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Forum Name New Player Q&A
Topic subjectI don't care for this idea, myself
Topic URLhttps://forums.carrionfields.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=5&topic_id=90&mesg_id=103
103, I don't care for this idea, myself
Posted by Yanoreth on Wed 31-Dec-69 07:00 PM
It takes away the challenge of roleplaying something other than a human in a funny suit and gives you a mechanical way to feel like you're doing something. But then it is like the difference between using the old "pose" command and "emote". When you typed "pose" you would randomly emote something appropriate to your class. Some people thought this was great and did it all the time, but it was just repetitive, unimaginative, and ultimately silly. Giving people an automatic way to speak "felar" would be similar to "pose", IMHO.

Doing a good job with hard coding languages is a huge undertaking that I do not think will add more to the game than it subtracts. If you know a language or two (or at least smidgens), consider how it is possible to understand some but not all of what another person is saying. And then there is the question of even recognizing what language is being spoken. In addition, in our world there is no guarantee that a dark-elf raised in Galadon would even know the dark-elf tongue. Add quests to let people learn the languages? Sure, but that's more coding. Wouldn't you rather have new skills like 'panache'?

Plus, it would be a challenge in itself to write the language encoder so that the resulting "language" actually looked like language. But then again, encoding partial understanding of the speech would be most neat and realistic but would be a huge headache. I just have other things I'd much rather be working on.

We have no problem with small partial language sets, such as the one Vella came up with. I came up with the felar tongue in the Lyceum, and there are other partial languages scattered through the mud to be found. A few catchphrases and greeting terms for a race are fine and show creativity. If you want everyone to see gibberish when you speak... you might try to goad Pico into casting an indefinite garble on you.