Ashwalker speaking gal-comm

[FantasticFwoosh]

Recently in one round within basil i actually apprehended a suspicious individual of a ashwalker wearing stolen ID in the halls & mismatched clothes, instead of killing them on the spot, being a sensible police officer i am within the RP concious basil i instead arrested, identified them with a health scanner, then tried to gulag them with the intention to send them back home.

> Then it spoke galcomm, and my immersion just broke completely and the proud draconic ashwalker caveman/dirt poor illegal immigrant on the wrong side of the space wall between Ass Blast USA and Lavaland just devolved into another degenerate greyshirt lizard that shouts threats, resists & lives to be a violent shitter except this one has got valids to be shit.

I messed up the deportation a little bit and later it was executed but it was my first taste of exactly what i was protesting about on this PR for not being wholly to RP at all and atleast extremely misguided.

Here is me, this ashwalker has broken into the base, is a valid race with full power to be antagonistically hostile at whim, got onto the station and is trying to slink into medbay without anybody noticing and probably pocket all the supplies. I do NOT want this person in the station because they CANNOT be trusted, and in this situation i did not valid them and instead decided to deport them to a stay in perma.

Galcomm in the encounter made it unfun for me in apprehending a loudly protesting lizard spouting draconic gobblygook when instead they insult me in galactic comm like any other shitter.

> Of course by me making a mistake and setting to 0 points, they just came straight back and started attacking me, and was later executed. I gave them a free ride home and didn't kill them and like the untrustworthy snide snakes they are they spat in my face. Please rescind their galcomm language rights.

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TL;DR : Them speaking galcomm is immersion breaking, and will not make station people not treat them like valid trash & lizard shooting targets they are, they are innately untrustworthy selfishly transfixed on the necropolis & survival and nothing else.

[MMMiracles]

Immigration patrol picks up trespassing alien, surprised by their fluent common as they're dragged back over border.

Honestly having them not speak common/only have access to a really shitty variant that sounds like engrish would be entertaining and give more purpose to pAI miner buddies.

[Gun Hog]

I had a different experience while I was playing as RD. One of the miners invaded an Ashwalker nest and stole one of the eggs (AND NOT THE FREAKING MALF DISK >:( ). He brought it to Xenobiology where we kept it for a while until it hatched. The attending scientist called me down to look. When I got there, I saw that the Ashwalker was locked in one of the slime pens, smashing out the window. I opened the shutter to look at it, at which point it stopped smashing and began speaking "Necropolissss" over and over again. Another lizard spoke Draconic to it, but it only kept saying "Necropolisss" while dancing around, even when we let it out.

I am not sure what happened to the little guy after that though, other bad things happened which cut my interaction with it short.

All that to say that your mileage will vary. Different players RP in different ways (or not at all). It might be more common with civilian roles instead of security, perhaps. It might even be realistic...on duty police and military can be intimidating to certain individuals; I wonder if there is a version of this happening with our security. I certainly feel nervous around sec even I am not antag.

That being said, speaking perfect Gal-Com is a little odd, if they had that Goofball disability that chops out a few words, it could work. I like to talk a bit more dumbly as a Lizard myself.

[DemonFiren]

I like to talk a bit more dumbly as a Lizard myself.

Not only as a lizard, I'm sure.

[FantasticFwoosh]

Immigration patrol picks up trespassing alien, surprised by their fluent common as they're dragged back over border.

Honestly having them not speak common/only have access to a really shitty variant that sounds like engrish would be entertaining and give more purpose to pAI miner buddies.

That i can agree with, Remie touched upon the same thing.

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As for your example gun-hog, thats a cute one and its good that they were sporting about about it, but it doesn't change the fact that they are entirely valid and you can abuse them however you like. Coiax's reasoning is one of peace while often the reality is one of war and tense hostility. Its not paranoia inducing to understand the perfect english of the locals.

[Gun Hog]

I like to talk a bit more dumbly as a Lizard myself.

Not only as a lizard, I'm sure.

