That guy continuously commenting is annoying af

[hexed reef]

It reminds me of that talking toilet from Better Call Saul. Should be able to be turned off.

[restive cairn]

yeah whenever you get hit he keeps moaning

[stark glade]

I kinda liked the new commentary. Corny but fun

[fervent bear]

Of course shrike had to compensate for the visual clutter reducing options with audio clutter.

[ripe plinth]

Hey now don't talk about Dad like that. He just wants you to know A SPECIAL SQUAD WAS DETECTED, ok?

[lament zenith]

he keeps complaining every 2000 health you lose, which is a lot of health

on riotguard I might need to change a thing, but 2000 health is a lot

[fervent bear]

All the reasons for jaxxon to speak add up, it's not just 1. Yes, you've limited them, but Individually.
Takara says way less but it's still more stuff said by someone in total to drown out informative gameplay sounds(including voices, which means 0 voice volume is a lossy solution) + whatever people want out of preference.

Separate flavor voice and gameplay voice volume would make this a moot point.

[lament zenith]

I think overall voices are quite few and often there are long streaks without anything if we compare to similar games

I think jaxxon usage is not that high but there should be other voices so its not just him talking

https://youtu.be/NwRz5oWOqUk?si=DqAJqkVV5FWPAx1v&t=366

if we look at darktide as example how much voice there is

I originally planned more enemy commander voices but like the takara one, maybe I can add some still so its not jaxxon so overused

[hallow mortar]

I want to hear guns, explosions, sickass music and androids screaming. I dont think we need anyone comentating over fire fights, its not a sport game or a character driven game

[lament zenith]

its very rare right now, are you playing riotguard?

[fervent bear]

Specify the target audience so people belonging to it can say how much they want(if any) instead of having people playing the wrong game derail development.

[rigid steppe]

You can turn him off you just set the voice audio to 0 in settings

[fervent bear]

Enemies have voices.

[devout oriole]

The commentator totally changed the feel of the game to me. Feels like a jokey arena rather than a more serious game.

[quick lantern]

Agree

If Jaxxon had shorter lines that only tells you what's going on once in a while that would be fine, but now it's totally corny and it feels like it's aimed towards 12 year old boys.

[lament zenith]

you need to tell me which lines are standing out so I can see to replace them or cut them. Overall it makes the game feel a lot more alive but its clearly missing other voices to make it all more balanced

and clearly some lines are better than others

[quick lantern]

In general fewer and shorter lines would be great

He talks all the time and it gets old quick

I'll scout the corny ones 😛

[devout oriole]

It would be nice to be able to disable it completely and permanently.

[lament zenith]

you can turn down voice audio

[devout oriole]

Someone said that also disables enemy voices.

[lament zenith]

not in the latest version

[fervent bear]

Confusing, but awesome if so.

[lament zenith]

I had to remove it because the voices were ducking the music away which is not intended, so they are on SFX layer now

[fervent bear]

...so good things are workarounds.

[lament zenith]

theoretically you could put a low priority voices layer for enemies but thats not really worth it

[quick lantern]

Wish it didn't have a huge black bar that covers combat. It's not supposed to be "the main thing". Make it a smaller text to the left where chat is maybe. The big black bar could be for intros or major events in game.

So it's still used but not every time he talks

[lament zenith]

the big one is only used for rare squad or special modifers at the start of the map

[wise sierra]

If you have Incubus; the amount of talking notifications on damage is quite... frequent

[lament zenith]

yeah ok, ill see to fix that

put a 2min cd and I changed the other random voice cooldown also

[wise sierra]

\o/

[quartz knoll]

maybe also have it only trigger under X% max health
so random chip damage from incubus/whatever won’t trigger the low health nagging

[rigid steppe]

@lament zenith Genuine question, have you recieved any positive feedback about Jaxxon being in the game? because if not then he should be cut.

Same goes for the base tbh. It looks quite nice and clearly a lot of work went into it but if people don't like it and it doesn't make the game better then it should get cut.

[quartz knoll]

at this rate the moment modding goes up someone is gonna find a way to get jaxxon to shut the fuck up

[quick jewel]

What do the comments actually substantively add, from a gameplay perspective? Information? There are better ways of telling the player things than explicitly (and distractingly) writing or speaking it out for them. Jaxxon is best kept for beginning-of-level elite warnings, where their information is actually very helpful to the player. I don't think that the running commentary is useful, and if I get the option to disable it I will.

