Why are Paranid in X4 polite?

[Axeface]

Ive been posting a lot lately, and wanted to bring this up for a long time.

The thing I have always remembered about the Paranid, and my first experience of them in X3 Reunion and especially Nolmankelnot (spelling) is that they are rude. They see every other race as lower beings, and say as much. It is quintessential to what the Paranid are and their lore. Everyone is a pathetic lowerlife, even when they are trying to compliment you and it is hillarious. It makes them interesting and gives them character. Remember how pirate Paranid have a metal brace in the center of their heads because their middle eye was forcably removed?! They are quite brutal.

Why are the Paranid in X4 polite? Why do they act human and say 'Goodbye'?

Please Egosoft. I think X4 lacks soul, and its things like this that really damage it. X rebirth and to a lesser extent X3 was attacked for its voicing quality, but X3's aliens from a native english speakers perspective (I think most people will agree) is good. I think X3's voicing for aliens is good enough to bring to X4, and with this you can re-inject some of the interest some of the races had, such as Paranid (even the nicest and most wordly Paranid like Nolmankelnot) treating the player like garbage.

I could bring up the split too. They are apparently a vicious warrior race, yet the only ones we see in X4 are female and look (and sound) like space elves.... (this was their female concept and male concept). Between X3, Rebirth and X4 racial identity is being lost, in lore, in npc models, in what they are wearing, in their ship designs... Argon too, who are the Argon? What is their culture?

I think you need to hire a concept artist or art lead or something. Art direction (this includes lore, story, 'feeling') is a big problem in X4. Rebirth tried so hard with this stuff, and did it so well.

[Kadatherion]

Between X3, Rebirth and X4 racial identity is being lost, in lore, in npc models, in what they are wearing, in their ship designs... Argon too, who are the Argon? What is their culture?

+1

I'd add that the scrapping of a main plot had me thinking those resources would have gone in doing similar things for the sake of the sandbox and general immersion. So, among other things, I had expected a bit more variety and effort in those "background", "generic" npc lines, chatter, et cetera. The opposite happened in this department too. I admit I've never been much of a fan of X's lore and races, they always felt cheesy and even juvenile to me (and derivative, but that happens in almost every videogame), but it was better than nothing. We are going towards nothingness.

[Imperial Good]

Why are the Paranid in X4 polite? Why do they act human and say 'Goodbye'?

The Paranid are still quite rude and do still act superior. Listen to Paranid captains in a fight. For example if they deal friendly fire to you they claim you flew in the way rather than saying sorry.

They say hello and goodbye because you are friendly to them. All races do that. It is likely to try and make the player feel like they can be kind of friendly rather than just stinking aliens to be exterminated. In other words it is to not set a first impression bias towards them.

However in combat all racial qualities are maintained. For example the Teladi keep referencing business terms, snake like Ss, eggs and scales while the Paranid have hundreds of ways to insult the opponent's flying skills while the Argon act as your typical want to be ace pilot. One does not really notice this on the platforms outside of speaking with the faction representatives, however in space and combat they most certainly have not lost anything.

I could bring up the split too. They are apparently a vicious warrior race, yet the only ones we see in X4 are female and look (and sound) like space elves.... (this was their female concept and male concept).

Male split are clearly not yet implemented. Seeing how the first DLC will be Split orientated it is highly likely we will see males added around that time. Why they have not disabled female Split before the male Split are added I am not sure, possibly related to how rushed 1.00 felt and they did not want to break backwards compatibility by removing them while they also want to keep the rest of the split back for the DLC.

Due to the lack of Split faction it is hard to know if their combat dialog matches the race profile. Currently the only time you will encounter Split pilots is either as SCA Pirates or as your own Captains.

[Tomonor]

The reason behind this must be the varied player character.

Egosoft most likely hadn't the necessary resources to differentiate the player's race/notoriety standing when encountering NPCs. Thus all the NPCs have gotten generic neutral voicelines.

When provoked, all the slurs make a comeback.

[MegaJohnny]

I bet this is something you could mod, actually. If a non-Paranid player is talking to a Paranid NPC, always use the gruff low-rep voice lines like you hear from Scale Plate Pact.

[MakerLinux]

Why are the Paranid in X4 polite? Why do they act human and say 'Goodbye'?

