IMP Character MUST HAVE choice of NATIONALITY

[Martin]

that would be a great adition

[TopGunther]

…yeah, right. Nationality should also give different stat boost, depending on time of day and night.

That will be EPIC, BRO!

[LoboNocturno]

Hope there will be some different voice selections as it was not available in the Beta and surely more portraits (models) must be added, i like already the 4 models that we can choice in the Beta game.

[chr_isso]

IMP should just not get too much attention. For me those mercs were simply mules and i didnt care about them too much. Just my 2 cents..

[Lunokhod]

8 hours ago, Martin said:

that would be a great adition

Its very ez to do, pretty sure it will be done.

1 hour ago, chr_isso said:

IMP should just not get too much attention.

Same here. Bro, i just dont understand all this hype about IMP character. I never took him, he is boring as hell.

1 hour ago, LoboNocturno said:

Hope there will be some different voice selections as it was not available in the Beta and surely more portraits (models) must be added, i like already the 4 models that we can choice in the Beta game.

Bro u have to try Sims 4. ^__^

[Image Miroir]

Nationalities would require voices, which means people speaking the language.

I'm afraid it can be "complex" to have more than a couple of different nationalities

12 hours ago, LoboNocturno said:

Hope there will be some different voice selections as it was not available in the Beta and surely more portraits (models) must be added, i like already the 4 models that we can choice in the Beta game.

I fully agree, it cool to personnalise characters. It was that RPG dimension that made me love JA2.

Creation, and personnalisation of your merc is important. If it pleases some people to call it Sims, I so much don't care.

[DougS2K]

11 hours ago, chr_isso said:

IMP should just not get too much attention. For me those mercs were simply mules and i didnt care about them too much. Just my 2 cents..

Blasphemy! I always created an IMP character and gave him the best gear and roleplayed it as myself. 😀

We definitely more voices and character models than we have so far that's for sure. I'd be ok with adding Nationality but I don't personally think it's as important.

[Lunokhod]

1 hour ago, Image Miroir said:

Nationalities would require voices, which means people speaking the language.

Bro we live in a new technological revolution right now. There are software can create any accent u want.

1 hour ago, Image Miroir said:

Creation, and personnalisation of your merc is important.

Not for me. I like to think that im a commander of operation, somewhere far away from the real fight. ^__^

[Solaris_Wave]

The I.M.P. system in JA2 was great and I likewise made the custom character the main mercenary and field commander. Maybe I was the guy that was accessing the computer, contacting and hiring mercs and then getting the equipment shipped to the airports, but my custom merc was still a main character.

I don't understand the comments about the custom merc being boring. They integrated perfectly with the other mercs and had their own portraits and speech, so they never felt like they were tacked on or only half of what the other mercs were.

I don't know if your custom merc must have a nationality. Is it truly that important? It didn't really matter to me. You could reserve that for your own imagination, or maybe you can be allowed to edit some of the bio that isn't shaped by the I.M.P. creator itself during the personality test.

[Grim]

7 hours ago, Solaris_Wave said:

The I.M.P. system in JA2 was great and I likewise made the custom character the main mercenary and field commander. Maybe I was the guy that was accessing the computer, contacting and hiring mercs and then getting the equipment shipped to the airports, but my custom merc was still a main character.

I don't understand the comments about the custom merc being boring. They integrated perfectly with the other mercs and had their own portraits and speech, so they never felt like they were tacked on or only half of what the other mercs were.

I don't know if your custom merc must have a nationality. Is it truly that important? It didn't really matter to me. You could reserve that for your own imagination, or maybe you can be allowed to edit some of the bio that isn't shaped by the I.M.P. creator itself during the personality test.

That.

I.M.P. was the avatar of the player, or a way to add a custom merc allowing variation and replayability.
Nationality can be added, but it leads to several design problems as other mentionned. I was fine without it, as I imagined the background myself. It's a sandbox.

[WolverineX23]

Yeah...I made an IMP character everytime...the player connection to the game...felt...closer to the action....And it's not like they force you to make one...so with both options available for every kind of player...why not make the IMP more advanced customization?

[chr_isso]

15 hours ago, DougS2K said:

Blasphemy! I always created an IMP character and gave him the best gear and roleplayed it as myself. 😀

We definitely more voices and character models than we have so far that's for sure. I'd be ok with adding Nationality but I don't personally think it's as important.

