LE Voiced Main Character

[Tsewe]

Yes I am one of those who think that having a voiceless main character makes him look retarded or without life.

 

Since RPG games usually include voiced characters, I still wonder why recent games such as Skyrim did not do the same.

 

Too many voices to do? Too many lines? Come on. Saints Row 2, without an enormous budget, made 6 fully voiced scripts (3 males and 3 females). And then of course you have the Mass Effect games series, and others.

Maybe you think having a voiced created character removes his authenticity or breaks immersion because the proposed voices do not fit with what you have in mind?

 

Seriously, I totally disagree with that. I think, on the opposite, that having a voiceless character totally breaks the immersion. You're the goddamn dovahkiin, the supreme hero of all time, but you are mute. I don't have anything against mutes, at least Bethesda could have put a voiceless option for those who like it that way.

But still, personnally, I feel like a nobody without a voice - having a voice changes everything. I don't feel part of the world anymore without a voice since other RPGs started doing it.

 

So here's what I suggest for voice actors who are motivated: of course you could start with 1 male and 1 female voice, but ideally i see it that way:

3 males voices: one tough guy (could be used as Orc, Nord Barbarian etc), one mysterious guy (assassin, thief or hunter), one wise guy (mage)

3 female voices: one tough girl, one mysterious girl, and one wise girl too

 

Of course there loooots of dialogues out there. I think it would be interesting if some voice actor available out here could begin with only the main quest's dialogues.

 

Please discuss! I am dead serious about this!! I want to see if some voice actors are willing to start working on this project!

 

PS: Anynone knows if this is the right place for voice actors to see the request, or should I send my idea somewhere else more appropriate?

Edited November 25, 2012 by Tsewe

[Korodic]

saints row 2 also did have a normal amercian white guy voice :/

[littleork]

It probably doesn't exist because the ck doesn't really give you a way to do it.

[Tsewe]

Yes it does actually. That is why you can find many good NPCs or Follower mods fully voiced

[Korodic]

The hard part would be figuring out how to match the proper voice files. Even if you do get voice files, such as basic hellos and stuff, you need a decent voice actor. Also you need to determine race/sex for which voice to apply. But I think voice/dialogue offers you that to conditionalize. Might just work, but again... voice actors... and there arent that many people dedicated to doing voicing. I still have issues trying to find voice actors/learn how to voice characters in my own mod. Pain in the butt.

[littleork]

Yes it does actually. That is why you can find many good NPCs or Follower mods fully voiced

 

Voicing a follower and voicing the actual player character is an entirely different thing, if you are to look in the actual ck, there is a lot more options for the npc you are talking too and not much you can do with the actual character. It is just the way the ck is done, the only way I would see it done is through scripting, I guess you would need to find a way to call an audio line when you click a dialog option, I would like to see this, but I have been working with the ck for a while and didn't see any way to do this.

[JanusForbeare]

It's theoretically possible to do something close to what is being requested, through a combination of the Say and Wait Papyrus functions. However:

 

1) I'm not sure that there's an effective way to trigger player dialogue to play when a dialogue option is chosen. Scripts can be attached to NPC responses, but as far as I know, there's no way to attach them to player dialogue options. The consequence of this would be:

 

2) It would be next to impossible to get the timing right. Since the script wouldn't fire until the NPC begins their response, the player and the NPC would be effectively speaking at the same time. This is why I brought up the wait function - the only way I can see to circumvent this problem would be to have ALL dialogue in the game triggered by say functions. In other words, you click on a dialogue option, which triggers an NPC response with a blank audio file. Attached to the NPC response is a script. The say function in that script plays the player's line, while the wait function pauses the script for a certain amount of time (ie. until the player finishes speaking). When the player finishes speaking and the wait time elapses, another say command is triggered (ie. the NPC response). Coordinating every possible interaction would be a monumental undertaking... virtually impossible.

 

3) Modded interactions would, of course, remain unvoiced, at least as far as the player is concerned.

 

4) There's no SetVoiceType function in Papyrus, so I don't think it would be possible to have more than one potential voicetype for the player (ie. women might have male voice, orcs might sound like elves, etc.). You might be able to get around this by releasing each voicetype as a separate mod. Again, requiring a massive amount of work.

 

5) I'm not totally sure that the player can use .lip files, which could rule out lipsync for player dialogue.

 

There are probably other obstacles as well, these are just the most obvious ones.

 

In other words, it might be possible, but it would take years to complete and might never reach a finished state. If you really want this, I'd recommend that you start on it yourself (and now), because the odds of an experienced mod author taking on a project like this are minimal. If you manage to make some headway and can demonstrate a proof-of-concept video to the community, however, you might be able to bring some additional help on board.

[Tsewe]

Well thank you for your elaborate answer.

 

honestly, I thought it would be as simple as it is with making fully voiced NPCs.

 

I don't want to work on this, I just wanted to see if the idea was possible and if some people might be interested on working on it.

Alas, my Dovahkiin will always feel a bit retarded, that's too bad.

hopefully Bethesda will make voice choices for the next TES...

 

Anyway, thanks again

 

Btw, I love Atvir Dres!!

Edited November 26, 2012 by Tsewe

[yic17]

There was a mod for Oblivion which adds a voice pack to your main character OR any NPC/companion (replacing their original voices). I absolutely love that mod. It adds much personality to your MC and your companions. Even though it doesn't add voice to your main quest dialogues (which I personally think is unnecessary tbh), it is still very, very cool.

 

Here are the links to the Oblivion mods:

- http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/12588/?

- http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/13329/?

 

These mods use voices from Baldur's Gate. But they can be easily replaced with a voice actor's. I created one for personal use using the original mod as default for my Oblivion. Worked really well. And there are not many generic lines. I think only about 30 or so.

 

Really hope someone can create a mod such as this into Skyrim as well!

 

Edit: I should probably create a new request thread though since it's slightly different to the main topic of this request.

Edited July 23, 2013 by yic17

[Bozzz123]

I would love a mod like that. I mean, someone says something to me and I just stare at him silently and somehow he knows what I wanted to say? The Dovakhin can only absorb dragon souls, not transfer his thoughts into other peoples minds.