[Aristotle Gumball]

Trooper Dan, on 28 January 2019 - 12:26 PM, said:

Saying that voice acting is "cringe" or "cringey" is kind of useless as a criticism, because it's so nonspecific.

Mate, I got pretty specific if you read the rest of the post(s). It's just my subjective opinion, but do you honestly want to tell me that Shelly can stand right next to Duke, Caleb or even Lo Wang? I get we're in a different era, but it just doesn't work as well as it could. And there's no reason why it can't. I'd even get a third party (someone really funny and/or good at writing) to take a look at some of the lines. Maybe I'm the only one who feels that shit matters. If so, I guess I'll shut up.

@TerminX - you know I didn't mean that I would've wanted Duke to be 100% serious or something. I get what you're going for, but it sounds like you're pulling punches for fear of upsetting people. Either go all the way or not at all, you know? Just don't keep it so PG-13. I'll of course still play the full game once it comes out. Maybe the plot is more interesting than what I've seen thus far and it'll all make sense in the end.

[Danukem]

thricecursed, on 28 January 2019 - 12:47 PM, said:

Mate, I got pretty specific if you read the rest of the post(s). It's just my subjective opinion, but do you honestly want to tell me that Shelly can stand right next to Duke, Caleb or even Lo Wang? I get we're in a different era, but it just doesn't work as well as it could. A

What you said was "It [IM] somehow has less personality and the protagonist's voice doesn't really sell me on her character. Her lines are a bit cringy. I mean, humor was a big part of Blood, Duke, SW, etc, and it worked better in those games."

So yeah, to be fair you didn't just say that her lines are a bit cringy. You also said that her voice doesn't sell you on her character and that the humor didn't work as well as in old Build games. That's still pretty nonspecific, but ok, I'm not trying to get into an argument with you. My post was actually about the term "cringe" in general, and it specifically referred to a youtube comment as an example, not your comment in particular.

[Aristotle Gumball]

Trooper Dan, on 28 January 2019 - 12:57 PM, said:

You also said that her voice doesn't sell you on her character and that the humor didn't work as well as in old Build games.

Forge did a good job elaborating on the voice issue. As for the humor, I think partly it may be a problem of not working in the same office. A lot of funny stuff happens when you're with other guys in close proximity for long periods of time (wink wink). Someone already touched on memes which are rather transient and most people won't remember in 10 years time. My advice would be to try and recognize what are the most influential and highly regarded entertainment products of the era and use those for inspiration, and less internet culture. Deadpool (the first film) is good for modern "funny dialog" that isn't overly offensive to any particular group.

"My post was actually about the term "cringe" in general, and it specifically referred to a youtube comment as an example, not your comment in particular."

Fair enough.

[Zaxx]

Hendricks266, on 28 January 2019 - 09:19 AM, said:

People on the Steam forums are also criticizing her voice and character but don't provide any useful suggestions of substance, only "make it more like Duke, Lo Wang, Caleb, even Doomguy (??)". I can't help but think it's nostalgia goggles, or bias against a female protagonist, or something else entirely. I'm reminded of when people wanted Tensi from DK to say stuff like "sucky sucky" as a line. Perhaps it is the fact that we have only released vertical slices of gameplay, not our actual campaign and plot.

I think that's part of it but honestly based on the stuff we've heard so far I think Valerie is good but not great at delivering one-liners. The thing is that when Duke or Caleb says something / laughs at stuff you believe that they enjoy the carnage and that they feel the need to express how much they love the job but in the case of Shelly I think there is a slight disconnect there. She sound enthusiastic but it's like she's not feeling it exactly, she should be just a bit more sinister in her delivery. For example "Dance, fuckers, dance!" is great but that last "dance" should be emphasized a bit more so that it feels just a bit sinister, you know, that there is a dark side to Shelly that loves dark humor.

[Forge]

Zaxx, on 28 January 2019 - 01:30 PM, said:

For example "Dance, fuckers, dance!" is great but that last "dance" should be emphasized a bit more so that it feels just a bit sinister, you know, that there is a dark side to Shelly that loves dark humor.

^this
a lot of her lines have even inflection on every word. There's little emphasis, (or just an even emphasis), thus it elicits little emotional response, or attention grabbing.
Monotone isn't the right word, but the result is similar.

Shelly picks up a weapon:
"Ha ha. Nice"
Shelly finds an un-bruised tomato at the grocery store:
"Ha ha. Nice"

[MusicallyInspired]

Forge, on 28 January 2019 - 11:22 AM, said:

I think her base voice is fine. Most of the sayings and quotes are fine. It's not about liking or disliking her voice - it's about the variety of emphasis in her lines. There are very few that stand out, one from another.
In normy speak - they mostly sound the same. I have pretty bad tinnitus, so that makes it even worse.

It makes me think Shelly is the android, she's actually killing humans, and this is some weird twisted-perspective game.

