Do language skills do nothing?

[The Anglo Spaniard]

I have a crew member who has the spanish speaker trait, sent him onto a spanish merchant ship to see whats going on and it tells me they communicate in basic german. Wtf? i look at the documents which are in english and it says i need a lingist to put pressure on the captain when both him and my officer speak fluent spanish.

There seems to be something amiss here, i get there is a perk for it but if the guy speaks the same language fluently then there should be no communication issues between crew

[Tryryke]

I know that the English and Portugese ones have been useful. Maybe it was one of all those smugglers with false flags, or a portugese or argentinian ship?

Seriously though, they do work but the inspection mechanics in general are a bit wonky.

[athenian]

Officer language skills do not make a considerable difference, or affect the outcome of inspections. My take is that they're there for enhancement, or it will be something to be fully fleshed out in later versions of the game

[rabbit1988]

Originally posted by The Anglo Spaniard:

I have a crew member who has the spanish speaker trait, sent him onto a spanish merchant ship to see whats going on and it tells me they communicate in basic german. Wtf? i look at the documents which are in english and it says i need a lingist to put pressure on the captain when both him and my officer speak fluent spanish.

There seems to be something amiss here, i get there is a perk for it but if the guy speaks the same language fluently then there should be no communication issues between crew

Only because the ship has a spanish flag doesn´t means that anybody on board speaks spanish. ;) It only means that the ship is registered in Spain. Also it could be a false flag.

[Lipi]

Originally posted by rabbit1988:

Also it could be a false flag.

This is also what I'd bet on. The flag says Spanish, but people don't speak Spanish. Sink it and later on find out the results post mission.

[Ziggurt]

Originally posted by athenian:

Officer language skills do not make a considerable difference, or affect the outcome of inspections. My take is that they're there for enhancement, or it will be something to be fully fleshed out in later versions of the game

You can't trigger dialogue at all (which leads to them caving in and admitting that they are smugglers) if you can't speak to them so there is that....

[VipreRX]

Originally posted by The Anglo Spaniard:

There seems to be something amiss here,

Yes, very suspect indeed that a Spanish flagged ship has shipping documents in English and a captain who doesn't speak Spanish.

Just because you can't get a confession doesn't mean you can't rely on your own instincts during an investigation and in this scenario instincts say that captain is blowing smoke and craving tea.

Did it specifically say the Captain speaks fluent Spanish or is that just being assumed based on the ship's flag?

[The Anglo Spaniard]

Originally posted by rabbit1988:

Originally posted by The Anglo Spaniard:

I have a crew member who has the spanish speaker trait, sent him onto a spanish merchant ship to see whats going on and it tells me they communicate in basic german. Wtf? i look at the documents which are in english and it says i need a lingist to put pressure on the captain when both him and my officer speak fluent spanish.

There seems to be something amiss here, i get there is a perk for it but if the guy speaks the same language fluently then there should be no communication issues between crew

Only because the ship has a spanish flag doesn´t means that anybody on board speaks spanish. ;) It only means that the ship is registered in Spain. Also it could be a false flag.

it was false, i sunk the bastard but even so. when the game is saying they speak spanish so you send a spanish speaking character and it doesn't even acknowledge it is a bit :/

[The Anglo Spaniard]

Originally posted by VipreRX:

Originally posted by The Anglo Spaniard:

There seems to be something amiss here,

Yes, very suspect indeed that a Spanish flagged ship has shipping documents in English and a captain who doesn't speak Spanish.

Just because you can't get a confession doesn't mean you can't rely on your own instincts during an investigation and in this scenario instincts say that captain is blowing smoke and craving tea.

Did it specifically say the Captain speaks fluent Spanish or is that just being assumed based on the ship's flag?

it said that the captain spoke fluent spanish

[DECAFBAD]

Your sailors can sometimes speak languages but they won't tell you about it

[athenian]

Originally posted by Ziggurt:

Originally posted by athenian:

Officer language skills do not make a considerable difference, or affect the outcome of inspections. My take is that they're there for enhancement, or it will be something to be fully fleshed out in later versions of the game

You can't trigger dialogue at all (which leads to them caving in and admitting that they are smugglers) if you can't speak to them so there is that....

Invariably it leads to checking documents and cargo. And making a decision whether they're flying a fake flag or not.

[Ziggurt]

Originally posted by athenian:

Originally posted by Ziggurt:

You can't trigger dialogue at all (which leads to them caving in and admitting that they are smugglers) if you can't speak to them so there is that....

Invariably it leads to checking documents and cargo. And making a decision whether they're flying a fake flag or not.

Had several times people admit that they were smugglers, most often by choosing "making claims" option (by far), not needing to check the cargo at all but skip to the evacuation and sinking options. So you DON'T have to guess. Seems like your experience is from earlier versions of the game.

If you have card player on "away team" this will increase the chances of freighter captain admitting to wrongdoings - again provided you understand the language.

As to language skill, there is decent chance that some of your crewmen has some hidden language skills so if you systematically select which crew you take with you on inspections, you may come over one that will speak up if they understand the language spoken and your officers do not (Most useful being English). Next time you take him with you, he will translate for you.

[The Anglo Spaniard]

it does seem suspect for a cargo ship to be going from bosten to lisbon but be just off the coast of ireland headed towards england

[Ninjafroggie]

Get a guy with linguist, then he speaks all the languages and problem solved. My boarding team has an officer with navigator, a radioman with linguist, and an engineer with merchant and sapper.

[VipreRX]

Originally posted by The Anglo Spaniard:

it said that the captain spoke fluent spanish

Certainly sounds like a bug in that case.

Originally posted by The Anglo Spaniard:

it does seem suspect for a cargo ship to be going from bosten to lisbon but be just off the coast of ireland headed towards england

It does but it happens. They sometimes cross the Atlantic between Canada and the British Isles north of Ireland then sail south to Iberia. If they were south of Ireland sailing north I'd sink them for thinking we were stupid.