Characters have accents in Basic

[DeadLantern]

We currently have Auto Hiss for only alien species speaking Basic. These all make sense, and I believe they are well implemented and not too annoying.

However, we seemed to have forgotten that Humans speak a variety of first languages, and for many Basic would be a 2nd language. Here is what I propose:

In the character select screen, when you are choosing the amount of languages your character speaks, there will be some numerals on the side. You can can change the language's number, which would select if it was a 2nd learned language, their mother language, 3rd langauge, etc. Accents in Basic would be decided through which language is number 1, or their native tongue. There would be a distinct accent for those speaking Basic.

You could, of course, apply this for every single language in the game. I think this is the opposite of necessary, but could happen. What I want right now is accents in Basic, because everyone speaks Basic.

Onto what would the accents be. Sol Common could have a slight Asian accent. Other than that, I have no idea on how Free speak, tradeband, etc, etc would speak like.

You could also have differences within each language (Earth accent, Martian accent, outer colony accent). But that would be a lot more work.

Thanks for reading

[Itanimulli]

This actually sounds somewhat neat. But like, are we going full on stereotype with the accents? Tradeband would be something latin (not latino, some sort of mix between Italian, French, Olde English, and Spain Spanish). I think freespeak would be....I don't know, how do growls translate into other languages?

[DeadLantern]

1 hour ago, Itanimulli said:

This actually sounds somewhat neat. But like, are we going full on stereotype with the accents? Tradeband would be something latin (not latino, some sort of mix between Italian, French, Olde English, and Spain Spanish). I think freespeak would be....I don't know, how do growls translate into other languages?

We should implement with the same intensity the xeno races have. Enough to be recognized, but not enough to make their speech impossible to understand. Maybe a few letters are switched around, a few expanded or missing.

[Ornias]

I like the idea of having mechanically recognizable accents, but this is a very limiting way of doing it.

A 'Solarian Accent' is an incredibly broad thing- as you've recognized. My Eridanian character knows Sol Common as his first language since that's the primary spoken language in Eridani, yet this would make him mechanically sound identical to someone who's lived in the Philippines their whole life. Even if you do segment the accents, there's no feasible way you could segment them far enough. My characters have distinct accents highlighting their history WITHIN Earth (because it's, despite being ruled by a OWG, still vastly different from place to place). Should an Australian accent be the same as a Malaysian one?

Plus, everyone who's old enough to have been alive before the invent of TCB will all have Solarian accents, even if they've lived in Biesel since it's conception.

What about the fact that my accent will invariably change from the places I've been? I don't know if there's ANYONE in our galaxy who learned Tradeband before Sol Common or TCB, and if there was, that's the kind of thing that should be explored ICly, rather than given away immediately by the mechanics.

How would these accents be represented? A different font? Actual mechanical differences? The fact that Aliens struggle with TCB is used to highlight their alien nature, and I don't like the idea of cutting away that difference.

Why only Basic? I'd think that Basic would be the LEAST likely to have an accent- what with how it was DESIGNED to be easily spoken and not have any complex sounds aliens could not speak.

There's a way to do this, but I just don't feel like this is it. Sorry :^(

[DeadLantern]

4 minutes ago, Ornias said:

I like the idea of having mechanically recognizable accents, but this is a very limiting way of doing it.

A 'Solarian Accent' is an incredibly broad thing- as you've recognized. My Eridanian character knows Sol Common as his first language since that's the primary spoken language in Eridani, yet this would make him mechanically sound identical to someone who's lived in the Philippines their whole life. Even if you do segment the accents, there's no feasible way you could segment them far enough. My characters have distinct accents highlighting their history WITHIN Earth (because it's, despite being ruled by a OWG, still vastly different from place to place). Should an Australian accent be the same as a Malaysian one?

Plus, everyone who's old enough to have been alive before the invent of TCB will all have Solarian accents, even if they've lived in Biesel since it's conception.

What about the fact that my accent will invariably change from the places I've been? I don't know if there's ANYONE in our galaxy who learned Tradeband before Sol Common or TCB, and if there was, that's the kind of thing that should be explored ICly, rather than given away immediately by the mechanics.

How would these accents be represented? A different font? Actual mechanical differences? The fact that Aliens struggle with TCB is used to highlight their alien nature, and I don't like the idea of cutting away that difference.

