As far as the whole "You must gather your party before venturing forth", thing is concerned, the phrase itself isn't the problem but the frequency with which it happens WITHIN ONE INSTANCE. There is nothing more frustrating than to hear that same phrase 10 times while party members are attempting to comply but can't 'Yet'. I would personally dial back the frequency to once every 30 seconds in those instances.
Better yet, if they added an auto-pause specifically for that occurrence, something that could be turned on (for people like me) and off for people who don't want it, that would be great. Tell me once and then, at the point where the computer would tell me again, pause the game so that I know something is UP, but don't get it beat into my brain. Then the pause will hammer the point home in case I missed it, and won't cause me to die a horrible death because I wasn't paying attention because the cat caught fire a moment before. And if I knew what was going on, a simple space bar tap continues my game.
Sometime's Minsc's lines go on too long for me. Like, "Live by the sword, live a good long time." Just when I'm asking him to open a door. Also, Khalid sometimes says, "I'll do my best." When I ask him to open a chest or something.
favourite phrase: the guy who comes up to you outside tymora's (i think) temple in the hall of wonders district: "i love money... yes i do." makes me laugh every time
Playing through SoA and ToB with SCS, I've really had it with the endless array of ueber-powerful high level mages and their spellcasting chants. While these are not phrases as such, I've grown to hate (and fear) most of them, especially:
Alteration - "Praeses, Alia, Fero" (Translation: "Protecting, another, I bring this forth" "You're four seconds away from being time stopped, buster!")
Necromancy - "Vita, Mortis, Careo" (Translation: "Life, and death, I am without" "How do you like me casting Abi Dalzim's on your most wounded party member?")
Divination - "Scio, Didici, Pecto" (Translation: "I know, for I have studied, with my mind" "Did you really think you could scout the area without me frying your ass first?")
Enchantment - "Cupio, Virtus, Licet" (Translation: "I want, excellence, allowed to me" "I hope you enjoy losing control of your party members")
Evocation - "Incertus, Pulcher, Imperio" (Translation: "Uncertain, beautiful things, I command" "Portraits are a'gonna turn gray.")
Now that I've gotten SoA and ToB, I'm most scared of Enchantment and Alteration (with Enchantment- someone's gonna get confused. With Alteration: Timestop). Isn't Timestop Alteration?
Though that does remind me of the time when Uncle Fibbert used a bottle of Oxley's Wart and Tart Remover to remove a large wart found on his nose. Not because he took issue with its look mind you, rather because of its offensive language.
It was going on and on about how poor his grooming habits must have been for it to appear out of thin air. Of course this was all nonsense, Uncle Fibbert was the cleanest gnome you'll find north of Calimshan.
As I'm sure you are aware however warts are a rather finicky thing, especially for gnomekind. One moment they could be growing out of the dirt covered nose of your cat familiar, and the next moment at merely the mention of a bath they've gone and jumped onto your schnoz. Its really all embarrassing for them, but who can blame them? Just like cats no respectable wart likes a bath.
Of course once it was on his nose at this point Uncle Fibbert didn't have much of a choice. Besides Oxley's his only other option was to use Fodem's Tart, Wart, and Hives Remover. Not a nice mix by any means. Just ask the bees what they think of it! I certainly have. Thousands of bees have been left homeless by that awful concoction, though they are still now better off than the butter tarts it also ruins. In Fodem and Oxley's defense however, saving the gnome race from both tooth decay and warts is harder than it probably sounds.
In any event Fibbert managed to get the wart off, though not without a hefty price. It cost him almost three months of turnip sales for those concoctions, hardly a price that a respectable gnome would pay for such a minor problem. But that was Fibbert for you, with a clean nose and hardly any grooming issues he was always a bit of a showoff.
"You awaken in a cold sweat. Looking about wildly, you are horrified to see a huge insect bearing down upon you. Its eight legs and multiple eyes betray its identity: a giant spider!"
Ugh! This one really bothers me. Spiders are not insects!
There is another error like this in NWN that really bothers me. The default description for bats in that game refers to them as "flying rodents". UGH! Just ugh!
The German word for bat literally means fluttermouse.
If the games went full medieval Beastiary, bats and bees would count as *birds*.
"You awaken in a cold sweat. Looking about wildly, you are horrified to see a huge insect bearing down upon you. Its eight legs and multiple eyes betray its identity: a giant spider!"
Ugh! This one really bothers me. Spiders are not insects!
There is another error like this in NWN that really bothers me. The default description for bats in that game refers to them as "flying rodents". UGH! Just ugh!
The German word for bat literally means fluttermouse.
If the games went full medieval Beastiary, bats and bees would count as *birds*.
Normally i'm not that much against "You must gather your party before venturing forth" and it doesn't really annoy me, but of course there is that one exception.
You're getting ambushed by two huge wyverns, trying to avoid the web trap and run for your life to the edge of the map so you can zone again, you try to enter the world map.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
Now you're eyeing the wyverns closing up, wondering why the hell it isn't working, you click to zone again and you hear.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
You're starting to pull your hair out in frustration when you finally see Khalid of in another corner because of the shitty path finding. The wyverns are attacking and you're just about the put your best tank on them when it strikes you, Khalid IS your best tank. You try in a panic to click on the world map to zone again as Khalid walks in a snail phase towards your party who is getting eaten by the wyverns.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
You scream out in frustration at the screen and a moment later you hear.
