There are more voices datamined, that were available with a mod. Sadly that mod isn't updated for patch 9 yet. I can't say much for the male voices but there is a rather deep and more gruffy female voice among them.
That’s reassuring to know, for female voices at least! Thanks.
Sorry, I edited my post, while you answered, I did say something about the poll too to stay ob topic
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
For me, if I play an origin character then I expect VA for myself. If it's custom it may be harder but would be a nice addition.
@Larian I am sure the community would be happy to volunteer to voice the MC. 《Free of charge, just toss us a pizza party》. I got nothing to do now anyway - shameless plug aside. If not the devs maybe mods.
Speaking of protagonist VO, I run into 2nd instance of Tav speaking in a cutscene, similar to the one that can be found during True Soul encounter.
The new scene triggered after the cutscene of Githyanki patrol decimating soldiers on the bridge, where Tav told me it would be foolish to approach them - I don't know if it is new, or I just didn't see it before as I ususally pay them a visit with Laez.
Even for a voiced protagonist it is an odd addition - I get that some games have inner monologue that lead the player by nose, but it is somewhat odd for a RPG protagonist to more or less turn toward camera and say: "Hey! This might be a hard encounter!" Unless, it wasn't my Tav speaking, but a mercenary making an obervation (I have three Tavs in my current run, and am not sure whom the game sees as my Avatar)
Speaking of protagonist VO, I run into 2nd instance of Tav speaking in a cutscene, similar to the one that can be found during True Soul encounter.
The new scene triggered after the cutscene of Githyanki patrol decimating soldiers on the bridge, where Tav told me it would be foolish to approach them - I don't know if it is new, or I just didn't see it before as I ususally pay them a visit with Laez.
Even for a voiced protagonist it is an odd addition - I get that some games have inner monologue that lead the player by nose, but it is somewhat odd for a RPG protagonist to more or less turn toward camera and say: "Hey! This might be a hard encounter!" Unless, it wasn't my Tav speaking, but a mercenary making an obervation (I have three Tavs in my current run, and am not sure whom the game sees as my Avatar)
Was it your character’s voice? There is also a tiefling who warns you.
Fully-voiced protagonists are good for games where the player character has a defined personality. For games where their personality is meant to be decided on by the player, voiced protagonists can sound dissonant at best, and bipolar at worst.
For example, Shepard in Mass Effect is always more or less the same person no matter what morality path you choose, since Paragon and Renegade are just about how dickish you want to act. In Dragon Age II, where Hawke's personality wasn't set in stone, the VA would switch between three really distinct personalities depending on your choice. So in one line Hawke sounds like a gritty, violent psycho and on the next line Hawke will sound like a plucky jokester.
Also, having to voice every dialogue line costs time and money. This would lead to less options in conversations just from a financial perspective.
Fully-voiced protagonists are good for games where the player character has a defined personality. For games where their personality is meant to be decided on by the player, voiced protagonists can sound dissonant at best, and bipolar at worst.
For example, Shepard in Mass Effect is always more or less the same person no matter what morality path you choose, since Paragon and Renegade are just about how dickish you want to act. In Dragon Age II, where Hawke's personality wasn't set in stone, the VA would switch between three really distinct personalities depending on your choice. So in one line Hawke sounds like a gritty, violent psycho and on the next line Hawke will sound like a plucky jokester.
Also, having to voice every dialogue line costs time and money. This would lead to less options in conversations just from a financial perspective.
I would say inquisition did a good job at it. My inquisitor felt unique in each case. Albeit inquisition was made by a much larger team then Larian has, and is closer to a AAAA game while BG3 is a AA game. Having reasonable expectations that we wont have voiced MC, but i would still want it
i'm not against it, considering the PC already says a few random things when selecting his/her avatar anyway. More voices to choose from would be nice though.
Yes, after creating three Tavs and realising I have no way of differentiating them, I took an artistically creative route and named them: PaladinTav, BardTav and SorcererTav
It just occurred to me, how are they going to handle our character's name? We get the option to tell people our name at several points, which isn't an issue until our character has to actually say the lines.
It just occurred to me, how are they going to handle our character's name? We get the option to tell people our name at several points, which isn't an issue until our character has to actually say the lines.
I guess they’d just have to skip that particular bit of the line in the voiced part. Usually we’re saying something else as well, such as greeting the other person, and that could be voiced. I’m okay to let this slide for the odd sentence, to gain the benefit of a voiced protagonist the rest of the time. We already have to handwave the oddity common to other games with voiced NPCs, where we can give our character a custom name but other characters will never use it.
I guess at some point voice synthesising will become good enough to enable a game to naturally use a custom name in conversation without unreasonable resources being spent on this, but not sure we’re there yet?
"You may call it 'nonsense' if you like, but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!"
It just occurred to me, how are they going to handle our character's name? We get the option to tell people our name at several points, which isn't an issue until our character has to actually say the lines.
That's a good point. Generally NPCs tend to ommit Char-name when speaking, even if it is showed in text. No really an easy way around "Hi my name is XXX" though.
I kinda assume that if we would get full VO for Tav, it wouldn't be one to one reading of lines we pick - a bit like Geralt in Witchers doesn't say exactly what we have picked. Our Tav might say something relating to their background for example, with his "name" being left in text only.
Still, good point. That would be awkward thing to voice, and unlikely option to be added, if Larian was intending full VO.
