Droid Engineer Archive

Well, you know what I mean. When you first start the game, and you don't know any languages, Wookiees speak like "Aaorrawora rroaawkaoaraoca" instead of "Bowcaster for sale!" Once you learn the languages, though, everyone types as they do normally (which may or may not be real english, but you get my point).

Personally, I think they should leave the language specific chat bubbles in the language of the species, but give you "subtitles" in the chat box where the text is translated. Your protocol droid could simply store the text that had been typed and, when you issued a command, give you a report of what had been said by those around you (providing the same "subtitling" that you'd get if you knew the language).I think this would considerably increase the immersiveness of the game.

FWIW, here's the nutshell version of what I proposed for languages. Right now languages provide a 100% skill mod when you learn them. I'd love to see languages only provide a 10% or something skill mod each time you learn, so that the language is only partially understandable. Also, some sort of timer to prevent spam teaching. I'm a little slow, but after 4 years of classes my ability to speak French still pretty much sucks.

Such an implementation would simulate what learning a foreign language is really like and provide a reason to buy a protocol droid -- maybe provide 100% understanding of a given language, with more languages available through higher level droid modules.

However, I like your idea of the subtitles. And in a similar way, the protocol droids could be more RP-friendly. After a Wookie player goes "Wowarrac baaa wahahahhaah," your protocol droid says: Sir, the Wookie says "I have a bowcaster for sale."

Yeah, that'd be cool, actually. Like, normally, if you knew the language, you'd see the subtitle in the chat box, but if you didn't know the language, it'd just display as what you read in the on-screen chat bubble. The protocol droid would add it's personality into the message it tells you (IE: a sarcastic one would say something like "Obviously, the wookiee said 'I have a bowcaster for sale," you twit.";a worshipful one would say "Your eminence, the wookiee stated 'I have a bowcaster for sale."), and would simply take the place of your translation subtitle.

That alone would REALLY add to the immersiveness of this game.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this stuff? I see more discussion on things like DE-only droids, which I think I covered in the repair droid section (like medical equipment being only useable by doctors, repair droids that actually are used to repair DROIDS would be useable only by DEs).