Modders should just start choosing a single NPC...and record the lines in their own voice

[Striker879]

Underpinning good voice acting is a script that doesn't suck. Voice acting demands a good script even moreso than acting on celluloid (yes, an Old School reference to a technology no one uses any more), since there is nothing but the voice to draw attention away from the script if it's bad. Scripting dialog for a good NPC, much less follower, is not trivial. I define "good" dialog as non-repetitive and unexpected and consistently reflective of the intended personality behind the words... whatever that personality is.

 

Perhaps I misunderstood the OP, but isn't this to replaqce the voices for vanilla characters? In that case the script is already there, you just reproduce the same lines as the vanilla voice actor read.

 

You may have missed my point on the earlier comment. Look at it this way, when somebody tells you "You should ..." you will have a different reaction than when somebody says "I have ... , maybe you could try that".

[Wolfstorm]

Neural networks could help with voice design.

Unfortunatelly, I didnt find any ready-to-use format for modding.

And since I'm no programmer, I cant design one myself.

 

I even posted a thread about it: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/8670493-neural-networks/

[VulcanTourist]

Perhaps I misunderstood the OP, but isn't this to replaqce the voices for vanilla characters? In that case the script is already there, you just reproduce the same lines as the vanilla voice actor read.

 

You may have missed my point on the earlier comment. Look at it this way, when somebody tells you "You should ..." you will have a different reaction than when somebody says "I have ... , maybe you could try that".

I think the conversation has swung both ways at various points. I wandered off for days (I get no notifications), so I probably did miss out. As far a how people react to hearing the word "should", it depends almost entirely on their personality and neuroses they've acquired. "Should" implies criticism, if nothing else, and not everyone is hostile to it. People with a healthy ego might welcome it.

[Striker879]

 

Perhaps I misunderstood the OP, but isn't this to replaqce the voices for vanilla characters? In that case the script is already there, you just reproduce the same lines as the vanilla voice actor read.

 

You may have missed my point on the earlier comment. Look at it this way, when somebody tells you "You should ..." you will have a different reaction than when somebody says "I have ... , maybe you could try that".

I think the conversation has swung both ways at various points. I wandered off for days (I get no notifications), so I probably did miss out. As far a how people react to hearing the word "should", it depends almost entirely on their personality and neuroses they've acquired. "Should" implies criticism, if nothing else, and not everyone is hostile to it. People with a healthy ego might welcome it.

 

 

I value what people who don't like me have to say about me more than what friends have to say. The one group cares little if they insult, and so they are more likely to give out information that I find valuable. It's a bit like what I consider my most valuable resource of all ... my mistakes.

 

Back on topic (and it is something that you said that started my thinking down this direction) ... is it better to have variety in voices for NPCs, even if that variety comes at the expense of quality?

 

If people are contributing their best efforts, but the quality (either of recording or voice acting ability) doesn't meet whatever level of standards that get set you run the risk of word spreading to not waste your time recording and submitting because "they" will say it's not good enough (people do hate rejection). If there isn't a "standard" that needs to be met the mod comments section will "provide" them, and those same people will be on the receiving end, and once again get their rejection.

 

I'm not suggeting this shouldn't be tried ... heck if you look at my posts on the subject of variety you'll see that I serve the Godz of Variety (nobody has more NPCs in Oblivion individually Blockheaded than I do). The places with thin ice should be avoided if at all possible is where I'm coming from.

[VulcanTourist]

I've been a perfectionist with unattainable expectations since childhood, so I would likely struggle to cut people slack for mediocre voice work. The Rigmor of Bruma mod is so highly regarded, yet now that I'm playing through it for the first time I am struck by the "unevenness" of the voice work; it's not consistently bad, but it's not consistently excellent, either. Those expectations apply equally or doubly to me, so I'm not sure I'd ever complete a voice project if I started one.

 

Have you ever heard of the (Charles) Babbage Syndrome? That's me. Okay... I might have coined the term.

[Striker879]

I've been a perfectionist with unattainable expectations since childhood, so I would likely struggle to cut people slack for mediocre voice work. The Rigmor of Bruma mod is so highly regarded, yet now that I'm playing through it for the first time I am struck by the "unevenness" of the voice work; it's not consistently bad, but it's not consistently excellent, either. Those expectations apply equally or doubly to me, so I'm not sure I'd ever complete a voice project if I started one.

 

Have you ever heard of the (Charles) Babbage Syndrome? That's me. Okay... I might have coined the term.

 

Actually that's the first I've heard of the unfortunate Mr Babbage (a distant relation perhaps??).

 

As I said in the other thread, we are not all that much unlike one another. I tend to mix in an ample dose of procastinationism ... makes the stew nice and sticky.

[VulcanTourist]

As I said in the other thread, we are not all that much unlike one another. I tend to mix in an ample dose of procastinationism ...

I am leagues better at deferring than you. I teach a course at CalTech and have a late-nite infomercial. Would you like to subscribe to my newsletter?

[Striker879]

 

As I said in the other thread, we are not all that much unlike one another. I tend to mix in an ample dose of procastinationism ...

I am leagues better at deferring than you. I teach a course at CalTech and have a late-nite infomercial. Would you like to subscribe to my newsletter?

 

 

LOL ... yes Obi Wan ... I'll be your padawan.

 

Mine is bigger, or mine is better is never a game that holds my attention. Mine's different, yours is different. That's the way the world is supposed to be, so all is as it should be. That's not to say that if I notice something kinda' neat in your sandbox I'm not going to think about having one too!

[VulcanTourist]

That's not to say that if I notice something kinda' neat in your sandbox I'm not going to think about having one too!

I will gladly give you the recipe so long as I get to keep the one I made.

[Striker879]

 

That's not to say that if I notice something kinda' neat in your sandbox I'm not going to think about having one too!

I will gladly give you the recipe so long as I get to keep the one I made.

 

 

That's a given. The fun isn't had playing with the toy, it's in making the toy to play with. Then we can get back to the mine is better etc (if stuff doesn't go in a circle what good is it??).

 

- Edit - Now that we have accomplished the "well and fully hijacked" ... in Oblivion a lot of what NPCs have to say is selected from a vast pool of dialogue recorded by that one particular voice actor for that race(s) (e.g. Lynda Carter for Nord and Orc females). The games uses conditions to select certain dialogue for certain NPCs and to block it from others. That would make it a rather difficult task to determine all of the dialogue for a particular NPC out of the total dialogue done for a race.

 

Is the system for Skyrim similar? Will the first big hurtle be figuring out what lines are going to be needed for each NPC?

Edited September 2, 2020 by Striker879