Do you want the UBW to rescue Blair from the bugs on UE2?

[WildWeasel]

Do we really have enough evidence to justify giving them a personality?

 

[Lynx]

The bugs are too different from humans to give them a convincing personality. As for beeing aliens, they are quite plausible. But that's they point. I think that many players didn't like them as much as the Kilrathi, because the bugs have virtually nothing in common with humans in contrary to the cats. The Kilrathi have emotions, motivatitions, act quite humanlike and have personalities like we do. They aren't too alien.

I'd stick to the faceless swarm idea, whose motivations we don't know. That makes them look more dangerous. A bug supervillain like the emperor wouldn't work out. Actually, that would be quite ridiculous or just stupid to see.

 

[Delance]

The bugs have some personality, because they talk, they taunt, and they respond to the player taunts. The question is: do they have some individuality?

Gameplay-wise, very little. The D-Ray pilots are aces, and the other are standard bugs. But it wasn't so different with the Kilrathi, or any other enemy.

So we really don't know yet.

 

[Lynx]

I actually liked the first encounters with them when they used this strange babbling. It made them sound more alien. But then they switched to their english taunts. That wasn't too good in my opinion.

 

[BattleDog]

The bugs are hive animals. Their motivation is probably. "Feed, kill, Feed."

 

[Ghost]

And Mate too, laddie!

 

[Delance]

Originally posted by Lynx
I actually liked the first encounters with them when they used this strange babbling. It made them sound more alien. But then they switched to their english taunts. That wasn't too good in my opinion.

Actually, it's the ship's computer that translates it. They are still talking in bug-talk.

Originally posted by BattleDog
Their motivation is probably. "Feed, kill, Feed."

How is that motivation different from the Kilrathi? Haven't you played WCIV?

"Why can't we be more like the Kilrathi? The only reason to life being found in death".

And we know the Kilrathi likes to eat! That's on one of the novels, the prequel, I think...

 

[Tempest]

Actually, in the first mission that you hear the aliens in English, a wingman (perhaps Maestro?) says:

"They learnt our language pretty quick."

So.. I don't think it was translations, other than the other race being supposably super smart... or something.

 

[Eder]

Tempest is right. Don't tell me you've never realized just how slightly impossible it might be for a computer to translate something from an unknown language.

--Eder

 

[Wedge009]

Conflicting evidence. That Maestro quote, and the Warlord talking to Blair in English (both in the torture and ending scenes) show that the bugs have learnt our language. But when Finley plays that clip to Casey - there's no reason for the bugs to be speaking our language among themselves, so it might stand to reason that she had done a little translating on the computers.

Of course, there's also the explanation that the bugs were speaking English for the benefit of the player...

 

[Delance]

Originally posted by Eder
Tempest is right. Don't tell me you've never realized just how slightly impossible it might be for a computer to translate something from an unknown language.

Well, let me point out a few facts for you:

1. Every now and then you hear an untranslated comm from a bug with the message [computer: unable to translate]. Maestro was, perhaps, just talking rubbish, perhaps he didn't even knew the computers had translators. They were rookies, unfamiliar with the new stuff from the Midway.

2. They did decipher the bug's languague, so it was not unknown.

3. It is not remotely as impossible as plenty of other things we have on WCP. I'm not talking about sound in space, but sending a Commodore, the highest-ranked and most important man onboard, not to mention the most decorated pilot in the history of confed, alone to do marine-work inside a collapsing alien station.

 

[Wedge009]

Desperate times calls for desperate measures. In any case, Blair has shown himself to be more than just a 'flyboy' in the WCM and WCATV.

 

[Ijuin]

I would like to see the bugs having some apparent strategic goals however instead of just having you go out there and find them everywhere. Are they trying to take over specific targets? Are they making a concentrated attack on a human/Kilrathi capital ship? Are they trying to seize the jump points to a system?

 

[Eder]

Originally posted by Delance
Every now and then you hear an untranslated comm from a bug with the message [computer: unable to translate].

Funny, huh? I mean, after the bugs learn english all of a sudden, the computer should learn alien rubbish too, so it can translate their lines when they don't feel like speaking in english anymore!

--Eder

 

[Quarto]

Originally posted by Wedge009
Conflicting evidence. That Maestro quote, and the Warlord talking to Blair in English (both in the torture and ending scenes) show that the bugs have learnt our language. But when Finley plays that clip to Casey - there's no reason for the bugs to be speaking our language among themselves, so it might stand to reason that she had done a little translating on the computers.

Actually, the only thing the bug warlord says to Blair is "Blair!" . The torture scene doesn't count, because as far as we're concerned, it only happens in Casey's head.
The Finley scene is more problematic, of course. It wouldn't make any sense to assume they were speaking English to fool the humans, since it would be far too obvious a subterfuge. So, we're left with the conclusion that they spoke English for the same reason the Kilrathi always spoke English - because the player needed to understand.

 

[Delance]

Originally posted by Quarto
Actually, the only thing the bug warlord says to Blair is "Blair!" . The torture scene doesn't count, because as far as we're concerned, it only happens in Casey's head.

Just because it cuts to Casey? So everything that happens on WCP only happens in Casey's head too, there's a similar scene in the end.

The Finley scene is more problematic, of course. It wouldn't make any sense to assume they were speaking English to fool the humans, since it would be far too obvious a subterfuge. So, we're left with the conclusion that they spoke English for the same reason the Kilrathi always spoke English - because the player needed to understand. [/B]

Yes, yes, even amognst themselves. But he most important evidence here is the [computer:unable to translate] thing. It's quite literal. Lets stick with it.

 

[BattleDog]

The Kilrathi were killers. However, they had art, music, drama, politics.

I don't think the average bugs thinks on that level.

 

[Eder]

Originally posted by Delance
But he most important evidence here is the [computer:unable to translate] thing. It's quite literal. Lets stick with it.

How does the fact that the ships' computers are unable to translate bug-talk support your point about the ships' computers being able to translate bug-talk?

--Eder

 

[Delance]

Originally posted by Eder
How does the fact that the ships' computers are unable to translate bug-talk support your point about the ships' computers being able to translate bug-talk?

You are joking, right? Well, anyway... A contrario sensu.

 

[Eder]

Why would I be joking? You're telling me that the computer's "unable to translate" message is proof that the computer's translator can handle bug-talk. Why on earth would the computer only translate some of the bug-talk, then, and tag the rest as "unable to translate"?

Doesn't it make much more sense to assume that the bugs have indeed learned english as maestro suggests? Maybe they simply choose to taunt the player in a language he can understand, but utter their last words in their native language.

To me, it makes more sense to have a sentient being switch between two languages he/she/it has learned to speak than to have a computer somehow learn to translate only half of a language before that language is even studied. (Eu consigo escrever em português e inglês no mesmo post, nao consigo? E se você fosse traduzir, por que só conseguiria traduzir metade? So there you have it )

--Eder