Suggestion: Variables to make radio chatter consistent

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Keeper1st
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Suggestion: Variables to make radio chatter consistent

Post by Keeper1st »

Not sure where's the best place to post something like this...

I watched a ship depart a station, spin around and come right back in (probably that shouldn't happen, of course, but that's a different subject) -- all the while, the stationmaster voice, the ship pilot's voice, and the ship's numerical designation kept changing. It seems the game uses random numbers to select voices and ship numbers on every call.

It would be a nice bit of immersion "atmosphere" if, for as long as you're in a station's sector, that station could have a randomly selected variable of 0-7 (or 1-8) assigned which would be used to set just one of the eight voices as its stationmaster for that period. In addition, as long as a ship is in your scanner range, perhaps it also could be assigned variables that would be used to set the pilot voice and a consistent numerical designation for the radio calls. (If the routine could check to see if a number is already being used and make sure each ship has a different voice -- until such time as all voices are already in use in cases of heavy traffic, in which case start the random selection over again -- that would reduce the likelihood of hearing the same pilot in multiple ships at any given moment.)
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Re: Suggestion: Variables to make radio chatter consistent

Post by Vice »

That's actually how it's supposed to work now. The dockmaster is given one voice consistently for the duration you are in the sector, ships are given unique ID's corresponding to their sort order in the object index list, and ships are given unique voices based on those ID's.

What you may be hearing is the exchange between the dockmaster and the ships. You're also likely hearing more than one ship talking (which would be why the numbers would change). Random ships involved, but consistently linked voices to those ships. When ships speak, expect variety (but still tied to their ID for which male or female voice to use). When the dockmaster speaks, expect a consistent voice for while you are in the area.

There are only so many separate voices that are available (could only get a limited number of voices recorded), but the structure for playback is as described.
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Keeper1st
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Re: Suggestion: Variables to make radio chatter consistent

Post by Keeper1st »

Hmm, it didn't seem to be acting that way, which is why I noticed it. I'll load it up again and have a listen. Maybe it was an anomaly.

Just checked. I did notice a ship come and go keeping the same voice and number. However, the station voice is changing with every call.

For example, I exit the Inventory menu and get a departure clearance from one voice. Re-open the Inventory menu, then exit it again. A new voice gives a departure clearance. Different voices are giving security requests etc. to NPC ships also. This is what struck me the most. I must have imagined hearing a ship's voice change, I guess, but the station voice is definitely changing constantly.
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Re: Suggestion: Variables to make radio chatter consistent

Post by Vice »

Confirmed, I'll go review the code and any potential notes for station voice behavior. It's quite possible that I may have changed that behavior from originally designed by player request to give more variety (more than one ATC dockmaster working the comms).
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Re: Suggestion: Variables to make radio chatter consistent

Post by Keeper1st »

I could imagine one person doing departures, one doing arrivals, and maybe one doing security. However, there isn't enough traffic for that to be really necessary. One dockmaster per station would seem to be the most sensible. Regardless, constantly swapping seats as it is currently is definitely rather weird, I think!
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Re: Suggestion: Variables to make radio chatter consistent

Post by Vice »

I'll dig into it and will likely lock it to a location or time based index of some sort.
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