Has anyone at Homecoming talked about incorporating AI voices into the game?

[Skyhawke]

On 7/14/2025 at 7:41 AM, Chris24601 said:

If they were even to consider going voiced, I’d say instead of AI the community could donate their own voice work to the project. Homecoming is entirely supported by volunteer player donations. Doing some volunteer voice work would just be a different way to show support.

 

It would be a LOT of work though and really increase the size of CoH on the hard drive, so I don’t think it’s a particularly good investment of Homecoming’s resources. But if they were to do it, players volunteering their voices would be the way to go.

 

Dibs on Dillo! Hoooorb.

[VVonder]

On 7/13/2025 at 8:10 PM, Steampunkette said:

That's really cool! I'm happy that people who have visual impairments or reading difficulties have this accessibility option.

 

I think the best thing the Homecoming team could do to support that segment of the community is to promote Sidekick as an optional add-on for those with said disabilities.

 

But taking the time to go through all the missions in the game and assign voices to the characters with AI audio just seems like way too much work for way too little benefit and major ethical considerations.

 

Kudos to the developer!

 

I didn't see this thread, happy to answer any questions.

 

I have a gender from the game database for most NPCs, it picks a base voice at random and applies a random twist to basic knobs (like speaking rate).  Then the only trick is making sure that character always gets those same parameters.  You _can_ modify them to sound better/different.

 

(and some comments unrelated to Steampunkette)
 

It's hilarious that people are worried about SAG.  There is no money here.  There never will be.  The voices are either built into Windows where Microsoft paid a few shovels of cash to voice actors to develop them or other commercial companies (amazon, google, elevenlabs, openai, etc..) did similarly.  As much as I would have enjoyed sampling a certain someone for Aeon I didn't.

 

Do you want human voices?  Not a problem.  sidekick responds to chat log messages by playing wav files, the AI bit only comes in if the wav file doesn't exist.  Go ahead and record all the dialog you want.  I'd even be happy to try and make that process easier.  The only serious challenge are the dialogs that include the names of your character or the team name of a taskforce.

 

Sidekick is entirely client side.  That means no one gets voices unless they choose to.  It is based on reading the chat stream, so it induces no delays in gameplay; totally non-blocking.  For most of the cutscenes the timing is fairly decent.  It also does things like tell you which badge you just got and which level you just reached.  Things the vanilla UI doesn't do a very good job with.

 

If you don't like it that is totally up to you.  It is opt in, and as far as I'm aware that is not changing.  I enjoy playing with voices.  In my opinion it makes the game a richer experience.  All you have to do is not install it and you'll never hear a syllable of it (or do install it, odds of it not working correctly are quite a bit higher than 0%)

 

Again, happy to answer any questions.  The code is all on github.  It has been a fun project to build and while I do hope other people enjoy it I made it for myself.  I write software for a living but it is backend linux stuff, this multi-process, multi-threaded windows app in python is a nice stretch outside my comfort zone.  Even if no one uses it my goals have already been accomplished.

 

[golstat2003]

28 minutes ago, VVonder said:

 

I didn't see this thread, happy to answer any questions.

 

I have a gender from the game database for most NPCs, it picks a base voice at random and applies a random twist to basic knobs (like speaking rate).  Then the only trick is making sure that character always gets those same parameters.  You _can_ modify them to sound better/different.

 

(and some comments unrelated to Steampunkette)
 

It's hilarious that people are worried about SAG.  There is no money here.  There never will be.  The voices are either built into Windows where Microsoft paid a few shovels of cash to voice actors to develop them or other commercial companies (amazon, google, elevenlabs, openai, etc..) did similarly.  As much as I would have enjoyed sampling a certain someone for Aeon I didn't.

 

Do you want human voices?  Not a problem.  sidekick responds to chat log messages by playing wav files, the AI bit only comes in if the wav file doesn't exist.  Go ahead and record all the dialog you want.  I'd even be happy to try and make that process easier.  The only serious challenge are the dialogs that include the names of your character or the team name of a taskforce.

