*18.02 update*
It seems like relative pathing stepping up folders to voice files no longer are working leading to two things:
1) this feature will no longer work; no more roleplaying fighting with sounds of gunshots, radio communication etc. No more ingame funky music at apartment parties.
2) all custom voice files now has to be placed in the default folder or subfolders, meaning that you can not just delete a folder to get rid of a mod containing scripts, gui and voicepack.
Welcome back "good" old days where you have to go through multiple folders to delete customizations.
Strange, I got the impression from last FWM that customizing AO should be easier both for those making it and the end users. I guess I was wrong, or hopefully this is a bug related to the gui default folder thing.
To explain the AOU mod:
We had placed help files, voice files and sripts all in one folder called AOU, so when you deleted that folder, you would remove all the custom files, scripts, helpfiles, voicepacks. Only one extra folder had to be replaced, the one mentioned in FWM above.
Now they are making that relative, but we have to make a separate folder for the voice pack. One step backward, for a future one step forward..
Now we have two folders outside of the central folder.
*end*
This will be a technical approach to this feature, a step by step guide is available at AO-universe
/voice accepts relative paths, meaning you can direct it to files outside of the default folder that is:
Anarchy Online\cd_image\sound\sfx\player\
You can step up folders with ..\
and step down folders with /
that leads to the following command for "Omni-Tek is your friend":
/voice ..\/ingame/objects\announce
(path: Anarchy Online\cd_image\sound\sfx\ingame\objects\announce_ 01.wav)
As with previous use of the /voice command, you can only play files ending with _01.wav luckily there are 950 of those in the AO folder.
Everyone will be able to hear the sounds, as they already exist on there computer, unlike custom Voice Packs, where only those that also has downloaded the same Voice Pack can hear it.
But to use the /voice command you also need a corresponding .txt file, just as with the existing voice file, the text file dictates what is said in the chat channel, when the /voice command is activated.
a file called announce_01.txt in the above example.
an appropriate contents could be:
Omni-Tek is your friend
but the text files can include popups with pictures, and generelly behave as script files.
/me,%t,%f and %0 are not working in them.
Only those that have turned on voices under F10->Audio->Voices will hear it, and you can not run the /voice command in neither OOC or the shopping channel.
I have made a little package containing the textfiles for 56 sounds, and a panel that makes them easy to play.
You can get it Here
I have not found a way to play files that ends with names other than _01.wav
So if you succeed in that, please provide the information in this thread.
Kind Regards
Ariensky
Now enjoy the music and sounds
PS. I am glad the majority has faith in the AO population, so I can spread this RolePlaying tool.
-------Original post-------
I have found an old command that can play AO sounds..
I have wondered the past couple of days and I am unsure if I should release the knowledge on how to do it, so I will ask you all.
Would you like a feature that is able to play AO sounds ingame?
not just for you but those around you will hear it too?
You can play the city background music, the noise the beast makes when he dies, the yottos song.. The funky music from Baboons and other bars.
I can see it's usefulness in roleplaying, where you can play a gun shot, a siren, your ComUnit beeping etc.
It seems like it is an old forgotten command, like /funcom and /messagebox <text>
It has about the same difficulty as making links, limiting it to those that know how to do such things, just as today where the possibility for coloring the text in the trade channel is there, but no one uses it, to not annoy others with weird color combinations.
I have not seen any credit spammers using either colouring or links, meaning the difficulty of the procedure limits it's use.
My question is:
Is AO ready to re-discover a command that can play sounds and music from the database?
or is the fear of it being used by immature individuals so great that we would rather be without this useful roleplaying tool?
Please provide your feedback, if you would release this information or not.
This isn't a suggestion or a technical problem, but the moral dilemma if I should tell you how to do something that is potentially annoying.
I will await your feedback.
Kind Regards
Ariensky
PS. It is not a 3rd party program or any hack, it is just a command which use has been forgotten, like like /funcom and /messagebox <text>.
(and congratulations to you if you remember those two commands)