Character vocals in combat.

[amaelamin]

I started questing in Trestlebridge to see the changes that have been made and entered combat with my level 20 hobbit minstrel. I thought I could hear voices from somewhere whilst I was killing orcs. I turned my volume up and realised it was me.

When I use my cry skills as a minstrel; Piercing Cry, Call to Fate, Call of Orome etc, my hobbit yells lines such as 'For the Green Dragon!', 'That's for my old gaffer!', 'For Frodo!' 'Maggot's Mushrooms!' and probably more that I haven't heard yet.

I've only played with a hobbit for now, and so I don't know what other races sound like.

This can't be serious surely, I'm stunned that this was seemingly needed to enhance combat. I laughed and thought it was a beta joke, then was told to leave feedback about it on the forums, then I stopped laughing, what a strange addition to the game.

This is my feedback: I really do not know why this is needed, a hobbit shouting hobbit related lines in a subtle American accent is just wrong to me, but feel free to disagree. It reminds me of GW2 and the vocals the characters sometimes have in combat, I'm sure LOTRO does not need this, I'm not sure why Turbine thought it did.

[xRaina]

The voice overs for these new combat shouts and cries are still placeholder.

[amaelamin]

But the vocals are still coming to live?

[frickinmuck]

Aww, I love these! It adds a bit more variety and life to the whole combat shout thing.

[Branwyr]

Yep, my elf Champ gives out a rather lackluster 'For Lothlorien' when I use challenge. (He says other things too, but I can't remember off the top of my head.)

[amaelamin]

Aww, I love these! It adds a bit more variety and life to the whole combat shout thing.

I must be pretty 'old skool' then, to me it just seems very un-LOTRO like.

[Belnavar]

They could go with tweaking in terms of timing (playing every fifth use, for example) and actual recording, but I like the concept.

-Bel

[frickinmuck]

I must be pretty 'old skool' then, to me it just seems very un-LOTRO like.

Not really. I mean, Dwarves have always yelled various Dwarven sayings, it only follows that other races should have their one-liners, too.

[Crell_1]

But the vocals are still coming to live?

Some kind of vocal will, but it will not be the ones we currently hear.

[Calta]

Some kind of vocal will, but it will not be the ones we currently hear.

because making our character shout inanities in an american accent is much more important than fixing the classes synergy, let alone actually talking to the players about skills broken since beta 1.

[frickinmuck]

because making our character shout inanities in an american accent is much more important than fixing the classes synergy, let alone actually talking to the players about skills broken since beta 1.

These are not mutually exclusive. One can do both, particularly if one of these items is extremely easy to implement. Something tells me that adding a few extra recorded shouts into a pre-existing system is a lot less developer-intensive than almost anything else out there. In fact, most of the time/work involved is likely not even developer time. Anyway, as she said, they aren't the final recordings so I personally am going to reserve judgement until I actually hear those versions.

[Calta]

These are not mutually exclusive. One can do both, particularly if one of these items is extremely easy to implement. Something tells me that adding a few extra recorded shouts into a pre-existing system is a lot less developer-intensive than almost anything else out there. In fact, most of the time/work involved is likely not even developer time. Anyway, as she said, they aren't the final recordings so I personally am going to reserve judgement until I actually hear those versions.

I had just read the update 13 notes for minstrels which explains my unpunctuated outburst. However I don't resile from my description. And I have complete confidence that the placeholder for piercing cry will go live as it is now, but louder and with an echoe/double shout like the live PC bug still does now. Despite an alleged fix.

However, i'm sure it would be changed next patch if i liked it, it was lore appropriate and represented the sound of this:

"And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.”

And yes,folks, it's just my negative bitter and twisted vented hissy-fit opinion based entirely on my own recent experience and my own current feelings about the overall taste/direction and the use of resources in the game i am still paying for but liking less.

edit: that's not my minstrel 'speaking' -it is not appropriate form of elvish and it is certainly not a musical voice. But i guess some folks like US accented badly done voice overs deafening them in all their game play throughout middle earth. It just reminded me of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4hD31VTdsw

[AaylaKheledlire]

Finally, my characters are speaking Nice job! The sounds are great!

[Othniel]

I love that they are adding these, provided that they sound better than they currently do (and should have British accents...yes, I know there are a variety to choose from :P). I've been feeling left out on my Man, Elf, and Hobbit characters after I play my dwarves who yell "Baruk Khazad!" and "Khazad Ai-Menu!" so this is nice. That said, I'm not quite sure the "For Butterburrrrr!" and "For the Prancing Pony!" can really be taken seriously for the Bree-flavoured Man shouts. Same with the "Leave the dead in peace!" should - it would only be situationally appropriate.

But overall, a thumbs-up!

[amaelamin]

I had just read the update 13 notes for minstrels which explains my unpunctuated outburst. However I don't resile from my description. And I have complete confidence that the placeholder for piercing cry will go live as it is now, but louder and with an echoe/double shout like the live PC bug still does now. Despite an alleged fix.

