On The In-game Voices...
Kitsune
Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7843Members
Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7843Members
I was working up a set of keybinds for myself the other day, and it struck me while I was busy adding team_says to my alien sounds so they could understand me: How can they understand what the marines are saying? It's ironic that both teams can understand the human speech, but neither can understand the alien speech. I use the alien speech, but only with the keys set to type out the message in English, otherwise I could be busy spamming the 'Heal me' noise at a Gorge all night without him catching on.
So, with that in mind, might I suggest that Kharaa hear a garbled nonsense sound instead of the English phrases when marines talk, and hear their own messages in English, accented in the same way that the hive messages are? It would make a bit more sense, and would hopefully spur some more use of the alien communications.
So, with that in mind, might I suggest that Kharaa hear a garbled nonsense sound instead of the English phrases when marines talk, and hear their own messages in English, accented in the same way that the hive messages are? It would make a bit more sense, and would hopefully spur some more use of the alien communications.
Comments
Though I think what Badkarma does - having each side hear different languages might not be something the HL engine wants to do. I don't see any reason why having the aliens speaking English would be so bad though. Sure, it might be difficult to justify story-wise, but it'd be nice to be able to use the pie menu to talk to alien teammates properly.
Currently, when I'm a marine sneaking around Kharaa-occupied areas, I cannot really use the "medpack", "ammo", and "in position" voice binds because every alien in the area will hear me, but I can happily type or even use voice comm without fear of being noticed. I am not sure how the voice communication works in Half-Life, but would it be possible for aliens to hear the voice-comm too, but not as actual voice comm but as an in-game sound (that is, the closer they are, the louder it would be)? And if the marine types something into the chat, perhaps a generic, fairly low "talking" sound could be played (with things that clearly sound like speech but with words that cannot really be made out... if you've ever played the original GTA games, you may have an idea of what I'm talking about)? This would greatly improve the atmosphere for the aliens, as not only would they hear footsteps, they would also hear the conversations of marines, and might even get into spying on marines to determine what it is they are planning (perhaps the typed marine team-chat could be displayed on hive sight if the alien is close enough?). Not only would this make the atmosphere more realistic, it would also make voice-comms more realistic, as people would be less likely to scream about how they need a siege in mother interface but would be more likely to speak in a low, terrified, marine-like wisper....
That, and a skulk sitting behind the command chair would have something better to do than just munching... It would be like a whole new dimension added to the game.
Eater.
As for changing voice-com, it would ruin the effect if it wasn't private for each team--and lag would go up with the increase in speaking-group size, methinks, since VoIP in this case is bounced off the server, not direct.
While these have been suggested before, making voice work as a 3D source is not practical, and maybe not even possible.
You know how each map can have custom models and sounds to overwrite default ones if it wants to? Or just extra ones, for that matter?
Have a set of Alien-voice-speaking-English sounds for the Aliens to talk to each, but use the Alien-gibberish sounds on Marine clients, and vice-versa on Marines.
I'm sure hax0rs would find a way to exploit this, but it would be a fairly easy way to do it.