Character Voices (Test with Orcs)

[Aleksi]

Hello,

Just to make a test i tried a few voices in Wesnoth. A character could maybe speak before hitting his enemy or say a few comments whenever he wants. Having a bit more sound effects could be nice. Also adding birds, wind, water etc... could be very nice. So here is an example of Orcs voices. I recorded myself and did a few changes. Forget what the character says I just said what came to my head! But in case you people like it i have the possibility to record many people and that have better voices for Humans, Elfs, etc...! So, here's the link!

http://aleksi.free.fr/Wesnoth/Requireme ... Voices.ogg

Cheers,

Aleksi.

[Boucman]

the Internationalisation people will love you for that

[Guillaume]

Hi,

This idea, is I think one of the best I've seen for a long time.
I would really enjoy having those types of noise, but as said Boucman,
and as I'm the maintainer of the French translation, it wouln'd be very
easy to maintain all this.

But once again, I love this idea and really hope it'll be integrated in the game.

[Dave]

I really like the sound of those voices!

They could already easily be added into the game using WML. For instance, in a scenario if you wanted to make the Orcish 'I am going to kill you' voice play sometimes when an orc attacks:

Code: Select all

[event]
name=attack
    [filter]
    race=orc  # (1)
    [/filter]
    [set_variable]
    name=chance
    random=1-10
    [/set_variable]
    [if]
        [variable]
        numerical_equals=1
        [/variable]
        [then]
            [sound]
            name=orc_kill_you.wav
            [/sound]
        [/then]
    [/if]
[/event]

This code will basically make a 1 in 10 chance of the sound 'orc_kill_you.wav' being played every time an orc attacks.

I also personally think that if they're not internationalized, it won't be such a big deal [2], as long as they're used for flavor rather than as a part of the storyline.

I also understand that voices like this might not be for everyone, so we'd probably make them an optional additional download.

Also, what we really need are grunts/groans/'ouches' for units when they get hit. We need the orc to make a distinct sound to the elf and so forth. If you could get grunting sounds for all races, that'd be just great!

But, I would love to hear more voices. Personally I feel they add to the immersiveness of the game, as long as the voices sound good (and the samples you posted do sound very good imo). Having characters speak gives them personality, but having a dialog popup can be annoying, having the speech just sound when it's a short sentence by itself works better I think.

Some ideas of voices we could have:

- Some for Delfador -- "Prepare to die!", "You dare oppose me?", "Your end is nigh!"
- Some for Konrad -- "Let me through!", "You won't stop me!", "To arms!"
- Orcs -- the kind of things you posted. Perhaps some for the Orcish Warlord when he is attacked.
- Undead -- some even more sinister sounding taunts
- similiar equivalent stuff for other races. These can be race-specific. E.g. we could have a specific one for when an Elf attacks an Orc, or even for when a Mage of Light attacks a Wraith.

I think it's a good idea, but I'm sure there's lots of people who think it's not

David

[1] Actually this feature has only just been added. In older versions you will have to use type=Orcish Archer,Orcish Grunt,etc...
[2] Admittedly that's easy for me to say, as a mono-lingual English speaker

[Neoriceisgood]

it'd be good for "perfect" hits or something aswell, if all your attacks hit the opponent or if the opponent doesn't hit you at all. ofcourse I do believe the chance for units speaking should be bigger for higher leveled units, it'd be damn annoying if zombies went "Braaaainz!" during half of their attack turns.

[Aleksi]

Nice, i'm happy you agreed with this idea. First of all, if needed in other languages i can speak French, English, and Italian fluently. I have many friend that come from different contries so i can do whatever language is needed. But maybe having a single language is better, as Dave said, to add some flavor. I was also thinking about putting sounds of a big fight with in the backround, as in many soldiers fightings and swords banging into shields. But lets start with voices maybe then we'll see.
What i would need is a list of lines characters should say. Dave gave me a few. Maybe i would need more. And some description of units. Because i don't know all of them .Ok, now back to work!

