Newly created female stout axes have different voices than originally created ones

[CloudCastle]

It has come to my attention that, depending on when you created your female stout axe, she may not have access to proper vocalizations, and for those that she does, they are in a different voice than the one older characters have. Is this an intended change or a bug?

Female stout axes have had trouble getting their vocalizations to work now for some time, as these threads attest:

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...out+axe+female

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...out+axe+female

I did a test of my stout axe characters and this is what I found:

Female stout axe burglar (created on race's launch day):

Makes "oof, argh," etc noises in combat that sound the same as the male version
Has all vocalized emotes (same voice as males): challenge, roar, cheer, etc.
Yells special stout axe sentences during some of the emotes (same voice as male)

All male stout axes I have tested (brawler and minstrel), both now and in the past, sound exactly the same as my female burg.

Newly created female stout axe characters do not sound like this!

Female stout axe minstrel (created Nov 2021) and Female stout axe burglar (created Nov 2021):

Makes occasional "oof" and "ah" noises in combat but in a noticeably female voice
Has NO voiced emotes whatsoever (cheer, roar, challenge, etc are all silent)
Minstrel can yell stout axe special sentences (in the male voice) but only during class skills that yell

Female stout axe rune keeper (created today):

Is utterly silent for everything. (This may be partly a RK thing as I think my elf RK is also silent during combat, but she has all other vocalizations)

I want to add that I have triple checked with other players, and my original stout axe burg is indeed female. Other people can see her "hugging herself" for example. Others can also hear her vocalizations. I checked with another player who has a more recently created stout axe and she told me that not only can she not hear any vocal emotes on her stout axe, but no one else can hear them either. I'm kind of baffled as to what is going on. One of the threads linked above says that the OP's female stout axe used to have voiced emotes and then lost them. Yet my stout axe burg has never lost her voice. At some point a female voice over was added for female stout axe combat noises. Yet this was not applied to my female stout axe. Female stout axes who lost their vocalized emotes, still haven't gotten them back, and currently created ones don't get them either.

What is the intent here? Are new voice-overs being rolled out for female stout axes? Will my character be affected? Are the old voices going to ever come back for everyone else? Which is the bug here? Is my char bugged because she has male combat sounds and not female ones? Are all recently created stout axes bugged because they have no combat sounds or the wrong ones? Why do female stout axe minstrels (and any class with skill based yells I assume) have their combat vocalizations in a female voice but their class skill vocalizations in a male one?

I've been reluctant to post about this, because I do not want my original female stout axe to be changed. My curiosity is getting the better of me though, and I am wondering what the story is behind all this weirdness.

TL/DR:

Female stout axe defensive combat sounds = old chars get male sounding voice, new chars get female sounding voice
Class yells = all chars get male sounding voice
Voiced emotes = old chars get male sounding voice, new chars get no voice (all emotes are silent)

Why the difference between old and new female stout axes?

[Waynard]

It has come to my attention that, depending on when you created your female stout axe, she may not have access to proper vocalizations, and for those that she does, they are in a different voice than the one older characters have. Is this an intended change or a bug?

Female stout axes have had trouble getting their vocalizations to work now for some time, as these threads attest:

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...out+axe+female

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...out+axe+female

I did a test of my stout axe characters and this is what I found:

Female stout axe burglar (created on race's launch day):

Makes "oof, argh," etc noises in combat that sound the same as the male version
Has all vocalized emotes (same voice as males): challenge, roar, cheer, etc.
Yells special stout axe sentences during some of the emotes (same voice as male)

All male stout axes I have tested (brawler and minstrel), both now and in the past, sound exactly the same as my female burg.

Newly created female stout axe characters do not sound like this!

Female stout axe minstrel (created Nov 2021) and Female stout axe burglar (created Nov 2021):

Makes occasional "oof" and "ah" noises in combat but in a noticeably female voice
Has NO voiced emotes whatsoever (cheer, roar, challenge, etc are all silent)
Minstrel can yell stout axe special sentences (in the male voice) but only during class skills that yell

Female stout axe rune keeper (created today):

Is utterly silent for everything. (This may be partly a RK thing as I think my elf RK is also silent during combat, but she has all other vocalizations)

I want to add that I have triple checked with other players, and my original stout axe burg is indeed female. Other people can see her "hugging herself" for example. Others can also hear her vocalizations. I checked with another player who has a more recently created stout axe and she told me that not only can she not hear any vocal emotes on her stout axe, but no one else can hear them either. I'm kind of baffled as to what is going on. One of the threads linked above says that the OP's female stout axe used to have voiced emotes and then lost them. Yet my stout axe burg has never lost her voice. At some point a female voice over was added for female stout axe combat noises. Yet this was not applied to my female stout axe. Female stout axes who lost their vocalized emotes, still haven't gotten them back, and currently created ones don't get them either.

