Custom Pronoun System

[AudibleAud]

First I’ll just say that I know we’re never getting a non-binary gender for the PC. It’d cause pandemonium in the codebase and all the writers would immediately quit or what have you. Given that that’s off the table, I propose that we instead get a system that allows the user to give the five forms of their pronoun of choice and have them slotted in. I don’t know how the game all works, but there has to be a preexisting system that automatically inserts pronouns, so this seems like a good compromise between effort of implementation and increased variety to me.

Edit: wording

 

[Koshka]

First I’ll just say that I know we’re never getting a non-binary gender for the PC. It’d cause pandemonium in the codebase and all the writers would immediately quit or what have you. Given that that’s off the table, I propose that we instead get a system that allows the user to give the five forms of their pronoun of choice and have them slotted in. I don’t know how it all works, but there has to be a system that automatically inserts pronouns, so it seems like a good compromise between effort of implementation and accessibility to me.

I might be mistaken, but from what I understand this "good compromise between effort of implementation and accessibility" of yours in reality would require making small rewrites and fixes in ALL of the existing scenes (for a second, what's the current words count? should be somewhere about 20 millions by now, if not more). And all of that simply for the sake of implementation of a very niche thing. Is it really worth the time and effort (which instead could be spent on improving other aspects of the game)?

 

[AudibleAud]

I might be mistaken, but from what I understand this "good compromise between effort of implementation and accessibility" of yours in reality would require making small rewrites and fixes in ALL of the existing scenes (for a second, what's the current words count? should be somewhere about 20 millions by now, if not more). And all of that simply for the sake of implementation of a very niche thing. Is it really worth the time and effort (which instead could be spent on improving other aspects of the game)?

Nono it wouldn’t be hand written, it would be procedural like the text replacement system. In theory it would hijack the system that inserts he/she into scenes to instead add user specified pronouns, although again IDK how all the code actually works.

 

[Savin]

It only sort of works like that. Only heShe and hisHer exist inside the parser (and even then, I think hisHer only exists in post-JS-conversion content -- I certainly don't remember using it before CoC2's parser system came online); anything else is written bespoke. For example, every older instance of "his" or "herS" is hand-written behind a pc.mf parser (or just in the code directly; I KNOW hisHers was only brought online with CoC2), and there's a LOT of instances where the PC's pronouns are referenced INSIDE EXISTING mf parsers, ie. somebody saying "Wow, [pc.mf|he's got his head on straight|she's got her head on straight]!" or something.

Allowing for neopronouns is something a game would have to be designed with in mind from the ground up, really.

 

[AudibleAud]

It only sort of works like that. Only heShe and hisHer exist inside the parser (and even then, I think hisHer only exists in post-JS-conversion content -- I certainly don't remember using it before CoC2's parser system came online); anything else is written bespoke. For example, every older instance of "his" or "herS" is hand-written behind a pc.mf parser (or just in the code directly; I KNOW hisHers was only brought online with CoC2), and there's a LOT of instances where the PC's pronouns are referenced INSIDE EXISTING mf parsers, ie. somebody saying "Wow, [pc.mf|he's got his head on straight|she's got her head on straight]!" or something.

If that’s how it works, it might take some work but I think It‘d be possible to set up an algorithm for the old .mf parsers. It’d be a bodge, but any feature like this is bound to be a bodge. Give me a day or two and I’ll try my hand at an implementation. Chhanging the ones written straight into the code would probably be way harder, but I think it’s alright having such a niche feature be a bit incomplete. Just say it’s “experimental” haha. Also, to be pedantic, this isn’t necessarily just for neopronouns. It accommodates the classic they/it prononouns as well, I just figured it was better to have more customizability from the start.

 

[Savin]

If that’s how it works, it might take some work but I think It‘d be possible to set up an algorithm for the old .mf parsers. It’d be a bodge, but any feature like this is bound to be a bodge. Give me a day or two and I’ll try my hand at an implementation. Chhanging the ones written straight into the code would probably be way harder, but I think it’s alright having such a niche feature be a bit incomplete. Just say it’s “experimental” haha. Also, to be pedantic, this isn’t necessarily just for neopronouns. It accommodates the classic they/it prononouns as well, I just figured it was better to have more customizability from the start.

You should probably ask someone actually working on the (code side) of the game if they'd even allow it first. My gut reaction is they will not, but that's not my department.

 

[AudibleAud]

You should probably ask someone actually working on the (code side) of the game if they'd even allow it first. My gut reaction is they will not, but that's not my department.

Who specifically should I go about contacting for that? You really think they’d veto it even if I make the algorithm myself? Quite frankly I’d code the thing myself if I could, but I seem to doubt that’s an option : p

 

[Savin]

Who specifically should I go about contacting for that? You really think they’d veto it even if I make the algorithm myself? Quite frankly I’d code the thing myself if I could, but I seem to doubt that’s an option : p

Gedan or Fenoxo. Either by DM here or on Discord, I don't think either of them read the forum past bug reports.