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Uh huh... You do realize that you just made an argument for why it is Han and Luke and whoever can understand their respective droids right? Because y'know, understanding a series of growls and grunts is WAY easier than understanding a series of beeps and boops.

And obviously it is not a huge pain. Otherwise Han wouldn't have bothered?

And why the FUCK do people always assume that just because technology exits (droid programs that would allow it to speak basic) that some pencil pusher somewhere didn't just say... 'Geez, we save 16 KAJILLION dollars if we don't put that in the R2 units'.

And Stofsk is fucking right. There is no need to get feed back from a mechanic that you own and is essentially your slave that has no free will of it's own.
"Fix the hyperdrive as fast as you can." "Beeb boop" "Good. Beep boop me when it is done."
It's not like it is a car mechanic down the street charging you by the hour or trying to convince you to by parts. It is just an advanced computer. It does what it is told as fast as it can. If it need something it will alert you.

General Schatten wrote:

Stofsk wrote:no other droid really needs to chat to anyone.

You forgot battle droids that need to transmit information to their biological commanders.

Conceded, although I would suggest it would be better if the frontline troops don't have that ability, and rather communicate with radio bursts or something. It might make them more canny opponents if their adversaries couldn't hear them chat amongst themselves. (like we see them do in the prequels)

DudeGuyMan wrote:

Stofsk wrote:Does your computer talk? I can talk to my computer, but can it talk back to me? I listen to video and audio on it, but does that equal a capability to make ordered conversation? Of course not.

Does your computer accept complex instructions by voice thanks to it's excellent understanding of the English language, while possessing intelligence and personality on the level of a sentient being?

Whoa, missed the point much?

What you wrote:Oh c'mon now, if a droid can receive verbal input it ought to be able to generate meaningful output. Especially when it generates audio output anyway and already includes the hardware to record and play animated holographic messages complete with sound. It has the capacity to understand language, and the ability to play back speech, but somehow it doesn't talk?

Emphasis added. So my response by way of analogy, which you took far too literally, was meant to convey that you can't conclude capabilities that don't necessarily exist, or don't necessarily follow. Just because an R2 unit has the technological capability to play and record messages and display them in holographic video and stereo, doesn't mean they can talk normally. My computer has the same capability to show me videos and I have a speaker set to give me stereo - that doesn't mean it can fucking talk to me.

As for receiving verbal input, I can do the same thing with my computer - but that doesn't mean it can generate meaningful output. It turns out that the latter is a far more difficult programming feat to accomplish. For all you know, an R2 unit's programming and memory banks are full already with countless things that are related to it's primary occupational speciality - fixing things. Anything else that is added might dilute that speciality to the point where the R2 unit functions suboptimally. That's speculative, but considering R2 units can make hyperspace calculations (IIRC) as well as fix things autonomously, or with direction, there may not even be room in their brains to put in the language programs you'd need for millions of different dialects. That's why you have protocol droids after all (whose primary occupational speciality is to facilitate communications between biologicals and cybernetic or robotic agents - 'human/cyborg relations' as Threepio says).

It certainly doesn't make "bleep bloop blop" the totality of it's output and expect you to get by with that.

Why not? As Havok said, the denizens of the SW universe get by just fine for the most part. On the other hand, having a protocol droid is quite useful considering they can assist biologicals communicate with each other, to primitive tribes, non-standard or 'strange' computer systems, and with other robots.

"Sure man, I'll have this hyperdrive fixed in ten minutes. Er, I mean, beep boop."

"Okay, but it'll take me about six hours to fix the hyperdrive. It's pretty messed up. Uh, bloop beep I mean."

"The hyperdrive is fixed, but you should go easy on it and not take it above 100c until we get home and can do a full overhaul. By which I mean boop beep whistle."

"I can't repair the hyperdrive because the starboard phlebotinum coil is burned out. We'll need to call for help unless there's somewhere nearby we can limp to at sublight. Then again we might be able to cobble together a temporary replacement if we disassemble one of the... OH WAIT, BLEEP BLOOP BLEEP, WHY WOULD YOU EVER NEED TO HEAR ANYTHING I HAVE TO SAY? I'M ONLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE OF YOUR INTERSTELLAR SPACECRAFT!"

I love how you totally ignore my other points in order to respond to my utterly facetious remark instead. Good form there mate.

I also wrote:What are you talking about? Robots today don't talk back, because they don't need to - they do a very specific set of actions related to what they've been programmed to do. An astromech droid is designed to be a roving repair droid that repairs things needing repairing. They don't need to talk back, or ask you to 'clarify' what their tasks are - they already know what it is, because of their programming.

...

If the robot is autonomous and capable of doing its job without supervision, then you don't need that human to be in the loop. If the supervision is constant, then you also don't need the robot to communicate, because the human can determine what's at fault and take corrective measures or issue countermanding orders. EDIT: And if the robot does a lot of repairs in vacuum, like we see a stack of them do in TPM (fuck you for making me remember this film) then what exactly is it going to say to anyone when sound doesn't travel in space? Same goes for them being in the X-wing or Y-wing slots. Those are their primary roles, and in both circumstances they're going to be either plugged in to the fighter's computer and pilot interface, or will otherwise be directed by a starship's computer (like in TPM).