What is the intent here? Are new voice-overs being rolled out for female stout axes? Will my character be affected? Are the old voices going to ever come back for everyone else? Which is the bug here? Is my char bugged because she has male combat sounds and not female ones? Are all recently created stout axes bugged because they have no combat sounds or the wrong ones? Why do female stout axe minstrels (and any class with skill based yells I assume) have their combat vocalizations in a female voice but their class skill vocalizations in a male one?

I've been reluctant to post about this, because I do not want my original female stout axe to be changed. My curiosity is getting the better of me though, and I am wondering what the story is behind all this weirdness.

TL/DR:

Female stout axe defensive combat sounds = old chars get male sounding voice, new chars get female sounding voice
Class yells = all chars get male sounding voice
Voiced emotes = old chars get male sounding voice, new chars get no voice (all emotes are silent)

Why the difference between old and new female stout axes?

I thought I was going crazy I noticed this too! I made a female stout axe brawler and noticed this same thing. I'm not a fan of change (male and female dwarves were supposed to indistinguishable eh) but at least if they are gonna do it fully flush it out and commit to it.

[Halphast]

I think there's some bug with the new female dwarf sounds in general. Having played Gundabad in which you fight alongside several female dwarves, I got used to hearing female dwarf fight-sounds. Then I noticed an issue where orcs and hobgoblins throughout the game not only have their original low-voice grunts and growls while fighting, they also have "female dwarf fighting sounds" that play over top of this at the same time! I made a thread about that but it got no response. It seems clear there's some mistake with these sounds happening at the wrong time, and some being missing from player characters where they should be happening.

[CloudCastle]

I thought I was going crazy I noticed this too! I made a female stout axe brawler and noticed this same thing. I'm not a fan of change (male and female dwarves were supposed to indistinguishable eh) but at least if they are gonna do it fully flush it out and commit to it.

Exactly, I just want to know if a change is coming through the pipeline to alter all female stout axe voices or if there is a bug in play here and female stout axes are actually supposed to sound like mine. I'd like to see them pick a direction and stick with it - either all stout axes (female and male) sound the same or they don't. I don't like how the new stout axes have some female sound files and some male, and some missing sound files altogether!

I think there's some bug with the new female dwarf sounds in general. Having played Gundabad in which you fight alongside several female dwarves, I got used to hearing female dwarf fight-sounds. Then I noticed an issue where orcs and hobgoblins throughout the game not only have their original low-voice grunts and growls while fighting, they also have "female dwarf fighting sounds" that play over top of this at the same time! I made a thread about that but it got no response. It seems clear there's some mistake with these sounds happening at the wrong time, and some being missing from player characters where they should be happening.

I noticed this too actually and this is a really good point. Maybe there is a related bug going on here. I thought it was odd that ever since Gundabad was released a huge chunk of orc enemies throughout Middle Earth have all switched from male to female. I understand that Gundabad actually introduced female hobgoblins, which I think was great, and I don't have a problem with female orcs running around Middle Earth either. Something seems odd though when so many orcs have all suddenly switched from male or female, and some seem to be simultaneously using both male and female sound files during the same fight.

[Halphast]

I thought it was odd that ever since Gundabad was released a huge chunk of orc enemies throughout Middle Earth have all switched from male to female. I understand that Gundabad actually introduced female hobgoblins, which I think was great, and I don't have a problem with female orcs running around Middle Earth either. Something seems odd though when so many orcs have all suddenly switched from male or female, and some seem to be simultaneously using both male and female sound files during the same fight.

Hahaha! XD Yeah... I spent a lot of time fighting orcs today and judging by the sound effects they were all female or that strange blend of two voices at once.

[auximenes]

Has anybody checked what sound files are being played using the Filter UI (alt+r)? That should clear up exactly what sound files are being played and when.

[LadyCalithil]

Exactly, I just want to know if a change is coming through the pipeline to alter all female stout axe voices or if there is a bug in play here and female stout axes are actually supposed to sound like mine. I'd like to see them pick a direction and stick with it - either all stout axes (female and male) sound the same or they don't. I don't like how the new stout axes have some female sound files and some male, and some missing sound files altogether!

