Unique Default COVAS for Different Ship Manufacturers

[Snowy Fox]

In the stream this evening, a rather nice surprise addition was revealed in the form of customisable "COVAS," as it was referred to, or the voice of a ship's computer. In addition to the familiar "Verity," a new voice, "Victor," was introduced. Judging by what was said by Ed Lewis and Sandro Sammarco during the stream, it seems the idea is that they'll be adding more of these COVAS voices in future updates, and we will be able to choose between them. I may have missed the point if it was, but whether the chosen voice will cover all ships, fighters and SRVs, respectively, or be chosen on an individual vehicle-by-vehicle basis, was not made clear. Personally, I'd like to see the latter.

What I really wanted to suggest with this post, though, is that if the voice is indeed applied on a ship-by-ship basis, it would be a really cool addition if, as more voices are added, the ships of each manufacturer - Faulcon DeLacy, Lakon, Gutamaya etc - defaulted to a different voice.

I've often thought it would be nice if the different companies' ships felt more like they'd been built by different companies. With each one using the exact same standard HUD, system sounds and so on, they do feel a bit too standardised. Obviously, you wouldn't want any such differences made to be too extreme - such as by changing the HUD layout, flight control scheme, or side panel arrangements - as it would mean re-learning whole aspects of the game whenever switching to one of a given manufacturer's ships for the first time. Still, small changes, such as text font, HUD colour, and indeed, a different default ship's voice, would go a long way to making each manufacturer's ships feel more unique to that manufacturer.

If they like the suggestion, since the COVAS system is only just now being introduced, I see it being little additional work for Frontier to include the extra touch of different manufacturers using a different default voice.

Is this something anyone else would like to see? What other reasonable changes do you think could be made to make the different manufacturers' ships feel more unique to them? What kind of voices do you think the different manufacturers' ships would have?

 

[Syrelai]

I would love to see manufacturer specific default voices, I think that would be really immersive.

As far as having different HUD displays, I believe this would be absolutely tremendous. Nothing drastic that really changes the layout of where things are placed or organized, but something like maybe a hexagon outline for the center radar for Lakon ships (they are usually sort of edgy and flat, think ASP), and maybe instead of squares for the different tabs of the left and right panels, edges like the edges of a stop sign hexagon to tie it all together. For the passenger ship makers, rounded edges even. Something that gives the ship a more cosmetic "style".

This would be really easy to do with a little time...

I know it would be a huge rework for them to introduce official HUD colors, but just about every person I've met in game or in real life that plays the game wants them, even if it was a paid addition like detailing. I'd spend a cold $5 for each option, easily and without question. I really like the detailing aspect of ships, it really helps you feel like it's "yours" when you can customize details of the interior.

A man can dream.

Tying it all together, you could go the extra mile and have "HUD packs" that you could purchase per manufacturer that would come in 4 different colors (determined by the manufacturers style). I can see Lakon being different shades of blue and white with cream highlights (for shields), CORE Dynamics shades of red/gray to represent the FEDERATION, Empire would have the aqua shades, etc... Maybe a bit of a stretch but hey, again, a man can dream.

The benefits are not only a monetary return on investment to rework this sort of thing, but I'd feel happier flying different ships that would have a more unique "feel" as well as my own personal "touch" that's viewable to me only unless I want to show off in Multi-Crew, like bobbleheads and the like.

 

[Snowy Fox]

I know it would be a huge rework for them to introduce official HUD colors, but just about every person I've met in game or in real life that plays the game wants them, even if it was a paid addition like detailing.

It probably wouldn't be that big of a rework - all that would need designing and developing are the tools to change the colours in-game. However, considering how up until now, people have been able to modify their HUD colour by editing a config file, I think putting that behind a paywall would an awful lot of players off. It would also kind of undermine the point of having manufacturer-specific stylistic touches in the first place, as people would need to buy them in order to see them, rather than going from a DeLacy ship to a Lakon for the first time and going "wow, this looks and feels really different. It's cool!"

Rather, I think it would make more sense to develop defaults of such things for each manufacturer, and then add in the option for further customisations as microtransactions. For example, DeLacy and Lakon would have their own manufacturer-specific "GUI skins," but you could also buy custom ones that you would then have the option to switch to in any of your ships or other vehicles. The same could be true of COVAS - and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they start putting additional COVAS voices on the store anyway - and whatever other cosmetic changes they might be able to make.