I always prefer voiced protagonists. Even more so when immersed in a world of sound where everyone speaks, oftentimes beautifully - except from the mute you play. Makes your character, the one the narrative world gravitates around, stick out like a sore thumb. Deafening and obtrusive silence if you will.
Those who prefer mutes for whatever reason could get a toggle, so that isn't an issue. The real issue is resource allocation as this would be rather resource intensive considering the origin system with multiple potential player characters on top of a multitude of races that would benefit from their own unique voice. One of the *many* negatives of the origin system Larian is obsessed about. That said, Larian has used so much resources on implementations that most would consider much less important that something major like a voiced protagonist should have made it in. I'm resigned to playing a mute Bard though.
I actually don't think that a toggle would fix the issue, because at least in my opinion - I accept that some people will feel differently - the issue is that a voiced protagonist severely limits dialogue options and makes it harder for the devs to adapt and include new stuff as the process goes on.
the issue is that a voiced protagonist severely limits dialogue options and makes it harder for the devs to adapt and include new stuff as the process goes on.
Even with non-voiced protagonist the issue exists in form of NPC VO and cinematic presentation. Sure recording several Tav/Origin VOs is an additional expense/scheduling problem, but BG3 dialogues are already costly to expand.
I also see Origin system to be a far bigger issue in how Tav's lines are written than potential VO. BG3 is so far removed from what I would consider an ideal RPG, that at this point I would rather have than commit to what they have. Giving BG3 full VO pits it against Witches, Mass Effects and Inquisition, which is a much more favourable position to be in (as far as RPGness goes). Also, dominating the market through sheer production value seems to be Larians main strategy at this point.
For me, non-voiced protagonist works only in isometric games without cutscenes. In a game like BG3, i would love to have voice because seeing only facial expressions in cutscenes just doesnt work for good story telling, it feels weird and out of place. But i guess this wont happen in August. Maybe in some enhanced edition
I actually don't think that a toggle would fix the issue, because at least in my opinion - I accept that some people will feel differently - the issue is that a voiced protagonist severely limits dialogue options and makes it harder for the devs to adapt and include new stuff as the process goes on.
As I said, this is largely a question of resource allocation. The current conversation system is pretty great (apart from the conspicuously muted protagonist). But the game shouldn't bog down into becoming a social interaction simulator - at which point voice acting might not be feasible and become the obstacle you see it as. But even then it would be a question of resource allocation.
To give you context as to where I'm coming from on this; I hate text adventures with a passion. This loathing extends to the RPG formulaic dogma of implementing massive amount of written fragmented 'lore' that is largely filler material. If I want to read a book, I'll read a book. Purely written texts in a sea of words is something I most often ignore as not important enough to warrant my time and attention. Your distracting wordiness severely restricts my desire for immersive voices. Tables are easily turned.
As an aside, this dislike of excessive and one-sided 'wordiness' includes the tendency of turning NPC dense areas into 'quest hubs' where you pick up so many quests you truly need a quest log to untangle the mess. Each new such interaction diminishes the previous - blurring everything together. Sometimes less really is more. Will be interesting to see if Larian manages to avoid this trap in their implementation of Baldur's Gate city proper.
My feeling is that the game currently doesn't provide enough conversation options to let us characterise our characters suitably. It feels like the options we're presented with limit the kinds of characters we can feasibly play to a significant degree, which I think voice acting would only further exacerbate and prevent them from fixing entirely. This is an issue for me because the game "pretends" to give a full customisable role-playing experience, as opposed to what you get from the witcher or mass effect. For comparison, in Pillars of Eternity I could play a bookish academic, a guilt-ridden freedom fighter, and a frustrated noble, and all three characters were able to have character arcs where they grew and changed within the narrative in different ways. Larian has talked a big game about BG3 but nothing I've seen thus far really makes me think I could get that breadth from characters here.
Though when you say the current conversation system, I wonder what exactly you mean. The "system" as I understand it is "pick a dialogue line from the list." And that's just the standard system for most rpgs.
Originally Posted by Wormerine
Originally Posted by Gray Ghost
the issue is that a voiced protagonist severely limits dialogue options and makes it harder for the devs to adapt and include new stuff as the process goes on.
Even with non-voiced protagonist the issue exists in form of NPC VO and cinematic presentation. Sure recording several Tav/Origin VOs is an additional expense/scheduling problem, but BG3 dialogues are already costly to expand.
I also see Origin system to be a far bigger issue in how Tav's lines are written than potential VO. BG3 is so far removed from what I would consider an ideal RPG, that at this point I would rather have than commit to what they have. Giving BG3 full VO pits it against Witches, Mass Effects and Inquisition, which is a much more favourable position to be in (as far as RPGness goes). Also, dominating the market through sheer production value seems to be Larians main strategy at this point.
You make a good point, I hadn't thought about that. It makes me even more convinced that the approach Owlcsa took, using occasional voice acting in major moments is the best route for rpgs to take. But BG3 is already a lost cause on this front. But I still don't want voice acting because at least then I can have my own character have nuanced responses.
Also I don't think BG3 can really compare to any of those other games you mentioned in terms of quality, so it's not a great contest for the game either way. And as far as characterization, it has the worst of both worlds. Tav can't be an iconic character because we have too much choice, but it's not enough to be a deep role-playing vehicle.
to stay ob topic
