Have origins inherently give you their spoken language

[limette]

I don't know how much code this would require, but it's annoying right now that you have to go to the Languages page (rarely linked anywhere and missing some; e.g. Sun Reach) to be one hundred thousand percent sure what your origin speaks. Most pages clarify, but still - I don't see why you would make a Venusian that can't speak Sol Common, or a Xanan that can't speak Freespeak. All I seem to find from this is confusion when someone forgets to take a language, or doesn't realize their planet speaks Tradeband instead of Sol Common, or what have you.

Should probably come at the cost of a language slot, but either way - it seems like a nice feature.

[Carver]

I’ve suggested this before, but I’d never support it again if it cost a language slot. We need more variety, not less.

[Mr.Popper]

This is certainly an annoying occurrence but hard coding languages to origins would either be too restrictive or unfair. In the case of origin language(s) occupying slots, many origins would be mechanically unable to pick any other languages (ie. Coletters, Eridani suits, and Europans would automatically know Common and Tradeband, filling both slots). These are in theory the languages those origins should know, but I would rather players have some choice for unusual cases rather than none at all. On the other hand, if they do not occupy a slot, any origin other than Biesellite would have disproportionately more language options, creating a weird meta around certain origins. Normally I value roleplay over gameplay but this is such a mechanical disparity that Biesellites would have to be able to pick more languages to make it fair- and at that point, why have multiple languages for a species if any character can nearly speak them all?

But informing people of what languages their character's planet uses in-game can and should be done. Maybe when you pick an origin it automatically sets your languages to suggested ones with text on the side explaining how it's used on your character's homeworld, with the option to remove any as you see fit. Or if that's too difficult, add some fancy colored text to each origin's description listing the common languages.

[Carver]

1 minute ago, Mr.Popper said:

This is certainly an annoying occurrence but hard coding languages to origins would either be too restrictive or unfair. In the case of origin language(s) occupying slots, many origins would be mechanically unable to pick any other languages (ie. Coletters, Eridani suits, and Europans would automatically know Common and Tradeband, filling both slots). These are in theory the languages those origins should know, but I would rather players have some choice for unusual cases rather than none at all. On the other hand, if they do not occupy a slot, any origin other than Biesellite would have disproportionately more language options, creating a weird meta around certain origins. Normally I value roleplay over gameplay but this is such a mechanical disparity that Biesellites would have to be able to pick more languages to make it fair- and at that point, why have multiple languages for a species if any character can nearly speak them all?

But informing people of what languages their character's planet uses in-game can and should be done. Maybe when you pick an origin it automatically sets your languages to suggested ones with text on the side explaining how it's used on your character's homeworld, with the option to remove any as you see fit. Or if that's too difficult, add some fancy colored text to each origin's description listing the common languages.

As for freebie imbalance, just give Bieselites Sol Common for free and that’s solved. I don’t think more than one freebie is needed per origin.

[dessysalta]

2 hours ago, limette said:

I don't see why you would make a Venusian that can't speak Sol Common, or a Xanan that can't speak Freespeak. All I seem to find from this is confusion when someone forgets to take a language, or doesn't realize their planet speaks Tradeband instead of Sol Common, or what have you.

Figure that if you go without using a language for a long period of time, you can lose a lot of the words associated with it while still retaining an accent. You might do this to better integrate with a society, to hide your origins with a different filter, etc. I see no reason why someone who migrated from Himeo to, say, Biesel would have knowledge of Freespeak on a long enough timeline away from an entire environment that speaks it. 

Echoing above, rather than automatically give them the language, how about we have a list of languages for their origin, in the frequency they're spoken and why?

[Triogenix]

This was recently PR'd and discussed by the head developers, who said the following on the PR:
 

"I've spoken to this with Arrow at length (seriously, we've had a lot of discussions about this PR) and the resolution we both came to is that this is ultimately just another band-aid on a system held together by duct tape. We can't keep adding duct tape to our languages system - it fundamentally does not work and does not make sense because it relies on chains of contorted OOC reasoning and Bay holdovers that make no sense in our universe (tradeband, freespeak) along with unmaintained languages (Sol Common) that should be less monolithic.

In short, this PR is at this time not wanted. Anything that touches languages needs a comprehensive rework by the lore team. I'm willing to put forward my full availability to make sure it happens if there's a concrete effort, and to discuss the head developers' thoughts/visions about it."

So therefore, I'm voting for the dismissal of this suggestion, as before this can happen, headstaff and the lore team will first need to complete an extensive/total rework of our languages.