[fervent bear]

"Good find." "Hitting where it hurts." Very informative. /s
Gun metal's announcer is what I'd call informative not S2's.

[quick lantern]

This was fine as alert system 🙂

[hallow mortar]

What I find most hilarious is one of the lines goes "We can't see anything from here, you're on your own" and can be followed by him commenting on a fire fight your in.

[lament zenith]

it says more like "we can almost not see anything" but somethings gotta explain that its very hands-off

[steel tulip]

One of the greatest thing about S1 is how you launch it, ESC the intro, click and then can instantly start playing, maybe check diff settings or change class

Personally I am a big hater of changes to the hub, the old menu was already a downgrade

[lament zenith]

There is now a concept of a lobby for networking so it always needs a in between state, it's a upgrade for coop but requires there being 2 states which made the u14 menu more clunky compared to s1. U15 is the same but now it's cooler and you can exit the lobby while waiting and do other stuff

[undone mist]

Are the androids fully remote controlled or autonomous in some way?
My proposal or really fever pitch kinda hinges on that because I think people would like the HUB and commentary more if it was slanted a bit differently.
Basically: what if instead of walking around as an operator who is remote controlling the android, the androids are instead a bit more "free" so to speak and you are actually controlling them in the HUB?
Why? Because of a few things

1. this might make players feel more attached to what you play as and give them some "character"
2. dashing around and messing about with your abilities freely is nice
3. the commander and potentially NPCs in the HUB you could talk to now treat "you" as a tool... in a way, this opens the door to making the voiceovers both more professional "down to business" and endearing.

Imagine that as you do more impressive things in a run and build up the base the characters build a more positive slant on the android you play as. The commander could start a bit "robophobic" and dismissive, but as you do things it changes from purely professional to easing in some genuine praise. I mean the humans are basically being oppressed by the androids no? I feel like right now it's more GI Joe and less Terminator. But, none of this works if the androids are purely remote operated by a human sadly.

[lament zenith]

It specifically requires the operators, unstable androids in full combat gear with weapons walking freely around in a base with humans is a really bad idea in terms of safety and dosn't make sense, so we specifically used the pilot character. Technically they also do a brain sync up not remote control

[vital leaf]

Sounds painful for when the android gets blown up or shredded to bits by a boss.

[sweet salmon]

I gotta say I genuinely agree with the original poster. Why on earth was this added?

[lament zenith]

its what everyone else is doing, if it dosnt work then im doing something wrong but it 100% is the right thing to do

[nimble fractal]

sorry to ask this but what are examples of this done right

[lament zenith]

https://discordapp.com/channels/349333543979057154/1337430690773340200/1338204558484045927
if you look at other comparable games theres 20x the voices

[fervent bear]

Gun metal's announcer is useful but sure as heck shrike doesn't have it in mind.

[lament zenith]

Hub I think is perfect but ingame Ill tone down the comments, still it makes the game feel much more alive, I cannot ever see to go back to no voices, its such a huge improvement

[nimble fractal]

i wouldnt be against commentary on specific enemies after you died to them

or in general if it isnt just describing what you already see

[storm kernel]

The commenting is fine, it's the timing that needs some work.

[lament zenith]

Ill see if I get some luana voices for items or such and reduce jaxxon voices ingame, the ingame ones work definitely less than in the hub

its something you gotta learn and iterate on, its never getting optimal if you don't try, I think with latest reduction its quite ok, I really like the damage taken lines, but less so the random lines and intro lines

im removing the elite killed ones

and the combat end ones I put double the cooldown, then we see from there

[undone mist]

The difference is context. Also would argue Darktide is an AWFUL example since the characters are so soulless in that game compared to L4D or Vermintide
Those games have back and forth banter, Synth does not have traditional "characters" you play as to get attached to.
Commentary is fine if used right but I think it needs to be rewritten/recontextualized because after playing more it's getting a bit grating. Personally, I loved the more lonely atmosphere and mystery Synthetik 1 had that you could try to infer from the small bits of lore.

