Vanilla speeches

[SwebozGaztiz]

what do you think about vanilla speeches?i think some are really good, and others are very cheesy but in general hahaha please dont flame me, i really like the vanilla speeches i think is one of the good thinks vanilla had, hahaha but do you like them too??in my opinion the best speeches are the ones given by the eastern generals i think those are really nice hahahah but once again please dont flame me hahahaha

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

I like the one from the lame ass. "I really don't wanna' be here, but eh...my mom told me I had to..." or something like that. That one cracked me up, because it was a really bad speech and it was funny. Only heard it once though.

[SwebozGaztiz]

hahahaha never heard that one, i think rome total war speeches' are far better than the ones from mtw2 those are really really really bad, its amazing they chose those speeches for the game

[Juvenal]

Like many others, I was drawn to RTW by the Time Commanders TV series. I felt that if the game looked anywhere near as good as the programme visuals then I would finally have the perfect wargame (STW and MTW were good - but if you zoomed in to look closely at the sprites the magic was lost).

Anyhow, when the game arrived and I played my first campaign battle (as the Julii of course), I was completely blown away by the pre-battle speech. I wasn't expecting anything like it - I hadn't even conceived of it as something I wanted - but as soon as I heard them I realised what a brilliant concept they were.

The speeches gave each battle its context, they told you about the balance of forces, the importance of the battle and the mood that you should adopt to get a good feeling of immersion. They also showed you your units up close, encouraging you to feel an attachment for these collections of pixels as if they really were soldiers in your care.

It is a shame that CA were unable to extend this concept for M2TW - I don't think the M2TW voice acting is quite as good as in RTW, and of course even in RTW the speeches were only properly implemented for the Romans.

I think that, in the end, technical realism can only go so far - you also need an emotional reason to believe in what is being depicted. EB does this with descriptions and traits, but in vanilla I think the speeches were key (I know we scoff at vanilla skins now - but when the game was released they were the most realistic I had yet seen).

[Ower]

Well the speeches give you a acount about the battle situation only whit romans, not whit other factions and thats a bit shame.

[Subedei]

Exactly, I love those speeches in RTW. It is a feature, that made me love the TW series.

But now, when it comes to MTW2 and especially in the German version all you get [excluding HRE] are a couple of sentences with NO STYLE/ contextual connection at all.

I want to point out, that this is not CA/SEGA bashing, but a HINT: take your time with the audio files...the speeches put so much atmosphere into the game....and I would love to see you guys do those for all/most of the factions!

Peace&Out, Subedei

[mucky305]

I like the one where the Roman commander muses as to how many of his soldiers won't see the sunset. HA! The audio files are important. I like to play in a close up perspective right next to the general and nothing beats watching crazed barbarians screaming bloody murder before they charge! I look at stuff in this game (guys falling from ramparts is particularly cool) and think back to Atari (remember the square people) and Colecovision and I'm blown away as well, even after all this time *sniff* *sniff*

[atheotes]

When i first played RTW i was completely blown away as i had no expectation watsoever and knew nothing abt the series (played MTW after RTW... had played a handful of RTS games b4 RTW)... I used to listen to each and every speech and it actually helped me get started with the game.

[Magister Militum Titus Pullo]

I remember this one Julii family member in RTW. I forget what his name was, but all his pre-battle speeches involved: "The enemy may have the Moon People on their side. But we have lovely hats, which will protect us from their fearsome gaze." Obviously his traits indicated that he was mad ( he often painted his backside purple and he would drown spiders in vinegar, since he believed they were complicit with his enemies ). But he was a successful general, despite his short-comings mental health-wise.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Hmm, a recurring discussion this.



How could EB represent nutters properly?