The Paranid are still quite rude and do still act superior. Listen to Paranid captains in a fight. For example if they deal friendly fire to you they claim you flew in the way rather than saying sorry.

Maybe in the X4 Universe the political correctness trend also caught on in all races and now the Paranid, instead of being straight honest brutes are now just passive-aggressive as**oles, lol.

[phrozen1]

Yes it is really sad how every race speaks the same lines over and over again. not even a different welcome-message on stations.
For me thats a very important thing that totally breaks immersion.
I hope egosoft will redo some of those things but i guess it will stay this way for X4...

[MakerLinux]

I hope egosoft will redo some of those things but i guess it will stay this way for X4...

Yeah, usually NPC voices and the such are not modified after release, because it involves complicated and expensive logistics - contacting the same voice actors again, setting up a schedule for re-recording of the voices, and of course, paying them for that. So, either we wait for a mod from someone that can really approximate the game voices (or completely substitute one or more voices), or we learn to support the calm and polite Paranids and the flirty female Split. But I really really hope that with the Split DLC, the remaining Splits will be insufferable, belligerant and rude.

[radcapricorn]

After the modulated Split voices in Rebirth (which were much lower-pitched than those in past games), hearing the only two (for now) supposed Split males conversing in X4 in plain English, as if they were Argon, that was super weird.

[MakerLinux]

After the modulated Split voices in Rebirth (which were much lower-pitched than those in past games), hearing the only two (for now) supposed Split males conversing in X4 in plain English, as if they were Argon, that was super weird.

Are there split males in the game? Do you have a screenshot showing them? If there are splits they must be so much like humans I did not notice the difference.

[Imperial Good]

Egosoft most likely hadn't the necessary resources to differentiate the player's race/notoriety standing when encountering NPCs. Thus all the NPCs have gotten generic neutral voicelines.

Actually their dialog does vary...

The HOP military coordinators will comment if you are Argon. Additionally if you have less than 0 reputation, e.g. like with the SCA, they will act over all rude and say "begone" rather than "goodbye". Dialog also varies if you are male or female, although all Paranid will be referred to as male due to complex reasons.

Yes it is really sad how every race speaks the same lines over and over again. not even a different welcome-message on stations.

I think they are meant to have been trained to say that as general greetings. In X3 you had a computer greet and speak with you after docking instead of any personal. In combat they use race appropriate sayings just like in X3.

After the modulated Split voices in Rebirth (which were much lower-pitched than those in past games), hearing the only two (for now) supposed Split males conversing in X4 in plain English, as if they were Argon, that was super weird.

Well seeing how there are no Split males, the voices might just be place holders.

Are there split males in the game? Do you have a screenshot showing them? If there are splits they must be so much like humans I did not notice the difference.

You currently cannot see any Split males, those will come around the time of the Split DLC. However you can technically "hear" two of them during the boron headquarters mission as Split males are meant to be his captors. One of the stages has you overhear an argument between them that the Boron scientist has gone.

[Rastuasi]

After the modulated Split voices in Rebirth (which were much lower-pitched than those in past games), hearing the only two (for now) supposed Split males conversing in X4 in plain English, as if they were Argon, that was super weird.

Are there split males in the game? Do you have a screenshot showing them? If there are splits they must be so much like humans I did not notice the difference.

You don't see them, they're the ones chasing the boron in the 20 minute story line. They speak when you're on the escort stage.

[Falcrack]

I think part of the complaints people had about X:Rebirth may have something to do with this. The NPCs in that game were downright rude most of the time, and that made some folks upset. So the pendulum has swung to the other extreme, and now you can't go two feet without some polite "hello!" from a nearby NPC.

[Techedge]

I think part of the complaints people had about X:Rebirth may have something to do with this. The NPCs in that game were downright rude most of the time, and that made some folks upset. So the pendulum has swung to the other extreme, and now you can't go two feet without some polite "hello!" from a nearby NPC.

I think most of the complaints with X:R were about their nonsense, like the (in)famous "Nice chat...not" line.
If the devs have taken into consideration that complaints but came out with this politeness, which in some way is almost nonsense as X:R, instead of better chat, well, it's their fault. And new complaints to come.