Races and their languages

What do you mean with too difficult to communicate? And why do you think it wouldn't work?

 

It's a nice idea, and this thread has been put together nicely to even show why. But I think you gotta ask yourself this. How much work would it take for them to add this suggestion to the game? With their workload and all the wonders they're putting into the game as is, do they have the time to add "this" too? Is it worth that time over the other idea's posted around?


All I know is my gut says "maybe".

 

That has been already taken in consideration many times given how much I am stressing the fact that I want to keep the feature simple, and disregard their workload: it's not intended for the game as it is now, let them do a full release first. They probably don't even look at suggestions right now.

Maybe I should start writing things in a brighter color, critiques are very much welcome but ALL of them so far have been about things that are being already addressed in the discussion if not in the OP itself, such as 10 replies talking about difficulty to communicate and how the feature is unnecessary when clearly the feature is intended to be just a side addition (therefore, if thought with this mindset and added later whenever there's time, yes, it is "worth it" whatever that means, at least in my opinion, since it's not that different from different furnitures and blocks in a way except it's a mechanic) and there would be no difficulty to communicate since it would be optional.

Maybe it's my fault, are my words too vague?

 

It would open the door to trolling and douchebaggery. Example, insulting someone in a different language to their face, or ganging up on someone. It just doesn't seem fair to me.

 

All of that can already be done, since the feature wouldn't change much. The only new thing you could do, as you said, is insulting someone in another language in front of him, of which I don't see the problem, the insulter is being a douchebag between him and himself, joke's on him. The less you understand such people, the better. Such people will find ways to "troll" nonetheless, that shouldn't stop us from putting features that have other positive sides. I don't get how you would gang up on someone in that way, save for ways this can already be done or, again, in a way that would totally not affect you anyway unless you are either infantile enough to get mad at it or prejudiced on the fact that they are insulting you because you know they are jerks, in which case proceed as with any other "troll" and, say, ban them or ignore them or something.

The following is an exaggeration of course, but I would never remove the sandbox element from the game because people could build penis-shaped structures. Not that mine is an essential feature like that, but still.

 

The OP has been cleaned as promised, and I have made several clarifications that perhaps were needed since I have seen the same concerns more than once in the thread (mostly because people think this would change the game or allow bad things that couldn't be done otherwise, which is not the case). It has also been slightly updated in the "how to learn a new language" section and, most importantly, a link to upvote the suggestion has been added on top of it!

If you put a like to the idea already your support would be appreciated verily!

 

Difference between sandbox negatives and multilingual negatives is, there are more positives to a sandbox than negatives. What kinds of positives can be seen with more than one language where everyone speaks in gibberish? That's why most Sci-Fi shows and movies tend to have everyone speaking English (or whichever dubbed language it's been ported to) and come up with some sort of "super-translator device" that just HAPPENS to translate everything into English (The TARDIS in Doctor Who, some super computer thing that never gets any explanation in Star Trek, and to a lesser extent, C-3PO in Star Wars).
When characters ARE speaking other languages, it's usually to emphasize that the character (or race) is very different and from another place.
Heck, even in Star Wars, characters who speak other languages are generally understood by everyone. Yes, there is a need for translation, but that's part of the story.
I don't doubt that other languages will be in the game in some form, as a parody at least. We already have lore that proves it (The Lusty Avian Maid). But I just can't see it as a game mechanic. It just sounds too gamebreaking to me.

 

What are these "more negatives"? How is it gamebreaking when I tailored it specifically to not change anything about the game and being a side-feature? I hope I don't have to explain this yet another time. I'm not trying to sound harsh here, I'm just trying to understand the complaint or eventually make you understand that this feature would be quite secondary: if you don't fancy it at an esthetic/conceptual level I would totally understand, but "gamebreaking" is just incompatible with it and I can't stress this enough.

Also

That is another medium and context entirely and I don't get what you mean by comparing it with that TV Trope. The feature I'm talking about, as mentioned in the OP, is implemented already in other games (identically in World of Warcraft, save for not using symbols) and it is usually just a fun addition (plus a huge load of immersion for who is into lore and roleplaying, but that is not even its main point).

