(I thought I saw a pussycatthread about it some time ago, but now I can’t find it)
I guess there will be some voice acting for the soldiers, similar to the FXCom “hits”, “misses” and “grenade” action commentary.
But I was wondering if we could have some additional contextual dialogues (or “thoughts”) for our soldiers, to perceive them more like living beings. But not audio chatting but rather text bubbles that sometimes appear over soldier’s head every few turns.
Some other game inspirations:
- Dragon Age Origins - has a lot of dialogues when party members start to chat with each other, joke or argue, which gives them some personality, makes them more believable - of course Phoenix Point is not RPG and I don’t expect this kind of scope, just bringing this as a illustration of “making the player care for his characters”;
- Darkest Dungeon - has just the short text bubbles appearing over characters, mostly concerning their mental health and stress level changes, with negative/positive perks triggering, damage dealt/received or visiting various town facilities, however this simple method introduces an interesting feedback where game characters comment about the things that happen to them just like a real person would.
How I see this could work in PP?
Because this is a “gimmick” and not an important feature, it should be a non-intrusive text popup that appears only for a few seconds and happen not more than every few turns/minutes just as a visual effect in the background of playing the mission, without the need of moving camera, pausing or confirming anything.
Soldiers can react in a different way depending on the situation, so we may have some groups or categories for it:
- Mission location:
– “I wish I could travel here before the invasion”, “This place has changed… a lot”, etc. - Soldier specific:
– “My family uset to live nearby”, “I’ve been stationed here before the war”, etc. - Close environment:
– “Let’s grab those supplies”, “I think I knew this guy”, etc. - Combat related:
– “Too far for a headshot, rookie”, “Watch out for that grenadier”, etc. - Hints for the player:
– “Better shred that armor with a grenade”, “Let’s flank it from the side”, etc. - Lore related:
– “I heard this virus is thousands of years old”, “So those Anu guys have a way to control it?”, etc.
For sure I don’t want this to happen too often and get annoying, but in small amounts it could be an interesting layer in the game.