Completed Voice Mods For EB2?

[Space_Ed]

I was wondering if all the voices are going to be EB and not RTW for EB2? The greek, latin etc voices in-battle are excellent and are much better than in the original game. But the stupid voices for everyone who isn't Roman (who strangely has an American accent) when it comes to the speeches and the campaign map are still in there. Are these going to be changed too? I've not played M2TW so I dunno if they actually have pre-battle speeches. Thanks.

[Foot]

Pre-battle speeches are a lot of work, so if they are done it will be through diligent servitude to the voicemod machine. Campaign and Battlemap voicemods will be improved and expanded. We won't be having any RTW voices in EBII (nor any MTW2 voices for that matter). Don't expect full voicemods in the first release however. And don't expect each faction to have their own voicemod, some will share due to restrictions on the number of voice cultures (which has however sprung from 4 to 7 I believe - not sure if more can be modded in).

Foot

[Tellos Athenaios]

(Pre) battle speeches are a strange kind of animal. It really is low priority, what now with basically a fundamental redesign of how EB ticks; and add to it that quite a few programming projects for EB1/EB2 require a lot of work too ... the progress has been less than anticipated.

... By now even the translations themselves have some history. In a couple of months it'll be their 2nd 'birthday'.

[Space_Ed]

Pre-battle speeches are a lot of work, so if they are done it will be through diligent servitude to the voicemod machine. Campaign and Battlemap voicemods will be improved and expanded. We won't be having any RTW voices in EBII (nor any MTW2 voices for that matter). Don't expect full voicemods in the first release however. And don't expect each faction to have their own voicemod, some will share due to restrictions on the number of voice cultures (which has however sprung from 4 to 7 I believe - not sure if more can be modded in).

Foot

Foot you're a Brit... how similar to Welsh was the language in the UK in the EB time frame? If its not a million miles off I reckon some recordings from an actual Welsh person would sound good.

[Space_Ed]

Or maybe Gaelic?

[Foot]

We've already constructed vocab and grammar for celtic, and we already have a voicemod for that. Were we to have prebattle speeches for the celtic voicemod it would be in celtic not welsh or gaelic (no matter how related they are).

Foot

[Tellos Athenaios]

Note that little word 'were'; 30% of all sentences have been translated for the Greek Voicemod for over 4 months, most of them for over close to a year now. It's those other 60% and other 99,99% of EB1 & EB2 in general that keeps things on hold though.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Pre-battle speeches are a lot of work, so if they are done it will be through diligent servitude to the voicemod machine. Campaign and Battlemap voicemods will be improved and expanded. We won't be having any RTW voices in EBII (nor any MTW2 voices for that matter). Don't expect full voicemods in the first release however. And don't expect each faction to have their own voicemod, some will share due to restrictions on the number of voice cultures (which has however sprung from 4 to 7 I believe - not sure if more can be modded in).

Foot

If there are 7 voice cultures does that mean 7 voice mods? Because:
1. Latin
2. Ancient Greek
3. Celtic
4. Punic
5. Proto-Germanic

only two more voice mods after Punic and Proto-Germanic are released? If so those two should probably go to some northern/eastern factions.

[Foot]

No, that is not how it works. Within each voice culture there are 5 voice types; general, heavy, light, blah, etc. So voice culture middle eastern might have its light voice type be used for the phalava voicemod. Then we assign those units we want using the phalava voicemod to use the light voice-type. The only difficulty is that whilst the general's voice is determined by the voice type of the general unit (if you have are playing Hayasdan but have a celtic general leading an army then his commands will be in celtic which is cool), the event message voice is the same for every voice in the voice culture. So if you have two or more voicemods using the same voice culture but different types then their in battle event messages (such as "the enemy general is dead") will all be in the same language.

But I'm no expert.

Foot

[Beiss]

Looks like you guys could use some enlightenment on this matter.

I'm Beiss, creator of the Xenophonia mod for M2TW. Xenophonia is a compilation of all of the localized versions of M2TW, making several factions in the game speak their native (modern) language instead of broken English. During the development of Xenophonia, I've learned much about how sound in M2TW works. I can tell you this:

There is no known limit to the number of voice cultures in M2TW. I have successfully added several new voice cultures to the game without problem. I also have this fact confirmed by CA. You will not have to bother with deciding which languages should share cultures in EB2 - you can have as many as you want.

Also, M2TW does not use "Medium" class unit sounds. There is only Heavy, Light, and General. Additionally, there are some special classes for certain siege units such as battering rams and ladders. It's possible that a new Medium class can be added, but even CA haven't been able to tell me whether or not it is possible, and I haven't taken an interest in trying to create one and see for myself. There is, however, nothing that suggests it's not possible.

Edit: I can't seem to find a way to edit my own posts for whatever reason, so I'll have to double post for now.

What I actually came here to ask was whether any of your Greek-speaking voice actors would be interested in helping Xenophonia produce a voicemod. All we have now are recompilations of samples from the localized versions of the game, and, due to software piracy (yes), there is no Greek localization of M2TW, which is very unfortunate.

Soo... who should I talk to about this?

[bovi]

due to software piracy (yes)

Huh ? They didn't make a Greek version because the piracy is so rampant there and they didn't expect to recoup the investment, perhaps?

