Originally Posted by LordGiggles
Originally Posted by Pandemonica
Originally Posted by LordGiggles
Originally Posted by Pandemonica
Once again, VA work is not that expensive unless it is a major name doing it. Not to mention you are confusing a voiced main character with gender identity and validation? I mean where did that come from? I am pretty sure with over 300 employees working on this game, editing some voice for a MC is not some out of the question, or complicated thing to do. This isn't 2000, voice work is not overly complicated or cost prohibited. It seems your more focused on gender identity and sociological aspects, an misunderstanding what PC means in the title. PC = Player Character it does not mean Political Correctness.

VA work is absolutely cost prohibitive compared to non-voiced lines. Changing a line slightly to allow for a bit more reactivity is only as expensive as the actual implementation of code allowing for that, the writing is not difficult at all to adjust once the base dialogue is set. If you want that voiced, you now need the line completely rerecorded, with likely an entirely new reaction to that line recorded as well. The cost and time investment of doing that consistently over a whole game is obviously going to be much larger than in a non-voiced one.

With enough reactivity you're increasing the amount of voiced lines by a huge amount. It's not like a main PC voice is going to be some cheap nobody, it's a delivery you will hear literally all game, you're going to pay for someone skilled.

Generally during a productions cycle, it is rare that lines are changed once they are set. They go through a number of edits and revisions before they are finalized and signed off on (and usually have to be signed off on by multiple departments before recording). I have been in production work, trust me by the time you get to production, everything is pretty much set in stone. So the argument that it is cost prohibitive because of possible changes, is so rare, that it hardly happens.

sure, but that's not what I said. Changing a line to allow for reactivity is something that's obviously done before you're sending them off to be recorded, it's planned out well in advance and adds a huge amount of extra work that would not be present when the dialogue is unvoiced. It's not post-production, it's planned writing and small changes within lines and reactions to you that allow for a feeling of your character being a relatively unique figure with their own story going on and place in the world.

It's pretty fundamental to good RPG writing, and voicing lines is absolutely going to add a huge extra barrier to having proper reactivity. Acting like having your main voice actors having to record a huge amount more lines (as well as having many of your other actors record extra lines to facilitate this feeling natural) isn't going to limit the amount of it present is silly.

I am sorry, but what is "Changing a line to allow for reactivity " because it is basically just sounding like you want to try and overcomplicate and issue to justify your own preference. When you voice record for lines, you have the base lines of dialog, then alternate trees of dialog. These are all noted with what the VA should be portraying (ie: shock, anger, sadness etc). Then the developer assigns that to whatever action it will be in response to. That is how it is done.

" it's planned writing and small changes within lines and reactions to you that allow for a feeling of your character being a relatively unique figure with their own story going on and place in the world."

I mean what that big complicated exchange means, is that what YOU are feeling in your head about how YOU see him as a unique character.

I mean how you feel is fine, just state that. But don't try to justify it by making some crazy "intricate" argument about why it shouldn't be done. Even in regards to the origin characters, besides their base script lines, they would have x number of reply lines with notations on what emotion to portray. Then the developer assigns it to the action tree in the engine. It is not rocket science. Anyone with even the basic knowledge of how a game engine works would know this, and how to utilize game assets. So all that is left is the 3D animation, which actually considering that most of the time the VAs are video taped during their recording, and a software renders their facial expressions on the model. then it just only needs to be lightly tweaked. Why do you think that with the origin characters, their faces look more natural in the cinematics? It is because of the facial software translating that during the VAs audio recording. That is why the custom characters facial expressions look stiffer, because those are hand animations or key framing.

Last edited by Pandemonica; 22/02/21 12:29 AM.