"Jah...Jaheira. No...NO!"
What the fuck did you think would happen Khalid!? Your wife with her shitty leather armor, bad AC and a sling had to do your job for you. Khalid finally reaches the party, you have just looted Jaheiras gear and you're ready to zone when you hear.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
What... The... Hell? Now you notice Garrick running around with moral failure from the wyvern hit and he's going in the other direction. You let your head rest on the desk and load the autosave.
I hate the path finding. Sometimes, when I instruct my characters to go to a certain place on a map, I see one of my party members halfway in the wrong direction before he/she realizes that they're going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. And, of course, there's sometimes a monster there. And when I tell them to come in the RIGHT DIRECTION, they say one of their most annoying lines, and I'm like "I am about two seconds away from blasting you with Comet or Flame Strike or something."
Normally i'm not that much against "You must gather your party before venturing forth" and it doesn't really annoy me, but of course there is that one exception.
You're getting ambushed by two huge wyverns, trying to avoid the web trap and run for your life to the edge of the map so you can zone again, you try to enter the world map.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
Now you're eyeing the wyverns closing up, wondering why the hell it isn't working, you click to zone again and you hear.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
You're starting to pull your hair out in frustration when you finally see Khalid of in another corner because of the shitty path finding. The wyverns are attacking and you're just about the put your best tank on them when it strikes you, Khalid IS your best tank. You try in a panic to click on the world map to zone again as Khalid walks in a snail phase towards your party who is getting eaten by the wyverns.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
You scream out in frustration at the screen and a moment later you hear.
"Jah...Jaheira. No...NO!"
What the fuck did you think would happen Khalid!? Your wife with her shitty leather armor, bad AC and a sling had to do your job for you. Khalid finally reaches the party, you have just looted Jaheiras gear and you're ready to zone when you hear.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
What... The... Hell? Now you notice Garrick running around with moral failure from the wyvern hit and he's going in the other direction. You let your head rest on the desk and load the autosave.
I hate the path finding. Sometimes, when I instruct my characters to go to a certain place on a map, I see one of my party members halfway in the wrong direction before he/she realizes that they're going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. And, of course, there's sometimes a monster there. And when I tell them to come in the RIGHT DIRECTION, they say one of their most annoying lines, and I'm like "I am about two seconds away from blasting you with Comet or Flame Strike or something."
Normally they find out they are going in the wrong direction when they hit a wall. And once, I was in the Thieves' Maze and I was trying to get from the entrance to the exit. Most of my party was already at the exit. Except Branwen. She was going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION and everyone was fatigued. Then Branwen's Haste ran out and she slowed down to way too slow for me. I had to listen to everyone's complaints that they were tired for about five minutes when I gave up and reloaded. And that's why I dislike Branwen whenever I think of her.
Normally i'm not that much against "You must gather your party before venturing forth" and it doesn't really annoy me, but of course there is that one exception.
You're getting ambushed by two huge wyverns, trying to avoid the web trap and run for your life to the edge of the map so you can zone again, you try to enter the world map.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
Now you're eyeing the wyverns closing up, wondering why the hell it isn't working, you click to zone again and you hear.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
You're starting to pull your hair out in frustration when you finally see Khalid of in another corner because of the shitty path finding. The wyverns are attacking and you're just about the put your best tank on them when it strikes you, Khalid IS your best tank. You try in a panic to click on the world map to zone again as Khalid walks in a snail phase towards your party who is getting eaten by the wyverns.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
You scream out in frustration at the screen and a moment later you hear.
"Jah...Jaheira. No...NO!"
What the fuck did you think would happen Khalid!? Your wife with her shitty leather armor, bad AC and a sling had to do your job for you. Khalid finally reaches the party, you have just looted Jaheiras gear and you're ready to zone when you hear.
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
What... The... Hell? Now you notice Garrick running around with moral failure from the wyvern hit and he's going in the other direction. You let your head rest on the desk and load the autosave.
I hate the path finding. Sometimes, when I instruct my characters to go to a certain place on a map, I see one of my party members halfway in the wrong direction before he/she realizes that they're going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. And, of course, there's sometimes a monster there. And when I tell them to come in the RIGHT DIRECTION, they say one of their most annoying lines, and I'm like "I am about two seconds away from blasting you with Comet or Flame Strike or something."
Normally they find out they are going in the wrong direction when they hit a wall. And once, I was in the Thieves' Maze and I was trying to get from the entrance to the exit. Most of my party was already at the exit. Except Branwen. She was going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION and everyone was fatigued. Then Branwen's Haste ran out and she slowed down to way too slow for me. I had to listen to everyone's complaints that they were tired for about five minutes when I gave up and reloaded. And that's why I dislike Branwen whenever I think of her.
