Languages in the game.

ArchivedUser

I’ve been thinking for a long time that I want languages in games to be something, more. More than a toggle for speaking “dwarven” or a skill bar you level up, I want it to be something in the world, part of the environment and lore. I want proper languages that we, as a community, would have to decipher and learn, something properly developed that isn’t just a substitute of our alphabet with other symbols.

Imagine finding a book in the game in script you don’t know, a book obviously filled with important lore but you cannot read it for it is written in some alien language, you discuss with your friends and the community about it when someone one day finds the rosetta stone of this language, and so begins a community effort to literally decipher and understand this language to unlock the contents of this book. And knowing this language now unlocks the key to trying to decipher other languages of the world of Verra. It isn’t some game mechanic or UI element, it’s part of the world just like the architecture of the buildings.

I know this is a very ambitious endeavour as I am literally asking for legit languages to be made for the game, it is a lot of work. But maybe I could help   . Jokes aside, I ask for much and I know it, but I think more than just me would love this, it would bring the immersion and the life of the world to a new level in my opinion.

So that is what I want, what do the rest of you lovely people think about it and what do you want?

ArchivedUser

To difficult, expensive and unrewarding. The devs can't afford to be adding any new features in at this point if they still want to meet all their deadlines. That being said it would be cool but we can't have everything. 

ArchivedUser

I could see this be a slow trickle into the game in the future, adding small things into the world in patches after launch. But it is quite a big feature to ask for, I know that, but I shall dream.

ArchivedUser

Svartie said:

I could see this be a slow trickle into the game in the future, adding small things into the world in patches after launch. But it is quite a big feature to ask for, I know that, but I shall dream.

Perhaps, but the amount of devlopment time vs actual content produced ratio would be quite low id imagine. And as with all these things, wikipedia's quickly undermine the concept.

Most MMO's already struggle with producing content at a satisfying rate for the playerbase.

ArchivedUser

I'm not sure how a wikipedia would undermine it as that is kind of the point of what I suggest, a community effort on a "meta" level kind of to try and solve it, like a big puzzle.

ArchivedUser

Such a thing will either have to be very complex so it doesn't get solved within the first week after release, as that would be pointless, or the challenge would be too hard and unrewarding for people to even bother with it.

ArchivedUser

I like collectible spoons. Screw naval battles, they should drop that and focus development on my niche subject. Every node should have it's own spoon that requires a multi-stage quest before you can get your spoon. The over-arching quest would be for the display case for your spoons. They could also add jumping puzzles with a spoon at the end and maybe a spoon wielding world boss.
<sarcasm off>
Like @Elder said, they have enough on their plate. I realize that everyone wants to wishlist and theorycraft while we wait for some actual meat to be dropped to the masses, but pleas to get them to focus on other stuff, when they have so far had a slow track record on actual delivery of promised stuff is not productive imo. When was it? June? When we saw the forum KS badges that Bacon had about halfway done, that were meant to be finished and applied wonks ago. I am very happy with actual gameplay progress that is being made, and look forward to them hitting the Dec 15th date for Alpha 0. But with a mentioned 60 developers now working on the project, a lot of little stuff seems to be just being put aside in the overarching push to get something that people can touch and play so the hype train keeps chugging along.
I would like them to keep hitting their self-imposed development milestones and get stuff out to us in a timely manner. There is going to be much hue and cry (even under NDA) if Alpha 0 runs a couple months, then they shut servers down for 4 months or so before they can push an Alpha 1 out the gate. Just like the opioid crisis in the States, you give these mmo addicts a small taste of Daddy Smack, and they are going to be selling their children for more.

ArchivedUser

It is a cool Idea but one that might actually be within reach down the road after the game has been brought to the Market. Having text written in another language not being understandable. But as you gain skill in that language you will be able to understand some of the words the more skill you have in the language the more words you can make out. I know this isnt quite what you want but it would be something that is in reach and still be kinda fun.

I definitely hope that as you start out you can only understand your own language and over time and build skill by interacting with other languages you are able to start understanding them.

With your suggestion it would also be nice for this to be extended to books, scrolls and such.

For those worried about game design load and such remember that suggestions people make are not always expected to be implemented right away and are food tools for developers to implement down the road when they have more time to add new content.

ArchivedUser

In Everquest, if you chose to speak Dwarvish and someone in chat did not know Dwarvish it would look like LHOFD S*(&#($* JHD jS&@T UJH*E# HGFw. The more Dwarvish you knew the more of that would turn into words. The way to learn Dwarvish was to group with someone who spoke it and have them speak in group and you would learn it over time.

Or

We would just spam a language near a zone line and and then that person would zone out and back in to see if he was near the language cap for Dwarvish.

ArchivedUser

I think with the massive amount of work involved in the game as it is, anything they put in would be a simple cipher like pigpen code.

I like the ideas floating around this thread though, it is feasible just not at the moment I think. And inventing new languages can be tricky to say the least!