Voice Acting

[SacremPyrobolum]

Seriously, this is the funniest shit ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OCZk3RwCRU

Does German sound like this? Is this the result of putting atypical conversation they might have and putting it through Google Translate?

Voice acting seems to be one of those things that are all or nothing. Its either really good, or really bad. Not sure if it has to do with money or time, maybe you just need a good director and writer, but you need to get it right. Doesn't even have to be extensive. Homeworld had excellent voice acting for all the units and they didn't do anything special.

If you cant do voice acting right, don't do it at all. Its just a waste of money that gets your game remembered for all the wrong reason.

[Alan Phipps]

There is nothing there to do with the X4 content and interactions announced so far.

If you have some constructive comments to make on X Rebirth then please use the appropriate forum.

Also recall that translations from English were largely handled by community volunteers who put themselves out to help.

[SacremPyrobolum]

I guess what I was trying to say was that X4 should not bother much with voice acting this time around, at least not to the extent it did in XR. It would most likely be a waste of money and time which would make the game worse for its inclusion.

Frankly, if you are relying on community volunteers to do the English dub of your game, voices aren't something you should be considering anyways.

[UniTrader]

he said translation, not dubbing... also the XR was developed in English and translated from there

[Skeeter]

I hope they have volabulary this time around instead of them trying the bare minimum, include backstorys for people with a history so there like normal people and not bare bots.

As rebirth was dire for npcs on stations with their bad models, textures, faces, voices and responces. They either need to do alot better or as was said not to bother frankly. I think x2 npcs were far superior in the way they looked and sounded and had something decent to say compared to rebirth. And thats saying something.

I think we can all agree that. If people thought it was good then they must be a very tiny minority.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Well as a member of a tiny minority, I have no problems whatsoever with the
NPC characters in Rebirth or the voice acting.

Seems to me that complaining about these things is one huge bandwagon,
once someone states that they are bad, everybody else just falls into line like a herd of sheep.

In my opinion the Rebirth NPCs were a whole lot better than anything that has gone before.

The characters in X2 and X3 were laughable.

Anyway, I have seen people stating that one of the reasons not to play Rebirth is because of the bad character animation and voice acting.
This seems to me to miss the 99.99% of the real reasons for playing the game.

[Riccardoman]

I have seen people stating that one of the reasons not to play Rebirth is because of the bad character animation and voice acting.
This seems to me to miss the 99.99% of the real reasons for playing the game.

This, thank you very much

[Axeface]

I think its the writing not the acting. And interestingly, X3 Reunion had pretty good conversations iirc (nolmankelnot was hillarious).

[Nikola515]

I think its the writing not the acting. And interestingly, X3 Reunion had pretty good conversations iirc (nolmankelnot was hillarious).

I agree with you 100%. I think ego should hire professional to write for them. Also there wore some pretty good things in creative universe forum that they could use in game. Some of those stories wore awesome and those people have some talent

Edit: Only horrible acting was that girl that gives you plasma cannon in plot.

[DaMuncha]

The conversations in X Rebirth are like talking to trump.

"I hear the Weyland Yutani corporation is looking into colonising other planets, what is your opinion on this?"

"My father once had a spaceship, we get lost, space is a big place, big place, full of aliens, Space is a very big place, I have been to thousands of planets, thousands, and we didnt get lost, Space is a big place"

"There have been reports that you deliberately had the ship land on a planet infested with aliens, is this true"

"No, no, no none of it is true, some of it might be true, I went to the university of Terra, I'm a very smart man, very smart, if you want to buy wares, I have a huge warehouse full of wares, aliens, we need a big wall to keep out the aliens, Im a very smart man, I have lots of wares."

[Killjaeden]

The characters in X2 and X3 were laughable

Quality expactations have risen over time. X2 and X3 character implementation is way out of date now - that's obvious. But they are old games and it's sort of accepted. XR was a new game that didn't deliver what people have grown accustomed to from other games of that period.

