Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Blackman D wrote: if you really want to go that in depth with it tho just copy the words to your journals note section (the journal you bring up with J, its the last tab) and you can refer back to it in game instead of having to look on the forums all the time

and as far as i know there is no character limit to the notes section

For every character you create there is plain text file in ..\Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\localvault

so if you have a character with name Johny there will be "Johny.txt" - meaning you can actually copy+paste there anything and save it and/or make a backup of that file if you wrote something there in-game.
Not really that important, but it´s definitely easier to copy+paste those phrases than writing it down in-game manually

As mar3usmc mentioned there is page with dictionary - and what´s actually interesting is that you can download it for offline use.

Even when I have some common words in journal I have to alt-tab every once a while and it´s annoying as hell.

Well I had an idea.
For every character there is a chat log - and it´s just a txt file in your documents\nwn2\logs.
So you have record of chat, you have translator and you have journal (which you can access ingame).
My point is that it´s possible to make an application that would read chat log, translate it from drow to ENG and then put it inside your journal - and it would not affect the game itself what so ever, but you will have translated every drow phrase your character hears.
Or you could use journal as ingame translator (without needing to work with chat log at all). For example you would write "eng: I am" and it would write below that " *I am* = *Usstan tlun* or the other way around.


Every of those things are outside of the game itself so the only question is - would it be worth doing ?


(btw it´s possible to use this method to get any kind of text into your journal. for example text from IRC or ICQ or whatever that can make simple txt log )

I don't want to troll, but this is a big part of why I stay away from the Underdark.

^ why?

It should be noted that the large majority of "drow" used is an invention of a NWN1 community, though most of it was made with educated approximation. Given that it is largely a fan-made addition to an already make believe language nobody should feel required to use it or understand it to play inside of the UD on our server.

DM Mouse wrote:nobody should feel required to use it or understand it to play inside of the UD on our server.

But it definitely helps since even NPCs are using it

it is fun to use drow words, but it is in no means an obligation. Most especially since undercommon is what we automatically assume is being spoken in the underdark, it would not require us to use wthe words such as "Dos/Usstan/Veldruk/". The language is -already- to be assumed translated, players just use it to spice up their rp. Basically I say this in reference to someone wanting to avoid the UD because of it. I invite you to play a UD character, and will willingly teach any player in the UD who is new how to play a UD character and list their options. Singular "LOLTH IS ALMIGHTY" rp is not your only option and it will not be forced upon you. I will teach you quite a few options and not knowing "Drow words" or titles is no reason to avoid us drow players. We are same as any surface player, and many of us are very friendly... ooc'ly

Drow of the Underdark wrote:It surprises many foreigners to learn that the drow do not have their own language. Rather, they speak Undercommon and various dialects of Elven that (though clearly the same language) are different in accent, tone, and nuance from surface Elven.There are many theories as to why the drow haven’t developed their own unique language. One hypothesis is that, due to their long life span, they haven’t been separate from other elves long enough for their language to more thoroughly evolve. Alternatively, the drow inability to cooperate reliably in large groups might have prevented them from developing their own terminology.

Despite this fact, drow communication is often initially confusing to others, since the drow use Elven and Undercommon interchangeably, frequently switching back and forth in the middle of a conversation—or even the middle of a sentence—if they feel that one language conveys the proper nuance or emphasis better than the other. Additionally, when creating new terms for objects, creatures, or other items not covered by either existing language, they often combine the grammatical and phonetic rules of both. The result is that the drow frequently speak a pidgin combination of the two tongues that might, generations in the future, form the basis of an actual drow language.

On those rare occasions when they speak with surface elves, the drow customarily refuse to speak Elven, despite their fluency in the language. They prefer forcing the surface-dwellers to learn and understand Undercommon—yet another small sign of dominance.