Every time I see someone's pathfinding go awry, my brain tries to find a way to blame or raise that characters int score. I guess I thought that mattered when I was a little kid and it stuck:P
It's bad enough you have to hear that line once, but she just has to say the same g'damned line when she bumps into you laying on the ground the next day with a couple of arrows sticking out of you? I usually just take her wand and potions at that point and send her off to meet up with Alora and Neera for a 'neato' teeny bopper slumber party.
The more I study and practice voice acting, and singing (which aren't so different from each other as one might think), the more I can tell when the voice actor is inspired and when they are not. The uninspired lines are painful.
Mind you if that Neera encounter weren't there the game would seem more empty to me, but I still wince whenever I hear that line.
Neera runs very hot and cold in this area. Some of her lines are delivered flawlessly and others sound very hollow indeed. This is one of the more hollow deliveries from my observation.
BG1 Minsc's voice acting = f***ing annoying to me personally. He's fine in BGII though. Less lisp and less over-acting. Of course, I'm a hypocrite there, one could argue many of Xzar's lines are over-acting ... but I love him.
Going back to the whole "singing and voice acting being similar" concept ... Xan is very much proof of this. Superb voice acting; elves are supposed to speak somewhat melodically and he nailed it. Not too much and not too little.
Comments
Okay, I'll just sit here and do that while you go on a naked gibberling hunt. Have fun!
Better yet, if they added an auto-pause specifically for that occurrence, something that could be turned on (for people like me) and off for people who don't want it, that would be great. Tell me once and then, at the point where the computer would tell me again, pause the game so that I know something is UP, but don't get it beat into my brain. Then the pause will hammer the point home in case I missed it, and won't cause me to die a horrible death because I wasn't paying attention because the cat caught fire a moment before. And if I knew what was going on, a simple space bar tap continues my game.
pretty much everything dynaheir says (you wish my earrrr? jesus yes i do, on a necklace)
Alteration - "Praeses, Alia, Fero" (Translation: "Protecting, another, I bring this forth" "You're four seconds away from being time stopped, buster!")
Necromancy - "Vita, Mortis, Careo" (Translation: "Life, and death, I am without" "How do you like me casting Abi Dalzim's on your most wounded party member?")
Divination - "Scio, Didici, Pecto" (Translation: "I know, for I have studied, with my mind" "Did you really think you could scout the area without me frying your ass first?")
Enchantment - "Cupio, Virtus, Licet" (Translation: "I want, excellence, allowed to me" "I hope you enjoy losing control of your party members")
Evocation - "Incertus, Pulcher, Imperio" (Translation: "Uncertain, beautiful things, I command" "Portraits are a'gonna turn gray.")
Though that does remind me of the time when Uncle Fibbert used a bottle of Oxley's Wart and Tart Remover to remove a large wart found on his nose. Not because he took issue with its look mind you, rather because of its offensive language.
It was going on and on about how poor his grooming habits must have been for it to appear out of thin air. Of course this was all nonsense, Uncle Fibbert was the cleanest gnome you'll find north of Calimshan.
As I'm sure you are aware however warts are a rather finicky thing, especially for gnomekind. One moment they could be growing out of the dirt covered nose of your cat familiar, and the next moment at merely the mention of a bath they've gone and jumped onto your schnoz. Its really all embarrassing for them, but who can blame them? Just like cats no respectable wart likes a bath.
Of course once it was on his nose at this point Uncle Fibbert didn't have much of a choice. Besides Oxley's his only other option was to use Fodem's Tart, Wart, and Hives Remover. Not a nice mix by any means. Just ask the bees what they think of it! I certainly have. Thousands of bees have been left homeless by that awful concoction, though they are still now better off than the butter tarts it also ruins. In Fodem and Oxley's defense however, saving the gnome race from both tooth decay and warts is harder than it probably sounds.
In any event Fibbert managed to get the wart off, though not without a hefty price. It cost him almost three months of turnip sales for those concoctions, hardly a price that a respectable gnome would pay for such a minor problem. But that was Fibbert for you, with a clean nose and hardly any grooming issues he was always a bit of a showoff.
If the games went full medieval Beastiary, bats and bees would count as *birds*.
I hate the path finding. Sometimes, when I instruct my characters to go to a certain place on a map, I see one of my party members halfway in the wrong direction before he/she realizes that they're going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. And, of course, there's sometimes a monster there. And when I tell them to come in the RIGHT DIRECTION, they say one of their most annoying lines, and I'm like "I am about two seconds away from blasting you with Comet or Flame Strike or something."
"And your about to find out what my mace tastes like!"
Hint: it was not yummy.
It's bad enough you have to hear that line once, but she just has to say the same g'damned line when she bumps into you laying on the ground the next day with a couple of arrows sticking out of you? I usually just take her wand and potions at that point and send her off to meet up with Alora and Neera for a 'neato' teeny bopper slumber party.
I wanted you to throw a fireball at the noble who just called us ugly. Thanks for blowing out my eardrums instead. =_=
Going back to the whole "singing and voice acting being similar" concept ... Xan is very much proof of this. Superb voice acting; elves are supposed to speak somewhat melodically and he nailed it. Not too much and not too little.
Oh wait, that's from the wrong game.
"Heya, it's me Imoen!"
Yeah, that's better.