Adding COMMON to everyone and remove MUTE/VOICELESS roles

Suggestions
1

Hey fine folks!

The suggestion is exactly like the title. Why we don’t add common to each single antag/species so we can all enjoy more interactions between us?

After all the same original coder who made common understandable by even the ones who don’t speak it, already realised a simple truth. Having languages that you don’t speak is fairly realistic, but isn’t very gameplay nor roleplay inducive.

It’s like D&D and its one million different languagues.

They added common and everyone uses common because the alternative would be… impractical to the point of being unplayable. Like here, we aren’t all english native speakers but we’re required to speak it somewhat coherently in order to play.

We all know different languages that many doesn’t know, but we all do our best to speak in one tongue to interact with each other.

I would frankly add common even to the rarest beings like drones and suchs, after all it’s pretty easy to imagine that drones have learned, or just downloaded, an omni-language pack in all their stealthy scouring of space wrecks.

But hey, if we truly don’t want to add it to everyone, why don’t we do at least add it to the most common ones? Is it possible that as a slime we’re forced to have a kind soul to build for us, and carry around, a translator? Using the forbidden art of circuitry?

I don’t see any advantage in keeping the situation as is, and only improvements if we implement this addition. It not being even a removal, but just an addiction, should be incredibly easy to add to the code, I suppose!

No game, not even the acclaimed BG3 was able to find its way around to make having different languages being fun.

Maybe we can learn a lesson or two from Larian Studios then!

P.S. = For this same reasons I would suggest the removal of any role that is currently muted, aside mimes and mimery related roles naturally. Playing as a voiceless something is just like playing as a… sentient autoclicker bot. Not exactly the kind of interactions we hope to have with each other, here! And if one does wish to roleplay as a mute/silent figure, being able to speak doesn’t limit it. While keeping it in its actual state is a forced limitation upon someone!

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2

Having a xenomorph straight-up talk to you would be terrifying.

Other than that it seems okay.

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3

Xenomorphs can already do that, they have their “alien whisper” ability to say “sup bitch”
However, common is a lot less clunky.

4

I fully agree with your take, maybe beside some antagonists like xenomorphs, but then maybe queen or pretorian could communicate in common? Beside its quite funny that you can teach some species to speak common by I believe amputating and changing their tongue.

5

Now this is something I think should be expanded upon, being able to teach another being your language would be quite fun I should think!
It would also solve the issue of “How did they learn galactic common?” “I taught them it”
Perhaps it could be “unlocked” by just an amount of words you can hear whilst being in visible sight of the speaker?
Or perhaps a device would work, a sort of headset thing that teaches you words of the language over time until you learn it fully?

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6

i just think some things shouldn’t be able to speak common. Xenos and (allegedly, but id beg to disagree) blobs create environments where the rp between crew is different because of these alien and inhuman threats. I think it takes away from it if you turn the corner to the Alien Queen going “Rizz Ohio Rizzler Amongus”. Also if you want translations, the curator exists.

also monkeys. Monkeys shouldn’t speak common automatically.

drones and swarmers are fair game though i can’t see why not

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as much as I love you Sirio I have to disagree.

I’ve seen people play mute characters or characters that don’t speak common with impeccable roleplay, and it really felt fresh seeing this. Made the world feel more alive.

It also gives relevance to the curator.
I think languages such as slime are cool because odds are someone but the curator will be able to speak it.
But things like swarmer language I think its bogus because no one will understand the darn thing.

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8

True love/esteem/respect isn’t born from blind agreement, but honest feedback little Odessa!

So don’t you ever dare to give me anything else but your most sincere point of view! :slight_smile:

I do happen to agree.

But the point here is offering choice, not removing some!

If you can talk but you decide to go for a silent archetype, kudos to you!

I, for example, wouldn’t be able to play such to any extent/efficacy and with any enjoyement. Why? Because my english knowledge is far, far too lacking to let me correctly describe actions. I do hope I’m still quite on the high average with words though!

So when I happen to take, on the rare occasions I play, and on even the rarest occasions I do happen to take a ghost role I find myself… crushed by the removal of my only viable source of rp.

Spoken words.

Fair point.

But lawyers do exist too.

What’s the link between these two and the current theme? The fact that NOT every round is possible to have a trial. Unluckily, considering the very short(at least for some, myself included) duration of our rounds, almost no shift is good to hold a trial.

The same is for the time required to have a translator.

Plus what if the scientists on board do not know circuitry or the curator is dead, cryoed or is simply not interested in doing his job?

Why we should sacrifice the incredibly more frequent enjoyement and interactions we might have with ghost roles able to speak common by default, to the altar of very few and very sparse in-between occasions where the stars align?

I’m not exactly opposed to limit this addition to some creature. But , for example, how miserable is the time between the xeno confinement and its outbreak, if the scientists or the crew isn’t able to talk with them?

Swarmers are the same thing too. I was able to roleplay with them, exactly ONE single time in all my shifts and I supposedly was the first and still the only one who did it. At least if we believe discord!

So why not letting the playerbase understand that each creature that is able to speak, should at least strive to not speak like it shares our own background?

Just yesterday as a carp I was asked how old I was. I asked to Lukas Collins how his race calculate time. He answered that it flows, without giving me an answer. I on the spot roleplayed that carps calculate the time through exstinguished stars. And so I was 3 stars old.

This kind of interactivity is lost without common, and I was able to roleplay it just because carps, thank the gods, do speak it!

But hey, as usual, we should all decide together what’s best for the majority of us!

