Voices and Random Treasure

I have two questions that I hope someone can answer here. The questions are completely unrelated, but I figured I would only clog things up with one thread. I know nothing about modding games but enough about computers and programming to make an effort if I have the time and desire. I've grown to love this game, and these two questions are related to areas I think could make it a much better experience.

1) Can an audio voice be added to any NPC dialogue that doesn't already have one?

For example, could a voice that has recorded all of the Brother Smythe's dialogue be played whenever Brother Smythe speaks a particular line, or when Wilfrik relates an adventure background for you? I think this would add, at least for me, a depth of flavor to the game that would really make it come alive.

2) Could treasure be randomized?

The generation of the treasures and locations themselves would be a fun script to write, but could they then be injected into all of the ToEE locations at the beginning of a campaign? I don't know enough about the files that hold this information.

One of the things that gets stale with repeated playings is knowing where every treasure is going to be. If the contents of each NPC and chest were randomly seeded at the start of each campaign, it would really make things more fresh and exciting (the same would be true for monster locations too I guess, but something tells me that would be a bigger hassle).

Obviously some of the treasures are placed for their necessity in propelling the story or fulfilling quests so would be untouched (Terjon's Amulet, the Skull, the Gems, etc.), and balance would have to be gauged upon randomization, but my question is basically if a random list were generated, could those items overwrite the current treasure files easilly?

 

1. I believe so.Several of the npcs have voiced dialogue from co8 like the cleric in the Cuthbert temple. I''ve heard he has quite a bit of commentary but I''ve only spoken to him without hiring him. Ted's nodding faq has a section on npc voice.
http://www.co8.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3452
see also voicing the voiceless with input from Gaear about adding them to the co8 Modpack
www.co8.org/forum/showthread.php?t=8322&highlight=voice
2. I don't know if the game supports random or tiered loot lists like in Icewindale 2. It would be cool if that was an option and each big chest had held say 5 roughly equivalent magic items and only one would show up athe start of every game.SAt least KOTB will be out this April minus the orc caves so there is always the possibility of new modules.

 

re. 2

It's possible. Two options:

1. Look inside invensource.mes - loot items can be assigned a probability of appearing (a la merchant inventories)

2. You can write an item creation / manipulation script that fires when you enter a map to create or turn on/off items in chests and such.

Whether that's easy or not is a matter of perspective - crazier things have been done...

If you want to take up the effort, I'll be happy to provide guidance.

 

Yes. Gaear is still looking for somebody to re-voice all of Ronald Rynnwrathi's dialogue for inclusion in all future versions of the Circle of Eight Modpack. My understanding is that the Circle of Eight team aren't going to voice NPCs that were created by Troika Games because the Circle of Eight team like to keep the original content of the game as authentic as possible to what Troika Games created, so Ronald Rynnwrathi (a Circle of Eight team-created recruitable NPC) is the only NPC that the Circle of Eight team currently wan't to have fully voiced. If you or anybody else are willing to create voice samples of the dialogue of any of the other Circle of Eight team-created NPCs (e.g. all of the NPCs in Verbobonc, at Hickory Branch, at Welkwood Bog, and at the Moathouse Respawn), then I'm sure that the Circle of Eight team would seriously consider adding your voice samples for any NPCs in all future versions of the Circle of Eight Modpack. The only reasons that I can think of why the Circle of Eight team wouldn't add new voice samples for NPCs would be if the voice samples had poor fidelity (audio quality) or if it would increase the size of the Circle of Eight Modpack installation file too much (for ease of downloading). If you or anybody else would like to do any voice samples for any of the NPCs, just ask Gaear for the required file format and how to go about doing it.

Yes. Shiningted has already implemented an instance of this in The Keep on the Borderlands module. When you kill the Black Dragon, 2 random masterwork weapons appear on the ground.
Gaear has also already implemented two instances of this in The Circle of Eight Modpack New Content Edition. At Hickory Branch, all of the Orc Fighters wear random armour (including masterwork armour), and I believe that some or all of the Orcs that use Longbows may wield random types of Longbows (including magical Longbows).

In general, I much prefer random treasure, but one of the flaws in Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons is that there are feats specifically for individual types of weapons, so I would be really pissed off if there was random treasure in this computer game because all of the characters in my adventuring party wouldn't know which specific weapon to get the feats Weapon Focus and Improved Critical and Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Focus in.

 

Thank you for the responses, this is great news to me all around. I apparently have a lot of reading to do before attempting any of this, especially in that gigantic 200+ page tutorial/rant which seems like a treasure trove of information.

I know it would have to pass scrutiny for quality of both voice actor and also recording, but I would love to hear all of the new NPCs have a voice.