 

Sidekick is entirely client side.  That means no one gets voices unless they choose to.  It is based on reading the chat stream, so it induces no delays in gameplay; totally non-blocking.  For most of the cutscenes the timing is fairly decent.  It also does things like tell you which badge you just got and which level you just reached.  Things the vanilla UI doesn't do a very good job with.

 

If you don't like it that is totally up to you.  It is opt in, and as far as I'm aware that is not changing.  I enjoy playing with voices.  In my opinion it makes the game a richer experience.  All you have to do is not install it and you'll never hear a syllable of it (or do install it, odds of it not working correctly are quite a bit higher than 0%)

 

Again, happy to answer any questions.  The code is all on github.  It has been a fun project to build and while I do hope other people enjoy it I made it for myself.  I write software for a living but it is backend linux stuff, this multi-process, multi-threaded windows app in python is a nice stretch outside my comfort zone.  Even if no one uses it my goals have already been accomplished.

 

 

Sidekick sounds great, but that is not at all what I think the OP was referring to. Or what is traditionally thought of when talking about using AI voices.

 

EDIT: Had the OP specifically talked about using SideKick I think the responses and conversation would have gone differently.

Edited 15 hours ago by golstat2003

[mechahamham]

I don't get weirded out by AI art the way some people do. HOWEVER, hearing AI voices crawls right up my spine, right into the 'Flight or Fight' part of my hindbrain, and makes me start looking for weapons. To say that they drop me in 'Uncanney Valley' is an understatement. They both enrage and horrify me all at the same time.

 

DO NOT WANT.

VERY NO.

/jranger

 

For the love of all that is good and right with the world, do not unleash the demon voices!

 

Someone a little up the thread suggested volunteer voice acting. I have a stutter and lack-of-tone, so if you need someone to voice terminally socially awkward characters, I can do that.

[ZacKing]

On 7/13/2025 at 5:35 PM, El D said:

So allowing spaces explicitly for the hosting of AI generated content, where players can freely post it, share the sites and prompts used to generate it, and actively encourage others to engage in using AI is a pretty clear signal that 'Homecoming supports players doing this.'

 

If this is going to be the only measure for whether or not "Homecoming approves something", they may as well shut the forums and Discord down.  Whether or not an artwork, AI generated or not, is copyright infringing is depending on the use.  There are fair usage laws on the books in many countries.

[El D]

4 hours ago, ZacKing said:

 

If this is going to be the only measure for whether or not "Homecoming approves something", they may as well shut the forums and Discord down.  Whether or not an artwork, AI generated or not, is copyright infringing is depending on the use.  There are fair usage laws on the books in many countries.

 

It's the only measure that's relevant. If you don't support something, you don't allow it to be used under your name or promoted through your venues. Homecoming has no problem removing or prohibiting content they don't approve of, as they clearly state in their own code of conduct/terms of service and have clearly shown through on-going moderation of the forums/discord. If a user does something Homecoming's staff do not support users doing, the unsupported content is removed (and so is the user, depending on the nature of the unsupported content).

 

In this instance, said thing being actively permitted by the Homecoming staff is 'hosting hundreds upon hundreds of AI images made by 3rd party companies utilizing NCSoft's IP without a license.' Now, maybe NCSoft doesn't care about their IP being freely used by outside AI companies and recreated at-will. A lot of Korean businesses are embracing AI nowadays. Maybe some amount of the Homecoming staff see no issues - practical, ethical, or otherwise - with using generative AI in that fashion either. Hell, maybe some of the Homecoming staff use generative AI themselves. Free art is free art after all. However, strictly from the view of Homecoming being official, licensed stewards of the CoH IP - an IP that NCSoft has historically been very tightfisted over - actively permitting their users to post unlicensed 3rd party recreations multiple hundreds of times and encourage other users to help AI companies make more (and do so more accurately) on their watch and via the official site seems really dumb.

