Alphabet Editor

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Newcomer Posts: 89 Reputation: 0 Join date: 2010-10-27

Unlike the other ideas for language, this is for written text.

My idea is that your are given the English alphabet, and some space underneath to draw its representation in your language. You might not be able to see books, but you could see it on say, outside of a shop, or on the side of a ship.

So for example, the A for my species could be @.

So
a = @
b = ♠
c =☺

And so on, until you have your language. A shop would just be the name of the good it sold, converted to the images. So if the shop sold food, it would have Food but in that language. Same with ships, you name the ship and it is placed onto the side.

Subject: Re: Alphabet Editor Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:03 am

I don't think we need as much detail as this, but it could be a great thing for an addon.

Newcomer Posts: 89 Reputation: 0 Join date: 2010-10-27

I think I explained it badly. Perhaps a image could so my idea better?

I believe it would be simple to implement.

Subject: Re: Alphabet Editor Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:20 pm

caekdaemon wrote:

I think I explained it badly. Perhaps a image could so my idea better?

I believe it would be simple to implement.

But more complex than the average player is willing to get. And it shouldn't be equivalents to the English Alphabet, but just draw symbols that will be used in their language. Else we're basically saying that all languages are just English transcribed.

Regular Posts: 238 Reputation: 1 Join date: 2010-07-09

US_of_Alaska wrote:

caekdaemon wrote:

I think I explained it badly. Perhaps a image could so my idea better?
<snip>
I believe it would be simple to implement.

But more complex than the average player is willing to get. And it shouldn't be equivalents to the English Alphabet, but just draw symbols that will be used in their language. Else we're basically saying that all languages are just English transcribed.

Agreed.

You may or may not know, not all languages are identical to English. They may be written backwards, sideways, have more or less letters, or the species may not even have a written language at all. So I don't think it should be this simple. If we are to include this (not sure if we need to), it should totally be reworked.

Subject: Re: Alphabet Editor Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:37 pm

No offense, but I think that is far too much detail.

Subject: Re: Alphabet Editor Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:08 pm

How about just what they did with The Sims? Just use a gobblegook language of symbols. Maybe make it possible for add-ons, but just keep it simple at first.

_________________
Back for winter break!

I am an from Amurica and I speak 'Murican.

I had a dream about Thrive. I am playing as some sort of large headed shark creature in a swamp, and the semi-cartoony look for the game actually looks really good, as though you handed crayons to a professional artist and said to go to work. Fast forward a few million years, and my shark's head is now half it's body, and I am swimming through the ruins of a city, searching for a mate, and I find the most terribly designed creature: frog hands, neon lime-green, a huge but thin body and big googly eyes. Then I realize it is a creature from Spore.
Then I realized: We can do this. Avoid a stick-parts-and-call-it-good editor and actually simulate evolution to any degree, and this will be great, even if we have to dumb down the graphics.

Subject: Re: Alphabet Editor Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:11 pm

NO
This is way more complex than we need to think about. And having alien alphabets correspond to the english one is just silly.

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Remember our goals: simplicity, science, and playability. Keep them in mind always.
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Regular Posts: 297 Reputation: 6 Join date: 2010-07-09

most likely, but written text will be visible. the only other option is to have it randomly generated, but wouldn't that'd be much of a effort.....

Subject: Re: Alphabet Editor Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:22 pm

eumesmo wrote:

most likely, but written text will be visible. the only other option is to have it randomly generated, but wouldn't that'd be much of a effort.....

That would be extremely easy.

_________________
Remember our goals: simplicity, science, and playability. Keep them in mind always.
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Regular Posts: 297 Reputation: 6 Join date: 2010-07-09

then randomness it is?

Subject: Re: Alphabet Editor Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:24 pm

eumesmo wrote:

then randomness it is?

yeah. we just ship with a library of around 50 random symbols.

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Remember our goals: simplicity, science, and playability. Keep them in mind always.
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Regular Posts: 297 Reputation: 6 Join date: 2010-07-09

sounds good to me as long as it doesnt seem all species have the same alphabet

Subject: Re: Alphabet Editor Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:27 pm

eumesmo wrote:

sounds good to me as long as it doesnt seem all species have the same alphabet

good point. ship with 5 different symbol libraries or so, just to jazz it up.

_________________
Remember our goals: simplicity, science, and playability. Keep them in mind always.
[OE]|[FAQ]|[Wiki]|[My Internet Presence]

Regular Posts: 297 Reputation: 6 Join date: 2010-07-09

the letters could be made by the pc out of simple geometry, and that was what i was regarding as a possibly unnecessary effort. But i think that given enough characters the problem could be solved i guess.... what if they wrote like the chinese or the ancient egiptians?

» ALPHABET
» Yautja Alphabet
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Alphabet Editor

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