A lot of voice acting

[acylus]

I think the game should only have a select number of Unique NPCs to have unique voices, not have every single person have a voice while they don't even contribute to the story. We can just imagine what they sound like.

Fallout 1 and 2 did it pretty well.

[raelwind]

I think that's a given. (Quality) Voice acting is an expensive thing and although awesome and far more than expected, 3M$ is a limited amount to work with nowadays and I'd rather they didn't spend too much of it on that. Written descriptions will give it a nice retro feel too.

[Tartantyco]

I concur. Just set up the basics in the back-end so people can easily mod in stuff like this, let the community produce this if they want it.

[Punky]

Don't bother to have the random barks for passersby. We don't need another "arrow in the knee" meme, but having voices for all relevant characters is important. I want to hear people, not just read text.

[rossrjensen]

Voice acting is great, if the budget can afford it! Wasteland 2 would be better off spending those resources elsewhere. Besides a voice to set the stage for the story at the beginning of the game (this could even be handled by a text scroll with appropriately themed music), maybe some basic PC voices for responses to commands, or a narrator speaking during important moments of the game, it should be left out. No talking heads or anything. Even though I loved the talking heads in the Fallouts, they weren't that important.

[Lantander]

I concur - a narrator for into/chapter change/ending should be in the game, but having all the npcs have voice actors isn't all that important. Better use the money saved there for more plot/quests.

[Gumpo]

I'd advocate either full voice acting, or no voice acting. when i say full voice acting though, i simply mean any character that you could have a conversation with. (i.e. all vendors and named NPCs, but not, "Megaton Settler" or "Lord British's Guard".) I'll also note, that im perfectly okay with non-professional voice actors for NPCs without much dialogue - let the developers, their friends and family, or heck as i've seen it mentioned, even kickstarter backers, volunteer to provide most dialogue, so long as it feels fully voiced - otherwise, i think just voicing a couple talking heads for the key characters would do more to pull me out of the immersion of the game then bring me into it.

[laszlolaszlo]

I'll also note, that im perfectly okay with non-professional voice actors for NPCs without much dialogue - let the developers, their friends and family, or heck as i've seen it mentioned, even kickstarter backers

I strongly disagree. Horrible performed voice acting is just awful, and always ruins the experience. There's a reason actors spend time learning and honing their skills. Inxile can use less money on great, unestablished voice actors, rather than overprices b-actors who always sound the same and rarely delivers.

[suz]

I strongly disagree. Horrible performed voice acting is just awful, and always ruins the experience.

I'm not sure i want to see a wasteland that's basically full of voiceactors. I mean, one ted williams-like voice is okay, what they did in skyrim is not, every lowlife could get work as a radio announcer.

If voice acting is done. I want to hear real life voices, squeaky screamish, from soprano to contralto and back.

[palker]

STALKER did not have whole lot of voice acting and most conversations you had in a game were purely text based and it did not break immersion a single bit for me. To be honest i would not mind if it was to be same in Wasteland 2 that way you can put in a lot of talking without busting your budget.

[Shaggy]

Voice acting is great, if the budget can afford it! Wasteland 2 would be better off spending those resources elsewhere. .

Why do they have to buy actors?? pull some bums off the street to read some f'ing lines, it'd certainly sound better than bethsofts 12 voice actors!! Shit send a guy with some scripts and a boom mic to PAX and some of the other game shows, i'd wait in line for a hour to give my best at a random line pulled out of a hat like "hi stranger wecome to towneville"

[Gumpo]

Why do they have to buy actors?? pull some bums off the street to read some f'ing lines, it'd certainly sound better than bethsofts 12 voice actors!! Shit send a guy with some scripts and a boom mic to PAX and some of the other game shows, i'd wait in line for a hour to give my best at a random line pulled out of a hat like "hi stranger wecome to towneville"

Agreed. I'd rather have a hundred unique voices instead of the same dozen voice actors, even if some of the voice actors are sub-par.

[Shaggy]

Why do they have to buy actors?? pull some bums off the street to read some f'ing lines, it'd certainly sound better than bethsofts 12 voice actors!! Shit send a guy with some scripts and a boom mic to PAX and some of the other game shows, i'd wait in line for a hour to give my best at a random line pulled out of a hat like "hi stranger wecome to towneville"

Agreed. I'd rather have a hundred unique voices instead of the same dozen voice actors, even if some of the voice actors are sub-par.

It's been brough up that brian fargo is suprised that people dont want a ton of voice actors, but that isnt the case, people want voice actors, just they'd rather see the money go other places to make the overall game better. Even if the voice acting is sup par for a lot of the lesser roles like i was intending, there is a lot of people out there that would say "hey that's f'ing B.A. they filled the 2 bit roles with fans for free" instead of voice actors that charge how much a line? Now like i said rent a small sound studio for pax, e3, and some of the other shows, set up a line into there and we can have a bunch of unskilled people tell the tale of why they stopped being adventurers instead of one guy telling how he "took an arrow to the knee" over and over again

[Drool]

even if some of the voice actors are sub-par.

Mmm... shades of House of the Dead 2.

[suz]

Now like i said rent a small sound studio for pax, e3, and some of the other shows, set up a line into there and we can have a bunch of unskilled people tell the tale of why they stopped being adventurers instead of one guy telling how he "took an arrow to the knee" over and over again

Indeed, I said in another topic on subject of VA - not everyone in the post apocalyptic world HAS to be professional voice actor. Some will have squeaky voices, some will have Ted William's voice, some will have your RL friend's voice.
In a lot of sci fi movies you have antagonists with squeaky annoying voices(click) and they add a lot to the setting.

[Infinitron]

Holy crap at people who think Brian Fargo should put the voices of bums off the street in his game

There's not going to be voiced dialogue in Wasteland 2, we already know this, why are you even talking about it

[Gumpo]

even if some of the voice actors are sub-par.

Mmm... shades of House of the Dead 2.

no, don't come. don't come.

[TΛPETRVE]

Suffer, like G did!

[gotthammer]

I'd rather there be few voice acted bits that are very well performed, than have every character in the game voiced poorly.
I think the OP's example of Fallout 1 and 2 is about right. The Baldur's Gate series, too, could be an example, I guess?

Maybe have voices for party members (having banter would be very welcome, if done right) and key/important NPCs, and a narrator, too, I guess (Ron Perlman or Claudia Black, please )

[TΛPETRVE]

Ron Perlman is already a Fallout staple. For Wasteland 2, I want Rutger Hauer .