Forgotten Kingdoms Forums

Here lately, I've had a few people greet me when I don't even speak their language. I'm sure it's most likely a product of "greet all" but I'm curious.. What do others think about greet working to those who can't even understand the language the greeter is speaking? Should I know their name if I don't even have that language? It sometimes leaves me confused when my character meets them again as a person whose name I already know, even though I don't feel I should.. How do I react when I can't figure out how I met this person who is just a number of people speaking "asopmedcabgl" language?

Recognise them IC but let them know you don't recall their name or didn't understand it?

It doesn't seem like enough of an issue to me to be worth doing anything about it. There are plenty of ways to RP around not understanding a language even if someone has greeted you.

I think dealing with it IC is the best solution, especially when the name the give you has come out garbled. No reason to code it out, as one can often at least recognize they have been greeted, just not understand it. One might also understand a certain string of syllables represents a name, based off emphasis, even if the rest of a statement is baffling. IC solutions over code.

Such as with:
"Yeah... I cannot pronounce that so I am going to call you... 'Kenny!' Hello Kenny! My... what big tusks, you have!"

Followed by much pantomiming. I swear this option is a lot more fun, the more unsuited the name, the better. FYI, every orc is now a Kenny. (Based on actual events.)

I'd like to point out it was specifically added that greeting does not work when meditating. If you don't even get a greet while meditating, why would you get a greet when you can't even speak the language the person's trying to greet themselves in?

And, sure, you can say 'Yeah, just act like you don't know them,' but I've a 50/50 memory and opening my log file is not going to happen in the middle of it logging to go see how the hell I might know this person. The point is I won't remember while my character most likely would be able to say 'I don't know who you are. We met once, but you were speaking Gibberish.'

To me, greet could work if you don't understand the language like someone points to himself saying his name several time to make understand that it's his name (ok, I have been watching Tarzan too much with my boy lately :p)
Sounds quite IC to me.
But it's a specific interaction with the one you are trying to give your name.

In game, greet someone could work even without knowing the language, but greet all would not work if you don't understand the language.

My idea

El

I've learned a couple of languages by immersion and I am not sure that you need to understand the language in order to understand the name. If an Arab approaches you and says, "Salaam alaikum! Shlonek? Shlone setak? Shlone ahalek? Shakumaku? Ani ismee Abu Ali," with a few hand gestures and inflection that is common to most spoken languages then you may figure out that Abu Ali is his name -particularly if you keep hearing it- even if you don't grasp the rest of it.

This is just a case of the greet function cutting through the unrealistic way that unfamiliar languages are scrambled. I believe that it's up to you (the non-specific, general you), the player, to figure out if you'd like to use the name or not.

Names are understood universally. Someone points at themselves or taps their chest and say the same sound each time, you connect the dots. Nothing as detailed as 6-7 word long titles, but something like -*points* "Bob"-, even children can figure that out. That is how I see greet. I might not grasp 100% of what they say, but I can put the pieces together to know the basic name.

I think the only worthwhile remedy with something like this is implementation of the (rather involved, I think) idea of letting one alias or rename those who have greeted you. I recall it was a suggestion I really liked, but it's just not good enough to get done at the moment, too much more critical stuff on the plate.