Funny, I never felt that way at all. I thought she had the perfect amount of inflection and energy.

[MusicallyInspired]

What the...?? I just checked earlier today and Update 4.1 was available on GOG. Now that I'm home I check and it says it only has Update 2. And it's also renamed to "Ion Maiden DEMO" and it's marked as "NEW" in my game library. Changelog says last update was April 2018.

Guess I should have downloaded it when I had the chance.

[Forge]

MusicallyInspired, on 28 January 2019 - 04:10 PM, said:

What the...?? I just checked earlier today and Update 4.1 was available on GOG. Now that I'm home I check and it says it only has Update 2. And it's also renamed to "Ion Maiden DEMO" and it's marked as "NEW" in my game library. Changelog says last update was April 2018.

Guess I should have downloaded it when I had the chance.

The update patch 4 is still posted at 3DR.
I don't know why gog would pull it off their shelf.

[TerminX]

Update 4.1 should be available on GOG for customers who have purchased the game... please let me know if it isn't! We've been having a lot of trouble with GOG concerning this update today.

Anyone who was a purchaser of the deluxe edition of Bombshell won't get anything past update 2 as we're way past the obligation of giving access to a beta version at this point.

[Forge]

ya'll just can't catch a break with these third-party distributors.
They'd fuck up a wet dream.

[Hank]

[dumb questions]
The Blast Accelerator chip, except for the bowling alley, how do you effectively use it? Can this item be made to be used only by selecting it?

The Bow. One shot in the head kills a red enemy, but in turn, it takes multiple shots to kill me. Is that the intent?

Last dumb question: I know what a truth table is, but still have not figured out how to use Loverboy with Alt Fire. I see the animation, left arm, and that's it.
[/dumb questions]

[Mark]

All I had to go by was an early version YouTube playthru video. I found most of Shelly's lines OK. There were a few that I would have prefered to have a little emphasis on a word or 2 like Forge mentioned. A minor thing but one example was when she said " I don't think that's covered in the warranty." I think an emphasis should have been put on the word "that's" instead of the flat way the sentence was voiced. "That's" meaning the explosion and hole in the wall she just made. There were 2 more but part of the voice clip was overpowered by gun fire so I couldn't hear the whole thing so I won't point them out as examples. From what little I've heard I'm satisfied with her VA.

[MusicallyInspired]

I must have accidentally gotten access to update 4.1 temporarily when I shouldn't have then. I do have the bonus from the Bombshell Deluxe package. I haven't yet dropped money on Ion Maiden as I've been hoping to wait until a cheaper version of the box without most of the extras became available.

[Forge]

Probably why they pulled it site wide. They didn't differentiate who was allowed to have it & ended up making it available to everyone.

[John Brown]

For the fellow GOG owners, Ion Maiden is now its own game in your library, separate from the preview build (now renamed Ion Maiden - DEMO). The one that does not say "DEMO", that is the one with the 4.1 patch. I saw someone else post on the GOG forum (deserted wasteland it is) that the "DEMO" version has to be uninstalled, for the main version to install properly. I have done that, and 4.1 works fine for me on GOG, I just replayed the existing episode on Maximum Violence difficulty and it was glorious.

Now, to do the new level.

[Zaxx]

TerminX, on 28 January 2019 - 04:19 PM, said:

Anyone who was a purchaser of the deluxe edition of Bombshell won't get anything past update 2 as we're way past the obligation of giving access to a beta version at this point.

I can imagine you guys getting some flak for that decision. Wouldn't it be worth it to include that one map for Bombshell Deluxe buyers just to avoid that?

[MusicallyInspired]

John Brown, on 28 January 2019 - 06:18 PM, said:

For the fellow GOG owners, Ion Maiden is now its own game in your library, separate from the preview build (now renamed Ion Maiden - DEMO). The one that does not say "DEMO", that is the one with the 4.1 patch. I saw someone else post on the GOG forum (deserted wasteland it is) that the "DEMO" version has to be uninstalled, for the main version to install properly. I have done that, and 4.1 works fine for me on GOG, I just replayed the existing episode on Maximum Violence difficulty and it was glorious.

Now, to do the new level.

Yeah, Ion Maiden was separated from Bombshell's goodies & extras a while ago now. It was a separate item in my library for ages. But it was called something else and not DEMO like it suddenly is now. But even if I log into GOG on my browser (outside of Galaxy) it still says Update 2. I did not purchase the game yet so I cannot access Update 4.1 as TX said. Doesn't matter if I uninstall or not.

And I'm ok with that, btw. Originally it was just supposed to be a bonus extra before it turned into its own project. I figure I got what I was promised as the extra and nothing more. I was surprised when I got the Queen of the Hill update, tbh.