Good to hear that the voicemods are unlimited, we've merely got used to limitations all over I guess . I believe Keravnos and Shigawire would be the right guys to contact about a cooperation. I'll post a link to here in our dev forum, and I've notified Shigawire by IM too.

[Beiss]

Thanks. And yes, your theory about the Greek localization was correct (at least according to what I've heard).

[Tellos Athenaios]

Voicemodder (not actor) posting for duty:

I'm not really sure I follow (quite possibly the stupid inside me...) so let me ask you a few questions:
- You want to do a full-scale translation of M2TW in modern Greek?
- You want to add EB's Greek Voicemod?
- You want to help with EB's Greek Voicemod?
- You want help from the people behind the Greek Voicemod?
- You want help from the Greek people behind EB (in general) and the Greek Voicemod (in particular)?

[Beiss]

To clarify:

- You want to do a full-scale translation of M2TW in modern Greek?

No. I want to make a Greek voice pack, preferably in medieval Greek.

- You want to add EB's Greek Voicemod?

That wasn't my plan, but if medieval Greek samples can be used in EB2, sure.

- You want to help with EB's Greek Voicemod?

I'd like to, but I don't know what you'd want help with doing. I can help you do the scripting.

- You want help from the people behind the Greek Voicemod?

Yes.

- You want help from the Greek people behind EB (in general) and the Greek Voicemod (in particular)?

Uh... whoever speaks Greek and wants to be a voice actor and/or translator would be very useful to me.

Edit: Wait, I think I must have misunderstood this question, reading is as "add TO..." I really wish I could edit my post instead of spamming like this, but what choice do I have? I'd really hate to get banned on my first day. [from bovi: no worries]

- You want to add EB's Greek Voicemod?

I don't know how useful the EB samples would be in a medieval setting, but if they fit, and I wouldn't know whether or not they do, I'd be happy to include them. However, M2TW uses thousands of samples for each faction, and I think RTW only allowed for a few hundred, so even if the EB samples were included in this new Greek voicepack for M2TW (which would be used by the Byzantine faction), you'd still need another 1500 or so (most of them very short, but still) samples, and you'd need the same guy to do all of the General's samples, another guy for all of the "Heavy" units' samples etc.

Anyway, I've made 2 tools that should prove useful to the EB team once you get around to making your new voice packs for EB2. They still contain a bug that causes a faulty listing of mercenary troops (placing them under the wrong accent) but I'm working on fixing it. The tools neatly list all units in the EDSUV and EDU based on voice culture (or accent, as they're called in M2TW) or faction, making it easier to overview which unit has been scripted to be used by who and so on. I also have a tool that can show you whether a sound file is superfluous, that is, it's located in the game's files but it's not actually used in the game. Helps save space, if nothing else...

[Tellos Athenaios]

Well EB is all about ancient, so no I very much doubt that it will make do for Byzantine Greek. I'm not at my most razor sharp, today.

Out of curiosity: what language are the tools written in? (Because... we've got something, but... I shouldn't reveal in public yet... )

[Beiss]

The one that looks for unused samples is written in Python, so it's just a .py file (I had help making this by a guy who works as a game programmer at EA, and who was going to help me make the other two, but he suddenly got very busy (closing on a release I think) so I learned programming myself ), and the other two are in C# (and made by me), that is, exe's. What does your tool do?

[Beiss]

Oh, sorry, I misread the last sentence in your post. Anyway, in case you're at all interested in my tools, they can be downloaded from here:

EDU Lister
EDSUV Lister

[Beiss]

So eh, how many Greek voice actors were involved when making the EB Greek sound pack and are none of them at all interested in helping me?

[Foot]

We had access to a professional studio and actors which we don't have access to anymore.

Foot

[Tellos Athenaios]

Plus the one actor who still is available is having more work to do (for RL, EB, other mods, etc.) than he can possibly hope to complete anytime soon. Since you can't use Ancient Greek to pass for Byzantine Greek; I think I'll have to dissapoint you, I'm sorry to say.

[Beiss]

We had access to a professional studio and actors which we don't have access to anymore.

Foot

Ooh kay. Thanks for clearing that up. Well, if you need any help with sound modding for M2TW, Shigawire knows where to find me...

[General Appo]

Out of curiosity: what language are the tools written in? (Because... we've got something, but... I shouldn't reveal in public yet... )

Yes you should. There´s a balloon in it for you. Look at the nice balloon. Don´t you want the nice balloon? Of course you do. And you can have it too, all you have to do is tell me about this little thing of yours. Come on kid, you want the balloon don´t you?

[Tellos Athenaios]

No. And you can stop trying before you start to ask others: not even 'your average EB member' knows.

[Ibrahim]

interesting..

EDIT: Beiss, I'll PM you for something.

[Megas Methuselah]

No. And you can stop trying before you start to ask others: not even 'your average EB member' knows.

Hey, TA. Please keep in mind that I'm above average: I'm nobility! Therefore, you may find that it is completely ethical and understanding that you share your secret with me. It is well-known that people of my high class are well able to keep their mouths shut. The same applies to me; sharing a secret with me is, in fact, no danger.

Besides, you'll get something cool, like a thrifty hat (), which you can wear at all times in your signature!