Idea for future...spoken dialog?

[GPA_Nemesis]

Just a random thought...would it be possible, in future versions of Exult, to support fully spoken dialog in addition to typed? The Exult team would need to add support for .mp3 for this to keep the filesize of a 'dialog patch' feasable.

The Exult team wouldn't even have to provide the voices...just the support (kinda in a 'keep the .mp3 in this format, and if the .mp3 is present in a 'voices' folder, play it...if not, text only' kind of way.)

In this way, not all the text would have to be recorded at first. Even a few key conversations could be recorded. Of course, there would have to be two voice sets for the Avatar (male/female)...and who here wouldn't love to con Lord British himself into provided the voice to such a project (as himself, naturally).

If the user 'clicks ahead' in the conversation, the current voice clip would end and the next one played...and the voices outright could be enabled or disabled in the options menu.

I don't think this would require a lot of work from the programming/Exult team (may be wrong)...the real work would be in a MOD team actually coming together to record the voices. The main problem is, each conversation part would have to be mapped to a number (call it 'x'). If conversation part 'x' is triggered, check to see if 'x'.mp3 is present. If so, play it as well. If not, just display the text.

What do people think? I think it would go a LONG way to making an incredible game even better...but it would ultimatly be quite an undertaking...
-Brian (Playful Dragon)

[Dominus]

1. we do have support for ogg (which a lot of people think is superior to mp3)
2. I can't tell much about the technical possibility of your suggestion, only that the mapping would need to be a bit more extensive due to the underlying usecode.
3. Of course support for female/male Avatar (both in his/her answers and what people say to him/her)

4. I myself wouldn't care much for voice support. There is a reason voice actors do get good wages. Everyone can speak and record his voice but not everybody is a good voice actor. But it could be an interesting project.

[Vexblackheart]

Avatar voice acting? What like Job? Name?

[GPA_Nemesis]

lol...good point. Forgot, the Av doesn't get many spoken lines.

Okay...still, every other character could have a voice. Could be a fun diversion for a mod team. I'd love to give Blackthorne a shot, myself (he's in SI, right?)...after U5, I feel like I know him...shame he never had a chance at redemption in U9...
-Brian (Playful Dragon)

[WishStone Dragon]

Hell, even only for DJing on the radio people get teaching. I should know, because my voice has a rather nasty slip in the high areas, I needed to learn to speak lower then I useually would...

[drcode]

Not sure about this, but... If you get L.B. to lend his voice, I'll promise to implement the functionality.

[Vexblackheart]

I think it would be cool, but another obstacle would be the sheer amount of NPCs. There are like 250 or so of em. Let's just say that only 200 of them actually "say" something. If you get one person per two NPC's (cus if they all had the same voice...) You would need 100, volunteer voice actors.

...Sign me up! ^_^

[GPA_Nemesis]

Well, remember, if it follows a 'If the .ogg for the conversation is there play it, if not skip it' format, then not ALL the conversations would need to be in place at first. The initial patches could just include key characters/conversations.

And remember, some conversations are recycled...the guards are all the same.

And a lot of NPCs only have one-liners...finding extras for that would be simple. After all, you want a lot of polish of Lord British's lines...nobody cares as much about the one line the town drunk has.

Still, this is all just idle/random musings...
-Brian (Playful Dragon)

[Vexblackheart]

I think the dev team should focus on putting nipples on Mama.

<_<

^_^

[Daemongar]

Hi, I would like to try out. I haven't been here for 200 years, I'm a little rusty. Um, yeah, nice theater.

Ahem...

I -AM- the Avatar!

Hello???? Oh, wait, let me reload!