Concerns regarding the new portraits & VO DLC
Taro94
Member Posts: 125
I know many people felt underwhelmed by the announcement of the new DLC for the EE family of games, because they counted on something bigger.
I'm not going to talk about that here, though, but about the issues in general I have with such a DLC. I'd be happy to hear other opinions on these matters.
1. Same DLC for multiple games - I admit I've not yet seen a single purchasable content pack for several different titles (even if they're part of a series). This raises several questions. Are players expected to pay multiple times for exact same portraits and soundsets, just to have them available in multiple games? I'm not exactly sure I feel good about this if that's the case. Someone could say that it's the same when I buy the same game for different platforms (i.e. PC and Android) so it's nothing to be surprised about, but I'd disagree. Developing a game for another platform is a much more difficult and time-consuming endevour than copying image and audio files from one game to another. In fact, if the DLC was only available for a single game, someone would probably port it themselves to the other titles day one. If it's officially released for all games, porting it would probably be considered piracy. I think it'd be simply fair for the DLC to cover all the EEs with a single purchase.
2. Others not able to see/hear the content - another thing I'm worried about is that players who didn't purchase the DLC wouldn't be able to see the DLC portraits and hear the DLC soundsets used by others in multiplayer. Similarly, in NWN:EE specifically, builders can't really use this content for their modules for NPCs, unless they don't care for players without the DLC. This is a problem that can only be resolved by adding (and locking from use) the DLC via patch to everyone's games, but only making it available for use for those who purchased it. This, obviously, would ease piracy of this content, but let's face it - piracy won't be stopped anyway and pirating portraits is as easy as screenshotting them on their official Steam page. I'd hope this would be Beamdog's approach here, but as far as I know, the "Heroes of Neverwinter" portrait pack was not given such compatibility-in-mind treatment, so I'm not counting on it.
3. Lack of localization - now this is something that Beamdog can hardly be criticized for, as there's no way I see to resolve it aside from not releasing a VO DLC pack altogether, but this does not change the fact that adding English-only voicesets will interfere with gameplay of players of different localizations. I'm eager to say that if the game is localized only partially, it might have as well not been localized at all. Sure, it's a bit of an exagerration, but I personally would revert back to English in such case. In fact, despite NWN:EE offering Polish localization, I tend to use the English version instead (even though I'd prefer to play it in my native language), just because most unofficial modules (and some premium modules, too) do not have a Polish version and reading NPC dialogue in English, while having all my interface, voicesets, spell descriptions, etc in Polish makes me cringe. Again, it's hardly appropriate to blame Beamdog for this, it's just the way things are, but I thought it's worth a mention.
To sum up:
1. I'm worried the same DLC will need to be purchased multiple times just to have the new portraits and soundsets available in all the EEs.
2. I'm worried the DLC will not be made with consideration for those who have not bought it, be it multiplayer or the use of this content in community modules for NWN:EE.
3. I'm unhappy about the DLC making non-English localizations incomplete (by offering only English soundsets).
Your thoughts?
I'm not going to talk about that here, though, but about the issues in general I have with such a DLC. I'd be happy to hear other opinions on these matters.
1. Same DLC for multiple games - I admit I've not yet seen a single purchasable content pack for several different titles (even if they're part of a series). This raises several questions. Are players expected to pay multiple times for exact same portraits and soundsets, just to have them available in multiple games? I'm not exactly sure I feel good about this if that's the case. Someone could say that it's the same when I buy the same game for different platforms (i.e. PC and Android) so it's nothing to be surprised about, but I'd disagree. Developing a game for another platform is a much more difficult and time-consuming endevour than copying image and audio files from one game to another. In fact, if the DLC was only available for a single game, someone would probably port it themselves to the other titles day one. If it's officially released for all games, porting it would probably be considered piracy. I think it'd be simply fair for the DLC to cover all the EEs with a single purchase.
2. Others not able to see/hear the content - another thing I'm worried about is that players who didn't purchase the DLC wouldn't be able to see the DLC portraits and hear the DLC soundsets used by others in multiplayer. Similarly, in NWN:EE specifically, builders can't really use this content for their modules for NPCs, unless they don't care for players without the DLC. This is a problem that can only be resolved by adding (and locking from use) the DLC via patch to everyone's games, but only making it available for use for those who purchased it. This, obviously, would ease piracy of this content, but let's face it - piracy won't be stopped anyway and pirating portraits is as easy as screenshotting them on their official Steam page. I'd hope this would be Beamdog's approach here, but as far as I know, the "Heroes of Neverwinter" portrait pack was not given such compatibility-in-mind treatment, so I'm not counting on it.
3. Lack of localization - now this is something that Beamdog can hardly be criticized for, as there's no way I see to resolve it aside from not releasing a VO DLC pack altogether, but this does not change the fact that adding English-only voicesets will interfere with gameplay of players of different localizations. I'm eager to say that if the game is localized only partially, it might have as well not been localized at all. Sure, it's a bit of an exagerration, but I personally would revert back to English in such case. In fact, despite NWN:EE offering Polish localization, I tend to use the English version instead (even though I'd prefer to play it in my native language), just because most unofficial modules (and some premium modules, too) do not have a Polish version and reading NPC dialogue in English, while having all my interface, voicesets, spell descriptions, etc in Polish makes me cringe. Again, it's hardly appropriate to blame Beamdog for this, it's just the way things are, but I thought it's worth a mention.
To sum up:
1. I'm worried the same DLC will need to be purchased multiple times just to have the new portraits and soundsets available in all the EEs.
2. I'm worried the DLC will not be made with consideration for those who have not bought it, be it multiplayer or the use of this content in community modules for NWN:EE.
3. I'm unhappy about the DLC making non-English localizations incomplete (by offering only English soundsets).
Your thoughts?
2
Comments
1. You have to buy the DLC for each game
2. They still have to figure out how to handle the DLC with MM
3. No VO support for foreign languages
Well done!
Not much of a good reason for having to buy the dlc separately for each game. Especialy since this has never been the case with other portraits or voices.
Or at least do a package deal where you can get it for all the Beamdog games for $5, or $1.50 each.
Presumably you can still import the voices across games if you want to, you just won't get the unique lines.
You'd think:
XXXXXXXa.wav : Battle Cry
XXXXXXXb.wav : Becoming Leader
XXXXXXXc.wav : Tired
XXXXXXXd.wav : Bored
XXXXXXXe.wav : Badly Wounded
XXXXXXXf.wav : Selected 1
XXXXXXXg.wav : Selected 2
XXXXXXXh.wav : Selected 3
XXXXXXXi.wav : Action Acknowledgement 1
XXXXXXXj.wav : Action Acknowledgement 2
XXXXXXXk.wav : Action Acknowledgement 3
XXXXXXXl.wav : Being Hit
XXXXXXXm.wav : Dying
XXXXXXXw.wav : Reaction to Party Member Death
Wouldn't change between games, and these are the sounds that play the most often.
There's no particular reason to think any of those lines wouldn't be changed either. They could get away with leaving them unchanged, but they could leave the whole voicepack unchanged if they wanted to.