Idea: “Tenno Radio” – Actual radio chatter between characters

[InvdrZOB]

[Warning! Thread may contain spoilers for the “The Second Dream” and other quests as well as to background lore concerning the Tenno in general!]

 

Dear DE and fellow Tenno,

Since the Operators emerged from their slumber, we players experience a lot more radio chatter. And while I think this is a great feature, I also think that there are a lot of missed opportunities and also some (major?) annoyances.

I haven't found anything recent on this topic here in the forums. Therefor I would like to propose, in detail (scroll down for tl;dr), an idea that I have thought about a lot and which I discussed with different people. In this Thread I’d like to hear the opinion of other players and maybe the developers as well. Maybe there is something to be worked out or that can be improved on.

 

 MY VIEW ON THE SITUATION

 

The game has so much great voice acting and interesting characters. For example, Vay Hek might be my number one, over the top insane villain of all time. He is hilarious and has some really great and funny lines! Up there with him, Tyl Regor, who makes such a great counterpart with his own kind of insane. Pure - voice acting - gold! Most of the other characters and the ideas behind them are great too (gladiator reality show hosts and space televangelists for example), but just don’t have the same impact on me, personally.

However, our interactions with all those characters seem extremely one-sided to me. Usually, they always exclusively talk down to us/our Tenno and (especially with high level gear) we swiftly kick their butts in return. And then… well, that’s pretty much it.

An exception to that, of course, are the cinematic quest, where we have some dialogue options. To me, the options to pick from don’t always represent what is then actually said (or the tune and emotion that goes with it) clearly enough, but at least there is some sort of interaction.

Besides all of that there is the soliloquizing. During missions, my Operator is always talking to herself about the most obvious things and, while doing so, seems to come to the some pretty silly if not cringeworthy conclusions. 

 

THE PROBLEM

 

1. NPCs (character and/or story development)

As mentioned before, the cinematic quests allow us interactions with some amazing characters. Sadly though, those Characters we interact with usually get killed of directly (Elder Queen, Ballas) or there is little to no change in the interactions between us and them (Teshin), at least not until some next quest comes along.

Beside the (cinematic main) quests there are figures like Alad V, of whom there are three different versions roaming the universe simultaneously. His former self still runs the Zanuka project, his infested mutalist form still wreaks havoc every now and then (sortie missions) and his cured version crosses our path every now and then, when the story demands it.

And then there are the Syndicate leaders. Some of them (are, sooner or later, bound to) hate us enough to send assassination squads after us. Still they all rely on us every now then. Seems strange.

2. Tenno/Operators

The things my Operator talks about often make me wonder and question her state of mind. A few examples:

- “Attack us and we will counter!”, she said, while mounting a preemptive assault on an enemy base.

- “Grineer have no honor!”, she said, while sneaking up on the 143rd Trooper in her invisible warframe to slit his throat, not giving him any chance of a fair fight.

- “Corpus never fight for themselves.”, she said, while controlling her warframe, some high-tech combat drone, from the safety of her little hidden space station, barely endangering her real body.

- “I Remember these monsters from long ago.”, she said during the mission. A few hours later on the next mission she mentions: “Disgusting monstrosities, I think they absorb their victims!”, leaving her watcher to wonder, whether she knows those creatures or not.

- “Transference still holding.” – Well, obviously! And who are you talking to anyway?!

To me, it often seems silly and childish, even inappropriate in some way. And while yes, they are children in a way, they also stopped aging (therefore being actually much older) and had to face several ordeals, including warrior training and conditioning, ending up in them even developing and/or adapting corresponding warrior paths and philosophies (Vazarin, Zenurik, etc.). That leaves me with more of the impression of an angry or angsty teen talking to herself while I would be expecting more of a seasoned warrior analyzing the situation. However, that might just be me, my expectations and my personal taste.

The main problem with this might therefor not lie in the statements (alone) but in their repetitiveness. There are only a few voice lines which are thrown at the player again and again and again. And that goes not only for the Operator but for the Lotus as well.

- “It’s taking longer than I calculated!” – Seriously?! Again?! Why?! WE’RE UNDER FIRE HERE!

 

A POSSIBLE APPROACHE: “TENNO RADIO”

 

Disclaimer: I’ve no experience with programming. So, some of the ideas I came up with might not be feasible. Maybe they would take up too much disc space, if implemented, or loading times would double. Maybe there just isn’t enough money to pay for that. Still I think, from what I see in other games, that it should be possible.

The idea is quite simple: Lift “radio silence”!

