Aaaand another thing: all that evident chopping and changing with the plot has led to a complete mess of different-sounding vocal takes from the various actors. There are so many edits with different-quality audio it gets really annoying and jarring. Even if they were using several studios simulataneously, they should have had like 3 or 4 Larian "vocal recording laptops" with specific mics (e.g. a Neumann TLM103, which is basically a much cheaper, cut-down version of the Neumann U87, still the industry standard mic for vocals AFAIK) a good, simple audio interface (one of the cheap ones that's cut down on inputs and features but high quality) and specific software, the same on each laptop. Maybe £1500 a pop? (The laptops don't even have to be all that powerful just to record a bazillion alternative vocal takes with some basic neutral input processing, just a compressor/eq, with each actor having their own slightly different setting.) With a budget of millions that's a mere drop in the ocean.
All they really needed studios for was a) the location close to the actor and b) soundproofed vocal booths, to some general standard (which could be tested by a Larian guy before use).
What it sounds like Larian did was rely on the various studios' specifications - bad idea.
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Aaaand another thing. The fucking gurning on my character in convos is really starting to piss me off big time. I thought the whole fucking point of not having a VO protagonist was not to force a character on the player? Yet here we are, with your character having very specific emotional reactions that don't jibe with your rp flavour in your head, most of the time. A particularly horrific case in point being the lovelorn gurning you do with Gale as a male player, but there are hugely inappropriate - for my character - emotions displayed in convo animations throughout.
Just give the player character a neutral expression ffs. Or, if you have the time to do all that animation shit, do them in sets where you can choose between "fluffy," "neutral," "stoic" characterization, etc.
All they really needed studios for was a) the location close to the actor and b) soundproofed vocal booths, to some general standard (which could be tested by a Larian guy before use).
What it sounds like Larian did was rely on the various studios' specifications - bad idea.
************
Aaaand another thing. The fucking gurning on my character in convos is really starting to piss me off big time. I thought the whole fucking point of not having a VO protagonist was not to force a character on the player? Yet here we are, with your character having very specific emotional reactions that don't jibe with your rp flavour in your head, most of the time. A particularly horrific case in point being the lovelorn gurning you do with Gale as a male player, but there are hugely inappropriate - for my character - emotions displayed in convo animations throughout.
Just give the player character a neutral expression ffs. Or, if you have the time to do all that animation shit, do them in sets where you can choose between "fluffy," "neutral," "stoic" characterization, etc.
