The Argonian Native Language

[Deeza]

Sure thing. Hope you have fun.

[DoZeNt]

about this language))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4rqrbnkgr4

[Deeza]

TOYB wanted me to mention a correction about how this would have to work:

"You can't force subtitles on and off, there's no function for that, and I don't think even OBSE has that function. The idea would be the player has to turn subtitles on if they have the ability to understand the Argonian Langauge (which would be scripted that the argonians talk to you if you're argonian, or have some way to bypass the language barrier, like speech craft over 85, or you have the Eye of Argonia in your possession). However, if you can't understand them, they won't even start speaking to you, they'll just blankly stare at you and the convo will end."

[Catlemur]

Originally posted by DoZeNt
about this language))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4rqrbnkgr4

So you know this movie

[Deeza]

I'm afraid I don't get it...

Is this a cult movie in Russia or something? Kind of like Shark Attack 3 in Britain? (well, among my circle of friends anyway... wow, that movie is funny, and all completely unintentional too)

[morcroft]

I only really know dialog logic for TES3 CS, but assuming TES4 is similar, couldn't you just put an additional dialog topic entry higher on the list than anything else which has just blank text and a condition of player.hasitem EyeOfArgonia = 0 (warning: pseudocode!). The game's decision flow hits that first and stops.

That way, unless the player has the eye, all they get is blank dialog (or maybe "!"... "?" etc.) with an attached voice file (or one of several at random). Argonians still talk to you and you still get that nice gibberish effect with no text.

[Deeza]

That sounds like it could work. But I'm still learning the ropes of dialogue. Anyone else have an opinion?

[DoZeNt]

Originally posted by Deeza
I'm afraid I don't get it...

Is this a cult movie in Russia or something? Kind of like Shark Attack 3 in Britain? (well, among my circle of friends anyway... wow, that movie is funny, and all completely unintentional too)

Thats a russian movie, but that isn't the point... The language we hear was just delevoped by the actors immediantely while filming, just a compilation of sounds, and the argonian language in-game can sound exactly like that

[morcroft]

Bunch of random syllables and then pass through a vocoder alongside some animal noises? I got a surprisingly good Khajiit using real speech and recorded cat purr.

[Xae]

The 'if player.has EyeOfWhatever' thing could work, but it doesn't need to be overly complicated. All we need is a number of variations of a greeting in argonian. Say, for example, we fabricate Argonian versions of: "Hello", "Greetings", and "Good to see you" and then have every relevant voice actor record 3-5 versions of that line.

Say for instance that "Hello" in Argonian is "Vrai'shyyk". All relevant voice actors record 3-5 versions of it. We distribute these versions among the voice actors' NPCs and they all have the subtitle "Vrai'shyyk". If the player doesn't have the eye, all they can respond with is "Eh, yeah, I need to go".

Once the player has the eye, these lines will be removed (with the 'if' clause) and replaced with the character's proper greeting. An NPC that previously only said "Vrai'shyyk" will now say "Hello" and the player may speak as if normal.

From an audio perspective, giving the Argonian files a slight bestial sound using EQ and layering is more preferable than any computer-generated speech or randomly generated line. The latter can easily result in Microsoft Sam doing drunken Chinaman.