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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
I think I prefer Spanman in this case. Sounds like a superhero from the 50's.
Definitely better than sperman
"Sperman Chumley, Attorney of the Sea. I have a cease-and-desist order from the courts right here. Now back away from those dolphins."
like i said, the tag should be more like an official suggestion, if there are servers tagged as french/german/spanish/whathaveyou so those people are more likely to go there, not that you get banned for not speaking the language, that alone in of itself is a huge deal
But, the devs have said there will be ways for us to determine which communities are on which servers before we join a server.
This is the "idiot server".
Hot dog, that's the one for me!
I find the language eqituettes interesting.
The International language is English, but if there is a region with many languages English is a solution.
I speak Spanish as my native language and my best experiences in MMOs have always been in International servers, the competitiveness that is generated by nationality or language is incredibly nice and encourages competition.
In my BDO server there were 4 languages (French, Chinese, English and Spanish), the competitiveness, diplomacy, alliances, wars that were generated only by the difference of nationality / language was incredible and that encouraged the guilds to improve.
The Hispanics made alliances with the English at certain times to defeat the Chinese or some English made alliances with Hispanics to defeat other English, it was really incredible, sociable and fun.
That said, that a server is International in a strategic pvp MMO is good because it encourages many positive things, obviously there are also negative things but it depends on the set of people how they handle those problems.
Yeah, for sure, but then when the next set of mergers are needed, it becomes German, Spanish, Polish and Italian.
The reason I point this out as a downside is because the OP seems to want to play on a server that mostly speaks their native language (a reasonable desire imo). I am simply pointing out that such a server is likely to only be short lived in a game like Ashes, regardless of language tags.
They are still potentially worthwhile in regards to being a means of getting all players speaking that language on to one server.
However, what I would be aiming for if I was Intrepid (and I believe I have been suggesting this to MMO developers as far back as ESO) is to integrate Google Translate in to the game client (I believe someone suggested this above in this thread as well).
That would be cool. I think I would worry about potential security exploits, but if they can make it work integrating translate itself could have some definite benefits.
I think I would still want a vetted auto-fill dictionary of phrases relevant to the game in the top languages spoken by users and some basic 'gamer' jargon/courtesies, which Google translate doesn't handle as easily. Having both tools would be ideal.
The language tag would still be useful in such a case for establishing an in initial population and what language you give courtesy to. I think you bring up a reasonable point relative to server merges. I think if you had both tools available people would also be more accepting of slapping a french/english tag together and then switching to 'global - time zone' style tag after yet another merge. After all the original populations are small enough at that point that it stops making sense to decide courtesy that way.
These are basically my thoughts exactly.
I am unsure if it is possible to implement a Google Translate type system in to chat and have it use your own library of terms or not - my assumption was that this would be possible, but I have not actually made any effort to look in to if you can. If it is possible, this may be a work around to needing two tools, but if it is not possible, a tool with common phrases would be an absolute must.
Even with either or both though, tags are a good thing. Whether people like it or not (or understand it or not), the language we speak natively dictates many aspects of the way we look at the world around us. A simple example of this is that people from areas where the language doesn't have a word for pink simply see red when looking at something that we would consider pink. Similar to that, Scotland has over 400 words for different types of snow. Where someone from elsewhere in the world may simply say "It's snowing", someone in Scotland (note, not all Scots would use or even know all 400+ terms) may refer to it as "sneesl" (starting to snow), as "flindrikin" (light snowfall), or as "snaw-pouther" (driving snow).
I am not going to pretend that I know enough about the differences in languages and how they shape native speakers views of the word other than to say that I know it is a phenomenon that exists, and as such it is perfectly reasonable (imo) for players to want to play an MMO with speakers of their same language - even if translate tools exist.
To clarify, the reason I feel a dictionary might still be necessary even with direct translation is some gaming communities (the particular examples I know of in particular are German and Japanese) have different words for specific concepts in things like combat games and mmos that are more so references as a result of their own communities history, memes, and culture. I know in some cases even small idioms from different aspects of life can come up occasionally and unless you already know what that cultures idioms are or know what their jargon is derived from, google translate won't help you as well as an autofill direct dictionary vetted by translators who know the community might. I do agree though that even without it google translate could help people bumble through it. But it would be bumbling. Autofill dictionaries have the side benefit, on the other hand, of making typing in party chat easier to say strategic things more quickly. So, it's a QoL buff in multiple ways.
Yeah it really does shape the way you think. I personally prefer to hang out on servers that don't speak my native language when a translate tool is available. It's usually relaxing and refreshing to hang around different mindsets for me and it's really easy to encounter them that way due to that shaping effect.