Native languages

[daryush]

Has anyone considered doing a native language mod? I think it would really add to the BC experience (ya know, getting rid of all things vanilla )

If there isn't one around and isn't one in development perhaps we should make one?

[wudang_clown]

That's a great idea! It worked (and still works) pretty well in Europa Barbarorum. It's fantastic to hear every command in native faction's language. But AFAIK there is no such a project for BC. 'We' could make it, of course, it's 'just' a matter of engaging few people who speak in the languages which we are interested to hear, and recording the material...

[Douchebag]

Unless you plan to record voices using studio-quality recorder, please dont do it. EB has native language, but the quality is so damn , I find it ing annoying everytime I hear them speak.

[wudang_clown]

Unless you plan to record voices using studio-quality recorder, please dont do it. EB has native language, but the quality is so damn , I find it ing annoying everytime I hear them speak.

WTH are you talking about? EB has quality voices? In comparison to which voice add-on? It has a very decent quality, in fact. If you mean, that the voices weren't actors' voices, then, well, I understand your harsh judgement. But I don't agree with it.
Oh, BTW, EB native voices were recorded in some college studio, if my memory serves me right.

[daryush]

I thought the EB voices worked perfectly well, and add a whole new level of realism. I don't think all of them were studio done, but any noise was drowned out by BGMs. If they had it on the campaign map as well that would be awesome.

I reckon we'd probably need these (or some variants of these) languages: Persian (mainly on the campaign map), Turkish (mainly on the battle map), Arabic (presumably both campaign and battle maps for Abbasids, Ayyubids, and all Imam characters), Greek, Urdu or Hindi, Sindhi, Armenian, Georgian, and Kipchak (which is extinct, but perhaps another Turkic language could do). And also Mongolian, and a language for the KoJ (not sure what that would be though ...), maybe a few others too, such as Kurdish or other Turkic or Iranian languages. Add to the list if I've missed something.

[wudang_clown]

I thought the EB voices worked perfectly well, and add a whole new level of realism. I don't think all of them were studio done, but any noise was drowned out by BGMs. If they had it on the campaign map as well that would be awesome.

Ah, yes, I went too far, there are no native voices for campaign map, at least for Celtic factions.

I reckon we'd probably need these (or some variants of these) languages: Persian (mainly on the campaign map), Turkish (mainly on the battle map), Arabic (presumably both campaign and battle maps for Abbasids, Ayyubids, and all Imam characters), Greek, Urdu or Hindi, Sindhi, Armenian, Georgian, and Kipchak (which is extinct, but perhaps another Turkic language could do). And also Mongolian, and a language for the KoJ (not sure what that would be though ...), maybe a few others too, such as Kurdish or other Turkic or Iranian languages. Add to the list if I've missed something.

For KoJ it would be langue d'oc or langue d'oil, or both, or maybe medieval latin? IMO it would be fair to include the latter. Although it's possible to give some voices in f. e. Middle High German to Teutonic Knights...

[daryush]

So ... anyone want to help out?

[Bogatyr]

I tried taking the Hindi, Farsi, Turkish, and Arabic stratmap voice mp3s from Empire and putting them in bc/data/sounds/voice/human/localized/camp_map, and then editing the descr_sounds_accents and export_descr_sounds_stratmap_voice to turn the unused English, Scottish, and German accents into Hindi, Farsi, and Turkish. I just renamed the Empire Arabic voice files to what export_descr_sounds_stratmap_voice prescribed. I gave spies and assassins the rake voice, merchants and diplomats the gentleman voice, and priests the missionary voice. Unfortunately, Empire doesn't feature voices for generals and certainly not distinct chivalrous/dread varieties. Also annoying is that there are horribly butchered English lines interspersed with the indigenous responses, especially in the Hindi. So I had to sift through that...

Unfortunately that's about where my modding skill ends. I have no idea what to do now. I know I'll have to remove the voice.dat or idx something but won't that compromise my unmodded voices?

[wudang_clown]

Unfortunately that's about where my modding skill ends. I have no idea what to do now. I know I'll have to remove the voice.dat or idx something but won't that compromise my unmodded voices?

Ask in the Mod Workshop, someone will help you there.

[Bogatyr]

Now that I look at it, my story was actually a bit misleading. I forgot to mention that I tried, failed, stupidly misplaced/deleted some of the vanilla voice files, broke my game, and reinstalled. So the whole story is sort of past-tense and now I'm back to square one and don't feel like trying again anytime soon. But my point was that the OP might actually have the native language voice files at his disposal if he's patient and knows his modding stuff.

