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IC Languages #301

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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions src/SUMMARY.md
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Expand Up @@ -164,6 +164,7 @@ Space Station 14
- [Cartridge loaders](en/space-station-14/player-interaction/cartridge-loaders.md)

- [Proposals]()
- [IC Languages](en/space-station-14/player-interaction/proposals/ic_languages.md)
- [PAI Expansion Slots](en/space-station-14/player-interaction/proposals/pai-expansion-slots.md)
- [PDA Messaging](en/space-station-14/player-interaction/proposals/pda-messaging.md)
- [Grid Inventory](en/space-station-14/player-interaction/proposals/grid-inventory.md)
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# IC languages

| Designers | Implemented | GitHub Links |
|---|---|---|
| Hanzdegloker | :x: No | TBD |

## Languages, game impact and why

I will firstly like to adress the point of adding languages at all. Languages allow for new RP opportunities and even game balance. Languages first and foremost will serve as a new way for SS14 players to express themselves, and communicate with each other. In terms of game balance, this allows for all kinds of antags to properly communicate without revealing crucial information or setting unbelievable situations. My examaples for communication and expression would be a slimeperson being able to talk to Smile the slime, or Vox talking their native tongue together in an nitrogren enviroment. Languages are powerful tools for feeling a connection, species specific languages foster kinship between crew of the same species as well as open new RP opportunities. On the second point, for example, carp could now speak with their dragon leader thru xeno-common. Traitors would be more willing to work together and coordinate through the use of their unique codespeak. I can imagine in the future heretics of some sort, or any cult themed gamemode/antag, making great use of languages in an antag sense likewise. It should be possible to within a round, to learn to understand a language, but perhaps not learn to speak it. Although learning to speak it should not be impossible neither, simply something that must be worked towards specifically or get lucky due to circumstance. On a more personal note, I have grown up my entire life in a city surrounded my immigrants and come from an immigrant family myself. Everyday I hear all kinds of languages, sayings from cultures across the globe, and people proud to be able to speak the language of where they come from even if the opportunities to do so are rare. Hell, I also come into contact with plenty folk who cannot speak english, here in the good ol USA. I have come to find ways of communicating with them non-verbally or thru other work arounds. Point being, we are in a space station far in the future filled with all kinds of unique species with unique backgrounds and you're saying we ALL speak the EXACT same language MAYBE with accents and thats it? Even if I barely get any chances to speak moffic with a fellow moth, the chances to do so would be wonderful, and if someone who is not a moth learns to speak it I would ecstatic.

## Languages and you

Listed below are the common languages, languages that can be found roundstart spoken by cognitive and sentient creatures.
Mind you to anyone who cannot understand the language, it will appear as random chains of ununderstandable words. Language descriptions are solely based on what real life languages or sounds (onomatopoeias) will be used to generate the garbled mess players who do not understand the language will see.

| Native Speaker | Language Name | Language description |
|---|---|---|
| NT Crew | Galactic Common | Sounds like a combination of Mandarin Chinese and various forms of Spanish |
| Humans | Galactic Uncommon | Sounds like a combination of Russian and English |
| Lizard-People | Draconic | Sounds Nordic with aspects of hisses, rattles and snorts added |
| Moth-People | Moffic | Sounds like humming, with mixed in chittering and squeaks |
| Arachnids | Aranean | Sounds like Latin with aspects of clicking |
| Slime-People | Geran | Sounds like bubbling, popping, and squishing |
| Dwarves | Dwarven | Sounds like gaelic |
| Diona | Rootspeak | Sounds like whistling, creaking, and snapping |
| Vox | Vox-Pidgin | Sounds like shrieking, cooing, and cawing (as in the sound a crow makes) |
| Mutes | Galactic Sign Language | Hand gestures and movements |

Next is a list of uncommon languages that you may find being spoken on station although not by any crew.

| Native Speaker | Language Name | Language description |
|---|---|---|
| Mice, Mothroaches, critters, station pets | Animalisch | Sounds like generic animal sounds |
| Monkies | Apeish | Sounds like yelling and common monkey sounds |
| Silicons and Synthetics | Encoded Audio Language | Sounds like electric buzzing and occasionals beeps |

Next is a list of antagonistic languages, hearing someone speaking any of these is concerning...

| Native Speaker | Language Name | Language description |
|---|---|---|
| The Syndicate | Codespeak | Sounds like random words from Galactic Common |
| Xenos, Carp, Salv-mobs, Dragons | Xeno-Common | Sounds like gargling, gutteral yells and backwards Galactic Common |
| Pirates | Piratespeak | Sounds like random generic pirate words |
| Heretics/Cultists | Shadowtongue | Sounds like long strings of completely random words from every language |
| Heretics/Cultists | Nar'sian | You know how people sound when they drink Cogchamp? Just that. |