However, i'm sure it would be changed next patch if i liked it, it was lore appropriate and represented the sound of this:



And yes,folks, it's just my negative bitter and twisted vented hissy-fit opinion based entirely on my own recent experience and my own current feelings about the overall taste/direction and the use of resources in the game i am still paying for but liking less.

edit: that's not my minstrel 'speaking' -it is not appropriate form of elvish and it is certainly not a musical voice. But i guess some folks like US accented badly done voice overs deafening them in all their game play throughout middle earth. It just reminded me of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4hD31VTdsw

I share your views wholeheartedly.

I don't have much faith that Turbine will change the voices much on the characters from beta to live. They would have had to create these 'placeholders' in the first place, why create them for beta and then create them again for live? I am upset that my minstrel, after giving repeatedly ignored feedback in HD beta has become this cartoon style caricature of itself. These vocals are cheesy, childish and cliched, and really have no place in (what I thought was) a more mature game that I have chosen to play for four years.

Remember the x-rated sounding noises that characters made when crafting, combining relics etc in a beta (I think it was Rohan beta), I was appalled by those sounds, and these vocals in my view are just as appalling. At first, it seemed like a joke for beta and then realised that Turbine are serious about this, very sad. I'm not sure what this game is turning into, I'm not sure how this is meant to enhance my gameplay as an adult gamer, I feel embarrassed when my character says these cheesy one-liners, and I logged out for the rest of the night.

[Elrantiri]

The Captain has also been given these new shouts. I personally think it's really annoying and very poorly executed.
But then again I seem to be annoyed and disappointed with this update as a whole.

I'm not playing the Warden after it was butchered with Helms Deep, but given the very frequent use of shouts I'd imagine it is even worse on a Warden than on a Captain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4hD31VTdsw

... wat

[rosey21]

I must be pretty 'old skool' then, to me it just seems very un-LOTRO like.

That's what came to mind when I heard these on my minstrels.

Please don't let these go to live. Do not like them at all.

[Silmelin]

I like the "Baruk Khazâd" (spelling?) that the dwarves yell. I think it's because it's not English so it doesn't get repetitive for me It would be great if elves could yell something in elvish

Though I do hope that these placeholder vocals gets added as a download that we can grab and use as ringtones for our cellphones

[seekingerin]

I haven't been on Bullroarer yet, so I haven't heard these shouts myself. I tend to play with my sound turned off, so this probably won't affect me either way. I'd like to make a suggestion, though. Since it appears some people like the battle shouts and some people don't, perhaps they should be optional? Allow us to check an option to turn off vocals for our characters, so that neither we nor others hear our characters shouting; or, alternately, allow us the option to turn off vocals in our sound options, so that we don't hear our characters or anyone else's characters shouting but others can hear our characters shouting if they'd like. Or, better yet, give us both.

[SouthernBelle0927]

The voice overs for these new combat shouts and cries are still placeholder.

Please be sure they're replaced with race/lore appropriate vocals, then. I still cringe at some the minstrel animations we got stuck with after U12--minstrels really, really shouldn't resemble Dr. Banner in the process of becoming the Hulk when executing ANY cry, call, or anthem. One generally expects a minstrel to be a little less, shall we say, tone deaf, than they are in live currently.

Calta: I don't have access to Bullroarer (something I will rectify as soon as they provide a new installer, since I think I've got enough game/class experience now to participate in a useful way). Can I deputize you to keep an eye on things for me during beta this go-round?

[frickinmuck]

I don't have much faith that Turbine will change the voices much on the characters from beta to live. They would have had to create these 'placeholders' in the first place, why create them for beta and then create them again for live?

It's likely they were created in-house by someone on the team (hence the American accent), and will be re-recorded by a voice actor prior to live. Not something that would take a huge amount of time or work. I've dealt with voice actors a lot in the past, the recording/acting time for something like this would be negligible.

[Elwenwing]

Can anyone who has played on Bullroarer tell me if there's a way to turn the battle cries on and off?

If this gets implemented in the next update, please also make a separate battle cry volume adjust slider in the sound options to give everyone a change to turn them on or off!

[amaelamin]

It's likely they were created in-house by someone on the team (hence the American accent), and will be re-recorded by a voice actor prior to live. Not something that would take a huge amount of time or work. I've dealt with voice actors a lot in the past, the recording/acting time for something like this would be negligible.

But the question still remains...why do we need these at all? It all seems like a bit of a joke to me.

[amaelamin]

Can anyone who has played on Bullroarer tell me if there's a way to turn the battle cries on and off?

If this gets implemented in the next update, please also make a separate battle cry volume adjust slider in the sound options to give everyone a change to turn them on or off!

The only way I could turn the cries off was to turn all my sound effects down, there's no on/off switch for these as of today.

[NynofArk]

While doing the Bullroarer run today I heard these voices, and I'm torn. On one hand I like my character having a better voice, but on the other, it brought to mind going back in time to play Neverwinter Nights. Will we get to choose the type of voice we have like they do in that game, or will we all sound the same. With obvious male/female/class/race differences.