Swings-His-Tail has partial Ashwalker blood, and does not speak well, despite being well trained in Science by his mentor (who is actually younger than him). He is unrobust and easily confused by humans, but tries to help anyway. He is no sophisticated (lol) lizard like the one you posted here!

As for your example gun-hog, thats a cute one and its good that they were sporting about about it, but it doesn't change the fact that they are entirely valid and you can abuse them however you like. Coiax's reasoning is one of peace while often the reality is one of war and tense hostility. Its not paranoia inducing to understand the perfect english of the locals.

What if they spoke broken Gal-Comm?

[InsaneHyena]

I like to talk a bit more dumbly as a Lizard myself.

Not only as a lizard, I'm sure.

You can put a monkey in a suit, but it will still throw shit. It goes the same for slave races.

[DemonFiren]

I like to talk a bit more dumbly as a Lizard myself.

Not only as a lizard, I'm sure.

You can put a monkey in a suit, but it will still throw shit. It goes the same for slave races.

I know.
This is exactly why they should ban humans from command.

[FantasticFwoosh]

If ashwalkers were fully illiterate (drones are illiterate, its what prevents them from reading notes) and spoke everything but draconic as garbled, i think a half ashwalker optional race setting for roundstart (just extra hardmode) or a cap on the learning abilities of ashwalkers would sit better.

> Ashies can't use guns, add onto that slow caveman learning, bad experience with computer & writing and non-primary languages are garbled.

[Dr_bee]

making ashwalkers only be able to speak draconic would go against why they are there in the first place, they arent just there to antagonize the miners, they are there for roleplay, take away the ability for them to roleplay with miners at all and you just have glorified assistants with antag status.

[Lazengann]

they are glorified assistants with antag status now

people get tricked into letting them on the station and then they go flood plasma and unwrench supermatter pipes

if they lose the ability to speak common then they'll be seen as the untrustworthy bastards that they are

[FantasticFwoosh]

they are glorified assistants with antag status now

people get tricked into letting them on the station and then they go flood plasma and unwrench supermatter pipes

if they lose the ability to speak common then they'll be seen as the untrustworthy bastards that they are

They are murder-sport, let not us concern ourselves with their draconic cries as we sunder the life out of them and null our ears to the screeching of lizardkin who can understand. You wouldn't trust a ashwalker enough to barter with them, when the whole incentive is to just take all their shit by force.

[BeeSting12]

making ashwalkers only be able to speak draconic would go against why they are there in the first place, they arent just there to antagonize the miners, they are there for roleplay, take away the ability for them to roleplay with miners at all and you just have glorified assistants with antag status.

the only roleplay reason i can see for an ashwalker to befriend miners is so they can get more sacrifices from the station which ive seen happen with a traitor miner and was funny. of course there was THAT ONE ASHWALKER that tried attacking the miner but he got put down fast

[FantasticFwoosh]

"snip from above"

People forget that ashwalkers only need to roleplay consistently with other ashwalkers by faking reactions and playing like a caveman to any extent, and being draconic doesn't put a cap onto this. First contact & requiring a translator to understand the ashies bizzare demands are RP experiencies in themselves if neither of you immediately murder each other.

[Dr_bee]

making ashwalkers only be able to speak draconic would go against why they are there in the first place, they arent just there to antagonize the miners, they are there for roleplay, take away the ability for them to roleplay with miners at all and you just have glorified assistants with antag status.

the only roleplay reason i can see for an ashwalker to befriend miners is so they can get more sacrifices from the station which ive seen happen with a traitor miner and was funny. of course there was THAT ONE ASHWALKER that tried attacking the miner but he got put down fast

Ive actually played somewhat friendly ashwalker's before, basically traded bones and bodies for what stones we mined, it lasted for a decent while until a new generation of ashwalkers went hostile, overall a 10/10 round that wouldnt have been able to happen if the ashwalkers couldnt speak gal-comm

[BeeSting12]

okay thats actually pretty cool

[confused rock]

Still possible if a miner is a lizard/has pai

[onleavedontatme]

Here are some memorable interactions I have had that wouldnt have happened had ash walkers been unable to speak galcommon

-I was born from an ash walker egg in the xenobio pen. Security is there, and claims to be divine (and fires their guns to prove their magic). I am convinced I have entered the necropolis and follow the "angels" around (goimg for drinks, reviving people in medbay, etc) before eventually martying myself to bomb a clock cult base to help win what is obviously a divine war in heaven.

