Well 817819, as you’ll note, there is no direct correlation between the Legal Understanding and the Lawyer trait. A character could in fact have a PHD level education in Legal theory, and also be a lawyer. They could also have a PHD in legal theory and not be a member of the bar. They could also be a member of the bar, but have a poor understanding of Legal Theory, etc.
I just don’t think someone would have the time to be both a practicing Lawyer and a practicing Doctor.
@AllenGies: Well, if we don’t romanize the names, how the heck is anyone gonna be able to read them?
Anyway, I had the idea that when the character mentions that they are Chinese, the games asks whether they come from the North or the South. If North, then they are given options for names romanized in Mandarin. If South, they’ll be given options for names romanized in Cantonese. (Nearly all early Chinese Americans were dirt-poor uneducated men hailing from the South, so maybe a note could be made of that?)
You’ll have to use the current Pinyin and Hong Kong forms of romanization for Mandarin and Cantonese respectively, even though that’s not how Americans in the 1800s romanized Chinese names. To be fair, there wasn’t exactly a standard way of romanizing foreign names back then and and everyone assumed that all names from China were pronounced the same way, Westerners just spelled peoples’ names based on how they sounded to them. So it’s the fault of 1800s immigration officials that we’re having such headaches right now!
As Misty said, nearly every Chinese-American in this period came from one small area of southern China. So it’s not really unreasonable to just use the Cantonese standard for everyone.
I just think it would be better if the player was given a choice in the matter, in a world where women could be asked to be marshals in the 1860s, it’s not that farfetched that there would be more Chinese immigrants from the North, though I think the game should mention that the player’s case is relatively rare that they would come from the North.
Okay, so phonetic Romanization of the Chinese names then for obvious reasons…
Second, split the names into two groups. Cantonese (south) and Mandarin (North).
Third, put a little note of the difference between the two because even someone like Marshal James would pick up on that.
This would be the favor I would ask of you, Mistylavenda; Would you be willing to group the names by north and south, given and surnames, and muse upon how they would be spelled by phonetics? I do so want to get this right.
@AllenGies a notification of some sort each time influence is gained or lost with a character would be great. maybe even put something like this, (+5 or -5 influence)-example, after each option that would concern a companion or fraction. If u get what I am saying.
Zhixi
Yung Jie
Delun
Xi Feng
Hui Qing
Ting Feng
Niu
Meixiang
Daiyu
Ruolan
Anyone knowledgeable with Mandarin or Cantonese have any suggestions on Romanization of the above? I also still need to piece together which are north and which are south.
You can already start a relationship with several people if you don’t kill them. Just in the first release you could befriend the prospector and the cowboy who were fighting over something stupid, or you could kill one or both of them.
Surnames:
Wong (S) - Wang (N)
Sam (S) - Shen (N)
Liao (N) - Liu (S)
Kang (N) - Hong (S)
Mang (S) - Meng (N)
Lam (S) - Lin (N)
Way to be obscure with your surnames! Only 1 of them is even in the top 10 most common.
(Note: Anything that ends in -ei- can be romanized as -ay- or -ai-. So Mei Hoeng can also be romanized as May Hoeng or Mai Hoeng and Tse Hei can be Tse Hay or Tse Hai. It depends on what you think looks prettier. Personally, I think that the dumb immigration officials would’ve most likely wrote “May Hoeng” or “Tse Hay”.)
Given names:
Zhixi (N) - Tse Hei (S)
Yung Jie - ???
Delun (N) - Tak Leon (S)
Xi Feng (N) - Hei Fung (S)
Hui Qing (N) - Wai Hing (S)
Ting Feng (N) - Ting Fung (S)
Niu (N) - Neoi (S) <---- I STRONGLY recommend against having this for a female name
Meixiang (N) - Mei Heong (S)
Daiyu (N) - Doi Yue (S)
Ruolan (N) - Yeok Lan (S)
I based the Cantonese versions off of what I assumed to be the names of the celebrities you picked. Some of the names don’t flow that well in Cantonese however, like how Zhixi sounds better when it’s pronounced as “TSEE-Hay”
I recommend adding an option for the player to type in their own names.
@AllenGies
I’d also prefer numbers as it makes the increases clearer and saves he player from having to check their stats every time they get an increase, which in my opinion can really muck up the immersion if the increases occur often enough.
Of course another option is to not tell the player when they get an increase at all and just have them check their stats when they want to(i.e. When facing a tough decision)that means that you could add in constant little stat increases or decreases, and because the changes aren’t made really obvious by the way the choices are worded the flow of gameplay wouldn’t be interrupted and the player would automatically make the choices more natural to them.
MaddiMastermind- Yes, romance will be possible in Chapter 4. Of course, I can’t make it easy on people, and so you’ve really had to be around the person in question (Schmidt or Caraway) repeatedly and be friendly with them for the opening part of the romance path to trigger that early.
Chapter five will introduce a non-companion female potential love interest. Also, I’ll be writing Yiska back into things for the non-companion male love interest.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t have more than one romance going, and indeed the possible fallout from those could be interesting, if a pain to write.
Cloudian and Ajax- I see what you are saying about the character influence increases and decreases. Too many notifications and it breaks the narrative rhythm. Not enough hints and it is hard to tell what someone feels about you without checking the stat screen, which is itself a break to the rhythm.
Right now, I am weighing things between the two. I really want to split the difference, but that might just make things worse, with both notifications and stat-screen checking both.
