Language/Region based Matchmaking

  • I think it would be great if the players language or at least region would be taken into account for matchmaking.
    There are many players who don't speak English very well.

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  • Region is taken into account. But the European contintent is littered with countries that all speak different languages and we just have to live with that.

    Your best bet is to join a group or discord that's specificly for your language so you at least have your crew speak the same language.

    English is one of the most accessable languages for games, many people speak it, read it and write it without too much effort so it's the go to language of most people/ countries. It wouldnt surprise me that lots of people you meet on the seas are not native enlgish speakers.

  • Yeah, I'm sure most people are not but this is the only way to communicate properly because no one knows the native language of the other players.
    By region I don't mean continent. What about the country or the system language? Shouldn't be too difficult to implement. I understand Rare is a British company and they love their British pirate accent etc. and Microsoft is based in the USA, but they can't ignore all other languages in a multiplayer game like this.
    Navigation on the German SoT website shows how little they care. You can't even find the bug reports page there. This is not how a service game should be treated in a globalized world.

  • @garv3 написал в Language/Region based Matchmaking:

    Yeah, I'm sure most people are not but this is the only way to communicate properly because no one knows the native language ot the other players.
    By region I don't mean continent. What about the country or the system language? Shouldn't be too difficult to implement. I understand Rare is a British company and they love their British pirate accent etc. and Microsoft is based in the USA, but they can't ignore all other languages in a multiplayer game like this.
    Navigation on the German SoT website shows how little they care. You can't even find the bug reports page there. This is not how a service game should be treated in a globalized world.

    Or maybe people should already learn basics from number one in world international language to communicate with each others? I'm very happy that this game not cutting different regions coz i made a lot of friends from USA and even Australia, and i'm from Ukraine.
    But what amazed me in a bad way that tons of people from Europe not knowing this simple language :O

  • I would like to see national flags option for the ship to make it easier finding people who use certain languages.

  • Well, I agree in some way.
    English is the most common language for communication when meeting people from other countries - and one of the easiest languages to learn as well. But you cannot force anyone to learn a language or even worse: make it a requirement to play a game. Games should be fun. Games should be accessible.
    What about younger children who are not raised bilingual? What about people who never learned English at school, but French or Spanish or whatever - in some countries this is possible.
    But even if the other players speak English - it is often nearly impossible to understand what they say because of their strong accent. Especially if you are not a native speaker and the audio compression ruins the quality.

  • @garv3 Ah German, well that explains something.

    German is spoken by a verry small ammount of people, just 2 countries in the world speak it natively. The bigger problem is that germans don't learn any other languages at school and their goverment translates everything. (watching ZDF is awesome during the 80's seeing the A-Team be badly dubbed)

    There are however some german groups going, I've seen german discords around the forums a few times.

    And otherwise do as your neigbours do...
    Erweitern Sie Ihren Sprachknoten

  • @hynieth
    Oh, this is not correct, sorry. German is spoken in 19 countries around the world, it is national language of 6 countries and every child in Germany starts learning English at an age of about 5 years in Kindergarten and continues at school until min. 16 years of age.

    I never have problems to understand English speaking Germans but mostly people from Eastern Europe because of the strong accent.

    And would you explain to me what a "Sprachknoten" is supposed to be? Bad google translation, I suppose. Should probably be "Erweitern Sie Ihre Sprachkenntnisse."

  • @garv3 Sorry maar dat is gewoon letterlijk de vertaling van Talenknobbel van Nederlands naar duits.

    Ich kann funf Sprachen sprechen aber ich bleib einer Nederlander

    You cannot tell me that the people who visit my country, my province have learned English at school otherwise they weren't almost forcing us to speak german.
    Remenber they come to our country speaking their language and you're telling me they can speak English yet act like they can't? That would make your fellow Germans really bad people.

    I was born in the 80's. I'm literally German decended. You can't tell me that people learned English at school while they didn't teach anyone English at all. Even in Western Germany they didn't teach English even tho they were on the US side of the country.

  • @solestone563412 My English skills are not the problem I'm facing here. It's the other players. Doesn't matter how well I speak English if I can't understand their gibberish.
    And I don't want servers that are 100% dedicated to one language. I know this would be hard to do. But matchmaking is always about weighting all these factors. So language could easily be one of the variables taken into account for this.

  • it was once planned at the very beginning of the game, that the option of matchmaking by language is done when we plug our microphone in the crew ... but you know it's a bit like customize the cabin captain, live sirens, pets etc etc
    Surely still words in the air ^^ (at sea)

  • @hynieth sagte in Language/Region based Matchmaking:

    @garv3 Ah German, well that explains something.

    German is spoken by a verry small ammount of people, just 2 countries in the world speak it natively.

    So wrong... there is .... harumph ... I am german, so I need to do this, don't I? ... as we're known as self-opinionated and humorless Lederhosen wearers ... I don't want to leave expectations unfulfilled. Best, you read the following text while in the background you play Second movement (Allegretto) of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Opus 92. So here I go: Its language area includes Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, East Belgium, South Tyrol, Alsace, Lorraine and North Schleswig. It is also a minority language in some European and non-European countries, such as Romania and South Africa, and a national language in African Namibia.

