Voice Modding

[MercantileInterest]

Skyrim modders invented a tool to synthesize lines from the existing game sound files:

If this could be rigged to imitate Zakharov, Lal, the datalinks voice, etc. it would open up some new avenues for modding.

[Buster's Uncle]

See also ComradeCrimson, a voice-acting pro who has volunteered his services to the community for these purposes...  Somebody ping him, and the offer might still stand and combine well w/ the Skyrim tool.

He's good people.

[bvanevery]

I went up a partial voice acting learning curve when I was interested in this subject 1.5 years ago.  I don't think that Skyrim tool is going to buy you voice acting.  Just a voice that is rather monotone and flat, reminiscent of the previous source material's voice.  This is based on my impression of the voices actually demonstrated in the embedded video, without any further research on my part.

Voice acting requires a lot of extra parameters beyond simply synthesizing a voice.  To me a sort of holy grail of indie content production, would be being able to mark up written text, for emotional inflection etc. as a performance, and then synthesize the text into a voice.  AFAIK, such a system does not exist, or at best would be an area of active research.  I decided this was not a research path I personally was going to trod down at this time, as it's counterproductive to the goal of getting a commercially viable game done.  But maybe I will revisit the problem "someday", especially if more basic progress gets made on the problem meanwhile.

Skyrim has lots of NPCs.  The voice acting quality, and the written dialogue, is quite low compared to SMAC's original 7 character cast.  I can see the tool helping modders bang out lots of NPCs for the new stuff they want to populate an open world with.  I cannot see it helping with high quality writing and voice acting, as it appears in original SMAC, in any way at all.  That's still real work, to be done by persons / people who know how to perform, and who know how to write something actually worth saying.

Finally: the voice actors I've most wanted to replace, Cha Dawn and Svensgaard, the point is to get rid of how they did it.  Cha Dawn sounds like a girl, not a boy, I think because the female voice actor couldn't sufficiently disguise her voice.  And Svensgaard sounds like an English major wearing a soft sweater, not a pirate.  I don't need parrots and AARG AARG for my pirates, but of all the possible permutations of piracy, this guy ain't one.  So IMO, there's nothing about their performances worth salvaging and splicing.  They should be replaced, by someone with enough voice acting talent to do a more convincing character portrayal.

Replacement vs. augmentation is an interesting issue.  If you want to add more lines to a performance, then just where in the game, is anyone going to hear them?  Would one chop out some of the lesser quotes that aren't particularly interesting or well done, in favor of more character focused, "star power" material?  Like for instance, we don't actually need too hear a Morganic missive about the interior of a stellar mass.  It's one of the most boring quotes in the game.  But there aren't lots of substandard quotes lying around, to repurpose.

Anyways, although I'm aware of what I could or might ideally like to do, it's just not profitable for me to actually do these various things.  I figured out that I'm not trying to put a voice acting reel together and get voice acting jobs.  I'm trying to make a game, and it's better for me to put those gobs of content production hours into a new game.  I blew 2.5 calendar years on SMAC modding as it was, "only" pursuing the most low hanging of fruit.

I wonder if there are any lurking voice actors out there, who can be egged on to get rid of Svensgaard and put a proper pirate into the game.  That would be quite a project.

Pretty much all of the expansion characters are mere character sketches, compared to the originals.  They don't get enough quote time to be really developed, and most of them aren't that well thought out anyways as characters.  Some of them had game design validity though.  It took me awhile to differentiate the 2 concerns, that the expansion didn't game mechanically suck, in a number of areas.

[Buster's Uncle]

If a modder were looking for sorta Mr. Worf-sounding, I can pitch like that.  Former whole-body actor, for money, here.

Otherwise, not DYing to do this, but I can try plenty of stuff, maybe, if I know what you want.  -When I auditioned for Kilkakon, I did the Worfish voice, and it wasn't what he wanted and that's not all on me since he never said what he did want.  Just sayin'.

-Try to raise the Comrade first, though.

[bvanevery]

I suppose of the 7 expansion characters most in need of quality control, you could completely redo Conqueror Marr in a Whorf-like voice.  I always thought he should be more of a "shove a red stick straight down your throat" kind of 'guy'.  The challenge of such a project, would be making enough room in the game for new voice acting to be heard.  I think Juda Marr only has 1 voiced quote line in the game, inappropriately for Adaptive Economics.

I'm not sure that H'minee and Marr actually have different voices.  Half of their schtick is the soundscape background noises.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmm.  I suppose doing Worf into a big ol' coffee can for tinny reverb would get you a long way to alien, and digital effects are the actual topic.  I wouldn't want to even try to do matching voice to the pro stuff, of course.  No pressure to do convincing Worf, a big plus.

I'm not sure I couldn't pull off Morgan, say, -if I had the African accent nailed, and his doesn't sound super-hard, I'd already be halfway there- but I'm the last judge of my own voice.  I could do within fair distance of the tall Haitian Baron Sunday guy from Live and Let Die and the old Seven-up commercials off the top of my head...

I might could pull off a credible Captain Sisko, come to think of it, maybe with study.  -I do not know what it means that they are all Black and my natural speaking voice isn't particularly deep.

Just thinking out loud...



b, for you I would go to some trouble, just because, if you wanted.

