Leaders speak their own language

With native-speaking leaders, I will be even more biased to permanently include or exclude some civs from my games (I usually play the Greeks):

All-in: Japanese, Inca, French, Ottomans, Romans, Arabs
All-out: Songhai, English, Americans, Indians

For Mongols, Aztecs, Chinese, Vikings, Russians I will wait to see the voice acting. I wonder if Egyptians will use Arabic voice acting (with an Egyptian dialect), but I seldom play against them.

By the way, how about a Bush/BinLaden mod, with recorded quotes of the actual persons?

In fact, any modern leaders mod would be hilarious with voice.

just because you'd rather understand something the first time you hear it instead of having to read a translation doesn't mean you're academically lazy, especially when it comes to a game where you're supposed to be having fun. having a voice to put with the face definitely adds something, but chances are that after a few games, it'll get pretty annoying. plus, sometimes you give up the suspension of disbelief if you have to read something after it's already been said.

axi said:

By the way, how about a Bush/BinLaden mod, with recorded quotes of the actual persons?

In fact, any modern leaders mod would be hilarious with voice.

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yes. yes, it would.

Harun's "native" language was Pahlavi, Catherine's Low German (which is more like what we now call Dutch than German), Napoleon's Corsican (a separate language, but much closer to Italian than French). They'll need to be careful ...

I'm looking forward to this, unless they just didn't care about pronunciation:

"Bon-jurr! Jim apple Napoleon day Francis!"

I also wouldn't mind if the proper accent is used, like Bismarck speaking in a Prussian accent, though I guess creative licensed could be used with Napoleon and Catherine.

Farsight said:

...though I guess creative licensed could be used with Napoleon and Catherine.

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Both of them probably used standard French when doing diplomacy.

Lillefix said:

Both of them probably used standard French when doing diplomacy.

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They didn't have telelink back then ...

I imagine that they'll get native speakers wherever possible.

Hasn't there always been an option to turn off: sound, animations, music, videos, etc?
After a while you can turn off, what you have seen/heard a dozen times. Submerse yourself in what ever game play/choice you like. That is what has made this game famous and last as long as it has.

napoleon may have been corsican, but he definitely spoke french and that's the point

Napoleon's language:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6boHMXlBOjw

Catherine's language:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkoAU5oG2B4

awesome said:

napoleon may have been corsican, but he definitely spoke french and that's the point

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Well, he learned it. Tony Blair learned French too, doesn't make it his "native language".

Keep in mind that Corsica is not French in the slightest. It was an island off Italy lately annexed by the French state.

MethanalCHO said:

How about this: we make a mod after it comes out where all the leaders speak English?

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I would prefer a mod, where all leaders speak german...

It'll be interesting too to see what language they give Justinian, when he is added in an xp. They could give him Latin I suppose, but his actual first tongue was the Vulgar Latin of the Balkans, former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, and so, which became mostly extinct with the Slav and Hungarian invasions. The closest descendant would be Dalmatian, but Vlach and Romanian would have claims too!

Hmm, my take is that this is a somewhat pointless feature, that will make added custom civs and leaders stand out more because it's likely that all but most high class modmakers will add voice acting. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice idea, but ultimately not really worth the effort.

It will be awesome and educational. People will learn quite a few phrases when it's repeated ad nauseum. I can imagine wandering around Paris... Excusé moi, Ou est la cafe? Souvenez-vous, mes mots sont soutenus avec des armes nucléaires!



anyways......



Q: What do you call someone who only speaks one language?



Boo yah!

This is an awesome and well worth it feature. Civ always has been an educational game, and this will just add to it.

I wonder if they will include a bit of philosophical banter, as well as negotiations. Imagine talking philosophy with Genghis. And him replying in Mongolian:

- What is best in life?
- To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.

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Obviuosly they will give the leaders the language of the nation they ruled, not the actual place they came from. Therefore, Napoleon will speak French, Catherine will speak Russian, and so forth. It would be pretty awesome if, for example, they could figure out how to do a late 18th-century American-British accent for Washington, but I don't think that they have the time and resources to do so. Likewise, for some of the leaders, it's basically almost impossible to mimic the actual language they spoke. For Wu Zeitian, for example, it'd be pretty much impossible for Firaxis to make her speak Classical or Middle Chinese, since much of what is "known" about them in terms of pronounciation is theoretical, so she will most likely speak modern mandarin.

As for the more ancient civs, I'm pretty sure they'll do what they did for the unit sounds in Civ4 - try to mimic what it is. That means for Ramses of Egypt, he'll be speaking "Ancient Egyptian" (even though archaeologists aren't 100% sure how Ancient Egyptian was actually pronounced as), and Justinian, I think they'll do what they did in Civ4 with the Byzantines and make him speak Medieval Greek, even though that wouldn't make any sense.

Anyhow, I don't think it's important that they focus too hard on this, since there's more important things. I don't really give a @#$% if Isabella speaks fluent Medieval Spanish or Modern Spanish, it's the flavor that's more important.

To be honest, when you are negotiating in Civ, you are negotiating in American english (most of the time), so I hope they simply use the modern variants of the languages.

I am an enthusiastic history major going on masters right now, and I have Sid to thank for that, really. I'd love to fool myself into obsessive playing for days on the premise that I am learning new languages. I am glad Firaxis decided to let me delude myself in such a way.

Hopefully Catherine will speak Russian with a Plattduutsch accent, perhaps Low Prussian.
And I hope the leaders will speak historically.
Thus Elizabeth would speak Early Modern English.