Lethal Company – Shorthand Language for Concise Signal Translator Transmission

Costing 255 credits with only 9 characters to work with, the signal translator may seem limited by the rate at which you can convey information across your friend’s screens. In an effort to be mutually intelligible and spark ideas for a common baseline for its efficient use, we threw together a syntactical guide for how a thought experiment in language and coherence can equate to practical usage that facilitates teamplay.

The premise to this system’s logic is that within a series of up to three characters, we can make distinctions between many words in shorthand code. Stringing these words together with some symbols for syntax let us convey much more than only 9 characters may seem to offer.

We don’t intend on making people sweat over communicating, but rather we want people to have fun with their immersion and creativity in pushing the envelope of limitation. It’s flavor as much as it is function for clear communicating. Not for meta.

By the end of this guide you should have a comprehensive method to truncate messages like,
“John died at the fire exit.” to something like “J=DED>FXT” to broadcast to all your fellow employees and be a great asset to the Company!

Since the signal translator limits us to only alphanumerics and a set of 9 special symbols:
( <, >, =, +, ^, `, ~, |, $ ),
poignant use of these are the key to communicating complexity with little input.

` == designation (subject)

= == logical ‘is’ / current state (clarification)
~ == logical ‘not’ (negation)
| == logical ‘or’
+ == logical ‘and’

> == logical tie (implication/imperative) i.e. “due to, go to, acting upon”
< == interrogative syntax (see examples)

^ == information continues into next message

$ not used because it is hard to distinguish from ‘S’

Messages are legible because they are broken into blocks of letters or by punctuation. Keeping things consistent is key!

• The maximum message structure across 9 characters typically follows:
  subject (1) + symbol (1) + abbreviation (3) + symbol (1) + abbreviation (3)Where the numbers in parenthesis refer to characters used

• Teammates are referred to by some assigned letter, usually the first letter of their username
• The intended recipient (being the subject) of your message (if any) should be declared first in your transmission, followed by a syntactical symbol depending on the nature of the message.
• If the message is a general message for everyone, no user designation is needed.
• Per the above section on symbols, use:
  ` for simple subject designation
  < for posing a question
  > for implying correlation or imperatives
  = for declaration that something IS
  ~ for negation
  + for conjunction (and)
  ^ for continuing message (end of first message, beginning of final message in chain)

In order to ask questions while stuck with limited communication between you and the crew, it is best to write them as dichotomous or binary prompts (i.e. a question with a yes or no answer). To facilitate this, we make use of the logical ‘or’ operator (the ‘|’ symbol) between the response options after designating that we are asking a question with the ‘<‘ symbol. For example:

J<CLH|SLM would translate as: “J, coilhead or slime?”

<y|n == yes or no?
<l|r == left or right?
<x|y == x or y?
a`<x|y == a, x or y?

This would be answered via shake or still on monitor or some other mechanism you agree on with your team (i.e laser pointer or remote or helm cams)

If there is the need to specify something is a question, throw a ‘Q=’ at the beginning instead of a designation

• J>XFL == J, exfiltrate
• J>FXT == J, go to fire exit
• J>NXT RM == J, go to the next room
• HLF>MXT == Half/Thumper at main exit
• WRN>FLE == Warning, snare flea
• J`NRB=BCN == J nearby is beacon
• J=DED>CLH == J is dead to coilhead
• J~DED == J not dead
• J+CLH>FXT == J and coilhead at exit
• J`SLM>2>6 == J, slime behind you and then to the right.
• J`SLM>2+6 == J, slime to your back-right side
• J<RDO=ON == J, is your radio on?Example of a message taking more than two transmissions:
• J<Q=Y|N^ == J, yes or no question…
• ^MOM=SNGL == …is your mom single?

In the final section, we have an index of abbreviations for most common words we could think of for gameplay.

In the case where you need more than one message to communicate something, use the ‘ ^ ‘ symbol at the end of your message

Our group has decided on using numpad notation because of the compactness of single characters to convey directions relative to the player being referenced. To those unfamiliar, numpad notation is used mostly in fighting games, but it works for our purposes. On the following diagram, envision that the player is in the position of number 5.

789
456
123

Directions correspond to numbers around 5. For example, to tell your friend to turn to their left and then go straight you could simply relay A>48 where A is the designated letter for your friend, > is telling them to do something, and the numbers are the direction facings relative to the player.

Other ideas such as L, R, F, and B for cardinal, relative directions work as well. We also tossed around using ‘DEG###’; try out a few schemes with your crew and see what works best.

Here are some defined terms our team thought up while trying to make each term concise and distinct without much room for ambiguity for the recipient. You of course are free to use your own ideas to communicate with your own groups!

The following are mainly verbs and prepositions that may help with relaying directions

DIR = direction

STP = stop
W8 = wait
STY = stay
SBY = standby

GO = go
ADV = advance
LVE = leave
NTR = enter

FOL = follow
RET = return

NRB or NER = nearby
PST = past

ABV = above
OVR = over

UND = under
DWN = down

NXT = next
PRV = previous

OPN = open
CLS = closed
GET = get

OBT = orbit
SHP = ship
LOC = locate
MXT = main exit
FXT = fire exit
BCN = beacon

RM = room
DWY = doorway
SWY = stairway
4WY = (four way) intersection
3WY = (three way) intersection

GAP = jump gap
MZE = maze
HAL = hall
GTE = security gate/door

APP = apparatus
VNT = vent
VLV = valve

NTT = entity
UNK = unknown

LMN = landmine
TRT = turret

JST = jester
CLH = coilhead
FLE = snare flea
HLF = thumper/half
GST = ghost
SPR = spider
SLM = slime/hygrodere
NUT = nutcracker
MSK = tragedy mask
MIM = mimic doors (modded)

DOG = blind dogs
WRM = worm
HWK = hawk
GNT = giant
BEE = circuit bees

HQ = operator at terminal
REP = repeat
MSG = message

NOW = now
NED = need
TP = teleport

XFL = exfiltrate
WRN = warning
DGR = danger
CLR = clear

RSQ = rescue
HLP = help

LIV = alive/living
DED = dead
DTH = death

VAL = value
ITM = item
MPT or MT = empty
RDO = radio
CHK = check
VFY = verify (used to identify masked teammates)
FLD = flooded
POD = supply drop pod