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Why don't the NPC's ever say our actual name?

AuthorMessage
Defender
Aug 03, 2015
150
Hello, if you have or haven't noticed, a lot of the time when you complete quests that help certain NPC's, they say "thank you, young wizard". A problem I noticed is that in text, it says "thank you, David" (my wizards name). I've always wonderd why the NPC's never say our actual name it says in the text. It would be nice for Merle Ambrose to say our actual name every time we save the spiral.

Does anyone know why?

Delver
Jan 20, 2013
246
I would assume it's because that would require a lot of extra voice work. Customizing the text is just a matter of coding, but having a voice actor say a piece of dialogue while switching out a countless number of in-game names would require a lot of time and patience. It probably would also be more expensive for KingsIsle. Most voice actors are paid by the hour.

Squire
Jun 13, 2011
505
Vanessa Mythdust on Apr 30, 2018 wrote:
I would assume it's because that would require a lot of extra voice work. Customizing the text is just a matter of coding, but having a voice actor say a piece of dialogue while switching out a countless number of in-game names would require a lot of time and patience. It probably would also be more expensive for KingsIsle. Most voice actors are paid by the hour.
Yes. Doing it would be too much work for the VAs. Best for them to keep saying "Young Wizard" &/or "Wizard" rather than saying our Wizards' numerous names when the writers keep making dialogue scripts.

Delver
Nov 16, 2017
220
And.....after finally getting, let's say Merle Ambrose, to call each wizard by name when there are 15 - 20 standing in front of him, someone would complain that he called them by the wrong name. Can you say too much trouble?

Armiger
Aug 03, 2014
2101
Vanessa Mythdust on Apr 30, 2018 wrote:
I would assume it's because that would require a lot of extra voice work. Customizing the text is just a matter of coding, but having a voice actor say a piece of dialogue while switching out a countless number of in-game names would require a lot of time and patience. It probably would also be more expensive for KingsIsle. Most voice actors are paid by the hour.
This is absolutely right. I've worked as a voice-over artist and the rates are premium. Adding in every name combination would be excessive and no doubt there would be issues over those that can be pronounced in various ways too. The emphasis within combinations can be different too so recording each name individually could come out sounding a little like the numbers in an automated recording. Using a generic term like 'Young Wizard' is much smoother, more effective and costs a lot less time and money...we also have to think about all the little Angles who would be reminded they're not Angels after all

Explorer
Nov 18, 2010
93
To be honest, we're lucky that we get voice speech for every NPC. A lot of games just provide text.