Civ IV Preview on Worthplaying

[tcjsavannah]

To be honest.. I expect this to be very close to Pirates! as well. When you go into ports, you'll have the Dutch & Spanish barmaids and traders say something that just sounds like it might be Dutch, but you can never really tell just what it is they're saying. It's more an accent thing, I think. I would be very surprised if it's more substantial.

 

[civzombie]

I vote down on this if it is really just gibberish with an "accent"


It was *cute* in pirates b/c there were so many possible dialoge trees it had to gibberish. In civ4, the units should not need to say more than 10 or so phrases. There is no reason why they couldn't easily use real phrases.

Did you see the difference? In the ports in pirates the barmaid could literally have thousands of possible dialoges. In civ4 a unit will say "yes sir", "no sir", etc.

 

[JBearIt]

This line of discussion brings back fond memories of the mid-80's Apple II Castle Wolfenstein games (yes, way before the later Castle Wolfestein game that lead to Doom and kicked off the whole 1st person shooter genre). When you were wandering through the castle you would get stopped by guards who would speak 4 German words: "Halt", and then "Commenn", "Allspice" [I know I got those two words spelled wrong but that's what it sounded like. I think they mean come here and show me your pass], and finally "Heil' if you could produce a pass.

 

[joethreeblah]

This line of discussion brings back fond memories of the mid-80's Apple II Castle Wolfenstein games (yes, way before the later Castle Wolfestein game that lead to Doom and kicked off the whole 1st person shooter genre). When you were wandering through the castle you would get stopped by guards who would speak 4 German words: "Halt", and then "Commenn", "Allspice" [I know I got those two words spelled wrong but that's what it sounded like. I think they mean come here and show me your pass], and finally "Heil' if you could produce a pass.

I always thought it sounded like "YOS PASSES" asking for your pass.

That game was wonderful.

 

[DiamanteLouco]

I vote down on this if it is really just gibberish with an "accent"


It was *cute* in pirates b/c there were so many possible dialoge trees it had to gibberish. In civ4, the units should not need to say more than 10 or so phrases. There is no reason why they couldn't easily use real phrases.

Did you see the difference? In the ports in pirates the barmaid could literally have thousands of possible dialoges. In civ4 a unit will say "yes sir", "no sir", etc.

Actually they can only say "yes sir", for if I command a troop to do something and he says "no sir" some heads will be brutally smacked and then roll.

 

[Arturus]

I think the idea is great as it adds in the special touches that make a great game even better. However, that being said, they could have approached it in a different way as well that might have yielded a similar (though not as special) effect.

In Rome Total War and Medieval Total War, the voice of the generals and leaders was different for various reasons. Factions from the Middle East, for example, speak English but with the accent and tone of voice you would expect to hear when talking to someone from that area.

That idea could work for Civ4 as well, especially if they made different voices for every civilization. Not as good but does add some effect.

 

[sav]

I'm 99% sure they'll give us options - like, Voices On/Off (there's never been voices as such before, and I'm not gonna want them on now, this isn't RTS), or AllVoices in native languages/in English with accents. That'd be the sensible route to take...

 

[Slax]

I think this is a pretty frivolous addition.

 

[Firebird]

I always thought it sounded like "YOS PASSES" asking for your pass.

That game was wonderful.

They probably said "Ausweiss" meaning "Papers" - a kind of passport needed to get through checkpoints.