bars/conversations/characters

Sun Apr 20, 2003 3:08 pm by kumari

Hey all,
It's great to see so many active threads... i just hope this doesn't get smothered. ok. It is my opinion that what freelancer lacks in the biggest way is diversity in character and sound.

Character: Bars are a failing point. A stunning example in diversity in bars would have to be Privateer 2 (for those of u who know it). i wanna see different activity in different bars. Features like: flashing lights and dancers, cigar smoke, ciggarette smoke, other smoke!, bouncers, body gaurds, deadheads, violence, gansters, prostitutes, pimps, drinks being spilled, spills being cleaned, kareoke, open conversations, closed conversations, people coming, people going, husslers, smugglers, drug addicts, drug dealers, contraband dealers, live bands, etc. It doesn't have to be graphic and offensive at all. Just full of colour and flavour.
Can we mod bars?
i guess this is a tuff call but if ship models can be changed why not bars?

Sound: Voice acting. Can the sounds be rejigged? While different locations have incredible visual diversity the voices remain the same from place to place. I have a major problem with 90% of Bretonians sporting american accents. I'm not american so this is more noticeable for me. Same goes for kusari and rheinland. For example in GTA3 u start working with Mafia guys and then u move on to Chinese Triad stuff. Each employer oozes with it's on individual character. The conversation template needs a rework. It's not diverse enough. Previous games got a lot out of milking the "i'm a tuff guy don't mess with me" style conversation. No need to re-invent any wheels on this one.

Ultimately. I fell so strongly about this stuff (especially sound) that i would go to the trouble of researching and developing/finding more sounds. If i could i'd get a few hundred megs worth of sounds to add/replace and ultimately improve the game dynamic. I just need to know if it can be modded properly.
any clues?

kumari "Why can't we all just... get along?"

Sun Apr 20, 2003 4:25 pm by TheDecker

OK, I'm not sure about any of this but I think it's probably possible in this way :

Characters : If the Bar background is a 3D-model, you should be able to change it an create a BIIG endless loop with lots of action in it. As for adding new characters that are not part of the Bar model, I read in some post it isn't possible.

Sounds : I strongly assume the sounds are not linked statically with the game, that wouldn't make sense. I think I stumbled across some files that had to do with 'Voice Patterns' or something like that. Those should contain the standard phrases like 'Heading for', 'Transmit ID' etc, but I dont know how to edit them.

TheDecker

Tue Apr 22, 2003 4:04 am by kumari

well thankya decker.
That's a much better answer than i had expected.
i'll see if i can find the sounds somewhere and have a think about making additions. Somebody did make a mod which replaced the music in bars. Who was that?

kumari "Why can't we all just... get along?"

Tue Apr 22, 2003 5:01 am by Hadrian

This bothers me as well. As soon as I can find the files, I'll be re-recording as many of the voices as I can. Especially, and I mean especially the line: "Trent! You old guy jane!"

signature.exe

I am awesomer than you.

Space Propultion made easy

Tue Apr 22, 2003 6:35 pm by giskard

There are problems with voices and new systems anyway.

The game doesnt have voice file for user created systems and as all conversations are multi part voice samples, the entire conversation has to be re-recorded by new actors to include the name of the new system.

I need to look into this for my own mod so its one area i expect my own knowledge to grow in over time. Im planning on contining developement of my own mod and releasing it in stages. This will allow others to enjoy it and see it expand as times goes on. It also gives me time to figure out this voice actors stuff i need to sort out. I already have software i need to record the voices and modify them from older mod making projects ive been part of.

Its sort of hard to talk in here due to the popularity of the forums and the lack of basic forum features but if you want to talk about it in a quieter place your welcome to do so on my forum over at Respawn. We can post any findings we may have here once we understand whats going on.

Bars and characters are probably the least researched area in FL yet one of the most important for system builders. Its annoying to hear characters pause mid speach just because the system has not voice sample recorded for it.

http://www.respawn.co.uk
Go to the forums from there and look for my freelancer forum if your interested. Im not yet at the stage where i need to know the character info, but i will be soon so we may be able to help each other along.

Giskard

Edited by - giskard on 22-04-2003 19:39:39

Tue Apr 22, 2003 6:35 pm by RubberEagle

rooms in FL are a "simple" collection of 3d objects, if i'm not too mistaken.
I've looked into it a bit, but can't remember the details now...

Wed Apr 23, 2003 1:44 am by Com_Trooper

Lol Hadrian, I don't think the phrase is "old guy Jane". It's a little unclear but since only Kusari people say it (I think) I believe it is actually the Japanese word "gaijin" which means foreigner.
I'd be willing to bet that the wav assignments are scripted somewhere so it might be possible to reroute the Bretonia, Kusari, and Rheinland voices to a set of new ones. It would be great if we could get a group of voice actors from these boards to record sound files for the non-Liberty houses. As for creating new bars, that would undoubtedly be much more involved because of the fact that they are 3D models that need to be placed with coordinates and such.

Wed Apr 23, 2003 5:24 am by Hadrian

I know, that's why it bothers me so much when they say it. The first time I heard it I wondered "Did he just call me Jane?" Then I realized what they were trying to pass off as a japanese man playfully insulting me ended up sounding like a whacko playfully insulting me.

signature.exe

I am awesomer than you.

Space Propultion made easy

Wed Apr 23, 2003 5:18 pm by giskard

The Mbase file seems to setup all the npc requirements for an entire base. Right down to its uniform but the base it self is configured data/solar/solararch.ini. From that file you can change the cmp file that is used for a base. The base internals are nothing to do with this base I found. You can setup almost anything for the inside of the base, even on tiny stations.

Theres also a whole bunch of 3db files in /data/bases/liberty that appear to be relivent.

Giskard

Thu Apr 24, 2003 2:56 am by kumari

wow u guys are so cool!!!!
i can't believe this response. YAYAYAYAY.

One thing that would HAVE to get some attention is the actual script. i'd LOVE to write the script. Unfortunately if the voice actors have limited talent this might not be the best idea. I will not be part of something like this unless the script gets the attention it deserves!

We need the conversation templates for this.

Music. I know a bit about music. I can write music. Instead of writing music i was thinking of implementing the starwars music. I know it's risky to stamp the whole FL thing with starwars but i've been listening to it in the background while playing recently and it actually works really well imo. I have pretty much the entire collection of starwars music (8 cd's). I could sort all the starwars music into "battle music" "landing sequences" "victory" "bar music". For bar music i think we need to borrow from a much larger pool of resources. Like... um... like my 20gig collection of mp3's

I have classical, jazz and contemporary/pop.

Anyway with music we need to find where the files are and it's already been done. Some guy already made a mod with starwars music implemented. I'll see if i can track him/her down

One way of masking bad conversations would also be with loud background sounds. Other conversations + music. "if u can't do it properly - cover it up" At the moment when an NPC talks you can perfectly hear every "vocal cord". The experience feels pretty artificial all up.

Short Summary:
-If somebody could research the conversation templates that would be sweet.
-I can work on chopping up SW music (will do it for myself anyway).
-Masking conversations with background sounds would probably be relatively easy and pretty effective. A good place to start imo.

kumari "Why can't we all just... get along?"

UPDATE: I now have the tools and the knowhow to split and join music as well as adding it to FL. This will keep me going for some time.

Edited by - kumari on 24-04-2003 07:29:17

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