New Language for the spoken parts.

Since Nexuiz/Quake/Xonotic has such a limited vocabulary, I think it wouldnt be hard to come up with our own language for the spoken notifications. After spending years abroad, its amazing how many languages there are and more interestingly, how quickly people learn.

I am thinking with the image makeover that's going on for Xonotic, why couldnt the voices be re-recorded and adapted to a japanese-like language where words were just one syllable each and simple sentences could be strung out of these words.

for lulz, check out this to see where i'm coming from:


Nexuiz Ninjas is definitely a strong theme to run I think, so cheers on that aesthetic choice.

I would love it if xonotic was talking at me in a new language, it could add to the 'alien' atmosphere of the game I think. Even more, I am an audio engineer so I'm willing to put my foot where my mouth is.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

The problem is that even less people would understand the announcer messages...

Yes, it is critical that people understand what the announcer is saying.
New voices would be great though, we are missing a lot of player voices.

Wouldn't this make playing the game really confusing? Especially in CTF games where there's a lot of announcements.

I however can imagine such voice messages in ambient sounds, e.g. from computer panels. Could hide a hidden message that way

But, I also disagree with this specific list. Did you make that one up? In a good one, the syllables on the right side should be actual syllables, not multiple (e.g. "ari", which I replaced by "hi"), and they still should correspond to the letter a little. Also, "zu" was assigned twice, replaced one of them by "tsu", and one of the "ri" by "wa". Also, "ru" and "lu" are the same, so I replaced "lu" by the missing "ga".

Then, I assigned all syllables to their first letter, and resolved duplicates in various ways.

A = ka
B = rin // "rin" somewhat looks like B turned by 90 degrees
C = chi
D = do
E = mei
F = fu
G = ga
H = hi
I = mi
J = ji
K = ke
L = re
M = me
N = na
O = no
P = to // "to" -> "t°" -> "P"
Q = tsu // why not...
R = ru
S = shi
T = te
U = ku
V = ki // k sort of contains a v
W = wa
X = ta // X as in TAX
Y = zu // u pronounced like ü which is first letter of Ypsilon
Z = zi

Now, e.g.:

XONOTIC = tanona no temichi
OMGWTFBBQ = nomegawa tefurin rintsu
XSAX LTU = tashikata reteku

Make sure though that these words are no swear words in Japanese but I do not know any, so I cannot verify.

Also, have fun finding "transliterations" of words in this syllable system. It is much harder as in Japanese, as there are even fewer syllables available, and they are not even cleverly chosen to get a somewhat complete system.

Xonotic ~ ku no chi ku = UOCU

But seriously... we should not do this, or if we do this, it should only be used for ambient sounds and signs on the map.

If "zu" is "ü", why is it not "u" or "ü"?

"YE" is the best phrase I can come up with from that.

lululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululululudodododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododododo!

Ooh! An alien language! How silly!

XD

lol

No, it's fun. Would be cool. The alien texts in Futurama is a fun detail i wouldn't wanna miss. And regarding announer sounds: those who _understand_ them are good enough without them and those who are supposed to understand them either don't hear them, because they disabled the (announcer) sounds or have them too silent, or they don't understand english, or.... don't understand english.

Hardly a good reason to obfuscate them even more.

However, nothing is stopping anyone from making a pk3 replacing announcer sounds.

no, i didnt make up the list of 'ninja names' its all over google. originally saw it on one of the imageboards on the net.

the announcements in nexuiz amount to a vocabulary of probably 20 words. a lot of us play every day for hours, we can create just 20 new words for xonotic.

also, the announcements are something that make nexuiz just like openarena and quake live. lets be a little different is all i'm asking. anyone else feel that way?

who says we even need spoken announcements? we can use other sounds. like instead of "one minute remaining" we can hear sixty heartbeats for the last minute.

im a little 'over' the dark and forboding mortal kombat announcer guy. who is he anyway? where the hell is he? where is this guy located in xonotic world? does he live in some satellite with a psychic connection to time space and where the flag is? i'm just saying, we can and should innovate. I say 'we' but really I hope the devs are listening.

thanks for entertaining the notion!

im tired of the same voiceover style for 10 years, lets make some advances into newer, smarter, and more elegant territory!

Its a fantasy game with a space theme. to me, the spooky voice dude has little to do with my frags or movement around the maps.

also, the announcements are something that make nexuiz just like openarena and quake live. lets be a little different is all i'm asking. anyone else feel that way?

You can also say that the existence of player models makes xonotic just like openarena and ql.

who says we even need spoken announcements? we can use other sounds. like instead of "one minute remaining" we can hear sixty heartbeats for the last minute.

I don't think anyone wants to stop and count out sixty heartbeats

im tired of the same voiceover style for 10 years, lets make some advances into newer, smarter, and more elegant territory!

Again, I still prefer regular people language announcements. However, if you want to create these new voices in your constructed language, you can then create a pk3 which can easily replace the voices in any xonotic game.

nobody has to count, but if you hear 'bu-bump, bu-bump' you know the end of the match is coming. that was only an example of an innovation of the type that I am sure will come with Xonotic. I really believe things can be refined and streamlined, revolutionary, and even more fun, always; even to a veteran who still breastfeeds (metaphor-hyperbole that means 'old nexuiz head that wants nothing to change ever.')

if we had no radical imaginations behind computer gaming, we would have never even seen sonic the hedgehog, we would be stuck with games like E.T.

lets unfetter this baby and see how far and fast she can fly. I love the stunning advances that I'm seeing already. congrats to everybody's ideas and hard work and dreams in action.

nobody has to count, but if you hear 'bu-bump, bu-bump' you know the end of the match is coming. that was only an example of an innovation of the type that I am sure will come with Xonotic. I really believe things can be refined and streamlined, revolutionary, and even more fun, always; even to a veteran who still breastfeeds (metaphor-hyperbole that means 'old nexuiz head that wants nothing to change ever.')

But it's not efficient. These messages above all need to be efficient and get their purpose across clearly and quickly, while their messages are still relevant. What if a newbie hears "ba bump ba bump ba bump"? They are going to think "lol wtf does that mean". If they hear "One minute remaining", they won't even think about what it means, because they understand it on such a low and integral level. Similarly, if they hear "fu rin ki to do chi te ari shi ku rin ka ki to ki to ji" they will not understand it at all. Don't make it difficult to understand the game, don't make it a chore to play or learn to play. Let's keep the guideline of "simple, fast, intense, and completely free."

What about five minutes remaining? Do you want to play a track 300 heartbeats? That will take you a few minutes to play, and it's not going to be relevant when it ends.

Changing things for the better is good, but not all changes are for the better.

As strange as it may sound, Div's alphabet produces quite nice results.

If you want to play, join #sh.nexuiz on QuakeNet, then type !divtrans text-to-translate to see the results.