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[Syntic]

So I'm just curious if anyone has tried to use Voice Attack with Dwarf fortress and if so how well it's worked for them?

For those that don't know, Voice Attack is a program used to take voice commands and convert them into keyboard macros. Currently it seems to be popular with games like Elite Dangerous and other space games where people say things like 'Full power to shields' and the program presses the needed buttons to cause that to happen.

I though could easily imagine though someone setting up a Dwarf Fortress profile so that you say something like 'Big Farm' and then the Voice Attack program does a b p u*10 k*10 or other such things.

I know I could just try it out myself and see how it works, but as the program costs $8 I'm hoping to find out if others have already used it to help with the games I would use it for.

[Timeless Bob]

That's the first time I've heard of Voice Attack.  Kewl.

I could see Adventure mode being made a bit more interesting using this as well.

[NW_Kohaku]

It might be handy in some circumstances where you really rely upon macros, which more lies in Adventurer Mode than Fortress Mode, but keep in mind this is a game that already comes with macros. 

Hands-free macros would make sense in a game like X3, where you need like 5 hands to play, since you need one hand on steering (joystick or gamepad), one hand on guns (mouse), two hands on the normal keyboard and another on the numpad to access every hotkey in a real-time space combat simulator.  (Where you manage an RTS-like fleet through menus while at the same time being shot at and firing back from a cockpit...)

In Dwarf Fortress, where everything pauses and waits for you to tell it what to do, it's just a gimmick macro tool.  The game already comes with macros, although the macro tool is a little clunky, so having the capacity to set up more than one macro at a time without having to go to a save and load menu might be helpful.  It's not so necessary I'd go out of my way to learn a new program just to use macros for DF, though.

[snelg]

It seems like a lot of work for very little, if not negative improvement to be honest in the case of dwarf fortress. That said it's an interesting idea.

[frightlever]

I got given a Logitech G19s gaming keyboard that lets you record macros - very handy for DF. I mean I have 3 macros JUST for working my way down lists.

[NullForceOmega]

Sounds like something that could help players with disabilities tho'.

[AlBravo]

I have it and set up some basic helper commands.  I find it very helpful for stockpile lookups.  I says 'gems' and it does z, right, right, right, enter, down 41 times.  So for those long strings of commands it is a great time saver.  And I added a 3rd party female Scottish voice so it responds differently to each command.  I hope it is OK to add links here because this voice sample gives you an idea of how interactive it becomes when you add custom text to voice responses.  https://www.cereproc.com/en/node/650

[Syntic]

I'm glad to see people have tried and have found a more interesting use than my idea of prepping a farm plot to be placed somewhere.

Also as for the people that think it would have negative impact on dwarf fortress I'm not sure how exactly. Obviously if you keep it as a robot voice responding to you or something like that, it might ruin your immersion, but as AlBravo indicates you can give it a voice so it's more like you are issuing orders and that someone is responding to your order request.

As you can set the voice command to pretty much anything you could keep your short command of Gems, but also have something like 'How are we doing on Gems' and then Heather responds with 'Let's go take a look' while doing the keyboard macro. Or whatever.

The only area I think it might actually negative impact is that sometimes on older more complex fortresses you already have a bunch going on that is lagging the game. This would of course be one more program running that's taking up valuable resources.

[Urist McPanzerbeard]

I use VA a lot for Elite Dangerous, with a voicepack, I've never tried setting it up for Dorf-fort, though. I can imagine it'd be pretty useful, if you can set it up properly, plus if you can get a good dwarf voicepack it'd be great.

That's an idea, actually, a community-made dwarf fortress voice pack.

[Devin]

It would be amusing to hear someone directing their dwarves by swearing at them ala StarkRavingMad and have it actually work.

[MonkeyHead]

"FUCK YOU URIST BUILD THE FUCKING WALL..."

Macro: b, C, w, u*10, shift+enter, wait, s, down, s, down, s, down, s, down......

[BigD145]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZK_O1M8PQY

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

b b up up up up up up up .... left left left left left left left up left left enter