I posted in that first thread you linked and started the second linked thread. My two stout axe females (140 champ, 60 guardian) STILL have the exact same problem months later. Combat grunts/vocalizations sound female, the challenge is the classic regular dwarf one so I hear no unique stout axe shouts anymore. Plus all emotes are silent to me although others have said they can hear them. I tried creating stout axe females on other servers and even with a different account plus in Bullroarer. Same. Exact. Problem.

PLEASE devs!! It would be greatly appreciated if there would be some sort of consistency! I actually don't mind the female sounding voices of various female dwarfs in Elderslade and Gundabad. It can even fit with Tolkien lore because a voice is more easily hidden when that is desired. But I miss hearing my feisty stout axe's battle cries and emote vocalizations. Others may hear them, but I can't enjoy it. Half the fun of being a stout axe champ is going rather crazy with battle cries after the tank pulls all the mobs for you to slice 'n dice.

[CloudCastle]

Has anybody checked what sound files are being played using the Filter UI (alt+r)? That should clear up exactly what sound files are being played and when.

This is a great idea and I just got around to testing this today. Found something very interesting - there are indeed new sound files specifically for female dwarves! I'm not even sure what to make of this.

Tested on a female minstrel (created maybe 2 months ago) and my original female burglar from release.

Minstrel got these sounds when fighting:

new_fem_dwarf_swing_02
new_fem_dwarf_swing_03
new_fem_dwarf_swing_04
new_fem_dwarf_swing_05

(There's probably an 01 sound too but it didn't pop during my test.)

I also took note that she got 3 unique stout axe shouts while fighting, so those are working for her. When I tried CHEER no sound came up at all, but that pretty much confirms what we already knew - that female stout axes don't have sound files attached to their emotes.


Female burglar got this sound:

dsa_atk_grunt_short_13

She killed the mob too fast for any other sounds to pop up but her grunts were the usual ones that male stout axes get. When I CHEERed with her she got:

dsa_emote_cheer_01



SSG, the cat's out of the bag now. The female grunts that new stout axes get are not female orc files or misplaced human files, they are purposely designed sounds for the female stout axe. What's the plan here? Are there going to be more female sound files added? Why haven't they been added before now? Will all current female stout axes be changed over when it is complete?

[CloudCastle]

I posted in that first thread you linked and started the second linked thread. My two stout axe females (140 champ, 60 guardian) STILL have the exact same problem months later. Combat grunts/vocalizations sound female, the challenge is the classic regular dwarf one so I hear no unique stout axe shouts anymore. Plus all emotes are silent to me although others have said they can hear them. I tried creating stout axe females on other servers and even with a different account plus in Bullroarer. Same. Exact. Problem.

PLEASE devs!! It would be greatly appreciated if there would be some sort of consistency! I actually don't mind the female sounding voices of various female dwarfs in Elderslade and Gundabad. It can even fit with Tolkien lore because a voice is more easily hidden when that is desired. But I miss hearing my feisty stout axe's battle cries and emote vocalizations. Others may hear them, but I can't enjoy it. Half the fun of being a stout axe champ is going rather crazy with battle cries after the tank pulls all the mobs for you to slice 'n dice.

What frustrates me is that none of these threads have gotten any official response, so instead players have been thinking there is something wrong with their game or their computer, and going to the trouble of redownloading everything when it was a game issue all along.

I will test sometime with seeing if others can hear my new stout axe emotes. One person I spoke to said others couldn't hear hers, and you say people can hear yours. I wonder if creation date has anything to do with this too?

[LadyCalithil]

What frustrates me is that none of these threads have gotten any official response, so instead players have been thinking there is something wrong with their game or their computer, and going to the trouble of redownloading everything when it was a game issue all along.

I will test sometime with seeing if others can hear my new stout axe emotes. One person I spoke to said others couldn't hear hers, and you say people can hear yours. I wonder if creation date has anything to do with this too?

I agree that it's been definitely been frustrating to not get any sort of official response, especially when it's a major bug for a given race. I reinstalled LotRO twice thinking the problem must be on my end until I finally saw someone else on the forums post that they had the same problem.