In addition XR made the mistake of having the characters present around you constantly. This puts their quality and execution in the spotlight alot more. X2 and X3 only showed characters (small windows for the most part) when you needed to interact in some way - which was pretty rare outside of the plots and for the most part limited to taunts in battle or one liners for missions (X3TC+AP only). It didn't permanently show them when you visited a station for example, or put them next to you on a copilot seat, or forced you to maky any conversation choices other than "i accept this mission" and "i refuse". They looked somewhat comical and derpy, but this can have it's charme (i like it, even for today). Their movements all beeing pre-rendered. XR people just looked... uncanny and badly executed, the small talk ... cringeworthy.

[Observe]

The characters in X2 and X3 were laughable.

When I saw characters in Rebirth, I realized that this game is based on a brand new game engine, and that things like character animation and models, are 'experimental' for Egosoft and in early stages of development and integration.

I believe it is essential that Egosoft continue developing more sophisticated character features as they flex the muscles of their new engine.

While it's true that this is a space game, it is nonetheless important that Egosoft does not neglect character development as they move into the future of gaming.

[Tharrg]

I found the voice acting in XRebirth negatively influenced my reaction to the game.

So I would agree either do the voice acting well or don't do it at all. And if the main character is voiced, provide an alternative or a mute option. My impression is that they have this in hand for X4...

[Seanchaidh]

I have to echo the question of whether it's really the voice acting that puts people off or the script. It's pretty hard to make magic out of "... and I do mean anything..." or "We got on pretty well there. That's pretty rare for me. Let's take this to the next level."

I mean, I guess actually saying that out loud makes it worse, but it's not the voice that's the problem.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Since seeing this topic I have been trying to find a decent discussion on what makes good / bad voice acting.

So bad things are flat, emotionless, monotonic delivery.

The splicing together clips from different recording sessions that have different effects added to them, or that have different volume levels.

Incoherent / badly enunciated speech. Delivery that is too fast paced or conversely is too slow.

A bad script.

Those were some of the bad things.

So a dialogue that is delivered with emotion, using a modulated voice that has just the right delivery, a good script and that was recorded correctly should in theory be good voice acting.

However humans being humans they can never agree. I have found that most discussions eventually descend into a mud slinging match. As nobody seems able to agree on a definitive set of games that are universally regarded as having good voice acting. So its a subjective thingy.

So someones enjoyable voice acting is another persons execrable gut wrenching immersion breaking pile of poo.

Ah well back to square one.

[Falcrack]

One thing I sincerely hope, is no matter what sort of voice acting they put in, they should not have the conversation minigame where success hinges on your ability to correctly click the mouse at the right time. That was a really bad decision, IMO.

[spankahontis]

You need ALLOT MORE voice actors than Rebirth, along with different personalities similar to Skyrim's genre of voices, perhaps expand it further, using the same voice actors, but with different personalities, example, friendly, sarcastic, unpleasant, fearful (More needed for each voice actor).
Also Voice Actors being able to do more voices, accents etc.

[Cabrelbeuk]

NPC dialogues, personnality or even modelisation looked like a abandonned trial that has been included into the final build last minute in X Rebirth.

Playing the game, still now, you can still see what pleasure Egosoft put into designing ships, planets, space biome or external station model. And how much they hate whatever is inside, or even related to an inside (station, ship, NPC, activities, everything).

I don't know if it was because of learning curve, lack of inspiration, or just a problem of ressources but it was thrash and a scar on the beautiful face that was Rebirth (glitched yes at release, but still beautiful).

All NPCs looked the same, no hair, few sets of lines at best un-interesting and at worst sensless mumbling.

ALL OF THOSE results on players asking for solution to not get inside the stations. Which is too bad, because this can be a great GREAT addition for gameplay and immersion (latest example would be Star Citizen, even if my personnal opinion is that they push it a bit too far. But out of subject, still a great proof).
In a solo game you can push scripting and interaction to a whole new level, i would kill for a station with the same immersion and life than a city in The Witcher 3.