I looked and I didn't find anything like what I'm thinking of so I'll just post It here. Basic idea: If you can choose a race that you play, then you start with knowledge of that specie's (That right?) language. Say you start Earth-Human, You know the earth-language, so you can't start to just spout off goblin. And if you listen to a goblin then it shows up as gibberish. (But predictable gibberish, so someone says "hello" then it will always show up as "follwk" no mater who you talk to on that continent.(Sometimes there will be a couple languages in one world)) Translating: You have to observe awhile it to make a translator or you can hire one (Translator that is) to translate for you. And if you deal with them enough, you start to memorize there language. You can also buy a "Rosetta Stone" (expensive) then use that for translating new cultures. One type of person you can hire being a translator to help learn a language. Enemies: Some enemies have a language and use it to determine if your friend or foe, so figuring out there language will let you make a device to make them not hostile. And some also use sound to determine if your hostile, so some machines make a noise that makes one of the crab species start to try and kill it when it's on. New ideas: If you have any new ideas let me know and I'll post it in a spoiler with your name if I think it's a good Idea. (I'll post even if I Don't like it.) (And I mean that the text does this language thing.)
I like the idea, but I believe the devs said something about the characters in the game talking in some Sims-type language.
I was thinking along the lines that if you don't know a language then it shows up as gibberish. (But predictable gibberish, so someone says "hello" then it will always show up as "follwk" no mater who you talk to on that continent.(Sometimes there will be a couple languages in one world)) I'll edit my post to specify this.
