Mission dialogue and descriptions

[Trylobyte]

A problem I've been encountering with some frequency is that mission dialogue trees, and even their descriptions and objectives, are sometimes poorly-written enough to detract from the game, and are occasionally muddled enough that the mission becomes confusing or unnecessarily difficult. 'A mistique engineering for a device' is a particular offender, with typos galore and dialogue that looks like it was written by a twelve-year-old WoW player, but many of the Progen-specific missions could also use a rewrite to clarify the dialogue and the objectives a bit more, patch up spelling mistakes, and shift the words around so they're in the proper order and context. Missions shouldn't be made harder because it's unclear what you should be doing or what you're going to need to do it.

I'm not calling Byakhee out specifically, even though I'm told he did most of the missions I just mentioned. Not everyone speaks perfect English, after all. However, I think that going over these missions and polishing up the text would help make the game look more professionally-done and solve a few recurring points of confusion.

[Tyran]

A problem I've been encountering with some frequency is that mission dialogue trees, and even their descriptions and objectives, are sometimes poorly-written enough to detract from the game, and are occasionally muddled enough that the mission becomes confusing or unnecessarily difficult. 'A mistique engineering for a device' is a particular offender, with typos galore and dialogue that looks like it was written by a twelve-year-old WoW player, but many of the Progen-specific missions could also use a rewrite to clarify the dialogue and the objectives a bit more, patch up spelling mistakes, and shift the words around so they're in the proper order and context. Missions shouldn't be made harder because it's unclear what you should be doing or what you're going to need to do it.

I'm not calling Byakhee out specifically, even though I'm told he did most of the missions I just mentioned. Not everyone speaks perfect English, after all. However, I think that going over these missions and polishing up the text would help make the game look more professionally-done and solve a few recurring points of confusion.

It is pretty annoying to see typos and bad story writing, its really lowering the standard.

The mission team needs a writer. And I don't mean just someone who can type English well. I mean someone who can write storylines and knows the art of writing.

[nimr0dbbow[IS]]

Many of the Progen missions were not just written by one person for your information. Some of the missions are mine, true but most of the early missions have not been touched in respect of the developers who originally wrote them.

I suspect the quote you made was written by a developer from continental Europe whose main language is not English. Myself, I tend to use UK/English (original) and not USA/English (modified).

I'm also running the missions now on the Developer server database through Microsoft Word spell-checker. (UK English). Missions ending with *SC* have been spell-checked. Words related to the names of items have not been changed.

For your information if a mission has ended in [Version] then it may have been a mission I made OR ADOPTED. If it doesn't end in [Version] then it is not one of mine. While the text of the mission may be lacking semantics, hopefully the code will not! Be patient during these stress-testing times.

However, should the eloquence of a particular mission not be up to standard, then you should use the correct part of this forum, namely the text bugs forum.

*SC* !!

https://enb-emulator.com/index.php?/forum/77-text-bugs/

[Stranks99[IS]]

It is pretty annoying to see typos and bad story writing, its really lowering the standard.

The mission team needs a writer. And I don't mean just someone who can type English well. I mean someone who can write storylines and knows the art of writing.

Please remember we are stress testing still, yes there are a lot of things to iron out and correct. As Byakhee points out it it would be a lot more useful to put errors you find into the bug reporting forum, yes they are viewed and logged and acted upon by the Devs. There is also a forum we use for QA reviews which are mostly carried out by the Beta teams, these take time. Everyone involved gives their time to the project for free, which means generally things will take longer to get fixed. There really isn't anything the whole team and community would wish for more than the game to work 100%, be completely error free and have perfectly written and epic story-lines. In the mean time the help of the community is also greatly needed to report things in the bug forums.

[C Del[IS]]

Myself, I tend to use UK/English (original) and not USA/English (modified).

Bah! You English don't speak your own language right.

[Zyrith Skye]

Bah! You The _{(Try to limit the use of apposition)} English don't do not _{(Avoid contractions in formal writing)} speak your their own language right correctly _{("Right" is a loose term, be precise)}.

-3, see me after class.

/runs and hides

[Slayerman]

-3, see me after class.

/runs and hides

CDel officially pwned!!! lol

Nice

[C Del[IS]]

I still says ya'll don't does it right.

[blattu]

LMAO!!

[garblesoup]

I still says ya'll don't does it right.

Best way to tick off an Englishman? Introduce him to everyone you know as an Aussie. Do that to a friend from work at our after-hours bar all the time, it just never gets old.

[r8rsfans75]

Best way to tick off an Englishman? Introduce him to everyone you know as an Aussie. Do that to a friend from work at our after-hours bar all the time, it just never gets old.

LOL we have an Irish guy in our office, we call him English Bob and he gets very irritated.