-An ash storm approached while I was scouting a lizard base I had been planning on destroying. I duck inside for shelter and the lizards and I spend an akward and tense coulple minutes chatting as the storm rages.

-Ash walkers invaded the botany ship and enslaved the pod people, forcing them to farm monkey cubes in exchange for their lives.

-Hunting tendrils with a miner. He got the loot, I got the bodies.

-Getting crit during a raid on cargo, nursed back to health, and employed there, only to die later defending my new friends from another raid

-Negotiating a truce with the miners, only to return and find our nest destroyed

-Apologizing profusely and returning a virologist to the station after they'd demonstrated their "blessing" by regenerating their wounds

-Nar-sie cultists recruited the lizards, leading to a gigantic raid on the station that ran headlong into a xenomorph infestation

And so on. Rare, but worth keeping I think

[DemonFiren]

the king slime is correct for a change

[FantasticFwoosh]

In my eyes all of those things are entirely up to you or others to RP at your individual whim but that's not appropriate for the ashwalkers status quo in being diametrically opposed to the station through.

> Also im looking into making ashwalker immune to cults & employable by mindshield implants to nullify, slave them to centcomm & erase/replace their newspawn message in such as future case that a mindshielded ashwalker is killed & revived with cloning and you can force them to work in the case that you DO have compliant/captured against their will ashwalkers, but i have shitty fresh coding skills so probably not for a while or ill talk to another coder about it.

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Adds language to lizards in order to create paranoia, gives ashwalkers additional common so they are equal to station lizards instead of having them speak draconic all the time and worry miners with what they are saying. Too much paranoia to add. Kinda hypocritical to the concept of a lizard language if there are no sole speakers of it present in the game because (MUH FETISHISTIC ARPEE I CAN'T HAVE THE LIZARDS METAYIFFING IF IM NOT PART OF IT)



Like really, ashwalkers RP very commonly between themselves, i think that deserves more attention in fleshing out the role (miners are bloated) and first contact with individuals of a species you have little to nothing in common with is a good sci fi storytelling device. It also makes them easier to kill while you are mining if you can't understand them.

[Remie Richards]

None of the things Kor has said are invalidated by my/mmmiracles/fwoosh's idea of giving them a "broken" galcommon.
In fact, it would probably reinforce the fact that these are special, not-normal encounters.

with them speaking normal galcom they may as well had been normal lizards.

[DemonFiren]

all lizards are special encounters, though
some are even extra-special

[FantasticFwoosh]

Theres no point making a language system if we are obliged to make extraneous races speak galactic common as standard on the basis of "Muh ArPee"

Robot ghost role space lets say that emerges from a pod, it only speaks binary language.
- Are we OBLIGED to make them speak galcomm too in the 1/million chance this murderbot from space that eats human hearts for fuel wants to cuddle or barter?

I think this is a veiled attempt to tiptoe around the issue of meta-communication within a language by having it be open. If there was actually any FAITH in the curator, silicons and 1/4 of the station's lizard population being able to step in and establish communications with the ash walkers if it was wanted then this would be a complete non issue. If not then the languages/curator was a complete failure and is not delivering a primary aspect upon which it was said to include.

> without difference there's no motion for change or compromise.

This feels like lorebus meddling to be safe rather than daring with our RP when presented with languages..

[Armhulen]

If they spawn on lavaland, they will get draconic only.

If they spawn on station, they will get galcommon and draconic.

[FantasticFwoosh]

If they spawn on lavaland, they will get draconic only.

If they spawn on station, they will get galcommon and draconic.