## How the hell do I even speak my mother tongue?

There is two ways to do it, the easy way for short conversations or for just saying one sentence is to add the proper prefix before what you are saying, for example: :c ,m I am speaking over command comms in moffic!. Alternatively for speaking for long amounts of time, using a radial button and key exactly like emotes, you can choose your default languge. This is the language you will speak in when not specifying with a comma and character. This would get pretty crowded with all the languges so any common languages show up when pressing the button and a sub-menu must be clicked on to select any rare languages like codespeak or Animalish. As an aside, Galactic Sign Langauge is the only language able to be spoken by mutes, but the mime's vow is so strong they cannot even speak Galactic Sigh Laguage although they can understand it. Anyways time for another lovely list so here it is.

| Input | Language |
|---|---|
| ,1 | Galactic Common |
| ,2 | Galactic Uncommon |
| ,q | Galactic Sign Language |
| ,d | Draconic |
| ,m | Moffic |
| ,a | Aranean |
| ,g | Geran |
| ,w | Dwarven |
| ,r | Rootspeak |
| ,v | Vox-Pidgin |
| ,e | Animalisch |
| ,5 | Apeish |
| ,3 | Encoded Audio Language |
| ,4 | Codespeak |
| ,x | Xeno-Common |
| ,p | Piratespeak |
| ,s | Shadowtongue |
| ,n | Nar'sian |

## Librarian gets some love

So you wanna learn a new language? Better go consult one of the least played jobs on the station! Thats right a language PR is basically a mini job expansion for the librarian. So let me lay down precisely how this all works, and this basic structure can be expanded eventually to include even more than just languages and eventually perhaps offer unique loot for multiple departments but for now this is just within the scope of languages.

I propose a new item called a language codex, a language codex is a 2x2 invgrid book that looks more like a spell tome and has a chance of spawning roundstart within bookshelves. The only guranteed spawn is the one language codex the librarian can choose to spawn with in their loadout (think musicians and their instruments!). The bigger the library, which should be equal to the size of the map in theory, the higher chances for some roundstart codexes. Using a new unqiue item the librarian spawns with (The codex ledger) a librarian is able to start the decoding process since without doing so the codex is useless. Lets say the librarian spawns in with a Language Codex (Moffic), they use their ledger on it and after a 4 second do-after they get some flavor text about the book glowing. Afterwards they may inspect the book and see what catalyst they need to find. A catalyst is a random, usualy mundane, item that must be sacrificed to the book in order to decode it. In this instance the book is calling for a cargo bounty (yes that mundane, but hey it makes you interact with Cargo hah!). So you ask the nice Vox at the front desk for a bounty paper and then feed it to the codex you are decoding. You will get the glowing flavor text again and boom! Decoded!
This process ensures the librarian has some form of unique tool/feature and encourages crew interaction within the process of decoding. A good librarian would be decoding whatever books they can and storing them at the library for the crew! Decoded books have a different name, IE: Decoded Language Codex (Moffic). There is one extra ledger in the cura-drobe incase the original is lost or stolen (the codex ledger makes a fine theif objective!). For this reason the librarian would need a unique access, especially once the codex system is expanded outside of just languages. A decoded language codex takes an 8 second do-after to read and then you will improve your language tier. Your language tier is how well you know the language. Tier 0 is you don't know it, tier 1 is you can understand it but not speak it, tier 2 is you can both speak and understand it. This means you would have to read a language codex twice to go from not knowing it at all to speaking it. An important note is that once a codex is decoded it only has 3 uses! So either 3 people can learn to understand a language from a codex, or only one learning to speak it and only one learns to understand it. Codexes will have text displaying what level of durability they are on, and become ruined codexes once fully read, only good for recycling.

I find any addition of languages must give some love to the poor librarian. This not only gives them a proper job on the station with language learning and teaching but lays the fondation and framework for further expansion of the librarian as a role on the station with the codex system.

Now all the codexes that spawn in the bookshelves and the one you spawn with are all common languages. The only way to get rare languges is from salvage finding some more. Salv can find all language codexes (Except codespeak there is no codex for that) as well as the book of babel. So if you hope to learn xeno-common, be nice to your local salv. The book of babel is fun! if you read it yourself (8 second do-after and thats it, no decoding or catalyst) you learn every language! (yes even codespeak) I mean learn how to speak and understand it too, but you lose glactic common and are unable to learn it again. If you are less silly, and bring the book to the librarian, they can use their ledger on it. After an 8 second do-after the book of babel will explode into multiple codexes! 3 common languges and 1 rare as well as a one ruined codex for good measure. You really get your bang for your buck as a librarian, if you are lucky to not have the Salv read the forbidden book upon finding it...