Perhaps creation date does have something to do with it, because I created a female stout axe minstrel when they first were available, and she had all the special shouts that sounded exactly like the male stout axe. I didn't like how her name was spelled so I did a name change and she was turned into a male stout axe!! There were a couple posts about that problem when the stout axe was first released. After her gender was changed back to female by an in game dev, things seemed good for a while, then bang...no sounds at all. So I was thinking that it might have been related to the gender change, then we got some sounds back on the female stout axe but not all. I eventually race changed her into a High Elf mini because I got irritated that a stout AXE mini (or any mini for that matter) could have an LI sword but not an LI axe. :P

So I went and race changed my original regular dwarf champ into a female stout axe champ and she has combat vocalizations that sound female, but I can't hear her emotes at all though others say they can hear them. To test, I created various classes of female stout axe dwarves on different servers and got the results that I indicated in the second post in the links in your OP.

I would at least like acknowledgement from SSG that they are aware that there is a problem so that perhaps we can someday hope for a resolution.

[Halphast]

(edit)

The orc voice-over bug is not related to female dwarf sounds after all.
More info below:
https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...-orc-voice-bug

[professorcat12]

I have no idea, as I haven't played much lately, if female elves still have those sound effects that I noticed on Bullroarer server. Those sound effects either came with the new LI system update or Gundabad release, I'm not sure, but my existing female elf champion had got them as well on live servers. So existing characters shouldn't have issue, unless stout axes are handled differently. What annoys me is it (new elf female elf melee sfx) wasn't documented anywhere. Maybe it wasn't intended, as sound effects are very out of place. You'd think they'd pick a neutral sound; meaning average, believeable, not out of place. Sorry for horrible word choices. I also find the lack of attention given to a very frequently used skill, Improved Swift Arrow, very disappointing, as it's missing its sound effects for slightly more than two years now: https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...-s-swift-arrow I can share those new elf sound effects name, if they are still present, later in the day.

Edit: Female elf melee combat sound effects go by "new_av_huf_grunt01" and whatever is the total number of these sfx. I assume huf means human female.

[LadyCalithil]

Still hoping that some dev might at least acknowledge the problem with the female stout axe vocalizations.

While they may not be the most played characters, it's a major flaw in a race that must be purchased!

I love my female stout axe. I love the body model, the animations, their lore background in Mordor that actually makes their presence logical, and the just plain FUN of playing a gorgeous female from a culture with a very different ideal of beauty than that of puny, weak humans, wispy anemic elves or hairy-footed hobbits.

Please find a way to fix our ladies' voices!

Thanks!!

[CloudCastle]

I'm really disappointed that we haven't gotten any dev response to this as well. Imagine if human characters suddenly lost their voiced emotes or if one gender's sounds switched to another! I doubt it would take years for that to be addressed.

I just want to know what's going on. What part of this weirdness can be attributed to bugs, will they be fixed, what part is actually unfinished business or new implementations that are being rolled out.

I'm grateful that my SA dwarf can still have voiced emotes, but if one day female SA's all get new female sounds and voices and I'm still left with male ones, then I will probably find that unsettling. I actually would have preferred to have my own female voice, but I'm ok with a male one. What I'm not ok with is this weird inbetween state that most female stout axes have been left in, and I'm concerned that new female voice files will be added someday and that my "old" female SA will be left out from getting them. Makes me almost nervous to play her now.

Still hoping that some dev might at least acknowledge the problem with the female stout axe vocalizations.

While they may not be the most played characters, it's a major flaw in a race that must be purchased!

I love my female stout axe. I love the body model, the animations, their lore background in Mordor that actually makes their presence logical, and the just plain FUN of playing a gorgeous female from a culture with a very different ideal of beauty than that of puny, weak humans, wispy anemic elves or hairy-footed hobbits.

Please find a way to fix our ladies' voices!

Thanks!!

I know what you mean. I have a "female" Longbeard dwarf but she's mostly been abandoned because it always bothered me that the game didn't acknowledge her as actually female and forced me to have male pronouns when doing any actions. Having a real female dwarf now is fun! And I love the animations for stout axes so much better. I love how their clothes don't hang crooked, I love how their stance looks so tough and grim (goes with their back story), I love the huge splash they make when jumping while in water and the big hearty thump when they jump on land. I love their special dances! And I've always enjoyed fooling around with female beauty standards in games - I often find myself drawn to the "odd" or very alien races, who don't have your typical "pretty" look. What I don't like is how female stout axes feel unfinished and forgotten.

[CloudCastle]

People are still wondering what is going on with their silent female stout axes.

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...out+axe+female

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...out+axe+female

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...19#post8142419

When will we get an answer?