Let them all talk with each other! Replace monologuing and soliloquizing with short dialogues! Although a funny thought, I can’t quite imagine Tyl Regor constantly broadcasting that he wants to dissect some Tenno, just in case some of them are listening. Therefor I assume, that he (as well as all the others) already knows we are coming. Then there is not much reason for or Operators to completely stay silent. At least as long as we can trust Lotus/Ordis/our selfs/someone to somewhat reliably encode and mask our signals to avoid (further) detection.

Spoiler

Not that this secrecy would really be necessary, ‘cause let’s be honest. If the enemy forces want to find the Tenno, the usually don’t have to carefully home in on our radio signals. In most cases, they can simply follow the sound of gunfire, explosions and dying screams as well as seizure inducing flashes of light in wide varieties of colors.

1. NPCs

A. Story progression and character development

When a player accomplishes something or progresses in the Story by completing quests, the universe should acknowledge it consistently. In the case of Alad V, someone else can take over the Zanuka project when he becomes Mutalist Alad V and the Infested can generate another boss monster, when he gets cured. Those new NPCs mustn’t have a role as big as the one they are build to fill in for, but they might provide the players with a sense of progress and accomplishment. This can be furthered by them talking about how the player beat the boss or the quest and what changed because of that. When players with different progress play in the same team, each one of them can be shown and played the face and voice according to their individual progress, since everyone already gets different announcements anyway, as far as I know.

B. Keep adding more and changing out voice lines

To be fair, DE does that already, as far as I can tell. Every now and then there is a new comment or a new joke in a situation, that I never heard before. At least I had such moments with Ordis and Vay Hek from time to time. For me personally, it would be nice to get this more often, though. How nice it would be, if Lotus’ calculations were correct from time to time or if there at least were different reasons, why it would her take longer. I dare to dream, that every now and then, she would even find a way to finish faster (with the next node taking appropriately longer, of course).

Just to help with eliminating some of the constant repetitions, some lines might just be switched out from time to time with a hotfix. Other games have map rotations and such. Why not let Warframe have some voice line rotations?

Of course, changes on only one side doesn’t create dialogue. This leads us right back to the…

2. Tenno/Operators

A. Responses

It would be so nice if the Operators and the NPCs would respond to one another. Just imagine your Operator hurling back a witty line or an insult when Hek and Regor speak about how they’re going to kill them or politely declining Alad V’s offer to be part of a new Zanuka. It could also go the other way around. Enemy forces might respond to statements or observations by the operator (although I guess our space children are smart enough to not broadcast everything the say like they’re on space twitter). Also, there could be short confirmations to orders given by the Lotus or other allies or the operators might send a request for new orders or intel.

B. Separate operator voices from phrasing

I chose Raven as the voice for my Operator. It simply fits her best, as far as I’m concerned. Sadly, this choice seems to not only dictates how she sounds but also how she intonates and what she says. This limits me somewhat in customizing the character. I think it would be great, although that would mean a LOT of work for the voice actors, if I had different options for voice and phrasing (and maybe even intonation).

While customizing the Operator I can already choose some posture (went with the Madurai crossed-arms-pose). I’d love a similar option for the phrasing. For example, you might still have the choice between Raven, Falcon, Owl and Heron. In addition you then choose between the phrasing styles which reflect the different schools (Madurai, Zenurik etc.), which will determin the words the Operator chooses (or better the set of voice lines the game will draw from). Madurai characters might be aggressive and rude while Zenurik articulate in a more diplomatic and refined manner. Intonation options might be something like “soft spoken” or “loud”, so that within the Madurai lines might still be a distinction between soft spoken threats or insults screamed at the enemies face in defiance.

C. Squad chatter (the actual Tenno Radio)

I always wondered, why the Operators don’t talk to each other but exclusively to them selfs during missions. Why don’t they communicate to coordinate their attacks and efforts? I’d like to give some examples, in which I factor in the beforementioned ideas from 2.B.

- Role call:

At the beginning of a mission, the squad members could call in with a set of call signs. I’m thinking of something like “Red 2, standing by” or “Lion 3, ready for action”. The chosen call signs might depend on the squad leader (player 1/host) and his chosen phrasing, while the response from each Operator is depending on their phrasing. Role call might end with something like “Ghost squad ready, awaiting orders”

- Orders and such:

Regarding a group of Tenno as a military unit, squad leaders might issue “commands” to, give advice to or demand a call in from other members in certain situations, like when one player strays far from the rest of the team, the squad is separated by a lockdown or a member gets downed. Other Operators could then react to those statements. This would not only breath some life into situations but could also be used as a short reminder. I, for example, sometimes tend to wander a bit off during survival missions, suddenly finding myself far away from the rest of the group. How exactly these are offered and get responded to might depend on the chosen schools and the mission type. A Vazarin might call a “stray Tenno” back to the objective while an Unairu might want a scouting report.
Maybe these orders could even depend on Equipment. A Squad leader could command someone with an Opticor to get it ready, when the squad is nearing a boss or juggernaut.

