Pasquinade ([info]pats_quinade) wrote,
@ 2009-09-02 16:19:00
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Entry tags:crpgs, work

Sound Sets
(Going through a level with a bunch of designers, specifically listening for both follower and enemy shouts during the fight.)

Me: Do you want to do something so that you can't die?

Boss: (insulted) NO.

Combat Dude: Yeah, turning on God Mode would let you listen to barks for as long as we need.

Me: Oooh, wait, not God Mode. God Mode means they can't damage you, and they have shouts when they damage you.

Combat Dude: Okay. Min_One_Health, then.

Boss: I don't need ANY of that.

...

Me: Okay, we've only killed a few dozen people and I'm tired of (followername) saying that one line when he kills someone.

Combat Dude: It is kind of popping up a lot.

Me: We have a lot of lines. Is it just confirmation bias that now I'm listening for it, or is it not really picking a random line from the kill group?

Programmer: Well, it's supposed to be random.

Me: Hey, boss, can you kill somebody with (followername) again?

Boss: Sure.

(everyone listens)

Follower: (the world's most annoying line)!

Me: Yeah, maybe I should just cut that one.

Combat Dude: I like what they're saying here, the ordinary bad guy shouts.

Me: I haven't heard much from the rocket troops. Boss, could you leave that last rock... (wince) Never mind.

Boss: What?

Me: Just, the next time you find a rocket trooper, don't blow her up right away.

Boss: Okay.

Programmer: She is pretty far away.

Me: But her lines are cool!

(boss does a throw that knocks guy off ledge)

Bad Guy: Hyeeeaaaaargh!

Boss: Okay, that makes me very happy.

(boss does it again)

Bad Guy: ...

Boss: Awww, what happened?

Programmer: He wasn't in the air long enough. He has to be in the air for two seconds for the falling line to --

Boss: Okay, we need that to happen a lot more often. Anything that makes the bad guys make that noise is something we want to encourage, because getting to hear them yell as I throw them off ledges is a very good thing.

Programmer: I could maybe adjust the triggers...

Boss: Whatever.

...

(later)

Combat Dude: Does anybody else find it odd that he's making fun of you for using a pistol while he's on the ground on fire as a result of you mowing him down with that pistol?

Me: It's also firing way too often. When he takes damage from a pistol, he should fire either a normal damage-received line or a specific damage-received-by-pistol result.

Programmer: Actually, if he's damaged by a pistol, only the specific one will fire. Specific always trumps general.

Enemy: (pistol taunt)! (pistol taunt)! (pistol taunt)!

Me: Well... that explains that, then. I'll go ahead and fix that. Wait, DON'T KILL THE ROCKET TROOPER!

Boss: Ohhhhh-KAY. (goes into cover)

(everyone listens)

Programmer: Okay, that's good, that's good...

Follower: (annoying line)!

Boss: Aw, he stole my kill!

Me: He did it with the light-on-fire move, but I didn't hear any light-on-fire result from her. That's odd. Hey, boss, can you light somebody on fire?

Boss: Sure.

...

Programmer: It wouldn't be a 100% chance of firing.

Me: Can you light somebody on fire again?

Boss: Sure!

...

Combat Dude: I'll look at the hooks, man. Must not be in right.

Rocket Trooper: (combat line)! (same combat line)!

Boss: Okay, the first time felt strong. The second time seemed a little desperate.

...

Some days, I have kind of an awesome job.


(12 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]unovian
2009-09-02 10:54 pm UTC (link)
That sounds awesome. Really like the weapon specific lines. Keep up the good work!

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[info]pats_quinade
2009-09-03 03:00 am UTC (link)
We'll see if they make it into the final game. Right now, they fire way too often. You hear "A pistol? Hah!" once, you go, "Oh, cool, that guy recognized what weapon I had!" You hear it three times a fight, every fight, and wow, it gets old fast, just like, "Hostile krogan!" got old whenever you had Grunt in your party.

We've only got it in a few places where it's actually useful for the player to know -- places where a pistol is, for example, the worst possible weapon to use.

But yeah, while we all see the ugly patches and the parts that don't work, it's already stronger than the ME1 system (which was thrown in at the last minute). Here's hoping. :)

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[info]unovian
2009-09-03 03:39 am UTC (link)
Ah, yeah, can understand that it can get tedious after awhile. Sometimes less is more. As long as we don't get a repreat of "The enemy is everywhere!" I'm happy. ;)

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[info]iccara
2009-09-03 01:31 am UTC (link)
Ohh, weapon specific lines! And ledge flailing lines! Glorious.

