Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress

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The Way the Words Work
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1.187 MB
Aug 13, 2024 @ 9:40pm
Feb 23 @ 2:57pm
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The Way the Words Work

In 1 collection by DPh Kraken
Kraken's Language Mods
3 items
Description
A total language overhaul that adds structure to the default language rules to create more logically-assembled names. Words now obey stricter rules on positioning, in both compound and "X of Y" form. All of the linguistic symbols have been expanded and/or redefined. For example, double-verbs often look silly, so I've taken care to generally limit them in civ names.

Maintains cross-mod compatibility by using the same dictionary/set of word tokens as vanilla. I've repurposed a couple of the less resonant words by changing their English translation, but they still use the same internal IDs. Custom civs, etc, that are compatible with the vanilla language should work with this mod.

Adds more book titles and dialogue text sets.

Cuts and replaces the default entities to update their naming conventions.
  • Dwarves have a stereotypical naming scheme in fantasy fiction: "Thorin Oakenshield" from "Dwarrowdelf" (LotR) and "Bruenor Battlehammer" (D&D) being notables among them. There's also plenty of named dwarves in Norse folklore, with the Poetic Edda citing many. Since these symbols are also inextricably used for site compound names, geonyms also feature prominently among names.

  • The vanilla symbols used by elves cast a pretty broad net - NATURE is basically everything that isn't abstract or artificial and FLOWERY was "pretty elf stuff". Elves are the most mystical with their hidden forests, so I've added some spiritualistic vocabulary to their names. From elven beauty comes the idea that they'd value youth (eternal if need be), and from their defense of the savage lands comes the idea that they'd have a disciplined ideal of chaos. They're surprisingly neutral on a lot of civ values.

  • The goblin name list is pretty straightforward - add some places, professions, and nasty stuff, plus filtering the verbs to stay in one symbol. There's a lot more "ugly" words than normal, but it's pretty safe to go over the top with these enthusiastically horrid names.

  • Humans specify no name symbol in vanilla, leading to the theoretically most varied names. I've tried to add a more focused "medieval" feel to human names instead, with plenty of geonymic and professional names. I've also played up the few defined attributes of the plains civilization - their fixation on fanciful beasts, their affinity for war, and their comfort with "domestic" goods in their name.

  • All default civs additionally use a symbol full of 104 additional words that appear only as proper nouns, never translated in a compound word. By adding them to OTHER, there's effectively more "meaningless" first names available. This is the most extensible part of the custom civ symbols, which can easily be supported for new civs if TWTWW is loaded after them.

Additional Downloads
Download on DFFD[dffd.bay12games.com]
The font shown in some of the previews is my variant of Sleipnir [dffd.bay12games.com] - the original by Andux can be found on the DF Wiki[dwarffortresswiki.org]

Credits
This mod is public domain, feel free to publish edits or incorporate this into your total conversion. I've invested a huge amount of work into this, so please do credit me.
I was inspired by Emilovich's Language Overhaul, which uses a custom dictionary instead of the vanilla one.
Shout out to dikbutdagrate for helping me test this mod through its early stages.
Text sets have additional credit to Aquos, SethCreiyd (Speech Expansion[www.bay12forums.com]); Tarran, Igfig & Cruxador (FlavorText[www.bay12forums.com]), Nethack & addmsgs[alt.org] and other contributors to community Speech mods[dwarffortresswiki.org]
Preview image from the Getty Museum Collection[www.getty.edu]

Known issues
This mod is a sequel to Cooler World Names, and incorporates it fully. They currently aren't marked incompatible, but loading both would be redundant.
The only way to replace an entity's naming scheme outright is to cut and replace it. Ideally, TWTWW would use a creature-variation style method to replace only the language parts, but the raws don't support that yet.
Only one version of text set files can be loaded at a time. Mods that add more book titles or greetings will only load the latest
Currently, no civilizations on the workshop are supported with custom TWTWW symbols, and the example lacks many of the common subselects. If you want to add support, either send me the ID of your civ or feel free to make a compatibility patch.
First names aren't properly capitalized in the new dialogue.
Popular Discussions View All (1)
1
Oct 15, 2024 @ 2:32pm
What are the differences between this mod and The Langauge Overhaul?
Donaldthemagpie
34 Comments
DPh Kraken  [author] Apr 25 @ 3:43pm 
That seems like an error in the translation files, but make sure that your new words have unique IDs. If they happen to overlap, then it might have messed up your indexing as a form of raw duplication.
Dyscomancer Apr 25 @ 9:56am 
I did a few edits to this mod by adding words to the dwarven language, specifically adding T Word entries to language_DWARF_vanilla.txt and actual corresponding word entries to language_words_overhaul.txt. The new words integrated great on a new world on first session, but upon reload I'm seeing a lot of missing words and translated dwarf surnames only being translated to single compound words.

I'm new to raw editing, so is this a common pitfall? Is my save screwed beyond repair?
Baleur Apr 20 @ 1:12pm 
Thank You!
Zal Apr 17 @ 4:54am 
Finally. No more "Door Door, the Door of Doors" and his names weapon "ManyDoors the DoorsDoors"
DPh Kraken  [author] Mar 22 @ 12:25pm 
I just used whatever I had on hand.
HueSatLight Mar 21 @ 7:34pm 
How did you determine ADJ_DIST for your new adjectives? That's how I found this mod, I was wanting to add "fungal" and "lunar" in language_words.txt, couldn't make any sense of the vanilla ADJ_DIST, and realized there was probably already a mod that had adjectives added for a bunch of words I hadn't even considered yet.
I don't get a lot of double adjective names with vanilla, but some of them sound backwards. Did you try to match specific categories for your adj_dist, or go by the closest vanilla adjective?
DPh Kraken  [author] Feb 23 @ 10:32am 
These are the load conditions:
[CONFLICTS_WITH_ID:vanilla_languages]
[REQUIRES_ID_BEFORE_ME:vanilla_text]
[REQUIRES_ID_BEFORE_ME:vanilla_entities]
[CONFLICTS_WITH_ID:cooler_world_names]
[CONFLICTS_WITH_ID:the_way_the_words_work_lite]
[CONFLICTS_WITH_ID:language_overhaul]
[CONFLICTS_WITH_ID:language_overhaul_urist]
leonardodiasm Feb 23 @ 9:20am 
I couldn't load this mod today. It used to work before the latest game update. I made sure it was on the correct load order, disabled conflicting mods and all. It says it must be loaded after vanilla languages, but I do that and the game still won't let me load the game if this mod is on the enabled list (that list where you choose and manage mods before starting a world).
Nactarune Feb 23 @ 6:03am 
Is there any specific incompatibilities that you know of like with specific mods that won't work with this ?
DPh Kraken  [author] Feb 14 @ 5:33pm 
All of them work with Adventure. I'm not sure what you mean.