I guess i was drunk when i wrote my comment. Ofc IMP was awesome, i was thinking of the M.E.R.C mercs somehow.

I'm sorr,!

 

imp should receive as much love as possible!

Edited April 29, 2023 by chr_isso

[Martin]

Yeah I for me IMP character was the main guy.. it was me roleplaying as the merc and that was so conecting to the game... It would be shame to not have that and the nationality? I guess just the flag would be enough.. without the dabing, quirks, and stuff.. as I said the flag is enough for the feeling of connection with the character and the story to be even bigger.. what else is roleplay than just pretending.. we humans are simple creatures.. we see flag and neuron activates haha XD and just choosing between male/female, nationality, few voices 3 is enough and couple of portraits is good. What about you.. do you have the same opinion? I am not gonna mind even slightest if Czech mercenary will have UK/US/other dabing... from me you wouldnt know if I am Czech when I speak English.. I have slight US/British accent. 😄 I think IMP is a must have and the flag is like free connection aspect for the players without any effort for the DEVS. 🙂 

[TopGunther]

 

 

@chr-isso: you posted yesterday at 09:25 AM. Excellent time to be drunk!

Edited April 29, 2023 by TopGunther

[Stuurminator]

Just the flag on the mercenary screen is enough; we don't need a list of accented voices. Accents would nice, granted, but probably more trouble (and budget) than they're worth. Native Arulcans had accents from all over the map and no one complained, anyway.

Suggestion: if they do implement the ability to assign a flag to your IMP, they should include the Grand Chien flag in case you want to imagine your IMP is a local.

[Image Miroir]

Actually, without IMP/personalized character, I will not play the game, even if provided for free, even if it's tactically great.

I know many don't care, but for me it's decisive in purchasing it or not. Am I significant or not, I don't know. I will not blame developers not including the option, but they have to know sales will be lower. Again if it's 1%, who cares; but if it's 10% or 15%, it's to consider it.

I think a dozen voices, 25 portraits or so are the minimum (considering genders and ethical origins). Nationality is nothing to add; and for the same for the military unit. Someway the simplest would be to have an optional character sheet (like in RPG). You could associate origin with some weapons to have "kind of influence" your character starts with. I think it's not that difficult to do, and making it optional will satisfy everyone.

[Hongweibing]

53 minutes ago, Image Miroir said:

Actually, without IMP/personalized character, I will not play the game, even if provided for free, even if it's tactically great.

I know many don't care, but for me it's decisive in purchasing it or not. Am I significant or not, I don't know. I will not blame developers not including the option, but they have to know sales will be lower. Again if it's 1%, who cares; but if it's 10% or 15%, it's to consider it.

I think a dozen voices, 25 portraits or so are the minimum (considering genders and ethical origins). Nationality is nothing to add; and for the same for the military unit. Someway the simplest would be to have an optional character sheet (like in RPG). You could associate origin with some weapons to have "kind of influence" your character starts with. I think it's not that difficult to do, and making it optional will satisfy everyone.

IMP is in JA3, as you can see in the beta videos. Though I wouldn't count on having "25 portraits", let alone "a dozen voices" - as it's not just portraits, but also the 3D models for all the portraits (you can't just recolor a sprite like in JA2), and the voices would be especially costly and time consuming, considering the significantly larger number of lines each merc has in JA3 compared to JA2. I believe in the beta there were 4-5 models, and only one voice for each gender (could be wrong, don't remember right now). I could see them adding a few more, but I doubt they'd reach the number of portraits (models) and voices of JA2. Honestly, I'd much rather have them dedicate those resources to increase the number of regular mercs from just 40 closer to 50 (or more, but that's unlikely - as having only 40 mercs is probably the result of the increased cost of the design and voicing of each merc).

[Image Miroir]

@Hongweibing I agree about the presence (so far) of IMP, and I wanted people against to understand it's important for some players (how representative they are, I don't know).

Considering the number of portraits, I proceeded like this:

• 3 ethnicities (asian, black, white)
• 3 genders (male, female, non-binary)
• 3 portraits for each (even if 4 would be better)

As you can see we're easily at 25. Why that many portraits? To cover a maximum of player interests and versatility.

Considering voices, if you provide 3 or 4 for each gender we're around 10 voices. A much simpler option would be for players to be able to add a voice or portrait by themselves.

[Hendrix]

As I said in another topic, I demand Haemimont having a Scandinavian accent in the game for the IMP, sounding just like the Swedish Chef from The Muppets show!