- Idle chatter

Until now, the Operators are mostly just narrating some of the things happening around them during missions. While they can still du that (perhaps a bit smarter, though) others might comment on that, again, depending on the schools. Maybe a Zenurik expresses some curiosity towards certain things and a Naramon replies that he shouldn’t let himself get distracted from the battle.
Maybe some schools work better together than others and this leads to some humorous or even some little mean comments between Operators.

- Show casing:

… and while all that chatter is going on, we get the benefit of being able to show each other the designs we chose for our operators. Since every time our Operator or someone else in the squad engages in dialogue, we get to see the carefully chosen customization options other players went with in all their (sometimes eye cancer inducing) glory. In most situations, there isn’t that much time to get a good look at the designs players went with for their Operator. I think it might be nice to get a chance at a better look every once in a while.

 

TL;DR

While a lot of the voice acting in Warframe is really great, Radio chatter from NPCs and Operators gets repetitive and boring or even annoying over time. Some ideas to spice things up are:
- More voice lines for Operators and NPCs

- Regularly Changing voice lines

- Dialogue between Operators and NPCs during missions

- Dialogue between Operators during missions

- More voice customization for operators
 

Hope to get a lot of different views and opinions on this matter!

 

Regards,

 

IvdrZOB

Edited September 23, 2018 by InvdrZOB

[Lazarow]

I only read the TL:DR part and it sounds great

[Ironyman]

I Really like the 

Zitat

- Idle chatter

and

Zitat

- Show casing

idears.

Getting to see other players Starchilds and letting them see mine would be something great - after all, in most missions we only see the different coloured ghosts of them 😉

Responding to Tyl Regor or others NPCs might go a bit far (even though it would be rad!), but Tenno talking to each other sounds just great. I mean, aren't we supposed to be "The Tenno"? - but we dont talk to each other ?

In any way: A few new lines of audio/radio chatter would be welcomed by every verteran, i keen.

Great idear and post!

[MrTitan123]

I’d definitely like to see some people’s operators popping on other’s screens giving instructions or combat orders. Even dynamic operator dialogue would be nice.

”Hacking console! Cover me!”

or...

”Engaging life support! That was too close for comfort...” when engaging at 30% or less. Or... “Engaging life support! Better safe than sorry.” When engaging at 50% or more.

 

Maybe some Warframe specific lines?

”Banshee reporting. Let’s make some noise.”

”Have no fear, Trinity’s here! Just...try not to die.”

(For hydroid) “*Humming drunken sailor*”

(For ash) “Omae wa mou shindeiru...Bahaha! I’ve always wanted to say that!”

(For Vauban) “Alright guys, just hoooold still...”

(For Nidus) “Man, these guys are everywhere. Goooood...”

[Eirshy]

I would like to note that, either by providence of RNG or DE's intent, I did get a response to one of the taunts during a Ceres boss farming run. I'd love to see that standardized.

Regardless, while trying to fix the random chatter might be a tad daunting given the number of nuances to track as triggers and then lines to record... Adding at least responses to the boss taunts would be a lot of fun and probably a hell of a lot easier to set up with the code as-is.

 

Not saying I'm against this, 'cause I'm not. I'd love for a deep chatter system being added in. But it'd be a ton of work for something that is largely just fluff.

Edited September 24, 2018 by Eirshy

[InvdrZOB]

@Eirshy

It definitely would be a ton of work, but nobody said that it should be done in one patch. Actually, it would allow for some "growth over time", getting more and more lines over time. "Heroes of the Storm" does something similar (even though on a smaller scale as what i'm suggesting here), having your character exchange a few words with one other players character in your team at the start of every match.

The dialogue lines could also be created and arranged in certain categories, where a line from categorie A would always gets a fitting response from categorie A. For example categorie a could be "complaining". A Madurai operator would complain about different things then a Zenurik operator. Still some (more or less) generic phrases could be created, that would make a response to either one of them.

Anyway, responses to boss taunts might be a good place to start.

 

@MrTitan123

Warframe specific lines sound like a fun idea, too! Although I think you'd have to be careful with how funny you make them (or how many of them should be jokes).

I like the idea with the life support trigger. There could be other triggers which are bound to the use of abilities as well. Like dealing massiv damage with your ultimate ability, preventing otherwise lethal damage with a heal or something like that.