Why only Basic? I'd think that Basic would be the LEAST likely to have an accent- what with how it was DESIGNED to be easily spoken and not have any complex sounds aliens could not speak.

There's a way to do this, but I just don't feel like this is it. Sorry :^(

1. A language is only a language if it has native speakers. Until then, it's considered a pidgin. Since it's not told, it could be assumed that there are at least a few native speakers of tradeband, perhaps those raised on a trading station.

2. What you can do to fix the problem of different accents for the same language is to not use my number system, but use a menu. There will be a menu next to Tau Ceti Basic in the select screen, and you can choose your accent there. Martian Sol Common, Elryan Sol Common, etc.

3. If your accent changes, then simply change the accent you have. You don't really have a mixture of two accents if you've been in two places. You'll grow to the accent that other people around you speak.

4. It would be implemented the same way xeno accents are implemented. No font change, no color change. It's not a new language, it's an accent in another language. You would extend or shorten or add or take away letters when you type out one. It's like when you type X as Unathi, and get Kss.

5. Yes, correct, accent differences in xenos are there to make xenos feel different. By adding this in, we will make humans, an extremely diverse group, feel separate from each other. This will create more differences and more chance for RP, as well as showing lore in game.

6. It doesn't only have to be basic, but we should start with basic. This will take a lot of work, so we should start here. Also, no matter how easy you make the language, it's always going to have new sounds and new vowels and new everything. So an accent would still be present.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Humanity is too diverse for mechanical implementation of accents.

[Itanimulli]

On further thought, I realize that there are a ton of languages with discernable accents IRL, and this would really not be feasible to do considering the thousands of dialects that might show up if humanity expands to multiple planets.

[ComradeCorbyn]

I absolutely love this idea, however, I have to agree that humanity is way too diverse for what has been suggested. Instead, I think we should continue with this idea and run with it - except how we should have different "languages" I suppose based on a character's place of birth (galaxy) and main spoken language. I don't think this idea should be ditched.

[DeadLantern]

50 minutes ago, ComradeCorbyn said:

I absolutely love this idea, however, I have to agree that humanity is way too diverse for what has been suggested. Instead, I think we should continue with this idea and run with it - except how we should have different "languages" I suppose based on a character's place of birth (galaxy) and main spoken language. I don't think this idea should be ditched.

This would make it quite easy, but you would have to add multiple places of birth and remove the "other" feature to the character select screen. Right now you choose the system you were born in, not the planet. This would make Sol common same for everyone--Martians, Eartheans, outer colony-men, which are assumed to have different sounding accents or even dialects. You would probably have to make it planet, and seeing Earth, even that may be too non specific. 

[Hendricks]

I love the idea, but I think Tradeband should still be the most delicate and untouched or if at most more blunt. I like Tradeband the most because I like the Latin mix language aspect. As for accents and making them optional I think is a great idea. Maybe make gutter or Freespeak harsh and blunt. Kind of like Ye' for yeah or yes. Or nah or a mix of shortened harsh words since there supposed to sound like a growled language apparently. If it's the right one I'm thinking of. The character Brayden Parker is a great inspiration for an accent.

[Zundy]

This was something we tried to get implemented in the past for Basic. Essentially you pick the type of Basic (say Sol-Basic) and the prefix of your sentence would change for example, a Dominian speaking Basic would appears as - Domino's McPizza utters "What if the offworlder consents though?". 

 

This might be something we could still do but with basic only at this stage. Coders thoughts on this?

Edited March 10, 2019 by Zundy
t y p o s

[Scheveningen]

Not really worth the effort involved. It's better if people put forward the effort to roleplay their own accents.

[Zundy]

Yeah that was essentially the gist of it.

[Scheveningen]

Yeah, there is another game that implements forced autohiss-esque accents (more like filters, really) that was really just a pain to be able to parse and translate. It turned out that feature got reverted because of how obnoxious it turned out to be because you couldn't directly control it.

Most people who do accents (Memescope McGee is an honorable mention) prefer to do it their own, signature way. Since certain words have different pronounciations due to vowel variation and etc.

[DeadLantern]

Ok, fine. But then can you at least add lore on how each avcent sounds in basic?

[ComradeCorbyn]

You don't need to turn on autohiss, and it's optional.