What shall we do with the radio chatter

[dragon01 903]

I kind of hoped that somebody better versed in that matter would provide more detail. :) I don't really know how viable this option is, how much these things cost and how big they are. I do remember hearing a natural-sounding VS, but it was most likely in a TV program about these things. I can try to look on YouTube for examples.

[Rytuklis 10]

Voted for "Revert to OFP style" . I really liked the "2 o'clock, enemy soldier, 300" style of radio.

[NeMeSiS 11]

I kind of hoped that somebody better versed in that matter would provide more detail. :) I don't really know how viable this option is, how much these things cost and how big they are. I do remember hearing a natural-sounding VS, but it was most likely in a TV program about these things. I can try to look on YouTube for examples.

There are some that sound quite alright for something that is generated, but not for combat conditions/emotions.

[cyclone83 6]

not for combat conditions/emotions.

This +1

And as already mentioned, the clock style is the way that's used in real life, so since ArmA is and always has been a military simulation, except from another technique there's no other style option.

[dragon01 903]

There are some that sound quite alright for something that is generated, but not for combat conditions/emotions.

Well, considering the current dialogue isn't very emotional (neither is real military dialogue, at least if speakers are well trained and the situation isn't too FUBAR), I don't think that's too much of a problem. Especially when it comes to British.:) A VS wouldn't make the dialogue worse than it's already is, that's for sure. I think that the VS you linked sounds a bit more natural than AII dynamic dialogue. There are few things that don't work with such a calm voice, and I think it should be possible to find a VS that would support voice presets like "Urgent shout", "Panicking", etc. Choosing which preset to use could be linked to suppression mechanic and the message in question (for example, "Grenade!" will always be an "urgent shout", while "Frag Out!" will be "shout"). Maybe I'm giving those things too much credit though, but it seems like a simple matter of modulating the sound amplitude and frequency (the problem would be finding how exactly to modulate them to get the desired results, but that's what we pay VS makers for).

Edited September 5, 2012 by Dragon01

[MulleDK19 21]

There are some that sound quite alright for something that is generated, but not for combat conditions/emotions.

NeoSpeech (http://www.neospeech.com/) is by far the best text-to-speech software out there. Still news reporter voice though.

(That Bridget is so naughty >: ))

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Voted "keep as it is", but of course keep improving it by adding new elements to it. Prerecorded doesn't work at all for me, as I do use the feature of building up my own sentences from it (like the improved call for fire and order readback system I use in Domino, which is a Domination offspring). Synthesis wouldn't be very good as they don't seem to handle abbreviations very well. So until we get a system were we can (within Arma scope) define and redefine certain phonetics we need, I don't want this.

As for current vs OFP style, I don't think either will work that much better than the other - they're both not perfect. Seems to me the flaw is in the determination of how reports are made rather than the actual wording. Otoh, I don't think I would be capable of making it perfect either, nor anyone else who claims they could :p

[bigpickle 0]

you lot must be mental, voice synths suck even the expensive ones. Clearly to get most realistic voices in game the should be recorded as a whole sentence and not words.

[froggyluv 2136]

you lot must be mental, voice synths suck even the expensive ones. Clearly to get most realistic voices in game the should be recorded as a whole sentence and not words.

Prepare for 12 Gigs of sentences then :p

[dmarkwick 261]

you lot must be mental, voice synths suck even the expensive ones. Clearly to get most realistic voices in game the should be recorded as a whole sentence and not words.

I guess it depends on your preferences & priorities, if your immersion is concerned with the realistic conveyance of information, then voice-recorded whole sentences is the way to do that. It is an enormous job, all possible situations must be thought of, and recorded in several different voices unless you want the same voice for all units.

Or, using a procedural system similar to the current one, we have "snippets" of sentences stitched together, still expensive and resource-hungry.

Plus, the above two solutions are generally addon/mission-unfriendly for people wishing to have their own voice-overs.

Voice synth is the least natural, but the most flexible. I guess it depends on whether you're interested in the information relayed, or the way in which it's relayed :)

[BasileyOne 10]

synthesized Voices would b cool, but had TREMENDOUS R&D overhead/budget to create them[NOBODY was released something working/usable, yet, from HUNGREDS of software companies, working in that ares, sadly], so i voted for "OFP:R-style" voices as "quickest" way to get/see/hear it in-game.