    The bigger problem is that germans don't learn any other languages at school and their goverment translates everything.

    LOL... but wrong. Some kindergartens are bilingual, at the latest in primary school English is taught, a second foreign language is added later. And the gouvernment translates nothing. Film distributors do. Television stations do. Like elsewhere in the world, too, I think. But many foreign films are broadcast in the original sound, some even multilingual, you can select that. Well, the A-Team was before that time, so you are right with this one. Funny is "The Maltese Falcon", in German a parody through fancy music and translation, in Spanish a heavy, dark affair...

    (watching ZDF is awesome during the 80's seeing the A-Team be badly dubbed)

    rofl, so true, as much as german movies are often dubbed to english. We have become so accustomed to this from English films that our advertising industry has native advertisings dubbed in such a way that the voices do not match the mouth movement (currently Check24, f.e.). This increases the feeling of authenticity among the viewers. Incredibly crazy! Unbelievable!

    There are however some german groups going, I've seen german discords around the forums a few times.

    Yes, and one can use LOOKING FOR GROUPS or GRUPPENSUCHE on xbox to search for german speaking players.

    And otherwise do as your neigbours do...

    Mowing the lawn? Take out garbage?

    Erweitern Sie Ihren Sprachknoten

    Meh. What is a "Sprachknoten"?

  • @hynieth

    I was born in the 80's. I'm literally German decended. You can't tell me that people learned English at school while they didn't teach anyone English at all. Even in Western Germany they didn't teach English even tho they were on the US side of the country.

    Well, I'm not talking about the 80s. And btw: I am born in 1980 and learned English in School for 9 years.

    Germans trying to speak German all time when visiting the Netherlands is probably caused by the fact that we know, you speak German. And many Germans think their English might not be as good as your German. Additionally Germans at an age of 50+ (in most cases) didn't learn English in school.

  • @hynieth sagte in Language/Region based Matchmaking:

    @garv3 Sorry maar dat is gewoon letterlijk de vertaling van Talenknobbel van Nederlands naar duits.

    Ich kann funf Sprachen sprechen aber ich bleib einer Nederlander

    You cannot tell me that the people who visit my country, my province have learned English at school otherwise they weren't almost forcing us to speak german.
    Remenber they come to our country speaking their language and you're telling me they can speak English yet act like they can't? That would make your fellow Germans really bad people.

    I was born in the 80's. I'm literally German decended. You can't tell me that people learned English at school while they didn't teach anyone English at all. Even in Western Germany they didn't teach English even tho they were on the US side of the country.

    That's nonsense, dear neighbour. I learned English in school, I was born in 1967.

    The tragic thing about Dutch is that for German ears it sounds quite similar to the Frisian and "Plattdeutsch" dialects, which are spoken in Germany east and south of you. Most Germans drive through Frisian territory before they come to you, and this dialect is often heard on radio or television, too. Of course, Frisians speak Frisian dialect among themselves, but as soon as Germans with other dialects are present, you automatically switch to High German. In the Netherlands, Germans don't feel like being abroad because it sounds ... like Friesland. It doesn't sound much different than it does in northern Germany. That's what happens most to the Southern Germans, for whom everything sounds the same north of the Main anyway.
    Although I know this exactly and pay attention to it, because I respect the Dutch very much, this happened to me nevertheless frequently during my holidays in the Netherlands - that I answer suddenly completely automatically in German.

    This has nothing to do with english tought at school.

    By the way, the Dutch were often irritated when I spoke to them in English and answered in German.

  • @solestone563412

    Probably better to just discriminate against everyone

    Not everyone - just those who don't speak English well enough. So discriminate everyone but a minority. Discriminating against a majority seems to be more politically correct than discriminating against a minority.
    Well, again: this is not about my ability to speak or understand English. It's about many others I just can't understand because they won't even try to speak in a way that someone else can understand.

  • I've rarely dropped into a crew of non English speaking players. However when it has happened, I've actually enjoyed the challenge of having to overcome the language barrier. Remember - the canned messages in the chat wheel will always be in your mate's default system language, so use that for simple messages. I've found that most can understand compass directions in English (North, Southeast, etc), "left and right." In general sailing isn't too difficult because most important messages can be relayed through the chat wheel. The most difficult part is when you are just getting started and trying to decide what you are going to do. The emotes and chat wheel do wonders though.

  • @jonaldinho I never play with random crews - I play with friends or go solo. It's just about the other pirates we meet.

  • @GaRv3 Evidently I've had much better luck with random crews than most people. Everyone is always talking about how randoms are always trash, noobs, squeakers, and trolls. Don't get me wrong, I've run into those as well. Maybe because I'm usually playing in the nighttime hours I have good luck getting adults with mics through open crews. I only do it when I'm desperate for a crew member, but I don't have any horror stories like others. I'm an anomaly I suppose.

