I've been playing around with creating subtitles for SS2, but I've run into a bit of a philosophical problem. For non-verbal barks, which many enemies in SS2 use, I can't decide whether to subtitle them literally, or by meaning. For example, with monkeys I could do:

Ook.
Ook!
Eek!

or...

(idle)
(spotted player)
(attacking)

At least words exist for the sounds monkey make. I don't even know what I'd do for the worm and assassin sounds.

Note that subtitling of non-verbal barks would be primarily for the benefit of hearing-impaired players, and can be easily disabled by everyone else.

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Okay, I think this is good enough for release now. See the "official" thread here to download:
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=9508.0

Sounds like "back paving stability nominal".

You could also do something more subtle that sort of avoids the problem altogether.

For any idling noise:                   ...
For any spotted player noise:  ???
For any attacking noise:            !!!

It's not the best solution in the world but it's a form of universally understood language and it's simple.


The thing I don't like about the ook eek, is that, as you pointed out, how do you properly verbalize all of the enemies?  What I don't like about the notification style approach is that it is immersion-breaking because it sounds like narration, especially with the use of the word "player".

I second RocketMan's suggestion and if possible I would enhance this with unicode icons.

Some suggestions:
monkey http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f412/browsertest.htm
skulls and bones http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2620/browsertest.htm
snake http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f40d/browsertest.htm
biohazard http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2623/browsertest.htm
the many: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/262D/browsertest.htm

monkey http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f412/browsertest.htm

You can make monkey pictures with Unicode?!

You can make monkey pictures with Unicode?!

Unicode has lots of symbols. Our mobile forum version makes use of a few.

That's great, now try it for the assassin noises.

hzzzrz we can navigate wzzss.

Subtitling always has descriptive text like "[static]", "[distant scream]", etc. There's never been any doubt that SS2's subtitles would require stuff like that.

Eh, maybe I shouldn't even bother trying to subtitle the non-verbal sounds. The default radius for the subtitle engine is well beyond what's normally audible, so in an area with a lot of AIs, even just their idle barks would flood the subtitle window.

Sometimes non-????;
Xerxes, requesting maintenance to optimize.

non-ectable??? Other than not being a word, it's a perfect fit.

Do you speak german? I could help with the translation.

A request for any members with the German version of SS2. There are two robot idle barks that I absolutely cannot figure out what they're saying:

snd.crf\MaintBot\english\md1at0_2 - "????? stability nominal."
snd.crf\SECBOT\english\sd1at0_4 - "????? Xerxes, requesting maintenance to ?????."

md1at0_2: Deckverkleidungsstabilität* nominal--> deck panel stability nominal
sd1at0_4: Sichtlinie(n) nicht optimal. Xerxes, Wartungseinheiten sollen dies verbessern-->Line of sight is not optimal. Xerxes, maintenance units should improve this (literal translation)

*Ahh, the infinitely expandable language.,, Giving us the option to write amazing words like "Deckverkleidungsstabilitätskontrollprüfungsbehördenerlass"

md1at0_2: Deckverkleidungsstabilität* nominal--> deck panel stability nominal
sd1at0_4: Sichtlinie(n) nicht optimal. Xerxes, Wartungseinheiten sollen dies verbessern-->Line of sight is not optimal. Xerxes, maintenance units should improve this (literal translation)

Awesome, thanks. Now that I know what to listen for, I can hear md1at0_2 as "Deck plating stability nominal."

sd1at0_4 though, argh. Even knowing what to listen for, it still sounds like "Sobox non-vectibal. Xerxes, requesting maintenance to vectomize." But given what it's supposedly been translated from, "Sight lines non-optimal. Xerxes, requesting maintenance to optimize." does fit the syllables, and mostly fits the phonemes I can recognize. I guess I'll go with that.