The MANY Languages of RP...and a side note

I highly dislike this idea for a number of reasons. While it sounds good on paper it will be awful if implemented. Creating an artificial barrier for communication between players in an environment which highly needs communication is not a good thing.

What are you talking about? I don't have to talk to every single person. Common would work just fine, unless your character is above such.

When I play FL I consider it as reading a book. When you read a book' date=' no matter that the main character is a drow, you still understand what the lesser races, humans, illithids and other races with racial languages say.[/quote']

Not if I make up my own language and RP it. Besides, my character has his own thoughts, which are not always visible, and there is the tell function, which negates transparency.

Also' date=' there is the efficiency factor. With games like FL, the admins need to look for efficiency i.e. what to implement so that it will take less time to create (ideologically) and code and will get us the highest results.[/quote']

Time and opportunity costs are the sole decision of the staff. This is not a viable argument.

Creating a language is a huge undertakement. Creating multiple languages is extreme. For such a huge project you need guaranteed results which can justify it. This is not the case. This suggestion will not only need a crazy amount of work but it's results will arguable to say the least.

See above argument.

Foxx does not like someones Idea?

Since channels exist already I do not see it as a major coding project. Not like say creating a malform dragon qrace. :eek: Just kidding, I actually liked that Idea Foxx.

IMHO anything we can do that helps distinguish FL from its predecessors is a step forward. Delaying progress for the sake of not "wasting time" is a waste of time.

What are you talking about? I don't have to talk to every single person. Common would work just fine' date=' unless your character is above such.[/quote']

We already have enough channels Valek.

Newbie chat.

Clan chat.

Cabal chat.

Immortal chat.

Faction chat.

Group chat.

Tell function.

Why do we need more?

Not if I make up my own language and RP it. Besides' date=' my character has his own thoughts, which are not always visible, and there is the tell function, which negates transparency.[/quote']

What stops you from making your own language as it is at the moment? I've seen people do it. If people want to RP then they should RP, not ask the immortals to code RP for them.

Time and opportunity costs are the sole decision of the staff. This is not a viable argument.

It is a very viable argument actually. If you have in mind that the work for implementing this suggestion can be used to implement a couple other smaller suggestions (like Cel's gossip system for example) and fix a ton of bugs which would you prefer? After all, time is our most important resource. If you want your suggestion to be taken seriously, first you need to put a timescale on it. Too large timescales simply aren't an option - look at the EQ balance project and you will know what I'm talking about.

Do I think this would enhance RP a fair degree, and is worth doing in the long run? Sure.

Do I think this is a very important change that should take any sort of priority over many, many other changes? No.

EDIT: For those saying that you can create your own language... yes, you can do this, but the problem is that no one will understand you. Being an Elf who can speak in an Elven dialect that only other Elves will understand is a VERY different position and makes a great deal more sense RP-wise than being an Elf and RPing that you are speaking an Elven dialect when nobody else in the game will actually understand what you are saying. Language serves a purpose: communication of ideas. If you aren't able to actually communicate with anyone, you're not RPing that you're speaking another language so much as you are babbling incoherently.

facepalm

It would add to RP. It's fun. It's not hard to put in. As I said, it's an idea and so far at least one member of the staff is intrigued in a positive way. These "other" channels I won't go down as you lose newbie after 15 and it's OOC anyways. Clan/Cabal/Faction you actually have to be part of those groups. IMM chat is ONLY available to IMMs.

ONE or TWO people could take on this project and have it done fairly quickly. I set a timetable on a project like this as of six months or less with four hours per week spent on it.

Having another viable option is not the same as having the original. I'd take a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup over some off brand gunk anyday.

EDIT: Indeed, Pali, RP languages, like the drow language going around for a while makes no sense when one or two or three people only know it. Hence the need to have the racial languages with a global attached.

Want a quick way to make a new language? Add a simple randomizer to the alphabet, so that every letter is altered according to a very simple pattern - an example being moving every letter forward two spaces so that a becomes c, b becomes d, y becomes a, etc. You will get words that are completely unrecognizable and yet follow the same grammatical rules as English. While they'd be fairly easy to translate, doing so within the timeframe of active gaming would be pretty difficult for most people.