[DougS2K]

16 minutes ago, Image Miroir said:

@Hongweibing I agree about the presence (so far) of IMP, and I wanted people against to understand it's important for some players (how representative they are, I don't know).

Considering the number of portraits, I proceeded like this:

• 3 ethnicities (asian, black, white)
• 3 genders (male, female, non-binary)
• 3 portraits for each (even if 4 would be better)

As you can see we're easily at 25. Why that many portraits? To cover a maximum of player interests and versatility.

Considering voices, if you provide 3 or 4 for each gender we're around 10 voices. A much simpler option would be for players to be able to add a voice or portrait by themselves.

Not gonna get into a whole gender thing here but it would make more sense just to do male and female with say half a dozen to a dozen portraits for each. It really wouldn't be that hard to do as the portraits aren't animated or anything so it shouldn't be much for the devs to whip up a few for each race.

I don't think accents are all that important and it would make more sense to just do more generic type voices like in JA2.

[Image Miroir]

I fully agree for voices, but actors are needed to inject some emotion into it.

Considering gender, I think embracing more than two options has more advantages than disadvantages.

[Hongweibing]

37 minutes ago, Image Miroir said:

@Hongweibing I agree about the presence (so far) of IMP, and I wanted people against to understand it's important for some players (how representative they are, I don't know).

Considering the number of portraits, I proceeded like this:

• 3 ethnicities (asian, black, white)
• 3 genders (male, female, non-binary)
• 3 portraits for each (even if 4 would be better)

As you can see we're easily at 25. Why that many portraits? To cover a maximum of player interests and versatility.

Considering voices, if you provide 3 or 4 for each gender we're around 10 voices. A much simpler option would be for players to be able to add a voice or portrait by themselves.

Oh, I'm not saying you shouldn't have more portraits and voices, I'm just saying that they're unlikely to allot the necessary funds and time for that, considering the fact that they decided to cut the number of regular mercs by about 20 (compared to JA2). One must be realistic in one's expectations, hence my more modest estimate, but as far as I'm concerned - the more the merrier. I could see them adding more portraits/models, but the voices are the bigger problem, because unless you want to have each voice saying the same lines, you have to write new dialogue for each voice (as was the case in JA2, but there was much less one needed to write). For the same reason it is unlikely they would give the option to add one's own voice, as people would have to voice a few pages of text. So I imagine we'd end up with two voices for each gender, though I may hope for more.

[Image Miroir]

A dozen voices is merely a day of work...

For sure, between having ammo management and more voices, I'd choose ammo management!

[Solaris_Wave]

2 hours ago, Image Miroir said:

Actually, without IMP/personalized character, I will not play the game, even if provided for free, even if it's tactically great.

That's quite a statement! Obviously, you are entitled to your opinion and to choose what you want to play. From my point of view though, it seems a little harsh. Haemimont could create the most realistic and intense combat mechanisms ever, along with a great, open ended campaign. But because there is no I.M.P. creator, you would never consider the game and all other content present in the game is considered worthless.

Thankfully, it is a moot point as I.M.P. is definitely in the game. I don't know how varied and flexible it is but it will be harder to do than in JA2. For that game, you only needed portraits, voices and a recoloured male or female sprite. Now you have to have 3D models and people want varied skin tones, more voices and lots of portraits. The portraits then have to match the skin tones and probably the voices have to do the same thing. Therefore, that means devoting more time to art and modelling, as well as hiring more people to go into the sound booth. That means paying more people for voice work, some of which might not even be chosen by a player.

I am not saying anything actually against I.M.P. customisation. The more variety there is, the more you feel like you can tailor the I.M.P. to your liking. It is just that, the finished result may disappoint people if the developers don't allocate as much time and resources to the custom merc as some are hoping. It might even be one of those things that gets expanded by DLC packs that handle different ethnicities.

Some have said that AI can be employed to do the voices. Maybe so, but you still need a human to put emotion and fluctuation into each sentence. Otherwise, you have what sounds like the T-800 mimicking Sarah Connor's mother when he was trying to find out where she was hiding.

[votadc]

On 4/28/2023 at 9:17 PM, DougS2K said:

Blasphemy! I always created an IMP character and gave him the best gear and roleplayed it as myself. 😀

We definitely more voices and character models than we have so far that's for sure. I'd be ok with adding Nationality but I don't personally think it's as important.

In that case IMP shouldn't have voiced lines unlike JA2 and be like Fallout