DRG is a better example with management but DRG is also inherently more silly and tonally light compared to Synthetik

Just because "everyone is doing it" doesn't make it right for this game, especially a roguelite where you are playing many many times over in randomized scenarios where commentary will become repetitive fast.

[fervent bear]

Inb4 "Repetitive? In a roguelite?"
Yes, the game doesn't assemble commentary out of pieces the way it does gameplay. It doesn't at all.

[undone mist]

This really, repetitive is fine in the core gameplay because it's fun and has variety in approach anyway

If anything we need more of the robotic voiceovers and interaction for enemies. THAT makes the game feel alive.
We have the same lines from S1 still but giving some units basic combat voicing akin to FEAR's Replicas would be so cool
https://youtu.be/qX73XG9e5BE

[fervent bear]

While you're turning everything into humans, how about you rename the game to organik?

[undone mist]

Um actshully Replicas aren't really human and are psionically controlled clones
But I see your point. Though it seems like voice acting is a shoe-in so I'm just shooting alternatives

[steel tulip]

+Management doesn't tell me "your health is low, get some red sugar"

[steel tulip]

I cannot ever see to go back to no voices, its such a huge improvement
viewfinder.mp4

[valid mist]

I was gonna say I feel like we already had something like this in the game that couldve been expanded, more enemy voicelines/noises wouldve been the route I wouldve gone instead of having a Twitch react streamer backseating the whole time

[lament zenith]

as I already said the ingame ones are greatly reduced now, getting one comment every 160 seconds is also not exactly backseating
Also the enemy voices were expanded quite a bit but its just not the same as a real voice and dosnt have the same impact

[valid mist]

This is entirely imo but at no point in either S1 or S2 was I thinking “man a real, human voice is exactly what this game needs”

If anything I wouldve asked for more ambient sounds (stuff like distant gunfire, explosions, hums and whirrs, etc) or if we really wanted a human voice it couldve sounded more static-y and choppy like its coming through a radio or headset or smth to at least blend with the games soundscape better

[quick lantern]

@valid mist Is on point. This is what we want

[undone mist]

Same. A real, human voice takes me out of the experience more than immersing me further.
Synthetik 1 immersed me plenty and that was a 2D gamemaker game without voice acting or fancy exposition. The environmental design and android/weapon/tech aesthetics are more impactful and carried the style on their own.
Thankfully 2 mostly follows through on that, but the introduction of human characters sands off the cool factor a good bit.

I kinda liked just having to guess and infer the lore in 1, "characters" like Zir and all the Kaida branded tech added mystery and the absence of anything remotely human carried it further

[valid mist]

Hard agree, I’d be a lot more okay with it if it was SWAT/Ready or Not style radio chatter, something that isn’t as jarring and out of place as a random dude speaking to you in perfect clarity in the middle of a gunfight

but as it stands its just way too video-gamey

and defo immersion killing

[lament zenith]

the non base voices already have quite a lot of radio effect, anyways theres not a lot of voice left now outside the base and the map start ones

i made the audio mixer more crunchy in general

[floral bear]

I want to concur on that topic. Synthetik is a very special game in what feels its own universe. Now with jaxxton, its just another generic american military shooter (being a bit hyperbolic here), but i feel the thematic shifted. And this "commander" type of chatter and demeanour is something probably everyone has heard a million times. It doesnt spark interest or joy - in fact, for me -> it takes away from the mysticism and uniqueness the universe had

And i can understand the will to add life, credibility and flavour to the world - but im just concerned that its the wrong kind of life and flavour your adding.

[quick lantern]

Couldn't say it better. It really messes with the vibes

[fervent bear]

Synthetic life. What an oxymoron.

[lament zenith]

well yeah the commenting in combat is out and the weapon pickup one as well

[molten python]

I think the jaxxon chatter just needs work.

Most of what he says during gameplay isn't useful or meaningful. Whether it's stating the obvious or saying unnecessary things, it ends up becoming background noise

[lament zenith]

yes thats why I removed it all now, outside the damage taken one

[molten python]

For now, to keep things affordable (i.e. VAs cost money), maybe simple AI/robot voicelines could suffice to try different voicelines and see what fits.

Plus, a robotic voice may add to the "mysticism" of the universe the others spoke of.

In the field, it's just you, your android and the endless legion before you.