NONA!!!!!???

[Sidhen]

For various reasons .. on my latest computer I was actually able to HEAR Nona speak!!! OMG.. who did that voice!!! It had to be a guy.. but sounds like a 65 year old bag lady!! Someone does not know the difference between a tough cookie and a burnt piece of toast!!!!! C'mon!!! How could Horn, the minstral, EVER warm up to that sound !!!!!

[Leixy]

I think there's actually like 3 voice actors for Nona, which one do you mean? enedwaith one? great river? or wildermore?

[Nymphonic]

It's the whiney voices of the Bree guards that get on my nerves. Ugh.

[Witch0King]

It's the whiney voices of the Bree guards that get on my nerves. Ugh.

The Uch-WhineRad requires us to give welcome to Duvodiad. Mostly since dunland it has been the same couple of voices. I don't really mind though, IMO it's better than mute and easy to turn down if it should be annoying. Not to mention The Great Depression in the Lonelands xD

[Mucica]

I think dwarves in Moria were the worst.

[Witch0King]

I think dwarves in Moria were the worst.

at lvl 100 I am still ill-equipped! I'm actually quite fond of the npcs in Moria.

[djheydt]

I play with sound off, not because of the quality of the
voices but because of what they say. You go up to an
NPC who desperately needs you to do some task, and
he says, "Well? What do YOU want?"

[OldMadeOfLions]

I play with sound off, not because of the quality of the voices but because of what they say. You go up to an NPC who desperately needs you to do some task, and he says, "Well? What do YOU want?"

I'm not saying you should turn them back on for purposes of running the Epic, but ever since Mirkwood, most of the NPCs involved with the Epic do get custom VO lines for those quests. Sometimes the direction of the lines has gotten a little muddy (as is the case with some of the earliest Nona VO, where there was some confusion over her age and dialect), but I think in general we've gotten better at both writing the lines and directing the actors during our recording sessions.

MoL

[djheydt]

I'm not saying you should turn them back on for purposes of running the Epic, but ever since Mirkwood, most of the NPCs involved with the Epic do get custom VO lines for those quests. Sometimes the direction of the lines has gotten a little muddy (as is the case with some of the earliest Nona VO, where there was some confusion over her age and dialect), but I think in general we've gotten better at both writing the lines and directing the actors during our recording sessions.

MoL

Hmm. Well, since you suggest it, I'll try it sometime.

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

Hmm. Well, since you suggest it, I'll try it sometime.

Make sure your sound is on when U16 comes out - the new music in Ithilien is glorious!

[Banaticus]

I'm not saying you should turn them back on for purposes of running the Epic, but ever since Mirkwood, most of the NPCs involved with the Epic do get custom VO lines for those quests. Sometimes the direction of the lines has gotten a little muddy (as is the case with some of the earliest Nona VO, where there was some confusion over her age and dialect), but I think in general we've gotten better at both writing the lines and directing the actors during our recording sessions.

MoL

That's awesome. I'll turn my sound back on for the epic quests when I next play. By the way, is there an option that I'm missing to turn off regular NPC chatter, like when storekeepers say something to you ever darn time you buy something.

[Sullo]

I'm not saying you should turn them back on for purposes of running the Epic, but ever since Mirkwood, most of the NPCs involved with the Epic do get custom VO lines for those quests. Sometimes the direction of the lines has gotten a little muddy (as is the case with some of the earliest Nona VO, where there was some confusion over her age and dialect), but I think in general we've gotten better at both writing the lines and directing the actors during our recording sessions.

MoL

Keep up the good work on the VO, especially in the epic. I must say that we could use more/different VO in cities; the 1000'th time I heard "Our situation is DIRE" or "Gondor NEEDS your aid", I wanted to gag them.

[Lilka]

I'm not saying you should turn them back on for purposes of running the Epic, but ever since Mirkwood, most of the NPCs involved with the Epic do get custom VO lines for those quests. Sometimes the direction of the lines has gotten a little muddy (as is the case with some of the earliest Nona VO, where there was some confusion over her age and dialect), but I think in general we've gotten better at both writing the lines and directing the actors during our recording sessions.

MoL

Agreed. Many of them now are a lot more general or they really do read the first few lines of quest text. Back in Angmar zones, you have the NPCs saying all kinds of irrelevant things like "Why are you bothering me?" as they beg for help.

[OldMadeOfLions]

Back in Angmar zones, you have the NPCs saying all kinds of irrelevant things like "Why are you bothering me?" as they beg for help.

My (least-)favorite has always been 'It's terrible, just terrible!'