Speaking of which, any chance you'll ever shed light on The World's Most Annoying Line (if it gets cut)? A part of me is skeptical that there are things worse than ENEMY IS EVERYWHERE! HOLD THE LINE! ENEMY IS... etc.

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[info]pats_quinade
2009-09-03 03:02 am UTC (link)
It's a follower line, so it's a bit of a spoiler, sort of. And I'd have sworn that there were a bunch of lines that fired on that event, but that's the only one I remember. It's either not yet firing right, or that line is just dumb. (Which I can say, 'cause I wrote it.)

As I said in another comment response above, we'll see if weapon-specific makes it, because right now it's great once and then annoying for the rest of the level. But yeah, the ledge flailing is a thing of beauty. The first time you launch a guy and hear him yell, you feel like Superman. :)

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[info]iccara
2009-09-03 05:59 pm UTC (link)
Hehe, yes, I mean at a time when spoilers are no longer much of an issue. Sometimes things that are cut for a game are more fascinating than what makes it! Plus we can all chortle over The Annoying Line That Might Have Been. c:

Are the combat lines pitched/written by a variety of people, or handled by certain writers? Is there any particular well of inspiration you draw from? Or is it just a matter of setting yourself in a certain mindset and scowling ferociously while jotting down whatever comes to mind? (I know I have a habit of contorting my face into whatever expression/sentiment I'm trying to convey in writing. It's sort of embarrassing.)

I can't wait to conduct my own ledge flailing symphony of Yeeeeeaarg!s.

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You may not be able to respond to this
[info]auddess
2009-09-03 01:37 am UTC (link)
I'm curious if you're actually using completely random line generation, after noting the question about confirmation bias. I seem to recall (ages ago) hearing about how the iPod shuffle was actually changed to be (in some sense) less random and to weigh more highly in favor of songs that hadn't been played recently (people were complaining). This seems line the sort of thing you would want for follower-shout type things too... maybe?

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Re: You may not be able to respond to this
[info]pats_quinade
2009-09-03 03:09 am UTC (link)
It's a mixture, actually. What happens (I think: writer, not programmer), is that we have a category, for example:

FIRES WHEN :: I :: KILL AN ENEMY ::

And then I write, say, six lines under that category.

There is a configurable chance of this line firing when the triggering circumstance comes into play (when this character does the damage event that kills the enemy).

There is, by default, an equal chance of each line within that category firing.

There is also a cooldown period assigned to this overall category, so once any one of these lines is fired, it shouldn't fire again for a period we determine.

So that's the default setup. That gets you most of the way there.

If you devote more time to it, you can say (I think), "Oh, 5 of these 6 lines are normal, but the 6th is kind of an Easter Egg. Let's make sure it only fires every once in awhile," and then manually weight the chances of that specific line being the one that fires when the system decides to fire an On-Enemy-Killed line. You can ALSO, I think, set one line in the group to have a longer cooldown time, so that you only hear it once per level or thereabouts.

What we have now is a whole lot of raw data, and we need to play the game a ton and figure out what fires way too often, which specific lines need to be more rare (or just cut), which lines need to have a 100% chance of firing but then a long cooldown time (for example, the first time you see an enemy with cloaking tech, we really want you to know about it, but if the level is filled with cloaking-tech bad guys, we only want to warn you the first time, so that your followers aren't chirping about it every five seconds -- so you give the line a 100% chance of firing but then a 20-minute cooldown time), and what needs to be generally jiggered where.

The actual tech dudes could say more. I'm coming at this from the writer viewpoint, which is pretty far removed from the math. :) (Bio-enzymes!)

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Re: You may not be able to respond to this
[info]confusednazgul
2009-09-03 03:36 am UTC (link)
I'm a web developer, not game, so I'm not totally an expert on that particular type of programming, but I think you explained that really well in non-techy terms. =) It's amazing how much logic is involved in just a small amount of dialogue!

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Re: You may not be able to respond to this
[info]auddess
2009-09-03 05:20 am UTC (link)
Fascinating. Thanks for the explanation!

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[info]masterwaffle
2009-09-04 07:08 pm UTC (link)
I want your job.

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[info]fullmetalkosmos
2009-09-04 09:29 pm UTC (link)
Your job sounds so awesome! Must be fun working at BioWare.

I'd so love to know who says that ominous annoying line. Wait, so does that mean that every follower will say something after they killed an enemy? Will they say different things depending on where you're fighting, or what kinds of enemies you're facing? Mhh..

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