I would wish that in Bethesda's next game speech dialog is handled just like statics. Each snippit of dialog is organized by voice type in the creation kit and you could preview it to hear how it sounds and use it in your characters dialog by simply dragging a copy of that bit of speech into the appropriate dialog box. And have their voice actors record a whole lot of generic bits of speech.

I'm not entirely sure what we're talking about here... For like, Dialogue creation in the CK? To create randomized NPC dialogue in-game? Or is this about voiced PC interactions and dialogue?

Whatver the case... It sounds like am extremely cumbersome system that would more likely deliver awkward and disjointed dialogue.

if i get the op right, he'd like to have topic infos as objects that can be dragged from the object window and pre"viewed", just like, say, a sound marker.

and i'd like to add i've had just the same wish myself

I think what he's suggesting is a system in which speech is recorded as phonemes, rather than as full lines of dialogue. These phonemes could be assembled into words and sentences in the editor, much the way we join together tileset pieces to build a dungeon.

totally not. the system with one use topics / shared infos etc as is is a pain in the butt, really. hardly could get any more awkward than that.

there's totally _nothing_ speaking against every info being available as an own editor object, wouldn't even require the slightest change to the actual dialogue hookup system

definitely don't think that's what he meant.

definitely not what i meant anyway.

(and wouldn't make much sense anyway, instead of the phoneme type system you describe they could just as well create voice audio at runtime, would burn down to about the same without having to endure endless manual tediousnes

I think we're talking about different things. I'm.interpreting it as a system where you assemble responses based on stored sound bites, rather than full lines of dialogue, and can preview your assembly before committing. The last of punctuation control, delivery, intonation or even contextual relavence in such as system would obliterate any immersion or cohesion in the dialogue mechanic.

If, instead we are talking about voice dialogue for the PC, but with a preview function (click and drag is out of the question) to double check the exact wording before your character actually speaks... Well, functional, I guess, but not particularly good. It's still clunky, basically forces you to listen to the same thing at least twice, and makes real-time conversation virtually impossible.

I don't really see any way to make such a system functional, let alone good.

That's how I understood his references to "bits of speech" and treating these bits of speech like statics. We'll just have to wait until he comes back and tells us what he meant, I guess.

ok then, to sort things out:

what i want and thought the op wants too: topic infos to be reusable audio objects

what the op really wants: ...?

(i just took "bits of speech" = "topic info")

What are we talking about in regards to 'Topics'?

Like, Nazeem has a topic about Contracts. Do you want to be able to ask everyone about Contracts?

_i_ am talking about topic infos (the actual line an actor says). can't speak for the op

anyhow, just that the audio is an editor object instead of an audio file on your hd doesn't change anything about who that audio is available for, it'd still be just the audio and you'd still have to use it in an actual dialogue after all

Oh, so you're talking editor. Ok, there's where we've wandered appart. Having lines of dialogue handled.as editor objects would make managing dialogue much easier. In the Editor, anyway.

this.

and even more, not need to copy or make a shared info from every single line you'd like to use (not even talking about FINDING fitting lines to piece together your dialogue)