Regional Speech and Text (moved here)

It was a mistake to lump speech and ships together in one thread. I am going to start a new thread for speech styles. (also note, this discussion covers features which will NOT be in Unstable Space, but later releases).

So do we agree that we want text to vary by region? In the past it has been talked about, which is why I am bringing it up. I have no vested opinion in what we do. I am happy to code based on style, or based on number of variations, or not add any more than 1 response at all.

I have become a fan of minimal solutions. Consider this reasoning:

Crew responses will be played very often. I think we should have several responses for the most common commands. “Form Up� will be pressed a thousand times. So will “Approach my target�. These don’t need to vary by regional style, they just need to vary.

If everyone agrees to this approach to wingman text, then I will let the text writer pick the number of responses, and I will write the code to match those choices. (once we choose what we are going to do, then we can get down to the issue of how to structure the writing and the code.)

As far as regional differences, I do like the idea, but I don’t think we should customize every bit of text to match a region. I think our goal should be to impart the maximum “flavor� of the region with the smallest effort possible.

For that reason, I think we should change the regional style of those text items the player will see most often. Those text items that are seldom read, we should not bother customizing.

Every pirate and customs toll has 2 lines of introductory text that order the player to Halt. The player will cross tolls many, many times. I think if we made regional variants of the introductory text, the player would feel they arrived in a new place the moment they crossed the border and encountered new customs.

In the future, I think the player should have to request use of the cargo loading/unloading port. And I think that text would make a great choice for regional text.

Ok, those are just suggestions. I think we first need to reach agreement on what we intend to do. And then make a solid plan of exactly what will/ will not be done. Otherwise it results in wasted effort.

So, variations in crew speech: Yes? No? Other suggestions?

Variations in text by region: Yes? No? Other suggestions?

Just considering speech, what list of regions would you choose?