[John Brown]

MusicallyInspired, on 28 January 2019 - 07:02 PM, said:

Yeah, Ion Maiden was separated from Bombshell's goodies & extras a while ago now. It was a separate item in my library for ages. But it was called something else and not DEMO like it suddenly is now. But even if I log into GOG on my browser (outside of Galaxy) it still says Update 2. I did not purchase the game yet so I cannot access Update 4.1 as TX said. Doesn't matter if I uninstall or not.

And I'm ok with that, btw. Originally it was just supposed to be a bonus extra before it turned into its own project. I figure I got what I was promised as the extra and nothing more. I was surprised when I got the Queen of the Hill update, tbh.

Ah, I see. I originally got it as an extra from owning Bombshell, then bought the full Ion Maiden afterwards. This whole time I've been playing what has now been renamed to DEMO, I guess I just never noticed. The GOG forum is also still linked through the DEMO (clicking "forum" for the main/real/whatever Ion Maiden just takes you to GOG's main community forum).

Also I did just finish Heskel's House of Horrors, 100% kills and 5/8 secrets found on first try on Ultra Violence. It was pretty fun, gave me Blood vibes.

[Zaxx]

Speaking of "vibes" there was one thing the new map really reminded me of: the first Alone in the Dark game. I loved that game when I was a kid and somehow the map's atmosphere felt similar, even with the ending that takes you underground.

[Little Tijn]

John Brown, on 28 January 2019 - 06:18 PM, said:

For the fellow GOG owners, Ion Maiden is now its own game in your library, separate from the preview build (now renamed Ion Maiden - DEMO). The one that does not say "DEMO", that is the one with the 4.1 patch. I saw someone else post on the GOG forum (deserted wasteland it is) that the "DEMO" version has to be uninstalled, for the main version to install properly. I have done that, and 4.1 works fine for me on GOG, I just replayed the existing episode on Maximum Violence difficulty and it was glorious.

Now, to do the new level.

That was me! Read posts that the new update is available on GOG, so checked it out. Was a bit stumped that I couldn't install it via GOG Galaxy. It always failed at first. The problem is that both the DEMO version and the new Update 4.1 version try to install in the same directory. That's the reason you need to remove the (now called) DEMO version first or install it in another directory altogether. After doing that it installed without any problem. A bit weird, but it works.

[necroslut]

When it comes to criticism of Shelly's voice or personality it should probably be kept in mind that she's being compared to some of the most memorable FPS protagonists, stars of arguably the most atmospheric and memorable FPS games ever made - that's quite some bar to reach and might not be intended to be quite as harsh as it might come across.
There's a hundred 90's FPS protagonists she's not being compared to.

[oasiz]

I'm glad I just do maps.. Got another stupid jukebox-like thing done that required like close to 100 effect sprites to accomplish.

[Aristotle Gumball]

necroslut, on 29 January 2019 - 12:06 AM, said:

When it comes to criticism of Shelly's voice or personality it should probably be kept in mind that she's being compared to some of the most memorable FPS protagonists, stars of arguably the most atmospheric and memorable FPS games ever made - that's quite some bar to reach and might not be intended to be quite as harsh as it might come across.

Yep, it's a 3drealms game, after all. There's no way it won't be compared to their previous titles.

[Micky C]

thricecursed, on 29 January 2019 - 02:23 AM, said:

Yep, it's a 3drealms game, after all. There's no way it won't be compared to their previous titles.

Yes and no. It's a Voidpoint game, and there's more than 20 years between them. They're not cut from the same cloth.

[Aristotle Gumball]

Micky C, on 29 January 2019 - 03:25 AM, said:

Yes and no. It's a Voidpoint game, and there's more than 20 years between them. They're not cut from the same cloth.

I know it is, but what's the first screen you see when you boot up the game? There's a legacy there. Either way, they've nailed practically everything I'd expect from a 3drealms shooter.

edit: Admittedly there is a Voidpoint logo now also, so point taken. Not trying to be a dick.

[Hank]

I must word this careful

3D Realms is no longer 3D Realms from the past. Ever since they hooked up with 1C, the promotion for Voidpoint'd IM has very much improved.
There is a saying: "Trust is good, control is better". For as long as Voidpoint runs the development of Ion Maiden, we have something to look forward too.

[Kathy]

What does option to disable game messages actually do? I disabled it at the start of Heskel level, but still received "press E to win" in the elevator.

Shelly's voice/delivery is alright. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it gets the point across. Nothing cringy for sure. I'd prefer less jokes, though.

Also, will there be mirrors in game? Was disappointed I couldn't "damn I'm looking good" myself.

[Steve 64]

I love shelly voice as well young and strong/.

[Forge]

Kathy, on 29 January 2019 - 10:54 AM, said:

What does option to disable game messages actually do?

thought that was a multiplayer thing - where people post text during DM.

[MetHy]

Disabling messages is just like in Duke, it's for messages on the top left of the screen such as "Dick's Secret Stash" or "Door Unlocked", or when you pick-up supplies etc

There is currently no way to turn off the help prompt.