Or we can ditch the whole language crap and just stick to grinding instead. It doesn't require using brains so much and who cares about the feel of the setting anyway?

ethys wrote:

Blackman D wrote: if you really want to go that in depth with it tho just copy the words to your journals note section (the journal you bring up with J, its the last tab) and you can refer back to it in game instead of having to look on the forums all the time

and as far as i know there is no character limit to the notes section

For every character you create there is plain text file in ..\Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\localvault

so if you have a character with name Johny there will be "Johny.txt" - meaning you can actually copy+paste there anything and save it and/or make a backup of that file if you wrote something there in-game.
Not really that important, but it´s definitely easier to copy+paste those phrases than writing it down in-game manually

As mar3usmc mentioned there is page with dictionary - and what´s actually interesting is that you can download it for offline use.

Even when I have some common words in journal I have to alt-tab every once a while and it´s annoying as hell.

Well I had an idea.
For every character there is a chat log - and it´s just a txt file in your documents\nwn2\logs.
So you have record of chat, you have translator and you have journal (which you can access ingame).
My point is that it´s possible to make an application that would read chat log, translate it from drow to ENG and then put it inside your journal - and it would not affect the game itself what so ever, but you will have translated every drow phrase your character hears.
Or you could use journal as ingame translator (without needing to work with chat log at all). For example you would write "eng: I am" and it would write below that " *I am* = *Usstan tlun* or the other way around.


Every of those things are outside of the game itself so the only question is - would it be worth doing ?


(btw it´s possible to use this method to get any kind of text into your journal. for example text from IRC or ICQ or whatever that can make simple txt log )

Rather than try to simplify the game even more, why not just ask other players, who use these words, in tells what the meaning of the word is and then learn the words and phrases little by little? It's an RPG after all, you're meant to take a certain interest in your character and develop it over time, which also means educating and familiarizing yourself with the setting and lore, which the language is a part of.

I'm sorry if this comes off a little harshly, but the game already offer several tools for a player to learn what is required and then expand upon that. We don't need more tools that turn players into zombies who just mash buttons without making an effort of bettering themselves. If anything we need less such tools, but those that are kept could be more accessible.

By more accessible, I primarily mean the Language and DMFI tools. I'd like to be able to suffix a chat-mode with a language or roll as shown below.

/LL:drow Hello || Writes "Vendui" in the General chat and "Hello" in the Combat log.
/WL:drow Hello || Writes "Vendui" as a Whisper in General chat and "Hello" in the Combat log.

/LR:wis || Rolls Wisdom and writes the result in General chat.
/WR:wis || Rolls Wisdom and writes the resullt as a Whisper in General chat.
/PR:wis || Rolls Wisdom and writes the result in Party chat (useful for DM events)

/LD:1d6 || Rolls 1d6 and writes the result in General chat.
/WD:1d6 || Rolls 1d6 and writes the resullt as a Whisper in General chat.

Small things like these can help RP immensely as you do not have to rely on a tedious interface and can help keep the flow of RP going without having to click several places. Of course, the way it works now should still be possible, but over time these things should become available.

Switching back and forth between Elven and Undercommon would be quite interesting. What we have instead has rather more in common with Klingon. While it might make some feel more into the role, for others it destroys all sense of immersion.

There you go, there's your character concept. I'll see you down in the UD.

If I want to speak drow, I use the language bar and select 'drow'.

I find it rather odd when people come around and start typing dos and yathrin or whatever. Kind of kills it for me.

Yeah. I get the same problem when I go to the U.S. and people call lifts as 'elevators' and football is 'soccer' to them. It kinda kills it for me that they were a British colony.

On a side note, I love comments coming from surface players, saying they don't like playing in the UD because it's not like the surface.

Servin wrote:Yeah. I get the same problem when I go to the U.S. and people call lifts as 'elevators' and football is 'soccer' to them. It kinda kills it for me that they were a British colony.

On a side note, I love comments coming from surface players, saying they don't like playing in the UD because it's not like the surface.

Hey.

I played the UD enough to have a word on it. I do have a level 30 character there, which I played for a while, that I bring out occasionally, or at least, as much occasionally as my surface ones. Just knowing how long it is to reach that on a drow, all while RPing and such, says that I spent quite a bit of time down below. Just letting people know one of the things which makes it less attractive to me, tis all.

A while ago I was visiting a foreign country for holidays and tried to say "hello" to someone in their language.

All I could think of was....."Vendui".

*Shivers*