I was very late to the FO4 party so I'm not up to scratch on everything that has come out. If this is already known or has been discussed at length, blame the search function for not finding it .

Anyway, I was listening to an interview with Courtenay and Kal-el, and in it he jokingly said that sometimes he wished only one of the two main voice actors were super talented, because then he'd only have to play through the game 5 or 6 times. This puzzled me. Even if you had enough alternative dialogue you missed that would warrant another play-through, certainly 5 or 6 play-throughs seems a bit excessive. But what if the game has the same (or similar) lines recorded with different delivery styles, based on your karma, build, etc.? That would explain his comment, and would also explain why these guys spent so many years in the studio. It would also help explain why they decided on a voiced protagonist in the first place, when it seems to undermine their "be who you want, do what you want" motto. If both genders, between them, cover a wide gamut of personalities, then a voiced protagonist becomes much more desirable.

I am somewhat incredulous at the notion that a AAA studio would create so much content that would be mostly inaccessible on a first play-through, and also that they wouldn't want to divulge this colossal effort (particularly in light of all the criticism the voiced protagonist feature has received), but it certainly would explain a great deal.

Wishful thinking?

Sorry, wishful thinking. There are only two voice actors for the Sole Survivor - Courtenay and Brian. What Kal-el was talking about is that each of them approached the same lines in different ways (from each other). So playing as a female Sole Survivor will give some lines a different context and nuance than playing as a male Sole Survivor, and vice versa. Just like with Mass Effect.

Bethesda decided on a voiced protagonist because they wanted to be able to impart scenes and story with more emotion, and a voiced protagonist was necessary for that. They made lots of different faces and protagonist characters to make sure both voice actors voices could match any look of player character, but that's it.

The Sole Survivor has over 13,000 lines of dialogue in the game. But there are only two voices available - male or female. Not different versions of each.

Yes, but why would he want to play as each gender 5 or 6 times?

http://socalmountains.com/e107_files/public/1345239693_504_FT171692_foghorn-leghorn-thats-a-joke-son-you-missed-it-flew-right-by-ya.jpg About how fun the game is. 5 or 6 times per gender IS excessive. 10-12 times per gender would be SUPER excessive. It's basically a plug about how fun the game is.

The joke was that he would only have to play the game 5-6 times to hear the great voice acting instead of 10-12 if both voice actors were super talented. He made it sound like he would be glad if he DIDN'T have to play more than 5-6 times. Did you even listen to the interview?

Yes, I mentioned the alternate dialogue, but 5-6 playthroughs? On the second you may get quite a lot of dialogue you missed, but beyond that it seems like total overkill.

Maybe it was just hyperbole to help make his point (that the actors are amazing)?

Having multiple voice actors for the main characters makes the multiple playthroughs more interesting. Also, some games have different dialog for each of the main character voices. So Female Voice A might be more serious while Female Voice B could be more humorous. Then you can always have a Zombie voice for the same reason why some people like to do low Intelligence builds in Fallout 1 and 2.

Because my attention was divided between work and the interview, I missed the bit where the interviewer straight out asks Kal-el if the voice will match the character style. He was evasive in his https://youtu.be/tA-wsVrO2fo?t=418. Or was he?

Some comments I heard in other interviews suggested that, depending on the line and context, the voice actors do have to deliver them differently. After all, you couldn't use the same tone of voice for an aggressive 'bring it on' option as for a 'calm down, let's talk this out' option.

However, I don't think the delivery is based on character build or cumulative character actions in the game, only on the immediate context and dialogue option chosen.

Yes, it was hyberbole to make the point that the actors are amazing, and the game is amazing to play. He wasn't doing mental math up on stage to come up with hard numbers for how many loops it'd take through the game to hear all the different dialogue. It's a common sentence construction used to brag on something, the same way you'd tell your significant other, "If you were any prettier, I'd never let you go." Ka-el was essentially saying, if Courtenay and Brian where any better, he'd never be able to stop playing the game.

You answered your own question. It's just a throw-away remark to compliment his actors and the developers - all of whom are sitting right next to him when he says it.

I think only one per.. I'm fine with that.

There are probably a ton of branching storylines so it will probably take that many playthroughs to hear most of the dialogue.

The voice actors are getting ready to strike.

No, people play RPGs for thousands of hours and many playthroughs even if they use the same basic character build each time. This is especially true for those who suffer from "restartitis" (i.e., starting a character and then restarting over and over again). Might also be true for various Dead is Dead players who play the same basic build but name each successive attempt a new generation (II, III, IV, etc.).

It is very unlikely, the best we can hope for is a pitch slider.

I believe that Fallout 5 or 6 will have voice generation technology so voice actors are no longer a necessity. With that technology, Bethesda could create as many voices as they want for the protagonist without having to spend years with 6 different voice actors.

I doubt he's really exaggerating that much..Even with that many playthroughs you probably still won't hear every line of dialogue recorded for each gender... Just like in Mass Effect and Dragon Age.. I've played those games over and over and definitely havent' heard everything. Hell, There's probably lines in Baldur's Gate and Fallout1 that i've never even chosen and hence have never seen the responses of those dialogue options.

Think about all the options in dialogue.. having a voiced protagonist doesn't limit anything.. you'll still only be able to pick one answer for every question asked and saying certain things will obviously cut off being able to say other things. So, no.. you will not be able to hear every line in just a single playthrough.

I also totally believe that there will be certain lines that have stat based checks for dialogue and probably karma based checks as well. .. Just like every other fallout game, if you don't have those stats or that karma you don't see the dialogue option and don't know that option even exists.

I think Todd Howard stated in an interview about a year or so ago about how he feels the future of RPGs is in character-driven narratives. That could mean that if BGS does TES VI, that could also feature a voiced protagonist (and possibly have limited race options compared to previous games, or maybe have the same player voices across all ten races if they feel it works). I don't have any reason to think BGS is returning to TES anytime soon, though (it's sounding like their next game might be something new, but who knows).

As far as multiple voice actors for each gender, I have stated before that it may not be all that doable when the voice actors need to be able to return to provide their voices for the DLC expansions. It's also a lot of lines that would have to be recorded from each voice actor as well.

I wouldn't wait on a pitch slider or voice generation tech. It's virtually impossible to make any major pitch shifts without the voice sounding noticeably pitch-shifted... and voice generation will never match the depth a human being can bring to the table - it will always sit awkwardly in the uncanny valley. And even if that wasn't the case, you can bet your ass the entire voice acting industry (and a number of communities) will fight it. MIDI didn't wipe out real musicians, after all.

Studios can and have set up contractual obligations for voice actors to return in DLCs. They don't just hope the actors are available for the job, they make sure of it. Bethesda would sooner nix voiced protagonists for TESVI than reduce the amount of races we can choose from - although if TES did do voiced protagonists I would want Beth to go balls deep and hook us up with 20 voice actors for all the races and genders. But that's a long way off, and way off-topic for a Fallout discussion.

Unfortunately it is excessive for a game with a voiced PC. I played 30+ characters in DAO, MW, OB, Skyrim, FO3 and FONV. I just can't stop playing new RP's and characters. On the flip side games like ME and DA2, etc. I can only play through three or four times total. The voiced PC just kills replay value IMO. There are only so many RP's you can imagine when your character sounds exactly the same each time.

Someone else mentioned have a mod that changes the tone of the voice so that it's the same voice lines, but a little deeper or a little higher. That might help if it ever happens.