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Keep the vanilla ones

Use an expanded vocabularly

Start entirely from scratch

Cull the words that don't make sense from vanilla, then add words as we go

Other(post it in the comments)

[Urdothor]

Sorry, they're dupes, forgot to delete the older one. :3 Modders Resource is the latest version.

Count me in the 'more entities' camp. Was kinda looking forward to this being like Fortress Defense or summat. Each to their own I suppose. Just don't let my stuff stop you from adding whatever you've planned, because I'd feel kinda terrible if that were the case.

Well, at the moment I have the time to work on either my entity, or more regular creatures, and as we haven't gotten a ton of creature submissions, I figured more creatures was a wiser choice for the moment.

I might be able to squeeze enough time together to do both.

EDIT: I have a fun idea for a rare, benevolent semi-megabeast/megabeast. The danger is the fact that it's very hot and fiery, and a bit dangerous to be around.

[Urdothor]

So there's an issue that I'd like some thought's on. It's been discussed in the first DFFS, so there's already a few ideas of how to go about it, but perhaps it should still be discussed in case any more ideas spring up.

The question is how to go about language_symbol and language_word files.

A few ideas are to

Go with vanilla words and its symbols, and then if people decide to add more words, add the translations to all the other languages.

Use a vastly larger vocabulary (Vanilla is 2000, I believe, according to the first thread), consisting of basically whatever words you could want, and use custom symbols so that each entity can have a unique flavor to its naming, and do translations them all using a utility

Start with a small basic language file and add words as we go, and add translations as we go

[Bearskie]

For the record, I favor vanilla words + custom symbols & translations. Don't mind using a custom word file, but its the making of a new word file that's the annoying part. Still, if you're up for the challenge, sure thing.

Alternatively, we could opt to use a mod like Language Unlocked or the Dictionapocalypse project, which both supplement the vanilla raws with even more words.

[Urdothor]

For the record, I favor vanilla words + custom symbols & translations. Don't mind using a custom word file, but its the making of a new word file that's the annoying part. Still, if you're up for the challenge, sure thing.

Alternatively, we could opt to use a mod like Language Unlocked or the Dictionapocalypse project, which both supplement the vanilla raws with even more words.

I've been looking for something exactly like those!
I think that using expanded vanilla+custom symbols is the most favorable.

Edit: I don't mind adding new words, but the already expanded lists have most of the words I would want to add, and repeating work isn't a fun task.

[Urlance Woolsbane]

Start with a small basic language file and add words as we go, and add translations as we go

This seems like the best bet to me. Vanilla DF has weird, out of place words like "bodice." They'd be doubly out of place in this mod. I think that the language files should encompass whatever's in the game, at present.

[Urdothor]

Start with a small basic language file and add words as we go, and add translations as we go

This seems like the best bet to me. Vanilla DF has weird, out of place words like "bodice." They'd be doubly out of place in this mod. I think that the language files should encompass whatever's in the game, at present.

I will say that adding words as we go means that any previously made civs have to be translated for. If a modder moves on, thats more work on the current modder. With custom symbols, out of place words won't really be used until they fit.
Though, it's majority opinion on what we do.

[Cerapter]

Oh, I'd very much love if we started with an almost-empty language file, then worked our way up, though I guess we really shouldn't reinvent the wheel.

Actually, I'd accept if we just cull stupid words from the vanilla game, like the previously mentioned "bodice".

And I didn't know you could add custom symbols, but if you can, well then, I have no problems at all then!

[Urdothor]

Oh, I'd very much love if we started with an almost-empty language file, then worked our way up, though I guess we really shouldn't reinvent the wheel.

Actually, I'd accept if we just cull stupid words from the vanilla game, like the previously mentioned "bodice".

And I didn't know you could add custom symbols, but if you can, well then, I have no problems at all then!

I want to start from the ground up, but the aforementioned problem sprung up, of having to do a translation for every new word, for every entity.

I decided for the moment(so we have something going on) to use Language Unlocked for a slightly expanded vocabulary, and then just define custom symbols to increase the occurrence of words you want your civilization to use. It seems, apparently, that certain symbols are required, and that there are certain rules to how symbols are made and used.

What's a good way to collect ideas for words to cull?

[Cerapter]

Well, I don't have a template as to what words we should delete, but a general idea.
So, here's every word in-game.

Let's go down the list and find words that, while being actual words, I couldn't ever see being used for whatever it is these words currently get used for, like given names, place names, geographical locations, cities, etc.

Say, for example: "abatement". Makes sense, but not in names.
However, things like "abbey" and "abyss" can stay, though I'd divide them into smaller groups, like RELIGIOUS_PLACES and DESCRIPTOR_BAD or something like that. But that's just personal nitpicking.

As for needing to constantly update translation files, I'd suggest that a modder making an entity file could decide between them manually updating the files, them leaving us instructions on how he imagined their language and how should we expand it, or...

We could use some language generators, like this one. A modder could give us the language generation files (in case of the above program) and we could just generate new words as we need them.

So we could easily circumvent the ever-expanding translation problem, too.

[Urdothor]

Alright, how about we cull everything that doesn't make sense, but otherwise keep vanilla as a base(because we aren't going to generate a massive amount of words), and then just add on everything past that?

That way no one is making a new base from scratch, and we still have a fairly large base so that we don't get repeated things that often, but we have words that make sense where they are, and can then be expanded.

Edit: I made a poll to go with it, because I think this is more or less all the unique ideas we can have for this.

[Cerapter]

Well, no offence really, but even if started with a blank slate, I'd be copying common words over from vanilla anyways

But yeah, that's how I thought it could go, too. I'm in that.

[Urdothor]

That's another point, no reinventing the wheel if we use a reduced vanilla.

I have a fun creature that's almost done. It's a megabeast. It's a phoenix.
It has a lot of beneficial things to having it around, but is very hard to actually keep contained/capture.
 It provides minor happy feelings to all those around it, with some small, mostly harmless negative effects that have a concentration on them so that they build if you stay too close to long.
It's obviously very hot and flaming, and bursts into flames periodically. Upon being "reborn" it can grant a creature immortality, but provides a variety of negatives, such as slowing them down, making them dizzy, and a chance of them gaining [OPPOSED_TO_LIFE].
When nesting it drops some items for my planned alchemy system. The items count as small gems.
It can also get very big if it lives long enough. Don't piss it off.

I'll post raws for it as soon as I get to my laptop!

Edit: I see it being one of the few wild things not directly trying to murder you. It does do a number of indirect murder-y things though.

[chaotic skies]

I might try something I just thought of, which would be labor-intensive to set up, but if I do it right it will work beautifully. And will be incredibly useful for making new languages repeatedly.

Edit: Scratch that. I think we just need something like a spreadsheet, or just a list, that gives the alphabet, grammar rules, etc. for every language. This being one of the few files everyone will most likely touch, we should probably label it "DFS_language" or something.

[Cerapter]

Also, I have some song suggestions. These are pretty much what I've been playing with nowadays (except I cut together a full album + the original Dwarf Fortress in-game song, for a total of over an hour of music in-game), and they're done in a similar style like what the DF songs are done in.
The menu music is about 2 minutes long, the in-game is 10.

Have both of them here.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

Was there any particular reason you used .ogg?