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Mod Research (ATTN: German Members)


AKM

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Gents,

Been playing some Flashpoint: Germany again, a Cold War tactical command post exercise, basically. Finally got word back from the developers, with some feedback on how to mod and whether or not they were OK with that; they are. The game includes voice clips for GE/UK/US/USSR for contact calls and gas alerts, sadly all in accented English. While the UK/US ones are passable, I am looking to improve the USSR and GE ones by implementing native voices. I am a Russian speaker, so that's taken care of.

What I need from you lads, if you're willing to help, is what the Bundeswehr of the 1980s would have used as an initial radio message when encountering the enemy or being gassed so I can use it as a script for voice actors. If you'd be so obliging, I'll take - and effusively thank and credit in the mod readme, of course - the voice acting talents of any German speaking member of this board. .WAV file format would be preferable, but I can also work with .MP3.

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I always found it helpful to create a spreadsheet first that lists all the one-liners and the corresponding file names. That allows the translators to translate, and that provides the voice actors with a reference/checklist so no line gets forgotten.

:)

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Thank you for the advice, SSnake. However, Flashpoint: Germany is quite simplistic in this regard. There are a mere four voice files I am to replace (and other sound files, but only four requiring voice acting). I do not know what the correct protocols are for the 1980s Bundeswehr with regards to a 'Contact, wait out!' (Troops in Contact call) or a 'Gas gas gas!' alert.

For gameplay reasons, no callsigns would be required; the game does not distinguish between units when putting the voice files across.

What then, would be the correct dialogue for the German samples?

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Oh, terribly sorry! This isn't in any way competing with SB because Flashpoint: Germany is not Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis / OFP: Resistance, the progenitors to SB Pro PE's current "competition", the Armed Assault series (developed by the "civilian side" of the same dev house that builds VBS).

This is Flashpoint: Germany. A WEGO turn-based minor tactical game similar in some respects to CF command post exercise software. The most competition it could give to SB Pro PE here is if some users decided to base scenarios for SB off some of the scenarios in FP:G and actually pull the trigger on the Red Hordes themselves.

I'd completely overlooked the potential for confusion there as they are so radically different in all regards except name. Apologies for any consternation.

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It's hard to answer your questions without knowing a bit more, e.g. "tactical level" is anything from squad to battalion (arguably even up to brigade level, at least in some aspects). There is no direct equivalent to "Gas! Gas! Gas!" (of course you could directly translate it, but the actual warning yelled at squad/platoon level would be "ABC Alarm!". A battalion radio network broadcast would be slightly more sophisticated in wording, but probably similar.

So if you had a list of the original English lines and the context in which they are used, I'm sure that some of the German community members are willing to help out. But in translation, context is everything or else you get funny or misleading results.

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I do so much translation in and out of Russian that I sometimes forget how normal human beings/not university undergrads handle simple tasks: I seem to do everything the difficult, vague way by default. Apologies. I'll give you the full story, I obviously wasn't being perfectly clear earlier. That I thought I was just goes to show how far down the rabbit hole I am. I'm not sure a degree is worth all this mental degeneration...

If we define "unit" as the smallest group that can be given an order, so "a playable piece" in other words, then FP:G views units for the NATO player as being squads/sections and platoons, while for the Soviet player they are platoons and companies. Beyond this they are not divisible: I might have command of a tank battalion, and as the Soviet player that means I have three coys of tanks at ten tanks each + Bn HQ, but I don't have the ability to command an individual three tank platoon of one of those companies directly: I can only issue orders to the company commander, and the coy moves as a single unit denoted by a single marker on my screen. So I imagine we'd be talking minor tactics here; squad to company, depending on side.

The dialogue is literally:

"Gas gas gas!" (NBC attack alarm)

&

"Contact, wait out." (Contact made with enemy unit, reporting such contact to higher headquarters)

In this context. From what you've said, Ssnake, it sounds like the best German equivalent would be "ABC Alarm!" And the TiC call would also best be rendered as a section/platoon statement rather than something more advanced.

I think this because the unit giving it is invariably on the battalion/brigade net, since otherwise you'd not hear them - at least that's my logic, but they're (the developers) likely doing it for dramatic effect more than anything else.

The game's coding is not sensitive enough for me to define conditions, like have a supporting audio file mention which unit is being gassed, or where the chemical contamination is, so I can't have a more sophisticated response like "Niner, this is 2-1: Gas attack my loc vicinity 0932-1901" where I simply have a selection of numbers 0-9 and the phonetic alphabet A-Z and the coding picks out callsigns and grids and inserts the appropriate voice files; as say, OFP/Armed Assault series does.

I will actually suggest this method to the game developers for any sequels or updates, since if the radio call let you know which unit is reporting, it'd be a more ergonomic, intuitive game.

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You can already do that - by proxy.

Create a custom zone, give it a yellow border and say anything that goes within it is suffers damage within X time (you could even put some damaged friendly vehicles in there to reflect casualties from the strike) and have a message text about contamination in grid squares ... .

Doesn't work for say a non scripted (in game) strike but can certainly be used to mark a previous strike by a persistent agent that has been identified by CBRN recce.

Edited by Gibsonm
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Yeah, but it's kinda hokey as it doesn't model NBC protection systems, or punish the opening of hatches or anything. If you want NBC threat in SB Pro, wear a gas mask while playing it (I'm serious about that). It's a much better representation of the difficulties that are associated with it than anything that we could do in the software.

Sure, we could reduce the overall capacity of dismounts (reduce their speed, agility, and ability to spot enemy), but none of that actually gives a sense of the gravity of the situation.

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Danke schön. I will now find voice actors. If any Germans here are interested in taking thirty seconds out of their day to record the below two lines in .wav or .mp3 format, I thank you and you can PM me the results at any time.

Call: Chemical attack alert. English: "Gas gas gas!" German: "ABC Alarm!"

Call: Troops in Contact report. English: "Contact, wait out!" German: "Feindsichtung - warten Sie, Ende."

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