Voice Over: What Alerts Do You Want To Hear?

Hey ya'll,

This week we've been creating a ... script (?) for a computer character that'll express various alerts and notifications to players. It's a pretty simple thing -- basically, the character will be say "Halley complete" whenever you build a Halley or "units under attack" if a big blob of your units are taking fire while you're not looking directly at them.

The challenge with PA particularly is restricting the voice. We can't have it yapping at players all game as they build hundreds and hundreds of units and destroy building after building, so we're constantly weighing the importance, and the commonality, of an alert.

I was wondering: what alerts are most important to you guys? What would you like the game to tell you as you play?

"Nuclear launch detected"

Anti nuke fired

P.S please make it modable so I can have like a darth vader voice pack

Enemy detected (first sight of an enemy anything)
Nuke detected (meaning a scout just saw a previously unknown nuke building somewhere)
Commander under attack

Make it customisable!

If that's not possible, maybe T2 building (or just 'valuable' building) construction finished/destroyed, commander under attack and 'heavy fire sustained' if, as you said, a group of units or buildings are taking heavy damage off screen.

And 'enemy detected', good shout Colin.

Spawn more overlords.

"Reactor: online, weapons: online, sensors: online - all systems nominal"

"unorbital activity detected" when the asteroid starts moving

(Needless to say, with accompanying alert and pip.)

• Nuke ready.
• Antinukes depleted.
  
• Planet activity detected. (smashing/ orbit moved)
• Resources full. (Or 'You require more storage', option to choose preferred version depending on your playstyle)
  
• Dangerous forces detected. (For a certain size of force detected, scales with gametime/resource income)
• Orbital invasion detected. (Perhaps just for orbital fabricators landing on a planet you (mostly) control, highly customisable)
• [Enemy/Your] Forces landed. (When orbital transport drop has/is about to occur)
• New units received. (For transfer of units from ally)
• [Colour] Commander/Faction has been annihilated. (No computer voice for this one, it has to be John Patrick Lowrie)
• Commander, your enemies have been liberated. (When all enemies are annihilated, again must be John Patrick Lowrie.)

Also for the John versions, he should pop up in a futuristic HUD screen pip where he sternly looks at you and delivers the message.

I would add to this just one thing.
For other planets where you don't know if anyone is there, a "Enemy detected on other planet" notice. Then just have the name of the planet pop up in a notification with the pip showing on hover the spot where they were seen.

oh and make the voice British male/female selectable just sayin..

"Anomalous planetary motion detected!" (planet orbit changes or incoming planet smash)

can it say... All of the things?

"Nuclear bombardment detected!" when 3+ nukes are launched simultaneously.
Also "Expansion/fabricators under attack!" when fabricators told to construct metal extractors are attacked.

- Commander under attack
- Nuclear launched / Nuclear missile intercepted
- Orbital movements (Halley activation)
- New enemy spotted (when your units detects new player for a first time. Handy for games with lots of players on different planets)
- Planetary invasion (might be hard to implement)
- "Stargate" spotted
- Metal wasting
- Base under attack. ( It would only be triggered when a certain threshold is exceeded. That limit should be scaled according your unit count, so it would not be triggered every time you enemy even sneezes towards you.)

- Radar offline! (repeating every 2-3 minutes when your energie-storage is empty.)

Yeah, you guys are hitting on one of the big challenges. If you're playing an allied, multi-spawn game it's pretty tough to know what you're partner is doing unless you're sitting on Skype together. In our design, we've made an "alliance" alt to every line, just in case you're in the dark with your ally. So, Commander Under Attack for example will sound like "allied Commander under attack."

I think this would be better as a sound effect. Also all the lights should go off in your base so that it quickly grabs your attention.

I think it would help a LOT to be able to see what your partner(s) have selected. Also, you should be able to click on an allies name in the player list to jump to their camera viewpoint. That way you can easily see what they are doing without a bunch of excess alerts popping up.

metal extractor destroyed- for those in unprotected outlining areas not currently in view.

Will Mr John Patrick Lowrie be a part of this process?