OK, for you Voice Attack / HCS voicepack users out there...

[Don Alvarez]

... I'm thinking about breaking down and getting Voice Attack to help me be a moar awesome pilot, even though me constantly barking at my computer will probably annoy the hell out of my wife. I was also thinking if I'm going to do that, may as well go all the way and get a voicepack as well. I listened to alot of the samples on their website, and I just don't know which I'd want to get. I'd be looking for something with a bit of humour (since they don't seem to have one that's a hot chick)

Any recommendations?

 

[Zarlok]

Go to the website and have a listen that way you will get to hear before you buy. As for humour most commands are similar. I have the Astra pack and use it all the time. Much better than bashing the keyboard.

 

[Don Alvarez]

Go to the website and have a listen that way you will get to hear before you buy. As for humour most commands are similar. I have the Astra pack and use it all the time. Much better than bashing the keyboard.

Yeah I've listened to most but its just hard to get a vibe. Like Shatner's. I mean its cool because it Shatner, but listening to it on the video kind sound boring. Obsidian's kinda sounds interesting, but he has a great voice. Sounds like an Australian Jason Statham.

 

[h347h]

It is nice to have. I have the Verity pack to make it mesh with the game better. It won't really enhance combat ability any it just makes the game more immersive and if you use a controller or HOTAS far more convenient as you don't have to map as much stuff. Still I say break down and grab it.

 

[Don Alvarez]

It won't really enhance combat ability any it just makes the game more immersive and if you use a controller or HOTAS far more convenient as you don't have to map as much stuff.

Well that would help, actually. I have to take my hands of the controls to reach stuff bound to my keyboard. I could probably be more aggressive with power management if I didn't have to do that.

 

[vrseven]

I came here expecting cake and balloons...where are they?

 

[Mohrgan]

I bought Voice Attack just to have the Orion pack, I initially got the Verity pack for the set up/break in period as the Orion pack was still on pre-order. There is very little difference, functionally, between the two. Some of the galaxy questions you can ask has Orion deferring to Verity for the answers. But, I still get a kick out of it.

I only trust Voice Attack with mundane duties like, landing gear, lights, and some throttle control, and never boost. It can ignore you, or misfire, and leaving combat commands to it seems like a bad idea. It really does spice up the experience though. I do recommend it overall.

 

[agentmoo]

It takes a lot of time to set up VA just right, and once you do you won't want to play without it.

 

[[VR] Enexemander]

It takes a lot of time to set up VA just right, and once you do you won't want to play without it.

Do the voice packs add anything if you aren't using the voice commands specifically? Like, if I get the Obsidian Ant pack will he just pop off about how beautiful the system I'm exploring is, or whatever?

 

[Mohrgan]

Do the voice packs add anything if you aren't using the voice commands specifically? Like, if I get the Obsidian Ant pack will he just pop off about how beautiful the system I'm exploring is, or whatever?

Voice Packs brought me a bunch of built in commands I didn't have to program and debug. It launches my ship, works the Landing gear, lights, and can set my throttle. It has commands to open the Galaxy, and System maps. All pretty cool. It can do a bunch more, but I keep some jobs to myself. And, I didn't need to learn how to Voice Attack to do it. The best part is I get to fly around with William Shatner chatting with me.

There is a part of the Orion pack that purports to be a guided tour of the Pleiades Nebula. I have every intention, when the time is right, for Orion to bring me on that tour.

 

[deckroid]

I have DORIS and ORION and I am thinking of picking up OBSIDIAN cuz... hey... I could travel the stars with him as a copilot. I would like to get Brian Blessed as well, but he seems a bit frantically crazy for a nice jaunt out to the stars.

Of the two I have, I love ORION. DORIS is... um... a bit unpredictable? Believe the website about possible dangers with her. And I would never use Voice Attack for combat. You have to say aloud about a full second to a second and a half before what you want done. Other wise you will still be saying "Full Shields" when you hear EJECT EJECT EJECT... True Story.

I mainly use VA for trade or exploration.

 

[Grizz Jabarie]

Highly recommend the "Doris" voicepack. She's quite witty, insulting at times.... just plain doesn't like you but her programming forces her to help you otherwise. (Similar to some marriages I guess ) :O

 

[Vingtetun]

Hutton Orbital Radio are saving up to commission and pay for our very own special pack..... if you are familiar with a few of the radio characters you can guess which one!

 

[Cyrgon]

Do the voice packs add anything if you aren't using the voice commands specifically? Like, if I get the Obsidian Ant pack will he just pop off about how beautiful the system I'm exploring is, or whatever?