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9

personally i’d like to see more people know an extra language maybe rather than make common too… common

giving the RD the ability to speak Xenomorph adds a little more flavour to the role, makes more sense to the universe than giant aliens speaking common and reduces circumstances where no one at science can speak to a captured xenomorph because the curator killed themselves in space

multilingual got a nice buff, i think, with customisable quirks now that you can pick what language you can speak. Now you can guarantee your own ability to speak to a monkey or a pirate or a lizard and the like.

It’d be nice if a translator was an actual item (maybe one you wear in the ear slot in place of a radio briefly) and not just a circuit but that’s really a WYCI moment

having to prepare a translator makes a lot of encounters with foreign forces more fun to me. I had to fight to go through a pacifist route and I think it made my experiences more memorable

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Ah I understand you now. Same reason I took pacifist off my characters. I want to choose not to do harm, not be forced to it!

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11

Like the fish from Hitchhiker’s Guide lol

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While yes, no.

It feels quite stupid to understand Xenomorphs, Blobs, Aliens and so on.

I think that the forgein trait should be removed though because it is never used except by that one guy who is new.

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13

More items to allow us to communicate would be ideal. We already have PDAs but that is limited to those with thumbs and isn’t really communicated in-game as being a feature and feels more like an oversight.

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14

This would be sick. Sort of how you need to learn to write in Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

15

The difference between a trial and a curator translating is one relies on the coordination and roleplay of multiple people and the other is one guy who runs to wherever and translates words. The only thing that will ever stop a curator for translating for a xeno is the absence of a curator.

I think giving common to more antags would be good, but some antags don’t need it and I think giving it to an antag like swarmers would only increase the ‘friendly antag’ interaction that I find counter intuitive to our gameplay. Is it really fun to be friendly with someone who is only interested in getting more powerful and gaining more resources until they dont need to be friendly with you anymore?

On the other hand, having xenos speak broken english would increase the fear factor I think, sounds cool (and fun).

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16

This would really just create more “le friendly antag” rounds, which suck entirely. Imagine an uwu blob. Ugh.

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17

Yes… and no.

The difference here is having a curator onboard, actively playing, not SSD and willing.

Or a science team able to do circuitry and then someone willing to carry that translator around for you.

The point is that a trial, relying on a plethora of people, has the weakness of relying on such vast number, but the streght of relying on it too. What this does mean? It means that you don’t need to roleplay just as a quirky translator all the time, but you can actually engage in conversations and interactions with many others. Breaking the monotony of a trial.

A curator isn’t able to do that.

For sure he can inject his own quirks and personality in the conversation, but the moment he gets bored… he is faced with two choice. Be rude and leave or smile while dying inside and roleplaying as a human translator.

I’m quite friendly, as everyone knows.

But what probably a lot of people mistake for friendly antag syndrome, I call pacing.

Thanks to the fact I was a talkative dragon, Horologium one shift was able to bribe me with tributes and meat while unleashing me on a goose hunt on a nightmare. That was already dealt with, unbeknownst to me.

I was ready to do my job at any time if the tributes stopped coming in, but they didn’t and in the end the shuttle was called.

This was for me one of the most memorable rounds as a dragon, and it was allowed by the fact I was able to speak.

I get that I’m not in the majority when I advocated for at least 2 hours shift. But at least when one gets a rare roll or has a particular idea in mind, I would like to be able to communicate to see it through.

We always talk and look down to antags that only focus on winning. We are using a media that is both visual and written. If we cut in half the possible interaction, by softly blocking writing, then we are automatically limiting the diversity and the depth of the stories antags can offer!

Thanks to the fact I bowed down and started talking as a nightmare once, I was able to get the captain of that shift to order the entirety of station’s lights to be turned off. Night goggles were printed for all the crew and that was the only shift, to my knowledge, that a nightmare was able to make the entire station go dark, without spilling a single drop of blood.

That too was a very memorable shift and many enjoyed talking with this strange fencer of the dark, that was educating them on the etiquette of the vampire of the eternal court and the traditions of the shadow sector.

Again, all of this was made possible just by my capability to speak common.

I wasn’t willingly abstaining from violence, I was just building a story where violence would have been a concrete possibility if things didn’t go my way. Exactly as an antag should do. But things evolved in my favor and so violence was averted.

Many still had fun and we had a good semblance of pacing.

I just don’t see how limiting our ability to speak enhance anything aside clicking till horizontal!

If major studios with entire squads of writers have never been able to make speaking a different language a fun mechanic, nor in any videogame nor in any TTRPG adventure to my knowledge, I don’t think it’s a good idea if we continue to assume it is.

But hey, at least we’ll have had a good discussion about it if that’s the case! :wink:

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18

You’re missing it’s like specifically a rule to not be a friendly antag

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I don’t think you read with attention what I wrote.

I never advocted for friendly antags, quite the opposite.

I just advocated for antags to be able to talk, in order to roleplay and offer us conflict and stories that don’t just rely on clicking till horizontal!

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i don’t really have anything to say on any other antags/races’ inability to speak common and whether that should change, but i vehemently believe ashwalkers shouldn’t know common.

some of my best RP experiences were born from being one of the only lizards on board when an ashwalker-related situation arose. i’ve had to desperately try (and fail) to peacefully negotiate a hostage situation. i’ve had to argue for the rights of my distant kin not to be enslaved.

i’ve even had a fun time just translating back and forth, because things get lost in translation and it can create fun situations out of misunderstandings.

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