Since Panzer Strategy development we wanted to add unit lines — some things units will say at random commenting on the in-game events.
During the Strategic Mind: The Pacific development we finally had enough voice actors and other resources to fulfill our long-time plan.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/991810/Strategic_Mind_The_Pacific/?beta=0
The units' speech has arrived!
We added over 700 unique lines for the US units and over 700 lines for the Empire of Japan units.
US units
1. "The US military is the most professional".
(unit line)
2. "We stand for democracy".
Japan units
1. "What does the Empire want us to do?"
2. "My life for the Emperor!"
3. "Imperial Air Service".
We strive for diversity
Every class of units had its own set of lines and triggers, like: selection, movement, attack, killing an enemy, forcing the enemy to retreat, low/out of ammo/fuel, enemy spotted, etc. Here are some of them:
1. "We running out of ammo. Arrows won't fly if the quiver is empty".
2. "We running out of fuel supplies, Sir".
3. "Enemy down!"
Unique in everything!
We had 12 core classes for each side, and a special class — B-29 bombers for the US and kamikaze units for Japan.
B-29 bombers
"Superfortress at your service!"
Kamikaze units
"Banzai!"
HQ skills
We, also, added lines for HQ skills usage:
1. All guns ready!
2. Get ready to fire again!
3. Verifying the enemy's location.
Yes, Sir!
We wanted the lines to be quite diverse — not to get repetitive fast. Yet there are only so many military commands, lines like “Yes, Sir”, that would sound 100% natural.
At the same time, hearing “Yes, Sir” all the time sounds really boring. So, we decided to experiment and add a wide range of phrases, some of them of humorous nature.
Community feedback
The community reaction varied — many did not like our approach. We think that those who do not like unit lines can switch them off in the options easily, while many other players who, like us, think that these lines bring additional diversity and fun into the game can play with them on and enjoy the game even more.
From our experience, when you play the game with units’ speech on, quite often there will be moments when the unit’s comment will fit the situation so neatly, that you start to wonder, is it not directed by some sort of AI? These moments are often quite hilarious.
Please, let us know what are your impressions and experience with the unit speech.
We will tell you more about the units’ speech in Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg in the next issue of our Developers’ Diaries.
Looking forward to your feedback
Starni Games team