    Sorry to get off topic. Even with other crews though, I think that would be an interesting encounter.

    "Hey does anyone speak French? What did that guy just say? Are they friendly?"

    Ahh... the panic that would ensue. That's the moments that make this game great.

  • @goedecke-michel I tip my hat to you good sir.

    I'll have you know that I'm Dutch and live right next door (as a matter of speaking). By your logic our colony in South Africa doesn't speak Dutch but german? I know the British often confuse our languages and they have good reason for doing so but it's not german my good sir. It's half a province in Belgium that speaks german sometimes (but often just french) and luxemborg is just a hodgepodge of German and French (and they stole our flag....)

    I'm almost 40 and I know a lot has happened in that time with your country (a wall fell half the country went from being dictated to being westernised etc) but the people who come to my hometown on vacation still refuse to speak english. So to me the problem persists, in the public Dutch opinion Germans can't and won't adapt or speak another language.

    In Dutch we have a term, Talenknobbel, it's (apparently) a purely Dutch word for the part of your brain where your speachcenter is. I just literally translated it.

    That Said I have to say we need to binge watch dubbed 80's Action movies together, I bet we'll have fun ^_^

  • its just unfriendly starting a small talk in german in the netherlands,but at the border the most dutch switch by hisself to german when they hear my really bad english:D.

  • @hynieth I noticed you are Dutch. I don't think a majority in South Africans speak german, neither. There is a german speaking minority in South Africa, thus claims wikipedia. Afrikaans, a derivation of Dutch from colonial times, is one of eleven official languages; English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, Siswati, Süd-Ndebele, Sesotho, Sepedi, Xitsonga, Setswana, Tshivenda and isiXhosa. There are also areas in Belgium and France, where german is spoken. Nore do I think Dutch was a german dialect. But to the most german ears - who don't understand either Friesisch, nore Plattdeutsch, nore Dutch - those three tongues still sound the same. But I don't say they are.

    You might be right that Germans from the former German Democratic Republic learned more Russian or Spanish as a foreign language than English. They may have never learned english, but we did in the Federal Republic of Germany.

    Although I consider other causes to be responsible than unwillingness to speak foreign languages, namely thoughtlessness and inattention, I don't want to sell you turnips as lemons, it comes to the same thing: Germans often speak German in the Netherlands.
    It is understandable that this seems unfriendly to the Dutch.

    Een vriendelijk gezicht brengt overal licht.

    That Said I have to say we need to binge watch dubbed 80's Action movies together, I bet we'll have fun ^_^

    I totally agree, lol. Magnum in Japanese is very funny.

  • @weedstar-deluxe but you learned it at school, don't you?

  • @goedecke-michel yes im from the west :D,but the east germans just learned russian

  • I don't know that Rare will be able to solve the issue of there being languages that you don't speak.

    They can't exactly force everyone to speak a certain language on a server. On other games even when they specify the language on a server they sometimes get taken over by groups who speak a different language. Used to be a issue on some games with Russian speakers, normally because there were no Russian servers so they got lumped into EU servers by default.

    In SoT so long as you can talk to your crew that's the main thing. I mean crews have the option to mute all other crews too, which pretty much prevents you from talking to them no matter how many languages you speak.

    Both LFG and Discord can be used to seek out crews who speak the same language as you. Again, that's not the issue you raised but it might be helpful.

    If Rare ever rent private servers that'll be your chance to have a server filled entirely with German speakers, I imagine the grogs will be delicious and the bananas will be a technologically advanced form of yellow sausage. Sounds like paradise.

  • I think this problem of German speaking Germans in the Netherlands is mainly more a conflict of generations. Let me explain why.

    German has been teached in Netherland's schools for many, many decades. In fact it has been the most important foreign language in the Netherlands until WW2.
    English on the other hand has been the universal/world language for only about 70 years now (since WW2 ended). The Netherlands switched from German to English as their first foreign language at the same time.
    Most schools in the German Democratic Republic refused to teach English until the reunion in 1990. In Western Germany it has been the first foreign language at schools since 1923.

    Restructuring the school system to prioritize other languages requires a significant amount of time. So you may add many years, probably some decades to these dates.

    This results in a unsatisfying situation: Many younger Dutch refuse to learn/speak German. Many older Germans can't/refuse to speak English. You see where this leads!?

    Get a group of young Germans and Dutch and they will probably communicate in English.
    A group of older Germans and Dutch will more likeley speak German.
    Put young and old together and you got a problem.

    Additionally the Nertherlands benefit a lot from German tourists. A huge number of Germans travel to the Netherlands and support a significant amount of the tourism industry of their neighbours. So many employees in tourist centers, shops, restaurants, coffee shops etc. speak German. And they recognize the Germans at the moment they enter the store. So they will speak German because it's beneficial for their business. This makes many Germans believe, everyone there might speak German which adds to the problem of course.

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