Bulgaria's Voice Pack was a mistake

[marmot01]

I can't testify about Greek and Turkish, as I haven't played them yet, but the Bulgarian selection and command sounds are parody-level, it's somewhat reminiscent of Red Alert's sounds.

The voice and intonation are diametrically opposed to how a soldier would sound. As for the lines themselves, they are not what a soldier would use to address a commander, i.e. the Bulgarian army equivalents of "Yes, sir!", "Affirmative!" and so on. What they seem like is a literal translation of English or Russian, which was then voiced with no thought given to the context. The use of the word "commander" as a form of addressing a superior officer made me suspect translated Russian. Whereas in the Red army, to underline its egalitarian and "people's" nature, soldiers were divided into "fighters" and "commanders" and addressing an officer as "commander" was common, in Bulgaria this naturally didn't apply.

When addressed by a superior, the soldier would have replied with the statutory response ("Slusham!") which would literally translate into English as "I am listening!". More formally, the adressee's rank could be added - "I am listening, mister general!", with the "mister" part. The enthusiastic "I am reeadyy!" just sounds like a parody. Then the standard response of "Yes sir!" ("Tay vyarno!") would be used for accepting an order.

Overall, it would have been better to not have a voice pack than have it with this content. I loathe selecting my units now.

 

[Olanov]

Not a remedy by any means but it would be sweet if somebody from Bulgaria with a decent microphone could re-record lines for a mod. Would definitely grab that over what you've just informed us, since it sounds like a travesty.

Ideally Paradox would re-do them but I doubt the chances of that happening are likely.

 

[JackAlNXT]

The problem is less that the commands aren't the correct ones, I can live with that (have you seen Tannenberg's brilliant voiceover of: Копелета, пуснаха ни газ!). I think it's more so that they sound like cartoon characters. I was literally reminded of the old Ducktales / Chip & Dale dubbed voices while listening to them. It's kinda amusing.

 

[blahmaster6k]

Not to sound too insensitive here, but I doubt most of the people who play HoI4 are native Bulgarian speakers, so 99% of players will never be able to tell. Sure, sucks for the few who are, but it's probably not something that's very high on Paradox's priority list.

 

[Tarroque]

Not to sound too insensitive here, but I doubt most of the people who play HoI4 are native Bulgarian speakers, so 99% of players will never be able to tell. Sure, sucks for the few who are, but it's probably not something that's very high on Paradox's priority list.

Fully agreed, it would probably cost billions of dollars to redress this problem and it's just not worth it.

 

[praftd]

Not to sound too insensitive here, but I doubt most of the people who play HoI4 are native Bulgarian speakers, so 99% of players will never be able to tell. Sure, sucks for the few who are, but it's probably not something that's very high on Paradox's priority list.

That's what I always find funny about these forums. There is a laundry list of hundreds, if not thousands, of huge problems with the game. Yet the front page is always "This island is too big!", "The portrait should have a mustache!", "These borders are off my 3 KM!", "This X country flag should use Prussian Blue, not Royal Blue!"

 

[Olanov]

Fully agreed, it would probably cost billions of dollars to redress this problem and it's just not worth it.

That's what I always find funny about these forums. There is a laundry list of hundreds, if not thousands, of huge problems with the game. Yet the front page is always "This island is too big!", "The portrait should have a mustache!", "These borders are off my 3 KM!", "This X country flag should use Prussian Blue, not Royal Blue!"

I thought the post was more sarcasm, since billions is such a hyperbole of insane levels.

Hiring a VA to do 20 or so voice lines isn't a huge money drain, even if it'll cost some bucks. No doubt Paradox is making ton of bank anyway with their current DLC model and even paywalling some important features (never gonna let convoy routes go, that was scummy).

 

[pheonicia]

Voice over lines are something you hear near constantly while playing, and bad ones can certainly make your game suck. It would be interesting to know if the lines were written and voiced by people in paradox proper (like the art) or if these were also contracted out to freelancers (like the focus trees). It certainly would behoove the devs to make sure these things are done properly since they make up a huge part of the first impression.