Not sure I totally follow, but if you're asking if you can get unprompted comments - yes, if you're using something like EDDI that tracks your location and ship status and triggers responses - like telling you the system you're traveling to, or what modules are damaged. I suppose you could set up a script choosing randomly between voice files, so you could have it trigger a random comment when certain conditions are met.

 

[[VR] Enexemander]

Not sure I totally follow, but if you're asking if you can get unprompted comments - yes, if you're using something like EDDI that tracks your location and ship status and triggers responses - like telling you the system you're traveling to, or what modules are damaged. I suppose you could set up a script choosing randomly between voice files, so you could have it trigger a random comment when certain conditions are met.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I mean. I like the idea of the ship feeling more alive. I don't think I'd get much use out of voice commands themselves, though. I usually play at night and I don't think the lady would appreciate me talking to the computer while she's trying to sleep in the next room!

It's a very neat idea, though.

 

[Pville_Piper]

I have Orion and he's okay. The jokes get a bit stale after awhile. Basic commands work well but things like "Request Docking" can problematic. Sometimes it just doesn't work. You can "Reset Panels" and sometimes this works but sometimes not. I've tried a few things and nothing seems to get it back in sync with the correct tabs all of the time. "Dismiss Ship" is another one that fails constantly. It will go there but won't always press the button.
I wish FD would make the "Request Docking" a keybind. Nothing destroys the "immersion" (and oh how I hate to use such an overused cliché) but having to take my focus away from the approach just to do that is ridiculous. I mean come on FD, haven't you gotten the word about distracted driving!

 

[MarkAusten]

I rarely use my voice packs these days are they are very limited in their responses. If you want something outside of the canned statements you have to go back the the installed voices on you PC. I still use them for the information stuff but not the running of the ship. Nor do I use the voice control, funnily enough, it disturbs my wife and after a while I felt very odd talking to my computer. Instead I use VA to hold various macros that I can trigger from the keyboard to run things.

Horses for courses I guess. I wouldn't be without it but I don't use it the way that it was designed.

 

[Nagual]

Had Va for a while, but only recently bought Orion. Love the packs for the ship commands, they really make the game flow better. Combined with my EDTracker Pro, and the game changes even more. My biggest gripe is that they don't read your control binds and use them, rather forcing you to change either your control set up or edit the packs. I believe there is a free pack called Ocellus which is being designed by a forum member I think, it uses a plugin similar to EDDI, but also has keybind reading built in. Yet to play with it, but it looks good.

Not had any issues with the HCS packs or VA failing (other than not knowing my voice, but thats a windows thing) requesting docking without looking at the panels or pressing a key is a pleasure.

In short the HCS packs add some content that you will not get anywhere else, but for basic ship control you don't need them as there are other free packs out there that do that. However, if you like the voices supplied with the packs you can set them up differently that the way you get them. For instance, every time I say "Galaxy Map" I really hate the smug reply of "Stellar Cartography", smarty pants Kirk always correcting me... So I changed it.

 

[xondk]

... I'm thinking about breaking down and getting Voice Attack to help me be a moar awesome pilot, even though me constantly barking at my computer will probably annoy the hell out of my wife. I was also thinking if I'm going to do that, may as well go all the way and get a voicepack as well. I listened to alot of the samples on their website, and I just don't know which I'd want to get. I'd be looking for something with a bit of humour (since they don't seem to have one that's a hot chick)

Any recommendations?

To note: Voice attack can also be used for creating macro's for key presses, or joystick buttons, so you do not NEED to talk to it, and if you are using a headset you don't need to speak loudly.

 

[ZerooTrace]

VA (once setup properly as mentioned earlier) can be immersive as well as making things much more fluid. In dogfights, I no longer have to fiddle with keys/buttons to distribute power. I simply say 'balance shields engines' and it puts 3 pips into each system or whichever systems I choose. Locking onto next hostile is as easy as saying just that, 'next hostile', and firing on your wingmans target is easy too ('wingmans target'). Everything just seems so much more fluid and intuitive since I installed VA and a couple voice packs. They don't even have to be paid for voice packs, there are a few good community made packs as well.

I don't profile switch because I find it wastes to much time in combat. Instead I create my own profile with the commands I want from each voice pack. Currently I'm working on an Orion/KICS 4/VEGA setup. This takes a fair amount of time, and to do some niftier tricks you have to understand the token system (variables). It's well worth it though.

Here's a video of multiple clips of Orion and KICS together, I haven't started into the VEGA commands yet.
*Note: This is pre-DAW so no audio effects or equalization is done on this. Sometimes the music muddies the verbal sounds. I don't save the streamed feed post-DAW. Also, I'm running the game and 12 other programs off my laptop because my gaming rig toasted, so graphics and frames are low..

[video=youtube_share;lJb2LN-XmBM]https://youtu.be/lJb2LN-XmBM[/video]