Radio Chatter Really Annoying

[Ceowulf]

First, I always feel I when I'm complaining that I say how excellent this game and these Devs are.  However, they can't know what we think if we don't say...

 

I really wish the radio talk was completely overhauled, it is the most annoying minor issue of this game to me.  

 

Maybe I don't know what I'm asking for but I wish there was enough variety in tone and voice that it rarely sounded the same.  Something about hearing the same voice say the same exact thing over and over is really annoying.  It's like the announcement in an airport not to accept a bag from a stranger - got it, thanks.  The fix is probably too hard but there should probably be dozens more phrases read by dozens of voice actors.  If we can't have that, maybe an off button would be good - English subtitles with no audible chatter.

 

Secondly but less important too me, it would be nice to have an English in all planes voice chatter option.  There's some immersion I can do without.  

 

Again, these are not deal breakers.  I'm a happy player reporting a problem.

 

Ceowulf<><  

 

 

[AristocratPanda]

20 hours ago, Ceowulf said:

Secondly but less important too me, it would be nice to have an English in all planes voice chatter option.  There's some immersion I can do without.  

 

For me, understanding what I hear is vital for immersion. I love the attention to realism of this game but a pilot who doesn't understand the radio is not realistic either.

There is an english radio mod on the works by the way. I'm playing with that on right now but it can only send what the game triggers. You'll still hear the same things over and over.

[NiiranenVR]

I use this English mod too  and I still think it's difficult to understand what they are saying - wether my group or other group/same Chanell 

And I have not figured out yet, if they tell - return to base or regress / like that 

[Alfaunostebas11]

The voice on the radio, in addition to being for me virtually incomprehensible, is cavernous and devoid of tone, also repeats the same things ...
When I hear it, I exclaim: "But keep quiet old drunk ...!"
How to silence this voice? Is not there an option?

[LLv44_Damixu]

I Agee. The radio chatter is very annoying at it's current state.

[No_85_Gramps]

On 1/6/2019 at 3:59 AM, Alfaunostebas11 said:

How to silence this voice? Is not there an option?

Go into the data\audio folder and rename the "radio" folder "-radio". Kills the radio chatter but will get turned back on when there is a game update.

[Alfaunostebas11]

Very well Gramps.

Grazie mille !

[IRRE_Axurit]

I'm agree whith you, but why not a good voip system ?

We talk about that here.

 

[stupor-mundi]

If the sim allowed me too, I would long ago have taken snips and cut the wires to the blighted radio.

On 1/24/2019 at 6:29 PM, No_85_Gramps said:

Kills the radio chatter

yes, but the static remains, which alone can drive a person insane.

[LLv44_Damixu]

Re-doing radio voices the area where IL2 community could contribute and record better quality radio chatter. Just an idea.

[Feathered_IV]

I'm waiting to see how the new voices are handled for the Bodenplatte expansion before I decide whether or not it is worth purchasing.  If the present arrangement gets repeated for the US and RAF voiceovers, I don't think I would get much practical use out of it.

[Leon_Portier]

2 hours ago, LLv44_Damixu said:

Re-doing radio voices the area where IL2 community could contribute and record better quality radio chatter. Just an idea.

There are efforts already, like the english radio chatter mod (and its german counterpart)

 

As far as I know the guy who is making it is swamped in work right now, but the community voice files are in the thread waiting to be put together.

[Feathered_IV]

It isn't so much the actual voices which are at fault.  It is the lack of variety and crushing repetition which is the biggest problem.  Looking at the soundengine.cfg in the extracted Luascripts folder, you can see how individual strings of voice samples are daisy-chained together to form the robotic sentences which are pinned to one of a small number of AI actions.

 

For example, if an AI is attacking a fighter you will see the following:

// Pilot, wingman report on attacking a fighter

template = 0, "tp_mate_fighter", "eng", 30, "$MYID pil_rep_atk pil_fighter $DIRABS $DIRH $DIST pil_out"

 

This translates into: "This is Stork, attacking fighter, from the northeast.  It's close!"

 

And that's it.  That is all the AI is programmed to say in such a situation.  The direction and distance will change according to circumstances, but that is all there is.  The game is programmed to deliver exactly the same sort of phrase exactly the same if it is a bomber, attack plane, fighter, recon or transport.  If the AI is chasing an aircraft around and around and around in circles on the deck, they will repeat that they are "engaging the enemy, it's close" every time they complete a quarter turn.  This means they will repeat the same phrase over and over again until the player wants to put their head through the wall.  In the last mission I played in my Stalingrad career, I counted my AI wingman saying the "engaging the enemy, it's close" mantra repeatedly, 238 times before I was mercifully brought down by flak.

 

All other communications follow the $MYID pil_rep_ pil_action $DIRABS $DIRH $DIST formula too, so the cumulative effect in-game is one of profound repetition. 

 

I was growing bored and overly familiar with the many calls, commands and other AI radio chatter in Il-2 1946, back in 2007.  I looked forward to the new generation of flight sims, and liked to imagine how much more natural and fluid the AI radio calls would one day become.  I never imagined that they would instead devolve so completely to become one staccato and robotic string of individual sound grabs, repeated continuously to the point where they hounded me out of the game.

 

[Tyberan]

Even if they just copied exactly what was done for radio chatter in il2 1946 would be a marked improvement of what's present now. I miss the command to ask for directions to home base or mundane stuff like request landing. 

 

Or even angry Ivan in the gunner of the il2 yelling at you for doing severe flight maneuvers 

[LukeFF]

5 hours ago, Tyberan said:

I miss the command to ask for directions to home base or mundane stuff like request landing. 

 

The problem with that first radio command is that is incredibly gamey, because the player can just spam it over and over again until they see their home airfield. Combined with the compass dial on many planes automatically pointing to the next waypoint, it made proper navigation skills irrelevant. So, I hope that feature never, ever returns again, unless it's paired with a proper radar system. 

Edited February 22, 2019 by LukeFF