[Wolfman]

RTW has some good speeches though some of the Eastern ones I can't take seriously. In my first RTW campaign with the julii I had a commander that said these words, I might be missing a few but this is the effect " You See Those Men Over there get them and Protect me" he was greeted with the usual applause. M2tw Had some good speeches and a lot of Stupid ones. In my French Campaign One general was a famous orator and great general but when he got on the field this is all he said " You smell that? thats what fear does to the enemy take heart in that smell. He was greeted with uproarius applause which shocked me.

[Thaatu]

I hate the vanilla speeches, because I mostly play with Greek factions. "Der iz soomeding appealin', soomedin' appaling, soomedin' for everyone in what I must now say... We will win." Damn I hate that, it's like he lost his train of thought midsentece. That's why I play with voices off, but thank god those routing voices count as sound effects. "Run to deh hillz!". Those are really cool... That's why I sometimes play with no sounds, just some backround music.

[NeoSpartan]

I like the speeches it was a nice addition. Only thing that ticked me off was that ONLY the Roman speeches where deeply worked on. Th e best part was when the general told you that the enemy have brought to battle 1/2 of thier total troops. I was like "REALLY??? Now I did not know that..."


Oh the speech about the General not really wanting to fight but doing so 'cause his mom told him to. I saw it in the XGM not in vanilla RTW.

[Juvenal]

The "Something Appealing, Something Appalling..." speech is a joke reference to a song from the film "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum".

I'm sure that there are other references in the speeches that I don't get either. The trouble is that if you don't "get" a reference, it just sounds like a silly or rubbish comment.

[atheotes]

I have heard the speech about the General not really wanting to fight but doing so 'cause his mom told him to in vanilla RTW quite a few times... Dont remember the exact trait that caused it though...

[Ludens]

I have heard the speech about the General not really wanting to fight but doing so 'cause his mom told him to in vanilla RTW quite a few times... Dont remember the exact trait that caused it though...

Boring speaker, IIRC.

[Miles Sueborum]

I liked those of the Romans in RTW - but those of the other factions were too short and saying nothing - what a pitty...
I mean ok - Celts and Germanics might have thought less about tactics than the Romans - but they would have certainly involved their gods and would have talked about the enemy...
But that game was all around Romans so all the other speeches were simply included for that there would be no empty space...

In MTW2 I was more disappointed. I started to play as Holy Roman Empire (I have the German Version) so I had some long speeches - but I didn't like all the repitition of Keywords such as German, Steel and Reich - my father once entered my room because he thought I'd play some fascist-game - and it is completely ahistorical...
German soldiers might have fought for god, for their lord and most importantly for wealth - but certeinly not for their country...
And it is a pitty that all the other nations lack any good battlespeeches...
At least the five main nations should have got some...

For EB I think it would be cool If they were able to include some Speeches in original languages - because understanding every word is probably uneccessary since most players will be able to analise the military situation themselves quite well ;)
But though I can immagine someone speaking a Battlespeech in Latin - I think one in Proto-Germanic will be much harder ^^

[Thaatu]

The "Something Appealing, Something Appalling..." speech is a joke reference to a song from the film "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum".

I'm sure that there are other references in the speeches that I don't get either. The trouble is that if you don't "get" a reference, it just sounds like a silly or rubbish comment.

Yeah, it's generally not a good idea to put inside jokes in something so visible as the battle speeches.

[Constantine the Great]

I loved the vanilla speechs, especially that one Carthage one.


"If you can smell something ripe, that's you're enemy. That's what fear does to your foe."

[Shigawire]

For EB I think it would be cool If they were able to include some Speeches in original languages - because understanding every word is probably uneccessary since most players will be able to analise the military situation themselves quite well ;)
But though I can immagine someone speaking a Battlespeech in Latin - I think one in Proto-Germanic will be much harder ^^

Well, not only is it a massive translation task in its own right (there are around 650 soundfiles/sentences for just the Roman battlespeeches), but it's also not possible to get seperate languages for each faction. It's divided up by cultures.
So, I would not be able to for example have one set of battlespeeches in gallic, and another in proto-germanic, as both share the same basic "barbarian" culture in the game system.