Aleksi.

[Dave]

Well, we could internationalize it if we have the resources to produce the sounds for all the languages we want to.

Another possibility is that we could try to make up the basics of our own Wesnothian dialogs and have them speak in their own language, but that's probably just a little too crazy

Why don't we start out with a 'proof of concept' for the first few scenarios of the Heir to the Throne campaign, and then if it works well we can extend it?

This is a complete list of lines we can have for our proof of concept - feel free to change them to make them sound right:

Orcish:
- "Die, die!" (orcish attack)
- "Die Elves!", "Filthy little Elf, come to me!" (for when an orc attacks an elf)
- "Elf blood!" (for when an orc kills an elf)
- "Ahh, humans!" (for when an orc attacks a human)

Orcish Lord:
- "Attack them, fools!" (when a nearby grunt attacks someone)
- "You will die!" (when he is attacked)

Elvish (probably the hardest voices to get right ):
- "Taste my bow!", "I will end you!" (when attacking)
- "One less of them to torment this world." (after killing someone)

Human - Horseman
- "Charge!", "For honor!" (when attacking)

Delfador: (old wizard)
- "You have seen your last day", "Your end is nigh" (when he attacks)
- "Only the foolish oppose me!" (after he kills someone)
- "I am done for" (when he dies)

Konrad: (young human warrior)
- "Let me through!", "Attack!" (when he attacks)
- "Aid me, men!" (when he is near death)

After we've seen how these work out, we can talk about more of them.

David

[Aleksi]

Here are some new examples to test what i could do with my voice.

http://aleksi.free.fr/Wesnoth/Requirements/Voices/

Imagine with wind in the backround + music and maybe other effects. I think it could be very cool!

And i was also thinking of a narration a the beggining of the campaign. A voice reading the text?
And thanks for the list Dave! Its gonna be fun! But for today my voice is already hurting because of the Orc voices! So i'll check this later on

Aleksi.

[Dave]

Here are some new examples to test what i could do with my voice.

http://aleksi.free.fr/Wesnoth/Requirements/Voices/

I think they sound great!

And i was also thinking of a narration a the beggining of the campaign. A voice reading the text?

Possibly, although I think that getting a few 'flavor' voices for units in-game would be easier, as well as more important.

David

[telex4]

So long as I can turn them off, it sounds great

[Aleksi]

[quartex]

I agree that voices are nice, but they can get annoying fast. Imagine how many times you will attack with your main units in one level, especially if there are lots of units and huge battles. Now even if the orc says "die humans" only a third of the time, you are going to get really tired of that battle call. I think (at least at first) they should be used sparingly, perhaps just by the main heroes of "Heir to the thone" and not by main units. If we had critical hits in Wesnoth, that would be a good time to yell out a battle cry. And my main worry is that in an open source game voice acting can be hard to do well. Blizzard's Warcraft games did it right, but they had professionals (okay the original orcs were done by local programmers). Still a bad battle cry could just ruin the aural experience.
Basically: if done well voices are awesome, if done badly...i cringe to think of it.

You can see I'd be in favor of being able to turn them off.

[Dave]

They'll definitely be optional.

We'll also make them only occur occasionally. One possibility is to have them occur a maximum of once per scenario.

David

[Guillaume]

I also thought about having a voice for the text of the beginning of the campaign. That will really add something to the game. A little but like the game Dune 2 with a voice that explain the world where the player evolve.

Great idea.

[Aleksi]

... And my main worry is that in an open source game voice acting can be hard to do well. Blizzard's Warcraft games did it right, but they had professionals (okay the original orcs were done by local programmers). Still a bad battle cry could just ruin the aural experience.
Basically: if done well voices are awesome, if done badly...i cringe to think of it.

Don't worry, if the voices don't sound good, they won't be incoporated. Thats why i'll do my best to do it. I'll find people that are capable of doing it. I know its hard but since this is an free open game and not Blizzard (with about 20 million $ budget per game) we do our best with what we have.

Aleksi.