Unit replies

[CTW311]

Okay, I'm a bit disappointed with Barbarian Invasion for several reasons, most of them being things like graphical glitches, MUCH higher system demands and, on the whole, much clumsier-looking soldiers. But what doesnt' seem to occur to anyone is that the new BI units don't answer with their unit names anymore! In vanilla RTW, each and every unit, when selected, answered with "Rhodian Slingerrrs", or "Principes!" or "Rome's finest" or something. Okay, the General still says "General!", but otherwise only the distinction between cavalry and infantry is left. This cool feature is entirely missing! I think this is an outrage, especially as I often play RTW with a friend who is blind, and for him much of the fun and immersion with the game came from the superb sound in RTW (the other half is through my frantic descriptions while simultaneously fighting battles. I don't blame CA, but I blame SEGA, who surely put much pressure on CA and didn't allow them to do new unit voices for BI. Grrrr.

[The_Doctor]

Welcome CTW311

I agree with you.

I don't think they had enough time to do more voices-overs.

[CTW311]

Okay, maybe you're right, Martinus. Thanks for the welcome. Maybe it's just that I associate Sega with fluffy colourful console games, and not something deep and majestic and great like RTW. This may have influenced my perception of BI.

[Weebeast]

Blind people play pc games too? Not that I don't agree with that but that's just cool.

[The_Doctor]

Have you noticed that the Goths and maybe the Vandals have Greek voices.

[Craterus]

I noticed that (Vandals)... Woo, thoguht so.

At the end of a battle:

A great victory worthy of Greek soldiers. My friend still thinks it's great soliders but I remember hearing the same thing with a Macedon campaign a while ago.

[CTW311]

Yes, at least they tried matching existing voice samples to the new BI units, but it still feels a bit cheap.

And, no. I actually think that very very few people play PC games, because it's just such a visual thing to enjoy and requires mostly hand-eye-coordination which is a bit difficult if you've got the hands of a concert pianist but no working eyes.
In this case, however, my blind friend and I started playing shooters together, back in the days when the surroundings were easy to describe for me and a lot more simple corridors and stuff were used. We share the controls, he has the keyboard and does movement and firing, while I'm responsible for aiming, telling him what I'm seeing right now and that it might be a decent idea to hit the fire button repeatedly because some zombie is forgetting his table manners.
In RTW, he cannot do as much as in a shooter, but during battles he's in charge of the keyboard commands, such as "halt" or "fire at will", but although it does not give him control, he absolutely enjoys the brilliant sound engineering done by CA. He can't tell if a battle is being lost or won, but I can describe what is happening to him (thank the gods for the pause button).

[CTW311]

Whoops. I meant "very very few BLIND people play PC games". Otherwise, this sentence would be a bit stupid.

[Seleukos]

Goths and Vndals greek voice?
so,what do they say exactly ?

ps-i am a Greek

[Alexanderofmacedon]

A battle worthy of Greek soldiers.

I do remember hearing that on RTW, not BI yet though...

[Ludens]

Welcome to the Org, CTW311.

I agree it is a pity, but I think the term "outrage" is a bit strong. Sound-effects, and especially voices, are very hard and often very expensive to get right. Also, I think CA reasoned that because they had already great music and sound in R:TW, they should focus on improving the things that were not so good for BI. And from what I read on this forum, they have done that pretty well.

[Brutus]

A battle worthy of Greek soldiers.

I do remember hearing that on RTW, not BI yet though...

I distincly remember a Gothic army on the strategy map saying "Yes Strategos" when I ordered it to move...

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Okay, I'm a bit disappointed with Barbarian Invasion for several reasons, most of them being things like graphical glitches, MUCH higher system demands and, on the whole, much clumsier-looking soldiers. But what doesnt' seem to occur to anyone is that the new BI units don't answer with their unit names anymore! In vanilla RTW, each and every unit, when selected, answered with "Rhodian Slingerrrs", or "Principes!" or "Rome's finest" or something. Okay, the General still says "General!", but otherwise only the distinction between cavalry and infantry is left. This cool feature is entirely missing! I think this is an outrage, especially as I often play RTW with a friend who is blind, and for him much of the fun and immersion with the game came from the superb sound in RTW (the other half is through my frantic descriptions while simultaneously fighting battles. I don't blame CA, but I blame SEGA, who surely put much pressure on CA and didn't allow them to do new unit voices for BI. Grrrr.

Welcome

Yeah there are still errors / glitches etc present in BI. Kinda expected it though tbh, when you're up against sales & release deadlines, shortcuts are often taken, which usually means the product will suffer directly as a result. They could of fixed all the bugs and released it six months later, but as everyone knows, people get impatient quickly, lose interest, and start looking elsewhere after a while if they are not satisfied. Not that I work for CA / SEGA mind

IMO an annoying aspect of the voice packs in RTW & RTW: BI is the 'American' Roman voices / responses / pre-battle speeches etc. Why not use a Latin accent for general accuracy?

As for RTW, generic voices were used for various factions, e.g. Pontus, Armenia, Parthia, Egypt, Carthage and Numidia all had the same voice packs. Likewise did Britons, Gauls, Germans, Dacia and Scythia. Its all too repetitive and boring, if regional accents had been implemented it would have added something different, but it all takes time to code.

[CTW311]

Hi Alcoholic! Yes, I'm actually aware of all that you mentioned. And it's not the end of the world, but I was still a bit disappointed. But I'm getting over it.

About the Latin accent for the Romans: Yes, it is a bit far-fetched to have the Roman Generals talk in an American accent, but the problem is: How do you speak English with a Latin accent? We don't even know how the Romans sounded when they spoke Latin 2000 years ago. Otherwise, I'm quite happy with the voice acting in vanilla RTW. Barbarians sound barbarian, and everyone else is okay too, for the greeks and african factions. Having distinctive accents for factions like Pontus or Armenia sounds a little bit too much to ask for, in my opinion. By the way, I use the UK version of the game because the German version that you can buy here is definitely a bit on the lame side concerning the rousing speeches before a battle. The voice actors don't sound like an army commander trying to be heard above the din of thousands of men preparing for battle and screaming out half his lungs in the process, but rather like someone talking with a slightly raised voice to compensate for an OAPs busted hearing aid. The hearts of the voice actors were not in it when they recorded the german samples, and you can hear that.

[Ordani]

One thing I miss from Shogun:TW was the Japanese voice overs - by far the best Battle Announcer in any TW game and the only one I wouldn't have turned off. Would have been cool to have heard units name themselves in their native languages. I really liked that element in Imperial Glory, unit captains even gave out orders in the appropriate language most of the time.

[ZIM!!]

Allso what happened to Rhodes? its only got some logs there now..boy I had some great battles on Rhodes..ahhh memories

[Viking]

I distincly remember a Gothic army on the strategy map saying "Yes Strategos" when I ordered it to move...

The Greek voices is a bug fixed in Bug-Fixer.