Want a quick way to make a new language? Add a simple randomizer to the alphabet' date=' so that every letter is altered according to a very simple pattern - an example being moving every letter forward two spaces so that a becomes c, b becomes d, y becomes a, etc. You will get words that are completely unrecognizable and yet follow the same grammatical rules as English. While they'd be fairly easy to translate, doing so within the timeframe of active gaming would be pretty difficult for most people.[/quote']

snags Now assume we put in some code snippets to a racial language that does that with each race but forwards and backwards different spaces.

I can reduce the timetable on this dramatically, knocking off three to four months. Thank you, Pali...lol

To make things seem even more realistic but with still fairly simple coding, we could increase the complexity of the languages by limiting letter changes to vowel-vowel and consonant-consonant transitions, so that words are still recognized as pronounceable despite being entirely different from those that they are based upon.

For example:

Changing "lake" to "ncmg" by moving each letter forward twice results in a clearly nonsense word. However, if we instead only move each vowel forward twice amongst vowels and each consonant twice amongst consonants, we result in "nimo", which sounds a lot more like an actual word.

I for one love this idea, there has been times when I've had Liadon speak in Elvish, (normally when she curses to herself, or when she's thinking out loud) It would add a very cool RP aspect to the game along with that...

As for game mechanics, maybe doorways can be added where a word needs to be said in a certain language for it to be opened? This goes for both literal doorways and maybe even getting some quests from different individuals.

Maybe even have some Racial Special skills or spells that have to be activated in the required language.

EXAMPLE:

elf commune/cast 'Elven Might'

dwarf commune/cast 'Dwarven Might'

ect ect and the spell would grant a strength bonus to creatures/allies of that Race.

I just saw this and I like the idea. I agree with having languages not be a skill, but a separate ability. (think rehearse for bard songs but can't be practiced)

The coding aspect of this is almost 100% done. There was an awesome language system written for an c++ port of the ROM codebase (FL is ROM) but the language code was written in c. (for whatever reason)

What this system does is allow you to hear parts of the sentence based on your ability.

Elf boy speaks, "I am a dirty monkey."

Human who has 100% in elven sees exactly as above.

Dumb Giant who has 60% in elven sees, "I silv eha' dirty ehaan." <--- The elven words I just made up on the spot. The code that I suggest FL uses takes the Tolkein style elven language.

At any rate, it would be very easy to change the languages as FL needed and this could be coded in (realistically) in a couple hours.

I just saw this and I like the idea. I agree with having languages not be a skill' date=' but a separate ability. (think rehearse for bard songs but can't be practiced) What this system does is allow you to hear parts of the sentence based on your ability. [/quote'] This is pretty good. What if every race would have their own racial language at 100% meaning "fluent" (could show up on a list with the score command under Fluent Languages or have it's own command such as "languages") but learning other languages would only be possible by "hearing it" and "attempted use" (which would function like the bards rehearse [without the use of practices, of course] and you would know you were improving when the words start gradually translating) (could set up mobs for players to try and learn new languages aside from just other players) Races with a naturally higher INT will find it far easier to become "fluent" in other languages than races with naturally lower INT. Also, certain races would find it IMPOSSIBLE or ALMOST impossible to learn some languages. (Ogre or Slith for instance)

I just don't think that this would be anything but detrimental with the small pbase we have.

This is pretty good. What if every race would have their own racial language at 100% meaning "fluent" (could show up on a list with the score command under Fluent Languages or have it's own command such as "languages") but learning other languages would only be possible by "hearing it"...

I believe I forgot to mention that the improvement of languages via hearing it is implemented in the code I mentioned. I wonder what else I've forgotten... Lol.

While languages serve as a barrier to communication, it adds a layer of realism and if people wanted they could just as easily speak in common, it would be their choice to embrace the language barrier as a form of RP. Hell, I've already made characters that spoke strange languages and it was hard to RP it realistically as I didn't know when people had comprehend languages active.

And due to the sheer common spell comprehend languages this code could be made almost entirely useless! That spell has what, a 100 tick duration at 50? Maybe more. I don't remember. And you can cast it on anyone without limitation. This feature, I feel, could only enhance gameplay with at most a very minor negative affect on some who may find it frustrating that no drow will speak with them in common.