Do they sound like wimps?

We all know how silly it sounds when a unit of mighty warriors call in, in response to us selecting them, with squeeky voices. Or when simple men give you a booming response.

I had for a long time been thinking the Principes sounded a bit too rough for a bunch of relatively well off farmers, and Triarii sounded a bit wrong as well. But after a while I began to forget, and I can't remember who else I dislike as it has all become a blurry mess.

So about a week ago I began to think about changing the voices. Nothing serious, I just wondered how Hastati would sound like Principes and so on. I knew it couldn't be done. Then after a day or so I remembered that each unit has its own voice, for instance Light_1 (Hastati and many other light infantry). But I had more pressing matters to attend to, and I didn't think that the voices were so easily changed so again I let it pass.

Until now that is.

I can report a resounding success tonight!!!
I first changed Hastati to Heavy_1 and suddenly they sounded like buff barroombrawlers from a bad night out in a rough neighbourhood. I was really surprised, I hadn't expected the sounds to be either stored in three versions for each unit (seems unlikely), or so readily changed.
I made a number of tests with the early roman units and it worked perfectly with them as well (Light voices for Triarii and Principes are not bad at all, while Medium Hastati are quite nice). I finally settled for what I had expected, Medium for Principes and Heavy for Triarii.
The Principes now sound like grown up farmers with some strength behind them, and surprisingly the Triarii don't sound too buff, in fact they sound more like settled mid-aged men. I really like both changes. The Hastati I found to sound best at Light.

But this opens up a lot of potential changes for me.

Erm... so, what you're saying is that you can change the *tone* of the voice, yet leave the actual words the same?

This could be cool. Though even so the voices could sound either a bit histerical ("Militia cavalry!!" ~:eek: ) or like the "they took our jobs" line from South Park for the heavier ones.

Only the tone of the voices... But that is rather significant. The change between Light and Medium is not always the same it seems, the same with Medium to Heavy. Also the tone change does make the voices sound different in pronouncation, which makes them sound like totally different persons speaking.

Let me say it, I'm happy. Militia Cavalry will most definately be changed to Medium, I hate their hysterical voices.
But plenty voices are good as they are right now, such as Cilician Pirates, though I might just give them a test run to see if the other voices are better.

Thanks for the info.

Note to self:
Must check whether the eastern archers still call themselves "archerers" with other voices... ~;)

Kraxis, what are the other voices besides light_1 and heavy_1? Is there like 2 and 3?

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Originally Posted by Byzantine_Prince

Kraxis, what are the other voices besides light_1 and heavy_1? Is there like 2 and 3?

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There aren't in the unit file, but I don't know if there is some voicefile somewhere in the deep depths of the game.

Testing is about the only way to find out I guess.

From what I can gather from the files, there are 4 types: Light_1, Medium_1, Heavy_1 and General_1.

And Female_1, but it only works with female units. I thought I might get a few good laughs with that one as the game acutally started up (imagine a unit of Principes barking at you with female voices), but in battle the unit was silent. :embarassed:
General is a good substitute if you want a faster voice that sounds much like Medium.

But there is in fact a difference between the different voices. For generals the General voice will only say 'General' 'General' 'General' with repeated clicks. With the other three viable options they will say 'General's guard' General's cavalry' and 'Cavalry'. Though it seems that not all have all three (Light seems to be the only one with 'Cavalry' while Heavy seems to be the only one with 'General's cavalry'). I have not tested infantry with the General voice, but I suspect it will work nicely.

You can see (and I imagine adjust) the pitch changes in descr_sounds_units_confirm.txt between general, heavy, medium, and light. I wonder if these can be tweaked for a "sucked helium" effect. ~D The sound files listed are for group selections though, maybe these are just defaults.

export_descr_sound_units_voice.txt looks like it points to the various wav files for unit action replies (packed in the sounds/idx files).

what do you guys just found this out today, i knew this since a very long time.