Grìmm Cennad

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Hello! I hope everyone here is well. I am a linguist at the University of Edinburgh and have been following and playing Vintage Story for some years now. I love the game and its community, and I wanted to make a proposal for a way in which I would like to contribute to this game that has given me so much joy and peace over the years: As someone who's day-to-day involves linguistics (and psychology!), I think that the realism and immersion that this game strives to achieve, would be benefited by perhaps a slightly less intuitive addition: a language that the people of this dystopia speak, that those who awaken such as the player-character need to learn steadfast in order to be able to interact with traders and village outposts.. I think that this will add an additional flair of uniqueness and intrigue to the trading system in the game AND its lore, which will further make it stand as a pinnacle of indie development. I have outlined some of my proposals for where we could take this idea below: * The lore of the game, even before the rust apocalypse, separates significantly from historical developments in real life. Language is not a linearly changing phenomenon and so paying heed to this aspect of 'realism' would add to Vintage Story's fantasy, and the developed conlang could itself be an object of worldbuilding. * Players will NOT be forced to be lingua-geeks, if they don't want to. I propose that through interaction with traders (who would be used to newcomers needing to learn the language), and through inscriptions the player could interact with on ruins or in loot drops, learnt 'vocabulary and grammar' would be presented as the user's selected language under settings; the same language of their UI and interface. So, for example, if the player is playing in English, as they play, more and more of the dialogue they see will be in English. I propose a separate setting where, if the player wishes it, they can disable the previously described replacement feature, and instead can actually attempt to learn the conlang, the way they would have to as though they were really in that situation. I suggest this be an optional feature for gameplay clarity. * An idea that has occured to me is that the player, in the character creator, could choose to select a trait or class, where their native tongue is 'more similar' to the language of the people of this new world. This would from a gameplay standpoint allow them to begin trading with and interacting with NPCs quicker in their progression than they would otherwise. This could perhaps be the addition that could give the Commoner class its own unique flair? These are but my humble suggestions and I understand if you deem that this is not something you are interested in exploring. If, however, you are curious to hear more from me, I am happy to work alongside you as the person to develop said conlang, and develop this idea further. Thank you for reading, and thank you for your amazing game. I reposted this here from the discord #suggestions by the instruction of the channel description. Feel free to contact me on Discord if you have any questions^^. Sincerely, Grìmm Cennad