[Not Implemented] Generic Voice Lines for Reactive Quotes

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PartyBob
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:51 am

[Not Implemented] Generic Voice Lines for Reactive Quotes

Once again, I know I'm very late to the game, so I don't even know if additional voice acting is an option, but here is my request anyway...

I find having voiced lines to be a huge boon to custom content, so I've been finding myself digging for many different ways to reuse existing lines so that they will have voice acting along with them. To do this, I've been digging through all of the current scripts, trying to find statements that can be used to cover other situations, and then unbinding them by chanaging scripts to use vairables instead of "seen" logic.

If there is a still a chance to add additional voice lines, I think something that would be very useful for custom story creators is some generic lines for each charcter that are unmapped to story elements. One of the hardest things with many of the lines in the system right now is how specific they are, so having ones that don't have context would be really useful.

Just an example from Katherine (although Katherine actually has a lot of good generic lines in her dialogue.)
"I suppose you're right. Frank better fucking come through." A version with "He" instead of "Frank" would let it be used in other contexts.


Anyway, I think there are about 8 to 10 generic lines that would be nice to just have as a kit for each character, with each character having their own spin that reflects their personality. Some samples below.

Upbeat Positive Response... "Hell yeah!" "Of course!" "Yes!" "I thought you'd never ask!"

Recluctant or negative Positive reponse... "Fuck you, but I guess I don't have much choice." "I suppose I have to agree." "I can't believe I'm going along with this." "You are pushing it, but I'll accept this"

Negative Response... "No" "No way" "Not a chance" "Fuck that" "How can you even ask that!" "I wish I could help you with that"

Middle of the road response... "I just can't decide" "Maybe" "That depends"

Dodging response... "I don't know" "Let me think about it" "I'll get back to you" "Sorry, I wasn't listening"

Generic question... "What do you think?" "How about that?"
ttant
Posts: 987
Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:49 pm

Re: [Not Implemented] Generic Voice Lines for Reactive Quotes

In my pov (and only mine), i'm against that kind of idea.

Voiced line should all be there or none. Having just few lines voiced will make your custom story look like a work in progress /draft, as you won't be able to voice the remaining part.

For me, all Onomatopoeia / moaning / groaning can be used/recycle for custom stories, but voiced line should not be taken form one of the original story and backported to any custom story.
It would be far better to add a way in csc to play external audio file where you (i mean the cs author) can add its own voiced line. Result would be way better even if the NPC doesn't sound the same (like in movies when actor are dubbed by different people).

Anyhow, this is only my pov, not the eek teams one.
PartyBob
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:51 am

Re: [Not Implemented] Generic Voice Lines for Reactive Quotes

I agree that using full voice acting is part of what makes it more immersive. That's actually the purpose of this request. I'm trying to write things with a writing style that puts lots of the detail in thought bubbles and the PC responses, using NPC quotes with voice acting for all the NPC lines. It takes some work to piece together the puzzle for some coherent conversations. Having some generic lines could help fill some gaps where there simply aren't things that fit.

Having the ability to map audio to dialogue would be great as well, as that gives even more options. I still believe having more usable dialogue with the current voice acting would be a valuable resource for custom story creators.
peter980
Posts: 1601
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:50 am

Re: [Not Implemented] Generic Voice Lines for Reactive Quotes

I do like this request.

In fact, it would be great if generic lines could be triggered as voiced background chatter, outside the dialog. That would give great flexibility.

In one of my custom stories, I do use one of such lines for Stephanie ("Oh well, back to dancing"), but it would be great if there were more things like this, since those that exist are very rare.

Generic accept lines, generic refuse lines, generic lines that describe their state of mind, etc...
PartyBob
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:51 am

Re: [Not Implemented] Generic Voice Lines for Reactive Quotes

Expanding on this a little bit...
A number of characters have opportunities for "generic" statements that are plot relevant to expand on main story content. Having the characters fill in story in voiced lines is awesome, but the key to keeping fully voiced custom content is being able to move the hard lifting to the player's text. Both Truth or Dare and Rachael's dares are already set up well in this regard, since in both cases, the tasks are defined in the player's statement, and the other characters simply respond to it.

Some examples:

1) Amy Scavenger Hunt
"Oh, my god, I can't even believe this. Here, look at the next item on the list."

This would give the ability to have Amy have a voiced response line that would fit right in to the story, but opens up things for story creators to use thought bubbles or player responses to fill in the context of what the scavenger hunt item actually is. Having the characters fill in story in voiced lines is awesome, but the key to keeping fully voiced custom content is being able to move the hard lifting to the player's text. Both Truth or Dare and Rachael's dares are already set up.

2) Ashley and Madison Pranks
"Do you have any ideas of how to prank my sister?"
"Oh, thats a great idea. How can I help?"

There are a lot of different things that can be useful here. Some can be mined from current dialogue with some creative use of variables. However, some of the basics for proposing pranks doesn't quite work with current dialogue. Lines similar to above for both Ashley and Madison would help let others add new pranks into the prank war, possibly having a slower burn than the current escalation path (especially when pranking Ashley...that goes full tilt so fast.) Of course, there are some nice artifacts of old pranks that are nice too.
eekdon
Posts: 1546
Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:29 pm

Re: [Not Implemented] Generic Voice Lines for Reactive Quotes

Office Party will make much more extensive use of generic and intelligently dynamic dialogue selection. We most likely won't be able to bring much of that back into House Party, but we'll keep this in mind and do what we can. There's still plenty of time to at least add generic lines for content clean-up purposes before we exit Early Access.
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