 

[JackAlNXT]

OR! They could've just found some native Bulgarian speaker, given him a sheet of all the lines and said: "Can you check these for any grammar mistakes?" and "Do these lines sound right, and if not what should they be?" and in the end they hand the corrected sheet to the voice actor and done. Maybe give the guy who helped them a PDX t-shirt or a free DLC key as a reward. It is literally that simple.

 

[marmot01]

Копелета, пуснаха ни газ!

I've heared that and I know it could have been meme gold, if only more people would know the language.

Not to sound too insensitive here, but I doubt most of the people who play HoI4 are native Bulgarian speakers, so 99% of players will never be able to tell. Sure, sucks for the few who are, but it's probably not something that's very high on Paradox's priority list.

Sure, I know it's a niche market, but isn't it the native speakers who these custom sounds sets are made for first and foremost? For those few who would notice it, right?

That's what I always find funny about these forums. There is a laundry list of hundreds, if not thousands, of huge problems with the game. Yet the front page is always "This island is too big!", "The portrait should have a mustache!", "These borders are off my 3 KM!", "This X country flag should use Prussian Blue, not Royal Blue!"

I know this and I realize how insignificant my complaint sounds, but "if you only knew how bad things really are" I mean, it's literally better without this set. I would just mod it out and the game would be better. Yet people buying the DLC are still paying a fraction of that. And by the same token, why not record some hilariously bad Swedish or whatever sounds? That's also a niche market, isn't it.

OR! They could've just found some native Bulgarian speaker, given him a sheet of all the lines and said: "Can you check these for any grammar mistakes?" and "Do these lines sound right, and if not what should they be?" and in the end they hand the corrected sheet to the voice actor and done. Maybe give the guy who helped them a PDX t-shirt or a free DLC key as a reward. It is literally that simple.

Yep, they could have practically sourced the lines from the forums. People would have supplied youtube videos of soldiers speaking and verified the correct tone and intonation. It would have taken a couple of days to collect the samples and then give direction to the voice actor.

 

[JackAlNXT]

Yep, they could have practically sourced the lines from the forums. People would have supplied youtube videos of soldiers speaking and verified the correct tone and intonation. It would have taken a couple of days to collect the samples and then give direction to the voice actor.

It's even simpler than that. Just write down on a word document, for example, 'Командире, обстрелват ни!' and ask if this is the correct. Then the person just says: No, it should be for example "Обстрелват ни, Господин Генерал!". You don't need to source anything else. I know this because that is how the Bulgarian signs in Euro Truck Simulator 2 got made. The company released a screenshot with a billboard; I pointed out the grammar error; they corrected them and then asked me to help correct the other ones as well; and I got some free merch as a bonus. Indeed, it is THAT simple.

 

[safe-keeper]

That's what I always find funny about these forums. There is a laundry list of hundreds, if not thousands, of huge problems with the game. Yet the front page is always "This island is too big!", "The portrait should have a mustache!", "These borders are off my 3 KM!", "This X country flag should use Prussian Blue, not Royal Blue!"

As we Scandinavians say, one can have two thoughts in their head at the same time. It's possible for AI programmers to work on the AI even though someone else is replacing an anachronistic flag, and it's possible to spend five minutes fixing an island that's in the wrong place or a border and still spend the rest of the day working on important additions and fixes . It doesn't have to be either-or.

 

[safe-keeper]

OR! They could've just found some native Bulgarian speaker, given him a sheet of all the lines and said: "Can you check these for any grammar mistakes?" and "Do these lines sound right, and if not what should they be?" and in the end they hand the corrected sheet to the voice actor and done. Maybe give the guy who helped them a PDX t-shirt or a free DLC key as a reward. It is literally that simple.

I don' t know if it's the case with the Bulgarian lines, but what always amuses me is when a game has voice lines that sound cartoonish, or very directly translated from English, and the voice actors are native speakers. For a particularly amusing example, the game Lex Mortis has what sounds like a native English speaker read a script of hilariously broken English, which he... apparently didn't bother correcting for some reason?