23 replies to this topic

[Joseph Ward]

Hi folks,

This is an attempt at constructive-criticism. Not sure if this comes up much (so my apologies for starting a new thread if I missed an existing one)..

I am a Clan loyalist and I am really not enjoying the in-game voice of "Clan Command" following its recent patch into the game. It's just not canon, definitely not authentic, lacks creativity with respect to lines/dialogue, and detracts from the illusion of reality and feeling the game should have.

No disrespect, but the guy's grovelly-angry voice is just completely unbelievable; like some kind of cartoon Ork commentating a UFC fight. To make matters worse his lines are cheesy and he doesn't talk like someone with military discipline or experience, letalone a veteran officer of rank commanding battlefield assets.

The batch-bred warrior caste of the Clans should sound cold and un-emotional, trained, disciplined, calm, calculating and unperturbed in the face of death or defeat. They should not sound evil. Nor is extreme hatred something that should be palpable in their spoken inflection. The Clans' endgame was to take Terra back by honorable combat, reform the Star-League and lead humankind. They were not evil. The warden clans in particular weren't evil. Above all they were still human; yet killing is not something by which they are emotionally moved nor excited by. An in-game voice instructing all mechs to "crush the cowards" is wrong and somewhat insulting - because Clan warriors are way too smart to overtly disrespect an adversary honorably making the ultimate sacrifice. Recall the story of officers of the imperial Japanese navy saluting the sinking wreckage of USS Johnsson at the Battle of Samar in 1944..

I think the devs need to take a closer look at the MW2 & GBL in-game voices from the 90's. The original MW2 opening cinematic dialogue was great. "This is HQ to any available units, we have mechs down at Nav Gamma". Remember how much better that voice acting was? The GBL intro and in-game cinematics in particular were excellent. They also employed proper Clan speak: "Aff", "Qui-aff", "Neg", references to "circle of equals", "trial of posession" etc etc. And use of expletive/insult, i.e.: "FREEBIRTH!!!!!!!!" - and all of this is sorely lacking from the current MWO experience.

And always remembering this is a military environment.. Some basic observation and comformity to military radio protocols/ratel would also go a very long way toward achieving a more realistic, compelling and gritty effect.. with respect to dialogue it would further help to not so blatantly state the meaning - just give it a little context regarding the wider tactical picture and let the audience interpret the situation for themselves.. that is more real, because in the fog of war - nothing is so easy to understand. We already know when half of our friendly units are destroyed - thanks to the massive arcade-style scoring display.

Comms also never work perfectly. They are susceptible to interferrence the same as any other electronic system. They can be jammed. They can be overstretched. They can also be extremely difficult to understand. So make them crackle more, maybe fade periodically etc etc. MW3 got that right. In my opinion there should be no scores displayed whatsoever - because having to make tactical estimations in live time is more realistic; and MW is a simulator.. but I digress.

Some rough suggestions with respect to dialogue - i.e.: substitutions:

"The jaws of defeat are closing in around us" ----> "Orbital dropships are diverted - reinforcement is not possible at this time - Neg on evac - hold your position, I repeat, hold your position"

"This is Clan Command to all warriors on the surface - wipe away all resistance blah blah, show no mercy" (lol, cheesy) ----------> "All callsigns weapons free, engage hostiles in killbox"

"The enemy has started to chip away at us" (this colloquialism in particular is pretty silly) ---------> "Enemy units have broken our lines" or, "we've lost our point commander - bravo star/lance not responding; what is your sitrep - regroup and respond", "Effective enemy fire" or, as on the Mechwarrior Reboot intro/trailer cinematic: "We need air support - our lines are breached" etc.

Another slight criticism of the command wheel - very unlikely to ever hear a cheerful "thanks!" in the thick of a firefight. Having had military training myself we were specifically instructed not to ever use that word. Orders are orders. There's no time for anything you like.

If you can't find a military advisor then maybe just take cues from military comms/battlefield speak (mostly the background chatter) in a few movies like Fury, Act of Valour, Memphis Belle, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Sum of All Fears (the CIC scene when the John C Stennis suffers saturation stike was quite good) .. there are probably more better examples.

I see a few people suggesting preference options for in-game voices. I think this would be ideal because I realise that my preferences are not everybody's preferences.

In the meantime though - could I at least have the option of turning the existing voice off?


Thanks for listening.


o7


-JW

[Juodas Varnas]

There's an option to disable the Angry Clan Guy in the options menu.

[PhoenixFire55]

Turn em off? ...

[Kanil]

Juodas Varnas, on 23 December 2016 - 03:29 AM, said:

There's an option to disable the Angry Clan Guy in the options menu.

That turns off Inner Sphere Guy though. I'd much rather have an option to have him all the time, or ideally a Not-Angry Clanner Guy.

[Goober Gabber v2]

Perhaps some voicepacks could make things more interesting.

I'm not fond of the angry Clanner guy either and I mostly drop in clan mechs, though I'm too lazy to mute him.
However, the information being mentioned from the radio is, even though very minimal, useful. At least, for me.

But yeah, Angry Clanner Guy's voice is a bit of a nuisance. Surely one guy doesn't manage all of the Clan's communication on his own?

[Johnny Z]

I think its fine. There should be more than 1 NPC voice for the different factions. Also some description of the NPC would be great of course to, names or what ever.

The House Davion guy in the trailer wasn't my favourite either.

Edited by Johnny Z, 23 December 2016 - 05:04 AM.

[HGAK47]

It is my understanding that the Clans pirmarily speak English (Only speak English?) so I found it amusing that the Clan announcer had a sort of foreign / Russian accent. Is it not the Inner Sphere that is composed of a multitude of languages? Seems it would fit them better.

