1. The cap on languages learned
The number of languages a character can learn should be tied to the amount of effort expended in learning languages. My suggestion for the cap is:
3 ranks in Lore = 1 additional language.
Only Lore obtained through base Intelligence score and purchased skill ranks would work, if the ranks in Lore come from enchantments or buffs or gear, it will not apply.
That way, high INT characters keep some perks of having high intelligence, while lower-INT characters would need to work at learning more languages, AKA spend more skill points into Lore.
2. *(unintelligible gibberish)*
Makes no sense. Literally! Especially when you look at it from a realism point of view. I didn't manage to come up with anything myself, but Xanos950 and Shadowy Reality had some really good points which I'll quote here (I hope neither of you mind!)
Xanos950 wrote:For example, if you hear somebody say something in like german in irl. And you repeat it. It wouldn't be unintelligible gibberish just difficult to understand.
So maybe make it like there's a chance that one or two words in a sentence are turned to gibberish instead of the whole sentence?
3. Language learningShadowy Reality wrote:I would also like to see a shift from (unintelligible gibberish). And rather see a 'digest' of the word you are trying to say, how much it is digested would depend on your proficiency with that word. 'hello' could become 'holle' or 'heoll' (and then be translated to the language you are trying to speak). This way the word would still be wrong but it could be translated and maybe identified by the native speaker still or not, if you are just starting.
Other posters in that thread brought up some really good points, it's too easy to accidentally teach a language, and in some cases it's too easy to learn a language.
I have a really weird/complicated idea for it but I don't know if it's mechanically possible, just going to put it out there in case it actually is possible and the devs like any parts of it. Obviously numbers would need tweaking, and add in limitations to prevent people from becoming master linguists in a real life week.
Give Phrasebooks an additional use, one that allows you to create Study Notes on a language. Creating Study Notes will take some time, perhaps one ingame hour, to create, and the process will be interrupted by moving or getting into combat (so that you can't just create Study Notes and run off to grind while it goes on in the background) Notes would be creatable by anyone who's reached at least Beginner in a language.
Study Notes would allow progress towards learning a language. The higher the creator's skill in a language, the more progress it allows. For example, Study Notes from someone Fluent in Elven might enable you to reach 10% progress through whatever rank of Elven you're at, but notes from someone Intermediate would only give 4%.
Once you reach the progress allowed, listening to Elven being spoken would fill in the completion bar, up to that 10% allowance. Once you hit it, you need more Study Notes to allow more progress, though there'd be a limit of only one set of notes may be used per ingame day.
Add a -teach command, so that language teachers can choose whether or not they're teaching, use it like the -guard command except it can be sent to multiple people. And when you're done, -stopteach to clear it.
However, leave the ability to learn languages through eavesdropping, for the sneaky types who don't want to give away the fact that they're learning something. It would just be much slower for those without a dedicated teacher. Leave the option to learn a language discreetly, like the current system, just make it much, much slower.
High intelligence score and Gift of Tongues will keep their perks - faster learning, small bonuses to progress cap from Study Notes, and any Study Notes they create will be a more effective.