Simple as, thank you. Proportionally there's more speakers of draconic on the station during highpop than there is ashwalkers at any point in time on lavaland.

[Remie Richards]

Honestly I'd still prefer them speak broken gal-comm
I imagine they all just took it in turns to read the warning labels on the crates, the sticky note attached to the AI upgrade, etc. until they had a rough grasp of the humie-speak.

[Armhulen]

Honestly I'd still prefer them speak broken gal-comm
I imagine they all just took it in turns to read the warning labels on the crates, the sticky note attached to the AI upgrade, etc. until they had a rough grasp of the humie-speak.

also works.

[RandomMarine]

It doesn't make any sense why learning to roughly read a language would teach them how to speak and hear it.

But that can be fixed with giving the ashwalker den a broken VCR with some movies scattered around as fluff objects

[Wyzack]

I think the broken galcomm solution is a good one that can satisfy both parties if a good implementation is made

[Remie Richards]

It doesn't make any sense why learning to roughly read a language would teach them how to speak and hear it.

But that can be fixed with giving the ashwalker den a broken VCR with some movies scattered around as fluff objects

Well to be fair, with it being a broken (I was thinking 80% of the time it's perfect, but 20% of the time it randomly scrambles as if either party didn't have the language) of the language, them only having reading material IS a fair explanation, they're speaking the language with horrible pronunciation (as they've never heard otherwise), this is also why they fail to understand it some of the time too, to them, that's not what it's supposed to sound like!

[FantasticFwoosh]

Well they might be able to half manage speaking broken gal-comm, but audioguides wont teach you how to read out lettering or use our machines, using drone/monkey/xeno like literacy checks could stop them from transcribing themselves onto paper & reading book instructions & guides even if they can write very very badly such as mispelling their name when they do [sign] with all over the place font.

> Generations of oral history being responsible for their extremely proficient monster killing techniques.

[DemonFiren]

>automatic spelling mistakes
literally the only thing that could possibly make me stop playing lizard

[Remie Richards]

>automatic spelling mistakes
literally the only thing that could possibly make me stop playing lizard

It's only for the branch of the species lizardies-ashus, not lizardies-stationbound.
dumb lizard.

[FantasticFwoosh]

Well you say that Remie, but the literacy average for lizards on a whole for such menial job workers might actually not be that great

Lizardpeople have a chance to not know common on roundstart #26890

Heh.

[Remie Richards]

Almost forgot about that PR, lol.

[RandomMarine]

Well to be fair, with it being a broken (I was thinking 80% of the time it's perfect, but 20% of the time it randomly scrambles as if either party didn't have the language) of the language, them only having reading material IS a fair explanation, they're speaking the language with horrible pronunciation (as they've never heard otherwise), this is also why they fail to understand it some of the time too, to them, that's not what it's supposed to sound like!

It'd be huge feat to even reach shitty-but-comprehensible levels with only small amounts of written material. Unless there's a phonics book or something, they would most likely make up their own wildly different ways to sound out each letter of the alphabet.

Plus, lizards learning how to speak by watching shitty romcom movies is funny.

[FantasticFwoosh]

Sorry to dig this up again but im laughing my ass off with PR #27641 as it effectively makes ashwalkers more fluent than station lizards like some kind of caveman linguistic prodigy hoo, haha haha hahaaa

But really, the lore reason is garbage and why are we shoehorning this again? Ashwalkers from all my personal experiences of watching them play almost never speak galactic common because the long term goal is to always double cheat the people your RP with. We lit a entire goddamn golem ship on fire while they were still in there for christ's sake and burned all the golems to death one because of flippant newspawns might have thought a golem looked at them funny.

Even if you RP a peace deal with the immediate ashwalkers, their replacements from the nest will not respect any fealty and will be merciless. RP is as much impossible to sustain for any extended period of time without literal deviant ashwalkers travelling independently away from the nest.

They didn't even want anything from the golem ship, not the technology, not the vendor, they are agents of chaos and destruction.

[oranges]

There needs to be some way for a community to have a shared set of notes on alliances and things like that, to promote good rp.