I have so far not run into any bugs or problems, with this beta, and been enjoying it, especially the dialog.

However, there's one thing that's bugging me constantly while playing; it's too quiet.

I think this is mostly because the distinct lack of voices, with the amount of dialog this game has, it's for me extreme detracting.

Now, I don't know if voice-overs are planned or not. Considering how much dialog the game has I'm not sure I can expect them.

However, I think much can be added to game by adding grunts, grumbles, mumbles, exclamations etc... Unintelligible murmers that are only there indicate the sex of the character and the mood of the line of dialog. So basically, a load of "grmbl", "heh", "huh", "hah", "hey!", "ooh", "tssk", "tutut", "sigh", "ho!" etc... soundbites.

If off course, this isn't already planned and in the works.

Would sound annoying to me. I much rather have city ambience (think Baldur's Gate II) than that to set the mood a bit better.

Also I assume in the full version there will be less downtime between music, and the SFX bugs get fixed.

I support this topic, the game looks very silent, no sense of dialogue such sounds would add interactive game.

I realy like voice-over dialogs. For me its realy important and i get bored realy fast with a game that only have text-dialog.


Yes, i know, boo for me, i'm not hardcore, etc, etc. I loved text-only games when i was in my 20s but now with 35 years old i don't have the patience for that anymore and i want to be easily entertained in a video game, and voice over makes me relax while i listen to the game.


However, i know Original Sin won't have complete voiceover due to the budget cost and the extreme quantity of dialog lines in the game, so i'll just have to make an extra effort i guess.


Would be realy amazing if a middle ground could be found between text-only and a complete voiceover system. A good middle ground for me would be to have complete voiceover on all the lines from the 2 characters, and all the other NPCs text only. Streching a little more would be to voice the main NPCs from the main questline, but perhaps that would be too expensive.
That added with the already mentioned town sounds and SFX from random people mumbling, speaking, screaming, etc would be enough to make me "entertained" in my old age grumpiness :P


I ask, would hiring 2 voice actors (1 female and one male) and make the main 2 characters voiced in all dialogs be terribly expensive and time consuming or would it be feasible?

indeed i support this as well, been clamoring for this for quite some time.

game in this state definitely lack environmental sounds world feels so plastics.
imo they need to add more of what was said above - inintelligible murmers but also more animal stuff - like chicken voices, dog barking, cats screaming, cows, sheep etc.

the voiced-dialogue question was already discussed and seemed to be a touchy topic ^^

No grumbles or mumbles, please. That would just be annoying and distracting, not immersive.

total silence also not conducive atmosphere of the game

They could go the BG2/Project Eternity way... have only one or 2 lines VO'ed at the start (say, the welcome) then the rest text. And main NPC's in cutscene's voiced.

Of course, that will be costly, and I totally don't mind. Again; I think some appropriate city ambiance would add a lot to this without costing as much as VO.

Yeah, that's what I notice when playing in the Beta, it was a bit too quiet. Wouldn't mind if they added grumble/mumble sounds from the characters. Though it's understandable that some people may find them annoying especially if they go overboard with them. If Larian does add grumble/mumble sounds, hope it can be turned off/on, leave it up to players if they like to hear them or not.

I thought it was a bug that the music doesn't appear to loop properly but rather randomly with huge patches of complete silence between the tracks, and the ambience and combat sounds (like hitting targets) are also quirky at the moment, sometimes working, sometimes not.

Create the initial phrases for each dialogue is difficult and expensive at this stage of the game, and the main thing is not compatible with the intention to expand the game using mods.
For example, a user modes will be deprived of these phrases and it will be immediately strike the eye (or strike the hearing).

One must also not forget that the translation of the first sentence of each dialogue in all languages ​​will be very silly and not justified.

I think the way to go for "The Sims" is much more logical to their ridiculous babble.

That's true too yes.
But still, music wont play continuesly, there just wont be enough tracks for that, and it will be just as annoying as large periods of silence.

We'll see how, if they fix the current sounds issues, the game sounds and what more should be added to get the true city feel.

I think I'd rather stick forks in my ears than listen to Simlish in D:OS.

Isn't that one of the item combos?

Yeah, it was the Sims I was thinking about aswel. However, it doesn't need to be a complete (nonensical) lingo.

Modding came to mind aswel, when a modder creates dialog he can/will add the mood of said line, like "$mood = appalled" or "$mood = amused" etc... the engine than triggers the correct soundbite when a dialog-line appears on screen.

I believe it will help players to cue into the mood of a conversation, it's not just about adding ambiance, I could play this game with no sound at all, but I'd be missing much.

This would be a great addition. NPCs as they are are far too silent. A voice, whether it be a mumble, grunt, or greeting would give them much needed personality. As mentioned, something along the lines of BG2, or NWN would be fantastic.

Another note... This is just an idle fancy, likely far out of the question. Combat taunts. One of my favourite aspects of many RPGs. They often are the most memorable parts of games, such as Morrowinds and Oblivions taunts shouted by an overconfident bandit before death. I would love for this game to include such taunts, but that is just me.

I accept there's not going to be full voice acting, in which case, I'd rather listen to the great music soundtrack without it getting cluttered by generic mumbling that you'll hear LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF TIMES over the course of the game.

Yeah, right.