[Haystack15 10]

Prepare for 12 Gigs of sentences then :p

Didn't you hear? 1TB Hard drives are the new norm!

[maddogx 13]

Didn't you hear? 1TB Hard drives are the new norm!

So I guess they'll be shipping the game on one of those then. :p

[benouyt 20]

All sentence recorded is the best idea, and it wouldnt take more than 1 or 2 gb i think, it still be 3 second sound...

[onlyrazor 11]

All sentence recorded is the best idea, and it wouldnt take more than 1 or 2 gb i think, it still be 3 second sound...

Considering the fact that there are literally thousands upon thousands of different variations to be recorded, with voices and all, it would take at least six more months, and waaaay more than 1 or 2 gigabytes.

[chrisb 196]

Get rid of most all of the voice acting for ai, inc radio, combat and unit chatter. I have an imagination, and it works far better than the voice acting and out of context shouts. laughs etc we have now…

We take out as much as pos, well more or less all. Its pretty quiet out on patrol, what’s said is said quietly and only when needed, you don’t potter around laughing or shouting yeah-hooooo, its not Hollywood..

Keep radio message response, simple acknowledgement would do, don’t embellish with a couch or laugh..

[Enricksolt 12]

Another think that will be pretty if is all the autogenerated name or surname of the units could be dubbed, it will automaticly choose the correct sound file based on the unit's name, so insted of "3, Move to that house" it will be "Bryan, Move to that house" and so on.

Try to make the comunication between team members less complicate, just make them say only the basics stuff and in a more simple way. Now we have something like "Enemy Rifleman, rear, far!" or "Enemy Machinegun in 014035", you should replace them with something like "Rifleman, 200 Meters, South-West (or 220°, i don't know, you can give an option to the players where they can chose which way)" or "AT Rifleman, 350 Meters, North, In the open field". Like in OFP:Dragon Rising, this is one of the few good things in that game.

[Tonci87 163]

Another think that will be pretty if is all the autogenerated name or surname of the units could be dubbed, it will automaticly choose the correct sound file based on the unit's name, so insted of "3, Move to that house" it will be "Bryan, Move to that house" and so on.

Try to make the comunication between team members less complicate, just make them say only the basics stuff and in a more simple way. Now we have something like "Enemy Rifleman, rear, far!" or "Enemy Machinegun in 014035", you should replace them with something like "Rifleman, 200 Meters, South-West (or 220°, i don't know, you can give an option to the players where they can chose which way)" or "AT Rifleman, 350 Meters, North, In the open field". Like in OFP:Dragon Rising, this is one of the few good things in that game.

That is a pretty cool idea (at least for campaign missions, Imagine Harvest Red with this)...

[chortles 263]

A bunch of this is assuming that they haven't already finalized voiceovers and handed the VAs their checks, which would make some of these suggestions "more work and cost in time and manpower for no real gain for us" for BI.

Seriously though, just repeating my own preference for cardinal directions as the call-out method -- o' clock is not actually helpful in my experience, at least not as implemented in ARMA 2 vanilla.

[2nd ranger 282]

Old thread, but this seems to be the most relevant and comprehensive discussion on the radio protocols.

I don't know if this has been discussed, but today I had a thought while telling the AI to shut up with their annoying commentary. Currently the AI calls out every individual enemy they can see. This produces needless traffic on the net and I personally find it quite irritating in co-op if you're trying to talk about what you're doing and the AI is reporting every single member of the enemy squad you're already looking at. I thought it would be beneficial if the AI simply called out "Enemy squad, 100m North", similar to how they already report two units in one sentence - "Enemy machinegunner and AT soldier, 100m North".

You may say that the AI is doing you a service because they are identifying particular threats, for example machinegunners or AT soldiers or marksmen. Perhaps there would be some way to add that information into the report, for example "Contact - Enemy Fireteam with machinegunner - 100m North." Or simply allowing individual reporting of such specific threats after the group itself has been identified. Maybe there could even be an approximate count of the units - "Contact - Enemy Fireteam - 5 men - 100m North."

I gather that the radio protocols are in the final stages of development so this probably a little late, but maybe it's something that could be considered later.

[froggyluv 2136]

I'm just really hoping they don't leave 75m as default short range. 75m and 10m is a HUGE differance and I'd rather they just add "Close!!" as in "move your a$$ now!!"