## Speaking to Smile the Slime

Now while you can speak to Smile roundstart as a slimeperson there is some caveats. Firstly if you're the only slimeperson in Sci everyone just kinda has to take your word for it, that you are translating what they are saying correctly. The next point of the matter is Smile is not cognitive. I would like to setup 3 tiers for you, non-sentient, sentient and cognitive. Non-sentient is Morty roundstart just wandering around as an NPC. Sentient would be Smile whom is player controlled but can only speak in Geran, and even then not very well! All sentient creatures who are player controlled but not cognitive thru cognizine are given an accent. This non-cognitive accent simply restricts them to simple words and short sentences with some forced mispellings for good measure. Smile roundstart should be saying "Food!!!" not "Research Director I hunger" and this accent should mechanically enforce that. EVEN THEN, not every slimeperson even speaks their native tongue of Geran and would be able to speak to Smile but we will touch on that in a bit. When cognizine does its magic, it instantly allows the creature to speak and understand galactic common as well as removes the restricting accent.

Now, I would also like to state mobs such as mice and mothroaches, do not understand galactic common at all. Mothroaches are a little special and can understand moffic, but cannot speak it. Basically majority sentient and non-sentient creatures speak/understand their respective languge and thats it, with 4 exceptions. Hammy, Smile the Slime, Remelia and Pun Pun can all understand galactic common shift-start but cannot speak it.

## RD can understand what now?

So some jobs roundstart can understand certain languages! Traits can also affect this! Firstly lets start with the master of language the librarian. The librarian can understand but cannot speak (tier 1) every single language except codespeak. They can only speak (tier 2) Galactic Common and whatever mother tongue from their species. Yes this means they only need to read any languages books ONCE to be able to speak the languages since they are one tier away, happy trails collecting em all! Another job with a roundstart tier 1 language is RD, whom can understand but cannot speak Encoded Audio Language, just to make sure those silicons ain't up to no good... The Chaplain can roundstart understand but cannot speak Shadowtongue and Nar'sian, so they may root out heresy! The Mime roundstart can understand and even speak Galactic Sign Language but their vow is so strong they must break their vow in order to even speak in sign language. Now this is an important part right here, all silicons (Pais, Borgs and the AI) can speak/understand all humanoid species specific languages and as well as, of course, speak/understand galactic common. This makes them perfect universal translators so long as they ain't compromoised in any way. Sidenote, all silicons can understand but cannot speak Galactic Sign Language. This should prevent any mis-use of langauges as an excuse to not hear out what a prisoner is saying or other possible misuses (You can still use a pen a paper to understand anyone by the way!). The AI has ears everywhere and could be listening in... assuming they have a camera near you anyways! All silicons can understand/speak Encoded Audio Language of course as its their own personal language. Course in the most simple of cases you could get lucky and just have a diona nearby that speaks Rootspeak and can translate for the prisoner, or just call the librarian if they exist! Again if worse comes to worse when it comes to communication just use a pen and paper.

Two new traits are to be added! Station born and New transfer! They are simply opposite of each other, station born means you ONLY know galactic common shift start and not your species language. New transfer means you ONLY know your species language and not galactic common. These traits are to be restricted from some roles though. Security cannot have either trait, as I want them to have the highest chance of being able to communicate with whom they are enforcing the law onto. Obviosuly new transfer would be big no no but even station born, as the once diona sec-off could be very very useful for a new transfer diona prisoner in perma. Librarians are the same, they cannot have either of the two traits as they are suppose to be the masters of language. Command is a little special, command is allowed to be station born but cannot be new transfers (Obviously excluding the HoS!). These two traits help combat too much ASSUMING, assuming everyone speaks galactic common and assuming every species can speak their native tongue. People come from all different kinds of backgrounds! Course the RP oppertunites from being unable to speak the language of 95% of the station is massive and I will be playing as a new transfer allot. Imagine one chef yelling orders in moffic to his other chef coworker after translating what the customer wanted and so forth. Another thing to note is that anyone with the mute trait instantly learns how to understand and speak Galactic Sign Language, also yes librarians can indeed be mute. I would like to state for posterity, yes admin ghost can understand and speak every language, spectator ghosts can undersand every language but can press a button so they only understand Galactic Common instead if they wish to avoid meta-knowledge.
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