Lack of BI speeches?

I have long wondered at the relative lack of speeches in BI.
Initially it looked great with the speeches feeling new and more varied than before, if somewhat short.

Then at some point it dawned upon me that in fact there was only the intro and ending. All the fillers, those which inculded little tactical clues or political clues and various interesting flavours. The parts that made the speeches interesting.
Now every speech is the same, that includes the captains' speeches. Before captains had the intro and end only now it is the same for all. That is sad as the speeches was somethign that I actually looked forward to if I had an interesting general, they could be highly amusing and at times quite long. Now I just click past them.

So I wonder is this a deliberate feature or did something go wrong?
I can understand that certain aspects would not be easily carried over, such as mentioning the factions by name, but a lot certain could.

Either I play in Arcade mode, or I skip the dialogue completely, so I dont really miss anything. Granted, the Moon People speech was pretty funny the first time you hear it, but it gets old, fast. I'd rather have CA work on the gameplay than the audio. Besides, that's where modders come in to play ;)

It has always been this way for non-Roman factions. Roman generals (and captains, in my experience) often offer a lengthy assessment of the situation at hand, with a few looney remarks thrown in here and there for good measure. Barbarians, Greeks and Easterners alike are much more concise, and, as a result, more likely to have their speeches skipped by yours truly. I'm not sure, however, wether the Romans in BI still have their long speeches, since I haven't played either half of the Empire yet.

And in fact, even the longer speeches on tactics and whatnot got boring and repetitive. I only really cared for the very short ones you get when sending one unit of yours against one unit of enemy troops (as was often the case with rebels). An example (more or less accurately): 'Real men don't cack themselves! It follows, therefore, that our enemies are not real men!'

Damn, moon people?

Evidently I need to breed some more nutcases and send them into battle. ~;)

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Originally Posted by Kraxis

So I wonder is this a deliberate feature or did something go wrong?

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I guess it was deliberate. It reminds me of CA getting rid of some of the excellent voicework ("My Lord! The peasants have grown lazy and are worthy of nothing but punishment...") when they patched STW. I think the reasoning was that seasoned players will just want to skip this repetitive stuff. But I agree, it is sad. ~:mecry:

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Originally Posted by Sardo

It has always been this way for non-Roman factions. Roman generals (and captains, in my experience) often offer a lengthy assessment of the situation at hand, with a few looney remarks thrown in here and there for good measure. Barbarians, Greeks and Easterners alike are much more concise, and, as a result, more likely to have their speeches skipped by yours truly. I'm not sure, however, wether the Romans in BI still have their long speeches, since I haven't played either half of the Empire yet.

And in fact, even the longer speeches on tactics and whatnot got boring and repetitive. I only really cared for the very short ones you get when sending one unit of yours against one unit of enemy troops (as was often the case with rebels). An example (more or less accurately): 'Real men don't cack themselves! It follows, therefore, that our enemies are not real men!'

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I can tell you that the Greeks got rather lengthy speeches at times too. They could get highly interesting as well.
Captains always got two-liners, no matter the faction.

In BI even the Romans only have the twoliners. And the diversity in hte speeches are limited greatly. Now you see the same speeches more often than before.

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Originally Posted by Trithemius

Damn, moon people?

Evidently I need to breed some more nutcases and send them into battle. ~;)

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There's a VnV in RTW called "Fears Moon People", which is the trigger for the off-the-wall comedy that is the Moon People speech.

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Originally Posted by Simon Appleton

I guess it was deliberate. It reminds me of CA getting rid of some of the excellent voicework ("My Lord! The peasants have grown lazy and are worthy of nothing but punishment...") when they patched STW. I think the reasoning was that seasoned players will just want to skip this repetitive stuff. But I agree, it is sad. ~:mecry:

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That's a real pity. Surely it would not be difficult to have controlsto limit the amusing dialogue in an Options menu somewhere, rather than just axing it wholesale?

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Originally Posted by kekvitirae

There's a VnV in RTW called "Fears Moon People", which is the trigger for the off-the-wall comedy that is the Moon People speech.

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What are the triggers for that? Being hit by a onager-shot but surviving? :)

I miss the speeches as well. Also, what is up with the Greek voice of the Goths.

"This is a heroic victory, worthy of Greek soldiers!"

I definitely miss the speeches. I would actually love it if someone could somehow make a mod that activates the RTW Roman speeches for all factions. I'll deal with the inaccurate faction names to get the longer ones back.

Perhaps I'm making an unjustified statement, but from what I can tell there are no new sounds at all in BI. That's why not one of the new unit types says its own name when selected. In RTW, if you selected (for example) Libyan spearmen, they'd reply "Libyan spearmen!" But if you select a new BI unit, they'll just reply with something generic like "cohort" or "cavalry" - sounds which were in RTW and have not been newly made for BI.
Not the most reprehensible corner-cutting, but corner-cutting none the less.

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Originally Posted by Barbarossa82

Perhaps I'm making an unjustified statement, but from what I can tell there are no new sounds at all in BI. That's why not one of the new unit types says its own name when selected. In RTW, if you selected (for example) Libyan spearmen, they'd reply "Libyan spearmen!" But if you select a new BI unit, they'll just reply with something generic like "cohort" or "cavalry" - sounds which were in RTW and have not been newly made for BI.
Not the most reprehensible corner-cutting, but corner-cutting none the less.

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There may be no new unit-reply sounds, but new sounds there are. The existense of \\Rome - Total War\bi\data\sounds is a proof.

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Originally Posted by Barbarossa82

Perhaps I'm making an unjustified statement, but from what I can tell there are no new sounds at all in BI. That's why not one of the new unit types says its own name when selected. In RTW, if you selected (for example) Libyan spearmen, they'd reply "Libyan spearmen!" But if you select a new BI unit, they'll just reply with something generic like "cohort" or "cavalry" - sounds which were in RTW and have not been newly made for BI.
Not the most reprehensible corner-cutting, but corner-cutting none the less.

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I don't mind that very much... But given that quite a few of the speeches could certainly have been carried over (and it seems that most of pagan speeches have indeed been carried, even to christians), I'm just surprised at this.

Hmmm - I just assumed it was because it was too difficult for them to remove all the references to the 'Old' RTW factions that pepper the original game and still have speeches which made sense. I could of course be talking out of my fundament. But that's OK - because I have all your bees, and am hairy beyond all reason!

Damn CA. ~:mecry:

Too bad. I observed the lack of speeches also. I wished something great for the Sassanids and Huns for example.