Davnik
commented
8 years ago A significant note here is that having additional languages, which are somewhat secret (as not everyone knows Sinta'Unathi), gives you a slight advantage in roleplay and balance... it's kiiiind of like admin-approved metacomms. Hence, I wouldn't want to go over 4 languages on a player (barring special circumstances like Changeling Hivemind), and am considering when to allow 3... only in social roles which are somewhat know-it-all, or across the board but costing custom loadout points? Or am I reading too much into it, and we should simply allow three for each player, fourth costing extra?
Also, if I wasn't clear, do note that people who choose to learn English (Sol Common / Siik'tajr / etc), and Spanish (Galactic Common), AND French (Siik'maas / Gutter / Sinta'Unathi) are relatively rare... unless the space-faring culture, which puts you in close contact with many French and German speakers, encourages learning the language for personal reasons. Nonetheless, learning a language fluently is a real pain, and takes years of training and usage for most people. In this way, balance goes hand in hand with realism / sense / roleplay.
Certain roles, namely the HoP and Esoteric Researcher, should have access to additional languages. I would think each of these would have one additional language, amounting to three (Sol Common, Secondary, Role.) I'm not sure how this would be implemented though - perhaps for characters whose primary/High occupation preference is one of these roles (so that they can play anything, but retain the knowledge), or who has a skill 'Linguistics' at Trained+ (despite skills being unimplemented) and consistently plays one of these roles, as monitored by admins? The easiest implementation is like the chaplain's faith and book - a dropdown at roundstart if you are picked for the role. But this does not translate well ICly, when they "forget" the language later. Thoughts on how to smoothly integrate an additional language for a character who happens to be placed in the right role to receive it?