Soundblock Text to Speech (TTS)

William shared this feedback ago

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Assuming sound blocks return in SE2, one of their biggest limitations in SE1 was that every sound had to be predetermined by the developers or modders. If you wanted a specific line or message, someone had to think of it first and include it in the game. If you didn’t like the voice or tone, there was no way to change it.

A good solution would be to add text-to-speech support. Players could enter a sentence and select a voice to read it aloud. As a fun touch, Marek’s voice could even be included as an Easter egg. This would make sound blocks far more flexible and useful for many different situations.

This idea is not unprecedented. Text panels and antenna broadcasts already allow players to send custom messages, and whatever systems servers use to moderate those could easily be extended to text-to-speech as well.

With this feature, any status update that would normally appear on an LCD could instead be spoken to the player. Ships and stations could feel more alive, and the scripting possibilities would be endless.

I like this feedback

Replies (4)

jerrythadog ●

I can just image the soundblock saying "Intruder in Engineering", "Reactor Critical", "six seven", "Autopilot Engaged", "Oxygen Leak on deck 4", "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that", "Ship pressurized", "Warheads armed", "Uranium detected", "Low fuel", and so much more 😃

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Stephen ●

Moderation? “Easily extended”? Yeah, okay. That’s… optimistic. Text filers are one thing, but real-time TTS is way harder to control. Servers already strugle with chat, now you want them policing voice output too?

Also, not gonna lie, sound blocks are already kinda ignored as-is. Slapping TTS on them isn’t magically gonna make people use them more, it’ll probly just give the few who do another way to be annoying.

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Tristan Sullivan ●

Its not like he's asking for an AI chat bot, TTS is really easy. Take Speakonia its from the early 2000s to 2010s and it can provide simple TTS that can be run on any potato out there. There's no challenge to making in-game TTS except for making the Phonemes. Like slap a TTS program in there and get one of the VAs or anyone to make a bunch of noises that can be turned into words. Its not that simple but its not overly optimistic, the technology exists. Lets get some AEIOU from moon base alpha like its not that deep.

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Stephen ●

Oh come on, dragging out Speakonia like it's the holy grail of tech? That relic from the dial-up era sounds like a drunk calculator trying to recite Shakespeare—hardly the "easy" fix for a game that's supposed to feel immersive in 2024. And phonemes from a VA? Sure, because nothing says "endless scripting possibilities" like paying some poor actor to gargle vowels for hours, only for it to glitch out in multiplayer and turn your epic space station into a cacophony of robotic fart noises. Moon Base Alpha memes are cute for YouTube, but in SE2? It'll just be griefers blasting "John Madden" on loop until servers melt. This isn't innovation, it's a recipe for auditory chaos and zero actual adoption. Dream on, space cowboy.

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Tristan Sullivan ●

Hold on I re read that and realized that's not even what your saying... good point.

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Tristan Sullivan ●

no reason to be that toxic though

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jerrythadog ●

"Text-to-speech" is text input not audio so i can be filtered the same way as chat. "it will glitch" is wrong because this is SE2 not SE1. If you dont like someone saying a meme thing with it then build a bigger ship or tell it to admins if they care, they could just braodcast it with the antenna anyways and that has a way bigger range.

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natec ●

A way to override standard "inventory full" message :)

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William ●

Yep, if you've got an automining script going you can be notified when you get the target amount of a resource or if you're building you could be warned at a threshold like "x amount of iron remaining". Literally anything a script or automation block detects could be put into audible words

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TheGreenGoblin ●

I like this. I think I read or saw an interview where Marek mentioned wanting the game to feel like a “living universe” or something like that and having sound blocks be more responsive to the environment through scripted TTS would certainly do that.

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