That being said this is low priority im sure for the devs.

[Gladius Vittoris]

Juodas Varnas, on 23 December 2016 - 03:29 AM, said:

There's an option to disable the Angry Clan Guy in the options menu.

PhoenixFire55, on 23 December 2016 - 04:15 AM, said:

Turn em off? ...

So you are suggesting to turn a feature off..... as we have so maaaaaaaaaaaaaany of them

Why don't you ask to improve stuff instead of erase them?
Imo, pgi relies on ppl like you, turning off what you don't like instead of declaring "YOU SUCK!"

[Tristan Winter]

This is how I imagine PGI devs reacting when players start asking for more lore-related content and referenses to canon material.

"Uh.. qui-what?"

[PhoenixFire55]

Gladius Vittoris, on 23 December 2016 - 05:11 AM, said:

So you are suggesting to turn a feature off..... as we have so maaaaaaaaaaaaaany of them

Why don't you ask to improve stuff instead of erase them?
Imo, pgi relies on ppl like you, turning off what you don't like instead of declaring "YOU SUCK!"

Sorry, but *I* like so many others never needed and/or asked for that "feature". It isn't even irrelevant like so many of them, it clearly interferes with gameplay, particulary so with in-game VoIP. It will continue doing so due to its nature regardless of what "improvements" they do to it. Thus, the state of this "feature" for me is absolutely irrelevant.

We can debate on how they should improve it, but first you'll have to prove to me that it actually provides anything positive, which it clearly doesn't. "Ooooo shiny" isn't an argument.

[razenWing]

Goober Gabber v2, on 23 December 2016 - 04:49 AM, said:

Perhaps some voicepacks could make things more interesting.

I'm not fond of the angry Clanner guy either and I mostly drop in clan mechs, though I'm too lazy to mute him.
However, the information being mentioned from the radio is, even though very minimal, useful. At least, for me.

But yeah, Angry Clanner Guy's voice is a bit of a nuisance. Surely one guy doesn't manage all of the Clan's communication on his own?

This

I made a thread exactly on this. Tina special pack, Darth Vadar pack, Yoda pack, Stephen Hawkin pack... can you imagine how much money they would rake in? I would easily spend 10-20 dollars for each of the voice pack.

[RestosIII]

If we get different voices for the Angry Clanan, someone better make a voice pack of Clan Diamond Shark's best Khan.

[El Bandito]

PGI had the National Socialist Jaguars in mind when they created the Clan announcer.

Edited by El Bandito, 23 December 2016 - 07:03 AM.

[Bombast]

HGAK47, on 23 December 2016 - 05:03 AM, said:

It is my understanding that the Clans pirmarily speak English (Only speak English?) so I found it amusing that the Clan announcer had a sort of foreign / Russian accent. Is it not the Inner Sphere that is composed of a multitude of languages? Seems it would fit them better.

The Clans favor efficiency in language, so they've standardized it to English, while at the same time adding new and loan words to fill in what they thought were blanks. So yes, it makes sense for them to only speak English.

As for him sounding Russian... I'll give you a hint. The big bad Clan Boss's last name was Kerensky.

We really do need clear support from PGI for Voice Packs, though.

Break them down!

Edited by Bombast, 23 December 2016 - 07:08 AM.

[Novakaine]

On a side note
Midway thru the Clan Invasion House Davion and House KUrita made a daring raid.
The goal was not destruction, but the infiltration and corruption of the Jade Falcon's and Clan Wolf genetic bathtub.
Though only several of the infiltration teams members made it back to the Inner Sphere.
Operation Icky Twerp was a raging success.
On a just side note we finally reaping the results of those brave IS men and women.
So you may not want a clanker for your voice overs
"Gawd Bless the IS!"

Edited by Novakaine, 23 December 2016 - 07:23 AM.

[Natred]

I like them, they inspire the sthong willed so makes sence why you do not like them.

[rolly]

I'm just gonna leave this here. This is nice "clannish" chatter.

(Hey lookie, even in MW2 the Kodiak is shielding his CT. )

Edited by rolly, 23 December 2016 - 07:26 AM.

[TWIAFU]

PhoenixFire55, on 23 December 2016 - 05:20 AM, said:

Sorry, but *I* like so many others never needed and/or asked for that "feature". It isn't even irrelevant like so many of them, it clearly interferes with gameplay, particulary so with in-game VoIP. It will continue doing so due to its nature regardless of what "improvements" they do to it. Thus, the state of this "feature" for me is absolutely irrelevant.

We can debate on how they should improve it, but first you'll have to prove to me that it actually provides anything positive, which it clearly doesn't. "Ooooo shiny" isn't an argument.

Clearly! Crystal clear it interferes with a unused feature. VOIP chatter is so abundant that is drums out everyone that's talking.

*giggle*

Clear as day you have not already made up your mind that this optional setting has no positive benefit to anyone.

[PhoenixFire55]

TWIAFU, on 23 December 2016 - 07:55 AM, said:

Clearly! Crystal clear it interferes with a unused feature. VOIP chatter is so abundant that is drums out everyone that's talking.

*giggle*

Clear as day you have not already made up your mind that this optional setting has no positive benefit to anyone.

Maybe instead of giggling like a silly girl you'd rather enlighten us what positive benefit it provides?

And if *you* choose to be a clueless mute during all your matches it is once again *your* choice, which I'm sure is seen as a wrong one by most people around here.

[Angel of Annihilation]

rolly, on 23 December 2016 - 07:26 AM, said:

I'm just gonna leave this here. This is nice "clannish" chatter.

(Hey lookie, even in MW2 the Kodiak is shielding his CT. )

Wow so that is how Jump Jets are supposed to actually work