If the units talk to you...

[Lockesdonkey]

will they say funny things if you keep clicking on them? (ala Starcraft and Warcraft)

Civs I-III, IMO, have long been in need of on-demand comic relief, not just waiting for you to win one of these:

or "Hail to the King, Baby" or "Compared to you, most people have the IQ of a carrot".

Fighting wars, building spaceships/wonders, even just building up your military or treasury to a good size to do whatever it is you may want to do, can be really frustrating and hard on your nerves, especially if you face a lot of setbacks.

 

[RandomInsanity]

they have a few witty things in civ 3, you just gotta look out for them
like when you start a revolution it pops up to make sure, with no, not really or "you know it's gonna be all right", a line from the beatles song 'revolution'

maybe some humour poking fun at historical events would be both appropriate and amusing

 

[Sickman]

I guess it comes with territory but I really would like to be able to turn those sounds off.
I really like all other unit sounds but for me the vocal commentary is irritating.
And especially if they are as in Warcraft 2 were especially the elven archers sounded like they had some kind of perverted relationship with their liege, the player. However loved the "I'm ready/I'm not ready yet" with those two headed ogres.

BTW if the units really start talking to you and/or you start talking to them, you are in need of serious counseling.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

they have a few witty things in civ 3, you just gotta look out for them
like when you start a revolution it pops up to make sure, with no, not really or "you know it's gonna be all right", a line from the beatles song 'revolution'

And also, the advisor asks "You say you want a revolution?". The first line from the song.

 

[tcjsavannah]

The popups from characters on SimGolf let you edit things like that, so I think it'd work. It's probably a low priority on their list though. And I usually play without audio anyway, so it'd just be more letters on the screen to me.

 

[vbraun]

The popups from characters on SimGolf let you edit things like that, so I think it'd work. It's probably a low priority on their list though. And I usually play without audio anyway, so it'd just be more letters on the screen to me.

I'm pretty sure that it'll just be sound. Not Dialog boxs ala SimGolf.

 

[MAS]

Ever read the comments the foreign leaders make when you are in diplomatic negotiations with them?

"all your base are belong to us" is one of the commenst they can make

 

[CyberChrist]

To tell the truth then I would MUCH rather they spend any surplus time/cash on implementing secondary leaders for all the nations, before they even consider giving units audible comic relief commentary.

 

[Nobody]

What about negoations these are the funnyist part of the game, The AI can same some random stuff

 

[CivCube]

The most amusing part of a game, to me, is its style. Civ 4 looks like it will have plenty of it.

 

[warpstorm]

To tell the truth then I would MUCH rather they spend any surplus time/cash on implementing secondary leaders for all the nations, before they even consider giving units audible comic relief commentary.

Except that doing voice overs for every unit in the game takes less time than just one leaderhead's animations.

 

[CyberChrist]

Except that doing voice overs for every unit in the game takes less time than just one leaderhead's animations.

I think you underestimate this task - unless you don't want this 'feature' to have any kind of quality.

 

[warpstorm]

I have a very good idea of how long this takes as well as how long a leaderhead takes to make, considering what I do for a living.

It doesn't take very long if you hire professional voice actors. Heck, it doesn't take long if you round up the programmers, it just sounds like crap.

 

[Rookie One]

I think you underestimate this task - unless you don't want this 'feature' to have any kind of quality.

Voice acting and modeling\animation are different things. I think they could do both at the same time.

 

[CyberChrist]

@Warpstorm:
Heh, I am releived YOU are not in charge of making anything soundwise for Civ4 then

@Rookie One:
Yes of course, but they only have limited time and budget.

 

[Louis XXIV]

At the very least, adding a second leaderhead for all nations and adding voices are completely different design-wise. One involves game balancing, research, and graphics design. The other requires a bit of scripting and hiring the people to say them. The first is a major game change, the other is a bit of pollish. I think its possible that they could do both, but I don't think not doing one means that they will be able to make room for another.

As for whether or not to add talking units. I think it would get annoying very fast. But it would make sense to do (they said their adding a left click, right click movement system like a RTS has). What they probably should do is make some other sound like (clashing shields togther, or a grunt for a warrior, or a horse neighing, and leaving responses for very specific units, such as a Missionary or Great Person.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

It would be neat if you ordered a unit into an impossible battle, say, an Archer against a Mech Infantry fortified on a mountain, that the unit would squeal in protest: "Sire, are you mad? I'd sooner shove burning fire arrows up my ar$e than attack that iron monster! Send me to the dungeon - I'm NOT going up that mountain!"

 

[warpstorm]

One thing I failed to mention, while professional voice actors are fast, they are not cheap. They charge a lot more per hour than nearly any other discipline in game development (and they are now trying to get residuals). Thankfully, they don't work a lot of hours.

 

[CyberChrist]

I guess my standards/expectations for what would be acceptable and actually add to the feel of the game are just a lot higher than most here

 

[Superkrest]

im not possitive..but i belive the voice overs in blizzards games are employess...and they are the same people in each game...im sure they could find a couple suave sounding employess and give them an extra day off for doing some silly voices..its a neat idea...i dont see the debate..especially if you could turn them off