[Zyrith Skye]

To get back on topic... *snickers*

I am a role-player by heart and I love to lose myself in any given setting. Given that, I can normally overlook spelling errors and the like. We are still in pre-beta so there are other things to get working before we get the polish on. One thing however that irks me is when the NPC's dialogue talks to you out of character. That just ruins the immersion aspect entirely for me.

I recall doing my lvl75 PS hull upgrade and the NPC at the shipyard spoke about tokens. I cannot remember the text exactly and it is not a bug-report per se... This is more of a suggestion: It would be nice to have NPC dialogue worded in character and not talk about game elements directly. In the future I will try to take note of it and offer suggestions on how to reword it in the bugs section.

This is probably me just being nit-picky though... Getting the Progen missions all cleaned up is a major undertaking and I appreciate all the hard work you have done thus far Byakhee. I am sure some of us can agree to disagree on some of the direction you have taken however.

[Tyran]

Didn't some characters have chat dialogues with accents in them?

I faintly remember that woman McKellan having this for one - either Sco'ish or I'wrish. Also bogeril had an accent, an inbred form of American (pleonasm? ) if I am not mistaken.

It will add a LOT of flavour to some NPC's if this gets added.

You just need people who know how to write the grammar and phonetics of these accents.

[Terrell [BT]]

Yeah, the Bogeril definitely had an accent, both in their dialogue, and in the text displayed when arriving or departing Grand Ol Homestead.

[Kyp [LDEV]]

Didn't some characters have chat dialogues with accents in them?

I faintly remember that woman McKellan having this for one - either Sco'ish or I'wrish. Also bogeril had an accent, an inbred form of American (pleonasm? ) if I am not mistaken.

It will add a LOT of flavour to some NPC's if this gets added.

You just need people who know how to write the grammar and phonetics of these accents.

It's MacKellan, thank ye, and if she able to respond to callin' er' Irish, she might be sayin' somethin' like "Naw amurny ye bam.".

You can look forward to a little more of this I hope, I tried to do this with at least a few terran characters and/or npcs where you pick up missions. We do have to be someone careful about using local speech/vernacular/slang. It can tend to lose people sometimes.

[Zyrith Skye]

Well, accents do add a bit to the overall immersion if they are done correctly. I was more concerned about NPC's talking about game mechanics and jumping in and out of character. The NPC does not know that they are just part of a game world. Leave spelling out the literal game mechanics to the FAQ and patch notes. If an NPC has to tell a player how an ingame mechanic works, do it in character.

[Tyran]

Word choice can vary a lot as well.

As far as I recall, Jenquai use concise English much like Lt. Commander Data and Vulcans.

Also, Proconsul Kerr and that woman in Arx Spartoi had odd chat dialogues.

[Kyp [LDEV]]

Word choice can vary a lot as well.

As far as I recall, Jenquai use concise English much like Lt. Commander Data and Vulcans.

Also, Proconsul Kerr and that woman in Arx Spartoi had odd chat dialogues.

I think Kerr is the one that has a fixation on theater and acting. At least he does in the sound files.

Well, accents do add a bit to the overall immersion if they are done correctly. I was more concerned about NPC's talking about game mechanics and jumping in and out of character. The NPC does not know that they are just part of a game world. Leave spelling out the literal game mechanics to the FAQ and patch notes. If an NPC has to tell a player how an ingame mechanic works, do it in character.

Ah yes, this is referred to in the industry as "Breaking the 4th Wall". Sorry to hear that this is occurring. Do you have any specific missions in mind where it happens?

[Zyrith Skye]

Ah yes, this is referred to in the industry as "Breaking the 4th Wall". Sorry to hear that this is occurring. Do you have any specific missions in mind where it happens?

It was in the final dialogue I had with the Tiberius Shipyard for my lvl75 hull upgrade. Something about how to get and use the new tokens in the game. It was probably just quickly written down as a place holder to be reworded later given the current state of flux that are the Progen missions.

[Phorlaug[IS]]

'A mistique engineering for a device'

Thank you, Byakhee

I just did this Mission I got to the end to get the last Componant

(Blackbox x93) and I did a very Noob thing I had no room in my hold.

Before I went to the NPC to give her the item I knew I didn't have

I tryed to find out what that componanet was Before I talked to her,

so I could maybe by it from a vendor or player.

I couldn't find out what Comp I needed, so I just went to the NPC.

But whom ever (Byakhee) put the quest together had it covered.

The NPC told me what Comp I needed and with a small dash to get it

the Mission was completed.

I was so afraid of a FAIL or a wasted mission runs that I didn't consider

having a little faith in the DEV (To whom I had no idea who that was).

Antwho Thank you nice job.

Phorlaug...

The typos and bad grammar above were intentional