 

Or maybe AI art is just the modern replacement for all the fan art, commissions, and demo record videos we had back on Live. Outside of the 'post your best costume here' thread, AI generated content comprises the biggest art thread on the forums by a wide margin and is the largest art channel on the discord. This is, apparently, what the majority of Homecoming's art community is now.

 

 

An unlicensed copy of a real comic book cover someone else actually drew that manages to infringe on two companies at once. It's quick, it's easy, it doesn't require a commission fee, and it has totally eclipsed any other form of community-made art in both usage and views. Reminds me an awful lot of how AE has functioned in-game, come to think of it.

[Darmian]

7 minutes ago, El D said:

Reminds me an awful lot of how AE has functioned in-game, come to think of it.

What?

[battlewraith]

14 minutes ago, El D said:

Or maybe AI art is just the modern replacement for all the fan art, commissions, and demo record videos we had back on Live. Outside of the 'post your best costume here' thread, AI generated content comprises the biggest art thread on the forums by a wide margin and is the largest art channel on the discord. This is, apparently, what the majority of Homecoming's art community is now.

 

I got back into doing art in 2004 because of this game. The art community used to do competitions, art tutorials, giveaways, lots of stuff. Sad to see what it's become.

[VVonder]

5 minutes ago, battlewraith said:

 

I got back into doing art in 2004 because of this game. The art community used to do competitions, art tutorials, giveaways, lots of stuff. Sad to see what it's become.

That is perfectly fair.  The "Art and Multimedia" category ought to be divided; maybe "Original Art" and "Generated Images"?  I think that provides for the right kind of distinction.

[battlewraith]

31 minutes ago, VVonder said:

That is perfectly fair.  The "Art and Multimedia" category ought to be divided; maybe "Original Art" and "Generated Images"?  I think that provides for the right kind of distinction.

 

I dunno. A lot of artists and artist communities are circling the wagons--they won't share a space with AI content. It would be like sharing space with an abuser. 

[El D]

26 minutes ago, Darmian said:

What?

 

The core thought behind the comparison was 'overly popular tunnel vision fast tracks to their respective end goals.' AE is the quickest, most efficient way to reach high amounts of XP/inf and hit the level cap, so it's what a bunch of people do. Doesn't require engagement with the community or any other game content. Fast, easy, can even be done without actually playing the game. Similarly, AI is the quickest, most efficient way to produce images, so its what a bunch of people do. Doesn't require any initiative or actual creation, just 'I want a picture as fast as possible with the minimum of personal cost and time investment.' Fast, easy, no artistic skills or talent required. Though, overall that might be giving AE too much flack. Even with the prevalence of farming, AE at least requires some level of human interaction when it comes to testing, playing, and writing the non-farming content. Generative AI just copies things that neither the users nor the AI companies had any hand in making at all (or, often, have any ownership of).

 

Bit jarring to just throw in at the end of the prior post, I'll admit, but the prevalent methods of how both were used only struck me in that moment. Train of thought writing and all that.

 

43 minutes ago, battlewraith said:

I got back into doing art in 2004 because of this game. The art community used to do competitions, art tutorials, giveaways, lots of stuff. Sad to see what it's become.

 

Pretty much the same. I look at the AI posts like this one and think back to the Stan and Lou shorts or the Dance Gun Word Up video from the ole days and it's just depressing.

 

Back to OP's post, while AI voices as a creative replacement would be abhorrent, implementing a limited text-to-speech accessibility option wouldn't be a bad idea. Some folks have already suggested that in other threads. I'm not really all that sure how much use it would get given MMOs in-general are very text heavy and CoH is at the deep end of that spectrum, though. Combined with how fast players move through maps, any use of voices - AI or text-to-speech - seems like it'd just become a huge jumbled wall of sound. But hey, if text-to-speech would earnestly benefit someone and the devs have interest/time to make it work, why not?

[Darmian]

43 minutes ago, El D said:

Train of thought writing and all that.

Well, fair enough.  I never use it like that but I suppose I'm in a minority.