Back in the long ago, we requested VO by demeanor, so we had lines based on the emotion of the speaker: Angry, Happy, Sad, and Frightened, for example. As a result, sometimes the lines had a little too much of that emotion in it, which doesn't feel terribly realistic. I think our current process works better.

MoL

[Halgoreth]

(as is the case with some of the earliest Nona VO, where there was some confusion over her age and dialect)

Just curious, what sort of accent does she use now? (I usually play with sound off, so as not to disturb others.)
I have wondered what direction the developers decided to take for the dialect of the Lhanuch.

[SirFog]

I think dwarves in Moria were the worst.

You've come at a most fortuitous time!

[SouthernBelle0927]

Keep up the good work on the VO, especially in the epic. I must say that we could use more/different VO in cities; the 1000'th time I heard "Our situation is DIRE" or "Gondor NEEDS your aid", I wanted to gag them.

Hear, hear!!! Every NPC in Rohan says "Our situation is DIRE!". I think we figured out about the time we crossed the bridge leading out of Parth Celebrant and got our first taste of problems in Langhold.

If someone gets a few extra bucks for VOs, PLEASE record a few extras for the newer regions and encourage the NPCs to try something new once in a while. Those men are rather handsome, but my woman mini and woman burg have long since tuned them out as possible future suitors because they're one-hit wonders in the pick-up line department. :P

[Warmutkan]

As hilarious as the many inappropriate context VOs are, I love the little kidlet at the Paths of the Dead in Volume 4. "I will lead you to the dark door and...I will wait outside for you!" Gold. Pure gold.

[djheydt]

As hilarious as the many inappropriate context VOs are, I love the little kidlet at the Paths of the Dead in Volume 4. "I will lead you to the dark door and...I will wait outside for you!" Gold. Pure gold.

Sensible kid.

[frost702]

I think dwarves in Moria were the worst.

No, those voice actors were actually very good. Goofy, but they felt more in-character than the clinically depressed human/elf NPCs that we were used to at the time.

And then we figured out that the Uchgweerad required them to give welcome to us duvodiads x20000000, literally their one line. Then it's "Gohndoor needs your aids". Two reasons why I just mute the game nowadays.

[Sezneg]

My (least-)favorite has always been 'It's terrible, just terrible!'

Back in the long ago, we requested VO by demeanor, so we had lines based on the emotion of the speaker: Angry, Happy, Sad, and Frightened, for example. As a result, sometimes the lines had a little too much of that emotion in it, which doesn't feel terribly realistic. I think our current process works better.

MoL

I will buy SO MANY Turbine points if the Mayor of Hoar Hollow could use this line when he aggros.

[Lilka]

Just curious, what sort of accent does she use now? (I usually play with sound off, so as not to disturb others.)
I have wondered what direction the developers decided to take for the dialect of the Lhanuch.

Not to be cruel, but I don't think she's nailed any particular accent. Llanuch and Enedwaith was based around ancient Wales, but I expect it's just as hard to find Welsh-speaking actors in the US as it is to find US actors with enough familiarity with a Welsh accent to attempt one. Admittedly I've not heard her for some time now, but it always struck me as "what happens when someone combines the Welsh, Scottish and Irish accents they've heard in the movies where they were probably spoken by non-natives."

Although chances are now it'll turn out she's a native Welsh speaker and I look like an idiot

I still think they should have a kind of VO competition. We'll record our lines over the magic of the internet and the game can have an influx of new voices, accents and phrases.

[djheydt]

Not to be cruel, but I don't think she's nailed any particular accent. Llanuch and Enedwaith was based around ancient Wales, but I expect it's just as hard to find Welsh-speaking actors in the US as it is to find US actors with enough familiarity with a Welsh accent to attempt one. Admittedly I've not heard her for some time now, but it always struck me as "what happens when someone combines the Welsh, Scottish and Irish accents they've heard in the movies where they were probably spoken by non-natives."

Although chances are now it'll turn out she's a native Welsh speaker and I look like an idiot

I still think they should have a kind of VO competition. We'll record our lines over the magic of the internet and the game can have an influx of new voices, accents and phrases.

There exist a set of CDs intended for actors, to enable
them to learn various (chiefly British) accents. I don't
know who publishes them, but I can ask my daughter;
she plays a Welsh parlourmaid at the Dickens Faire in
San Francisco during the Christmas season, and they
lent her the Welsh dialect disk to practice with.

(N.B. the Welsh disk contains examples both of spoken
Welsh and spoken Welsh-accented English.)