Going back to this briefly, I just wanted to explain why I hate the idea of Sligs having dialogue and conversations.
Maybe I’m turning into
that fan who bemoans any changes made to a classic game, but I don’t see it helping the atmosphere. Think back to when you played AO for the first time.
Think about how the world is presented—our first landmark is a smoke-spewing megalithic factory, filled with production lines and cold, malicious machinery manned by emaciated slaves. RuptureFarms is built up in the player’s mind as an unpleasant and oppressive place, an amoral corporation whose only concern is its CEO’s pocket.
The way Sligs are presented in-game is, I think, an extension of that environment. In the original game, the are portrayed as callous and inhuman. Their presence and their loose trigger fingers are designed to make the player fearful; they are an obstacle and a threat. I think their (relative) silence accentuates that image of a cold and dangerous enemy, and I think giving them throwaway dialogue cheapens that image.
Imagine
Combine soliders standing around a watercooler. Slig small-talk gives me the same sense of dissonance.