EE NPCs soundsets. Why they don't have most of the soundsets?

DarkDogg

I've mentioned this before, like Rasaad or Dorn never react on a reputation change.
Well, take a look for yourself.

Ajantis soundsets for example:


And Rasaads for example:


Why the lack?
Are this game reaction hardcoded or the devs have just forgotten about this strings?
Or they don't have money for the voice actors?

jackjack

To be fair, voice actors do not come cheap.

Messi

jackjack said:

To be fair, voice actors do not come cheap.

I think everyone can understand that. In the end though it's also a question of prioritization. That is they could have saved money if eg. they hadn't spend any resources on BP2.

KidCarnival

I'd rather have the basic reactions to rep change and enviroment than the voiced romance lines. Those will only trigger if charname romances a NPC and with only one active romance at a time, but all 4 new NPCs being romancable, that limits their use. General sounds are present for everyone, regardless of romance. It's awfully silent in parties with mostly new NPCs.

Shin

Not that I'm an expert in voice acting, but when the actors are on location, how much will 3-4 extra lines per NPC set you back? Feels more like an oversight than a budget decision to me.

Lathlaer

Shin said:

Not that I'm an expert in voice acting, but when the actors are on location, how much will 3-4 extra lines per NPC set you back? Feels more like an oversight than a budget decision to me.

Exactly. Do they charge per spoken word or what?

Eudaemonium

I'm not in the VA business remotely, but I think I heard somewhere that they charge by 'line', with a 'line' being a predefined length/amount of words/something (rather than a literal sentence). There would also obviously be studio fees and transport costs, and its possible that some VAs have a base fee they charge as well.

Out of interest, does anyone know who voiced Hexxat?

Messi

Sereana Malani.

DarkDogg

Shin said:

Not that I'm an expert in voice acting, but when the actors are on location, how much will 3-4 extra lines per NPC set you back? Feels more like an oversight than a budget decision to me.

Do you really think so? Because a year or something ago I've posted the same thing in the bug section, but it was only about the reputation sound with no NI screens like that. The devs said nothing... But they could FIX'd it when BG2EE was released and the same actors were hired to make new voice sets for new BG2 lines. They could simple add 5 lines per new NPC to the BG1 game I guess...

Don't you think this reactions could be very very hardcoded?
Personally I find it very annoying, just like @KidCarnival said. And this makes me sad :-(

DarkDogg

Eudaemonium said:

I'm not in the VA business remotely, but I think I heard somewhere that they charge by 'line', with a 'line' being a predefined length/amount of words/something (rather than a literal sentence). There would also obviously be studio fees and transport costs, and its possible that some VAs have a base fee they charge as well.

I can say it hows in russia with voice actors.
No transport fees.
A good studio rent + tracking:
Ca. 400-500 rubles per hour - 20-25$.

A normal voice actor:
1 word = ca. 5 rubles (ca. 15 cents)

A very famous russian voice actor (movie star etc.) costs ca. 40 rubles (1.2$) per word.

And the editing. Well, I think if I can do all the sound editings myself, I guess every modder can...

I guess it's much cheaper in the US.
Even so, not really a big amount for this lines for 4 NPCs. 20 bucks the whole deal

KidCarnival

I agree; I can't imagine these few lines were really impossible due to financial reasons. The goal was to integrate the new NPCs and not have them stand out in the old content. In BG2, they only have the first dialogue lines voiced, just like the old NPCs, and that does a lot for making them "normal". But the silence still stands out.
In BG1, a party with the new NPCs, charname and 1 old NPC means the old NPC has no-one to banter with either - complete silence. And even if I only take 1 or 2 new NPCs, they are still targeted by old ones as "banter partner". In BG2, there are less rep changes to react to, but it is still strange that the new NPCs don't react to the enviroment (outdoors, dungeon, city) when everyone else does. In this regard, they don't blend into the old content at all.

I would understand it if an easter egg like Baeloth was missing some lines, but not the NPCs that are widely advertised.

Eudaemonium

@KidCarnival: Do you not have the new characters react to location in BG2, because they do for me: dungeons, wilderness, and city.

They don't have these in BG1, but they do in BG2. They also have rep lines (except Hexxat, for some reason), but these don't seem to trigger much.

KidCarnival

That could explain it; I only travelled longer with Hexxat so far. I had Dorn for a while (only his first quest) and just picked up Rasaad.

Eudaemonium

Ironically,

Fake Hexxat

has reputation lines, but Hexxat doesn't.

Ryofu

Geez, this make me hate Blackpits for costing us content in the main game

KidCarnival

Ryofu said:

Geez, this make me hate Blackpits for costing us content in the main game

I blame the romances. Black Pits 2 is a really nice side adventure and feels much more like a standalone game than BP1 and I can play this with a variety of characters. Romances, however, are restricted to one per charname (if any) - what a waste to voice them instead of default lines. That should be the first thing a new NPC gets.

jackjack

Yeah it seems like a a case of misplaced priorities.

Ryofu

KidCarnival said:

Ryofu said:

Geez, this make me hate Blackpits for costing us content in the main game

I blame the romances. Black Pits 2 is a really nice side adventure and feels much more like a standalone game than BP1 and I can play this with a variety of characters. Romances, however, are restricted to one per charname (if any) - what a waste to voice them instead of default lines. That should be the first thing a new NPC gets.

To me Blackpits is a pointless addon. i bought BGEE and BG2EE for the game not some standalone extra thing that does not even link with the BG story

Ironically if they had made Blackpits as part of the main game i probably would have loved it, but as a standalone not so

KidCarnival

I see BP (both) as a standalone, as well as a tool similar to EEKeeper. You can compare builds and classes (theory and comparing stats is all nice and fancy, but testing it is much better); like a training mode. Even if it wasn't for the story and NPCs in it, that's much more useful than a romance I'll never play.