[daryush]

Ouch! Bogatyr

It might be more uniform to have all the voices recorded from scratch, if anyone else is willing to help out, especially if we want to add the other languages in later, and perhaps 18th century language wouldn't fit too well in a 13th century timeframe. And IIRC the Persians in Empire didn't use Persian, they spoke Arabic ¬_¬.

So far my thoughts were as follows:

Khwarazmians, Ghorids, Ghaznavids, Great Seljuks: Modern Persian on the strat map; highly Arabised or Persianised Turkish on the battle map and possibly for spies and assassins. Ghorids should use "pure Persian" or Persian more similar to the language used in EB on the strat map. Ghorids and Ghaznavids could also use Urdu on the strat map in addition to Persian.
Abbasids, Ayyubids, Oman: Arabic (all Imams also should have Arabic)
Sindh: Sindhi, Persian, and Urdu on strat map, Turkish on battle map
ERE: Greek
Armenia: Armenian
Georgia: Georgian
Kypchaks: Kypchak is extinct, any other Turkic language might do.
KOJ: Medieval latin, Occitan, Old French
Both Rajput factions: Hindi
Makuria: Old Nubian is extinct, any other Nubian language might do. Otherwise, possibly Greek / Arabic (and Coptic, but again, it's extinct)
Mongols: Mongolian
Rum Turks: (heavily Arabised / Persianised) Turkish

Some units will also have different languages if poss. eg: Middle High German for Teutonic Knights, "Pure" Persian for Deylamites.

Have I missed anything?

If anyone can provide voices, post here

[Opressor]

Arabic shouldn't be too hard to find as with most others. However, Mongol is very,very hard to come by as they had limited written scripts/literature. With Indian/Northern Indian is that similiar to Punjab? Armenian is a tricky one as they migrated quite a bit during this time period and were probably influenced heavily by Turkish. Just some suggestions

[Astor]

I live in India so I know a little Hindi, I could post some lines and someone could record them.
However Rajputs don't necessarily speak Hindi, they basically speak the language of the area they
live in. For eg., those in Rajasthan speak Rajasthani and those in Punjab speak Punjabi.

[Enemyz]

Kypchaks could be russian?

[wudang_clown]

Kypchaks could be russian?

No way, mate, they were Turkic people, that's why some other Turkic language would be more suitable.

[Enemyz]

Ahh k didnt realise dude haha.

[daryush]

Arabic shouldn't be too hard to find as with most others. However, Mongol is very,very hard to come by as they had limited written scripts/literature. With Indian/Northern Indian is that similiar to Punjab? Armenian is a tricky one as they migrated quite a bit during this time period and were probably influenced heavily by Turkish. Just some suggestions

Re: Mongolian, it depends how different it is to the modern language. I know there are quite a few resources for modern Mongolian out there so if we can't find an authentic speaker, getting someone who is good at picking up foreign phonologies to do the recording could be a plan. It won't be 100% real, but it will be better than vanilla. Chinese could also be used for some Mongol units, such as siege thingies.

I think there was at some point a website for classical Mongolian, I don't know if it's still around though. I'll post it here if I find it.

A note on Persian (I remembered a few hours ago) - it would be "classical" pronounciation. This is the pronounciation more similar to Dari or Urdu. AFAIK the major vowel shifts in Persian happened after the timeframe of this game.

I don't know much about Armenian so I'll take your word for it

I live in India so I know a little Hindi, I could post some lines and someone could record them.
However Rajputs don't necessarily speak Hindi, they basically speak the language of the area they
live in. For eg., those in Rajasthan speak Rajasthani and those in Punjab speak Punjabi.

That would be great! If you know any Punjabi or Rajasthani could you post them as well? More languages ->

Kypchaks could be russian?

I think the Kypchaks do have access to some Slavic soldiers. We could give them Russian

[wudang_clown]

I think the Kypchaks do have access to some Slavic soldiers. We could give them Russian

It would be unhistorical, because people of Kievan Rus didn't speak in Russian but in Ruthenian, which is extinct language... I think Ukrainian would be more appropriate...

[Astor]

Okay, I know this will sound really unlikely, but my life is convoluted, so...
I know a bit of Ukrainian too as my mom is Ukrainian. I could help there too.

[daryush]

It would be unhistorical, because people of Kievan Rus didn't speak in Russian but in Ruthenian, which is extinct language... I think Ukrainian would be more appropriate...

Sure, thanks pointing that out

Okay, I know this will sound really unlikely, but my life is convoluted, so...
I know a bit of Ukrainian too as my mom is Ukrainian. I could help there too.

Absolutely! That would be much appreciated