Issue:
After the new update, audio mods became completely obsolete. Mods like those that modify cinematic dialogue, or those heard when selecting units, etc., became completely obsolete. I even tried migrating the files to the Banks/Desktop folders, and they still didn’t work.
Are you aware of this?
They should because the patch notes mention that the game underwent an audio engine change. So yeah, audio mods should be useless now and I doubt they will implement backwards compatibility.
They need to tell us how to mod the sounds now. The sound files have all moved but the code for the locations of the sounds referenced in the soundset files didn’t change. I don’t understand that and I don’t know how to fix my mod. However, considering they didn’t need to update the soundsets, it seems like they should be able to implement backwards compatibility for mods. Or maybe we don’t need to update them and they’ve just broken something on their end.
The original VA mod I used stopped working too
I reported this 15 days ago and they’re still looking the other way.
wants the point of playing without it. the games new voice acting has no emotion, so unplayable
i hate the dev team behind this game, it feels like they think they are better than the original. like make the OG audio an official toggle for us!
Seemed to happen with AoE2:DE, too, in its latest patch. Wonder if they globally switched each Age game to a different file/directory structuring for audio or something
I can’t stand the new VAs (no offense), I’ve been playing Age of Mythology since I was 8 I’m 30 now, and not having an option (official or otherwise) for the Original/Legacy dialogue just grinds my gears.
The Original Box for The Titans and CDs:
Same for me.
The fact we could still play with the og voices was huge.
I urge the devs to at least give us a way to mod it back as before the sound engine change.
i just joined this forum to make complaint about it, what an asshole move to break the most downloaded mod in the game.
Last time when I played, the original campaign hero VA mod still didn’t work. Is it fixed now?
You’re absolutely right. Frankly, aside from the graphics, Retold is inferior to the original in virtually every aspect —the voice acting is subpar, the cinematic presentation falls flat (as thoroughly analyzed in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSjfc3AGpHM), and the game is plagued by endless bugs that multiply with each update. Countless features that were perfectly polished in the original and Extended Edition have been replaced with bafflingly user-hostile designs in Retold.
@FE_Yorkie
I just looked into it and it seams that the game CAN read the original sound files but It’s impossible for units to use them, You can however get them to trigger in the editor and when a unit dies but it will only play once.
I think it’s because the .Bank files have a higher priority and the game doesn’t know where to look if there is a sound override.
Update: THIS is what we all want back.
This was done by using Triggers and having the sound files in my Mod folder.
Note I had to mute the voices for this.
Dear @FE_Yorkie please look into this to see if mods like this can work again.
In case it helps anyone: the only way to restore the legacy unit voices is by adding the external sound files through soundsets, and then overwriting which ones each unit will use in its XML file.
Mani did a really clean job with this, so feel free to check his work as a reference.
As an extra tip, many legacy sounds tend to have a noticeably higher volume compared to the game’s native sounds.
You can easily adjust their volume directly from the soundsets to make them blend perfectly with the other units.
The only downside is that, unfortunately, using this method makes it incompatible with online play.
Still, for casual players, that shouldn’t be an issue — it’s definitely better than having nothing at all.
I don’t know why it needs to be a soundset considering other types of mods like UI work fine by overriding the default. Before the update having the legacy unit voices in the same location as the filename overrides the default voice lines.
Example:
[historically informed portraits] mod
inari Ōkami\game\ui_myth_4k\resources\japanese\static_color\minor_gods\inari_okami_portrait.png
I just want it to work like this, it would make sound mods much easier to make like having custom Japanese voice lines and units like adding custom music or even the Original Games music (I would like it to be a toggle feature like other remasters).
Just found out Mani updated his Mod: Legacy Hero Gameplay VA 2.0 (as @zl-AL-lz pointed out before). It is compatible with the current audio system. Now it works for campagian heroes, except for Arkanto’s battlecry.
Unfortunately, the updated mod is no longer compatible with Multiplayer or Ranked (same for another mod: Original Unit Voicelines). So I still can’t hear the original voices acting when playing multiplayer (I wanted to play Hades with original Ajax and Chiron VA)
What are the devs thinking about? Unit sounds surely do not affact gameplay…
AoE2 DE has the OG sounds as an official mod (yes, official). Why it is such a mess in Retold…
I created an Online safe version of the mod, you just need to move the greek.bank and spc.bank files somewhere else for it to work. The only problem is the Japanese spc heroes are mute because I don’t know where to put the folders.
Thanks for your effort. I will look into that.
I still hope the devs can make it into a toggle feature. It shouldn’t be too difficult if they know how the audio system works..
