I don''t know about anyone else, but one thing that has always bugged me, is why you have several dozen (or more) different sentient species, each with its own culture, and yet they all seem only capable of speaking one language. While the reason for a common tongue is obvious, why not also have a different native tongue for each species? The tongues could be learnable, so that a player would eventually be able to understand a language, if they concentrated on the skill for long enough (the player''s species'' native language starts out at mastery level), and would enable characters, say for example, two goblins (NPCs in a CRPG, players in an MMO) to speak in their native tongue in a crowded room, and minimise the chance of being overheard. I believe that this could add significant depth, and twist to a game. As to how to go about it, my thoughts were to do it via keyword when the character speaks. eg: "Goblin% What do you want here?", where "Goblin%" is the keyword, announcing that the rest of the line is in Goblin. That line could then be coded using simple cryptology (every letter incl. space changed with another letter, space could be swapped with a vowel) That way, the line would come out as total, yet unchanging gibberish to the player without the skill, and, as the player aquires skill in the language, swap the letters back. - Say retain one letter as it should be, for every 3% mastered, or something similar. The thoughts of those less insane than myself would be most welcome

While I don''t know about any other online RPGs, Everquest already uses a system almost exactly as you described. It''s just that very few people bother to use it.

I didn''t know that. Just when I thought I had a good idea. Ah, well

it''s a good idea nonetheless..
don''t sell yourself short.


No More Clones!
Stop The Madness!

This has been done a few times. It''s a nice way to add flavor to an online game.

I remember one text-based MUD where the game would check if you were talking to someone of the same species (or an NPC) and if so, it would switch to the native tongue.

And depending on how well you understood the language another character was using, the computer would replace some of the words with nonsense words.

Playing a low intelligence character was a lot of fun.

That is a really wicked idea. That would add loads of flavor to online games but I wonder about how many people would utilize it. Most online adventure games are a bunch of level 500 losers playing hack and slash. They don''t want to roleplay. Also it might be a bit annoying for those people who want to play with their real friends and everyone plays a different species.

The solution to the second problem is easy, have a standard language for the game that everyone can speak from the beginning. For private matters they could use a different language but when just making a public statement they could speak in the standard language.

The problem with getting people to give a damn about the language is more difficult. Too many people just hack-and-slash through online adventure games. I wish someone would put some incentive to role-play in these games. Hack-and-slash is boring.

Tildruin, Giants Hill, [online fantasy rpg] will feature languages. If a player visits an orc town, he better know some orc tongue or he won''t be able to understand a thing the village people are saying. Languages will also be learnt for quests, to unlock the powers of magical items. Imagine finding a sword with runes in a forgotten tongue. By learning a fraction of that language the wielder will eventually be able to utter the answer to the riddle scribed on the sword. By uttering that keyword, the sword will unleash it''s powers.

Our language system is complex and is based upon Shannons communication theory.


To get a picture of what languages will look like you can visit this link:

http://www.tildruin.com/egroup_languages.asp


Cheers,
Thorgil

quote: Original post by FenrisD
The problem with getting people to give a damn about the language is more difficult. Too many people just hack-and-slash through online adventure games. I wish someone would put some incentive to role-play in these games. Hack-and-slash is boring.

Yes, and its surprising how many people agree with you. Many, many MUDders are all for roleplay. Most avoid the MMOs because they don''t have the roleplay atmosphere. To paraphrase an old film whose name I cannot recall: "If we build it, they will come"