[bvanevery]

Morgan doesn't really need re-doing or extension though.  He's got a lot of material, and it's mostly the highest quality stuff in the game.  Now if one wanted to run off crazy and do The Morgan Mod [TM], where it's Morgan Morgan Morgan Morgan Morgan Morgan Morgan Morgan LOVELY MORGAN!!! Morgan Morgan Morgan Morgan... someone else would have to be human sacrificed in that case.

The weakest character of the original cast is Santiago.  She's not convincing as a military leader.  She never gives a single order.  She never kicks ass, takes names, or conquers anything.  Frankly I think she's a diversity hire, and a clowning of militia movements.  Bobby Draper from The Expanse is a "correct" space marine.  Santiago was made to do the kind of "philosopher king" stuff that the other ideogogues were doing, and it doesn't work.

The problem isn't with Santiago's performance.  It's with her dialogue.  But... it's also not awful enough, to be a high priority to put right.  And she's got a lot of lines, so it would be a lot of work to redo her.  "Bobby Draper mod".

One could ditch the Aliens, replacing them with 2 human factions "from whole cloth".  This wouldn't buy a lot of dialogue time though.  I was wrong about Marr, he's got two quotes, not one.  Bully.

I think an inventory of "disposable quotes" would be in order.  How much scope there is for completely replacing material that isn't that good, in favor of something more character focused.

[Buster's Uncle]

Maybe at that, go the Bad'l Ron, Wakener route, w/ other persons clearly aligned w/ a faction - soldiers, generals, whatever, saying relevant copy, in the Spartan case.

[bvanevery]

This is the one piece of world building that really and truly sucks.  No punch at all.  I almost wish there were more of them, as unfortunately, good material doesn't admit readily of disposal.

Code: [Select]

##Matter Compression
#TECH19
Preliminary analysis indicates that our rivals have developed
a safe and reliable method to simulate conditions existing on the
interior of a stellar mass. The fabrication and transmutation
of materials possible in such an environment guarantees significant
industrial and military applications.
^
^        -- Probe Team Operations Directorate,
^           Top Secret Report
If one were really determined to make room for substantial character dialogue, I think a lot of Brian Reynolds' "philosophy quotes" would be the obvious things to chop.  They do discurse on what it means to be human, but they're not always contributing much to the world building.  One of the weaker ones:

Code: [Select]

##Cyberethics
#TECH53
The wicked have told me of things that delight them, but not
such things as your law has to tell.
^
^        -- Saint Augustine,
^           "Confessions", Datalinks

In Alien Crossfire we get stuff that's like, err.  The sentiment of this one is fine, as is the performance, but the dialogue is clumsy:

Code: [Select]

##Adaptive Doctrine
#TECH80
War is war; destruction is destruction. You think this is obvious.
But war is not destruction, it is victory. To achieve victory, simply
appear to give the opponent what he wants and he will go away, or join
you in your quest for additional power.
^
^        -- Datatech Sinder Roze
^           "Information Burns"
I'm noticing that Aki Zeta-5 and Cha Dawn spend much of their time talking about the aliens, not themselves or their own factions.  So they've actually got very little development.

I know Domai is supposed to be a bit brainless, but in this one he outdoes himself:

Code: [Select]

##String Resonance
#TECH86
To understand a thing is to know the manner by which it might be destroyed. A fundamental
understanding of the basic building-blocks of the Universe is essential, then, to the total
destruction of everything.
^
^        -- Foreman Domai
^           "One Tool, One Thought"
Domai really shouldn't have this line.  He's not an Air Force Cadet.  And it's not that great of a line.

Code: [Select]

##Cloudbase Academy
#PROJECT35
In one dimension I find existence, in two I find life, but in three, I find freedom.
^
^        -- Foreman Domai,
^           Cadet Induction Ceremony, Mission Year 2216
This is one of these, well it's interesting to hear about, and it adds something to the texture of the game... but if you really were having trouble coming up with stuff to repurpose, you might think about ditching this one.  It's like Western Lit Hour.

Code: [Select]

##Paradise Garden
#FAC12
^That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
^And all who heard should see them there,
^And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
^His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
^Weave a circle round him thrice,
^And close your eyes with holy dread,
^For he on honey-dew hath fed,
^And drunk the milk of Paradise.
^
^        -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
^           Datalinks
And again, mildly interesting, but filler that doesn't advance world or character:

Code: [Select]

##Robotic Assembly Plant
#FAC19
^Captain said to big old John Henry,
^  That old drill keeps a-coming around.
^  Take that steam drill out and start it on that job
^    Let it whop, let it whop that steel on down
^    Let it whop, let it whop that steel on down.
^
^        -- Traditional, Datalinks
More of the same.

Code: [Select]

##Nessus Mining Station
#FAC35
Red-hot iron, white-hot iron, cold-black iron; an iron taste,
and iron smell, and a Babel of iron sounds.
^
^        -- Charles Dickens,
^           Bleak House, Datalinks
This isn't adding up to a lot of stuff, and it's sort of scattered all over the place.  Meanwhile, I'm realizing just how little material the Alien Crossfire characters each actually have.

[Buster's Uncle]

Very little.  It wasn't much of an expansion.