[YamydeAragon]

Certainly the playable female stout axe dwarf voices really miss the mark & only a bit less than the playable female stout axe dwarf appearances. I made a 1 & played with the character creation, the barber & the outfits but never found a appearance that looked like what i was expecting. I wanted to give it a body like Diss or Herself but the option simply don't exist. Too much for being a premium race!

[CloudCastle]

Still hoping that someday we will get answer from a blue name on why female stout-axe vocalizations are broken and whether they will ever be fixed. It's been over 2 years now. The problem was first documented in June of 2020:

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...male+stout-axe

What I really don't understand is why we can't at least get an official acknowledgement that recognizes they are bugged. Characters having silent emotes that everyone else gets sounds for is surely not intended. Characters having both male and female voice files in combat is also surely not intended. It bothers me is that a race that people payed money for is broken. I wonder if they can't fix it and so have been told from higher ups to never admit there is a problem.

I'm also curious as to why my one female stout axe sounds different from other playable female stout axes. I guess I'll probably never get an answer on that one, but I think of it every time I play her. I have yet to meet another female stout axe that sounds like mine. Am I the only one?

[LadyCalithil]

Still hoping that someday we will get answer from a blue name on why female stout-axe vocalizations are broken and whether they will ever be fixed. It's been over 2 years now. The problem was first documented in June of 2020:

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...male+stout-axe

What I really don't understand is why we can't at least get an official acknowledgement that recognizes they are bugged. Characters having silent emotes that everyone else gets sounds for is surely not intended. Characters having both male and female voice files in combat is also surely not intended. It bothers me is that a race that people payed money for is broken. I wonder if they can't fix it and so have been told from higher ups to never admit there is a problem.

I'm also curious as to why my one female stout axe sounds different from other playable female stout axes. I guess I'll probably never get an answer on that one, but I think of it every time I play her. I have yet to meet another female stout axe that sounds like mine. Am I the only one?

One of my kinmates just rolled a female stout axe champ and is having EXACTLY the same sound problem that has been already documented. Some sounds/skills we can hear and many we cannot. Everyone ELSE can hear the emotes but the actual player cannot.

This is getting ridiculous!! This is supposed to be a premium PAID FOR class and the female version of stout axe is STILL broken. But the male version is not.

We haven't even gotten any response from the Devs that this is a KNOWN PROBLEM!

Please devs, at least acknowledge that this is a problem and that someday it might be resolved!!

Thank you.

[Dervacus]

I noticed this issue on my female Stout-axe Hunter today. I made her a while back and I guess I just didn't notice the lack of vocalization. I had a friend verify that they can indeed hear me, but I cannot hear my own character. I'm also able to preview emotes in the Collections Panel and I can hear the vocalizations with that, but not from actually using the emotes or emote commands. This is very frustrating and it's making me not want to play this character. I rolled a brand new female Stout-axe and had the same issue. I wanted to bump this so if someone at SSG was looking into this and maybe forgot, this is still an issue

Before I became aware that this is a bug specific to female Stout-axe characters I filled out a ticket to support. I have updated the ticket and then submitted a bug ticket

[Dervacus]

Here's the reply I got from sending a bug report:

Standing Stone Games Quality Assurance Team (Standing Stone Games Help)

Apr 15, 2023, 11:42 AM PDT

Greetings!

Thank you for submitting a bug report!

Please note: We are unable to provide immediate or direct assistance via a Bug Report.

We would like to assure you that Standing Stone Games is aware of this issue and is working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

We hope to have a resolution soon and we hope you are enjoying your time in Middle-earth!

Regards,
SSG Quality Assurance

Standing Stone Games, LLC.

You may always search our FAQ or request support at
help.standingstonegames.com

[CloudCastle]

Here's the reply I got from sending a bug report:

Standing Stone Games Quality Assurance Team (Standing Stone Games Help)

Apr 15, 2023, 11:42 AM PDT

Greetings!

Thank you for submitting a bug report!

Please note: We are unable to provide immediate or direct assistance via a Bug Report.

We would like to assure you that Standing Stone Games is aware of this issue and is working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

We hope to have a resolution soon and we hope you are enjoying your time in Middle-earth!

Regards,
SSG Quality Assurance

Standing Stone Games, LLC.

You may always search our FAQ or request support at
help.standingstonegames.com

Glad to hear you got some kind of acknowledgement on this, even though it was a canned response. Hopefully they really are looking into it.