 

My point is, I just think it would be an annoyance for a lot of people.
And yes I get it, secondary feature. But think of it this way. The game is now out. You're brand new, just heard of this "Starbound", and you buy it and jump into the game. and head for multiplayer. You find a cool server and start exploring. When you find another player, you're overjoyed that someone else exists! But when you try to talk to them, they'll respond with gibberish (as a joke or whatever) and walk away. That's not immersive for a lot of people. It's just annoying. And it's like yeah, it could be a server thing, but why would you want to have multiple languages that others can't understand, in a game where the world is so huge that the chances of coming across another player are slim to none? It just seems to bring more bad than good...
I'm thinking more of the rest of the indie gaming world, the "not-100k" of us who haven't heard of Starbound yet. A languages feature is just one of those things that makes the game annoying for a lot of people.
That being said though, I didn't say I don't LIKE the idea. It sounds intriguing, and as an immersist, I think it sounds fun. But again, I'm not thinking of me or anyone here. I'm presenting the negatives of the idea to give you an idea of why people WOULDN'T like it. That's all I'm doing, offering a DIFFERENT opinion.

 

Thanks, that's appreciated. However, I'm also presenting you with counter arguments, and I have in fact replied to the very points you just re-stated in your post, especially your example which I have specifically addressed earlier with what I said about "that doesn't change anything".
I'll give you that, if the issue here is how many people would find these X things (example: stumbling upon a jerk talking to you in a language you may not know) annoying versus how many wouldn't, I guess I don't have a comeback, just as much as you do not have a certainty. It's such a specific thing, for instance if I think about it I wouldn't say "so much people would find it annoying", and yet you would. I really don't know, it clearly depends on many things and honestly it still sounds like a big stretch to me anyway.

And again, to reiterate what I think of such situations, just replace "guy who is insulting me in undecipherable symbols as soon as I enter a server" (which, again, how would you know and why would you care anyway) with "guy who is building offensive things with blocks". If you still think that example is too inappropriate given how my feature is not as big and important as the sandbox element, then we might as well throw in "guy who is spamming flames projectiles and rocket launchers jumping around", or "guy who is placing loads of chairs in the open in a pyramidal shape", or even just "apex guy going around naked". Ironically, I'd say your example is perhaps the most "immersive" (and mind, I didn't say it IS immersive). This is also all disregarding the fact that immersion is not even the main point of this feature.

Also, "offering a different opinion or an idea for which people wouldn't like the feature" is a big leap from "it's gamebreaking and I think it would open doors to trolling everywhere" if I have to be honest.

 

Is there a suggestion in the box yet? Cause if there is: I can´t find it^^

 

You mean for upvoting? Yes, there's a link on top of the first post of this thread!

 

This is a pretty cool idea. Takes me back to the days of playing Neverwinter Nights 1; this sort of setup was a pretty common sight on roleplay servers and added a lot to the roleplay aspects of different races/cultures. Wow, that was a long time ago..

Having a "common" language is, to me, just a necessary part of fiction. It's the least immersion breaking option available that still allows you to understand what the hell's going on. Though that's mostly for other, non-interactive, mediums. For interactive roleplay game-type situations, there's nothing stopping people roleplaying that their character doesn't understand the "common" language (works really well if people are good at it, though I still remember all the bad roleplayers* who used to do it just to be a pain in the arse ).

*Just to clarify, i'm defining "bad roleplayers" as people who roleplay their characters as "not knowing" a language while metagaming the shit out of it.

 

Only 7 votes?

Damn that's mingy...

 

Hmmm I enjoy this idea but maybe it could work more like Ever Quest when it comes to learning a new language. Collect say five cultural items and unlock a scroll which will teach you said language. The cultural items would be hard to get drops in racial themed dungeons and planets. Not to say you couldn't find it else where but your chances would be very low.

 

That's actually pretty cool! My original idea included something like this but with generic "books" to find, this one is actually cooler and would even promote trading rares!

 

I like it (though it logically doesn´t make much sense learning the language from cultural items unless they´re Rosetta Stones )

 

Although, even if I can think of many alternatives and liked many of those that were proposed, I still think this is a good chance to reference the Babel Fish from Douglas' HG2G now that someone has pointed it out. I mean, at least something that has the word Babel in it. Did I already mention my idea for "Babel Corp. translators" scattered through the universe after they went bankrupt/their planet of origin was destroyed? Would be incredibly rare one-time use items to learn a language fully and instantly so that it reflects how I envisioned the feature, although to convey the backstory of such a thing there should be like a book for finding randomly in the game or a various set of references to this Babel Corp. to integrate it in the lore/don't make it seem totally random, and that's not really something I feel like adding to the feature, much like many things it should depend on the devs discretion.

 

Like the languages in WoW? Why not!

 

You might wanna update the opening post and add the ideas and suggestions flying around here