Wednesday 8 October 2003

Pic of the day: My little linguist has a long road ahead in these new and unfamiliar lands. Screenshot from Rubies of Eventide.

Jengvega Geirj

Today's weird title is "Language Girl" in Old Praxic. And Old Praxic is one of the languages in Rubies of Eventide, the new online game. As of this Monday, language skills are fully implemented; but content requiring such skills is not yet in the game. Therefore, there is no reason yet to be a linguist in RoE, but you can if you will.

I think that's pretty impressive, a massive multiplayer game with a linguist class! Admittedly it is not the easiest class to play; then again you hardly expect it to be. You hardly expect a linguist at all.

***

For a fighter or mage, battle is the way to progress. You hack at enemies until they die, or throw spells at them until they die, or summon critters that fight them until they die. Then you get experience points that let you level, and development points that let you increase your stats or skills. In this manner you become a better fighter or mage (or combination thereof) and can continue to hack or throw magic at ever harder opponents. Straightforward in principle, although there is certainly an embarrassment of choices.

Craftsmen have a similar approach but without the violence. They craft things, and get xp and dp for their crafting. They use these to improve their crafting skills so they can craft even more advanced stuff and get even more points.

Linguists don't get xp for speaking foreign languages. If they sink their dp into these skills, they will not be able to keep their other skills at a level where they can fight monsters at or near their own level, or craft useful items, and they will forever lag behind the other classes.

But do not despair! An original solution exists. By merely listening long enough to a foreign language, your skill will eventually increase. Of course, this will happen even if you are not a linguist. But a linguist gets a heavy rebate - 20-35% in my case - on all language skills. You can choose one language where you start with a skill of 50 and a second where you start with a skill of 25, and still have enough points left for decent (just not good) fighting or crafting skills as well. Not like the real fighting or crafting classes, but then again you have the language bonus. And if you wanted to be a gladiator or blacksmith, you would not have chosen linguist, I hope.

Yes, gladiator and blacksmiths are also there; there are around 100 classes. Even so, linguist is pretty special. And not least to me, who have fond memories of Daggerfall, the extremely open-ended single player RPG. I used to entertain fellow Daggerfools with stories about Language Grrl, superheroine of the Iliac Bay, and her alter ego the language student Gretchen von Schliesselmeyer. Her field studies took her far and wide: Into the wilderness to learn the languages of nymphs, centaurs and spriggans; to barely known aviaries to listen to harpies; and into the most dangerous dungeons where daedra assembled. Thanks to her quick wit, magical gear and a deal with the daedra prince Hircine, she escaped the most harrowing trials and not only brought home magic souvenirs but often also a few new words of a strange inhuman language ...

***

In RoE, the languages are fewer, but they are fully implemented using an advanced transformation algorithm. The standard, or common, tongue is Praxic; this equates to English. Old Praxic is the language of older human history and magic; it is close enough that you may figure it out, at least with a few hints. "Jengvega" may not look familiar, but if you know it has to do with a linguist, you just might figure it out. Humans have a rebate to learning Old Praxic.

The other humanoid languages are highly transformed. Heiroform (not hieroform as I first thought) is Elvish; it is easy to pronounce but tends toward slightly longer words. "Language Girl" in Heiroform is Neriboseba Beisn. The Runic language of Dwarves and Gnomes is similarly weird, but still different; in this language, it would be Nudgayugaa Gaezn. (Yes, you can see a slight similarity; but despite this, Dwarves have a penalty to learning Heiroform, and Elves the same against Runic.) High Gundis is used by Orcs and Ogres; it is supposed to be guttural and has apostrophes at unexpected places. The corresponding phrase here would be Vizlzoilu Lahztv. OK, that did not really show off the language at its worst. Perhaps the weirdest of them all is Aeolandis, the language of the psychic race called Leshy: Ztscekz'tcekk Cekzha'iz. It does not seem to bear any semblance to English whatsoever. But it does; the language algorithm can easily translate between all these languages.

All non-human races are fluent in their native tongue (skill 100), and everyone is fluent in Praxic. But if two Dwarves speak in Runic, only other Dwarves and Gnomes can follow the conversation. As a linguist with 50 Runic, I can make out scattered words, mostly the short and common ones. The rest is pure gibberish that can barely even be pronounced.

Of course, if people use a racial language, it is likely that the don't want everyone to understand. The chances to casually overhear conversations in these languages are therefore small. For this reason, people with an interest in languages have occasionally gathered on the Kaj Blood stairs to train each other's skills by talking in their native languages. But most non-linguists are not likely to spend hours a day doing this for weeks on end, as would be needed to fully train the skills.

So until racial language NPCs are implemented, linguists will have a hard time as linguists, along with having a hard time as adventurers. Then again, this is not the typical starter class. An Ogre Gladiator with sword, shield and armor is a better way to get started if you are not used to this kind of game. But for us linguist types, the option is there...