals were nothing short of beautiful.

 

Fallout 3 however was years behind its time with the dialogue system. I'm not going to completely excuse the bad plot, because obviously it could have been better, but the outdated system does effect the ability to really create dynamic NPCs.

 

Every NPC has to be written and voice acted to do so much more, when you have a much more broad player character (Lone Wanderer vs. Commander Sheppard) So it takes a much higher level of skill to write for that kind of stuff. Fallout 1 and 2 were another age, and they did it beautifully, but the modern workflow of a game studio isn't set up like that anymore I would imagine. (I was in elementary school or watching Power Rangers as they built Fallout 1, so I am not totally aware of the state of game design during that time)

 

 

 

 

The point is, if you try to be too broad, you have to settle for the least common denominator. That is what happens with characters that are TOO customizable, things become more bland because you can't really be specific with the NPCs and dialogue.

 

By limiting Commander Sheppard, the NPCs could react specifically to who Commander Sheppard was as a person.

 

That is the future of the media, and I love it.

[MadTod]

I started a thread about the same thing but didn't realize there was one already here.

 

I think the best way to do it would be if a male voice actor and a female voice actor re-voiced all of the vanilla dialogue (yes a big undertaking but worth it) and then also voiced any mods that wish to add character dialogue.

 

Maybe starting a whole new type of mod: Character Voice Overhaul.

[Tony the Wookie]

I started a thread about the same thing but didn't realize there was one already here.

 

I think the best way to do it would be if a male voice actor and a female voice actor re-voiced all of the vanilla dialogue (yes a big undertaking but worth it) and then also voiced any mods that wish to add character dialogue.

 

Maybe starting a whole new type of mod: Character Voice Overhaul.

 

That is like me nuking my car and building a new one just because I have a flat tire.

 

I haven't heard enough of the female player character to really say, but the male player character has a very generic, slightly sarcastic, deadpan kind of voice. Very simple to mimic to an acceptable degree, especially with use of sound engineering programs and the like.