I mean, the final paragraph pretty much dooms your rebuttal to complete bullshit. Astromechs are primarily used in space, where having the ability communicate verbally (or aurally might be a better adverb) would be totally worthless. Instead, in the X- or Y-wings, they're plugged in and can communicate via a computer screen. If they need to communicate at all, which they probably don't. (Luke was the one who told R2 that the stabiliser had come loose and to see if he could lock it down) In the TPM example, those astromechs were being directed by a damage control computer, and it's good money to bet someone on the bridge would be overseeing it and could direct them to do x, y, z if needs be.

Claiming that this is bad design by pointing out how R2's need to tell their human masters the details of the repair work is disingenous, when those human masters are the ones directing them to do those repairs. Hell, look at my first paragraph - a real world example of real world robots that aren't designed to talk back to the humans who operate them. I bet those are bad designs as well.

Havok wrote:

General Schatten wrote:According to EU sources it's 'binary'.

sigh.... Does the EU have to take every little piece of throw away dialogue from the movies to make crap?

I know you don't like the EU Hav, but I don't find this part objectionable. Considering Threepio responds to R2 in a conversational manner, those beeps-bloops-bleeps must translate to some kind of grammar and syntax. Though I wish they'd call the droid language something other than 'binary', other than that I find it a reasonable invention by the EU as it supports the films.

Incidentally this would make it easier to comprehend droids than DudeGuyMan claims, especially if you grew up all your life working with droids like a certain farm boy did. Maybe not enough to understand them completely, but enough to get the gist.

Bilbo wrote:Because we all know that your personal computer is as smart as R2-D2.

blow me moron

apparently using an analogy is too hard for some

Stofsk wrote:Whoa, missed the point much?

Your so-called point was fucking retarded. Since your computer is not a sentient droid and does not already use a complex form of audible communication, as a droid does, the entire analogy was blatantly moronic on it's face to the point of being utterly worthless.

Emphasis added. So my response by way of analogy, which you took far too literally, was meant to convey that you can't conclude capabilities that don't necessarily exist, or don't necessarily follow. Just because an R2 unit has the technological capability to play and record messages and display them in holographic video and stereo, doesn't mean they can talk normally. My computer has the same capability to show me videos and I have a speaker set to give me stereo - that doesn't mean it can fucking talk to me.

There is no assumption of capability. An R2 unit already understands a language and "speaks" a language. The fucking retarded part is that someone apparently decided to make them two different languages for no good reason.

The fact that we know an R2 unit already has an on-board speaker for playing recorded messages is handy, but basically immaterial to the argument. Even if it didn't, that would just make the designers fools for failing to include one.

For all you know, an R2 unit's programming and memory banks are full already with countless things that are related to it's primary occupational speciality - fixing things. Anything else that is added might dilute that speciality to the point where the R2 unit functions suboptimally.

We know they have enough spare memory that one can store the complete blueprints to a hundred-mile wide space station without the owner even noticing. What's more, they're already programmed with sufficient vocabulary and grammar comprehension that their owners can operate them by giving them instructions in plain speech.

That's speculative, but considering R2 units can make hyperspace calculations (IIRC) as well as fix things autonomously, or with direction, there may not even be room in their brains to put in the language programs you'd need for millions of different dialects. That's why you have protocol droids after all (whose primary occupational speciality is to facilitate communications between biologicals and cybernetic or robotic agents - 'human/cyborg relations' as Threepio says).

Who needs millions of dialects? Why not just program it to speak whatever languages it already understands? A computer that can't generate output in the same language by which it receives input sounds pretty fucking stupidly designed to me.

You want a comparison to real-life computing that's actually relevant? Try distributing a program that can receive text instructions in any language but generates results only in Hungarian. Yeah, I'm sure that would go over well. If anyone were dumb enough to design such a thing.

Why not? As Havok said, the denizens of the SW universe get by just fine for the most part.

You can get by with a lot of things. But human beings learning to understand an unpronounceable droid language (rather than droids being programmed to pronounce a language they already understand) is a pretty goddamn ludicrous workaround for a problem that exists for no real reason.

I love how you totally ignore my other points in order to respond to my utterly facetious remark instead. Good form there mate.

I love how you think I didn't want to reply to this garbage, and didn't realize it was all just shit.

I also wrote:What are you talking about? Robots today don't talk back, because they don't need to - they do a very specific set of actions related to what they've been programmed to do.

This was just a dumb as fuck thing to even type. Robots today aren't typically called upon to perform complex problem-solving tasks and usually operate in carefully controlled environments. Another worthless analogy.

An astromech droid is designed to be a roving repair droid that repairs things needing repairing. They don't need to talk back, or ask you to 'clarify' what their tasks are - they already know what it is, because of their programming.

Oh okay, so then they never need to tell anyone how long it will be until something is repaired. Or report that they require spare parts which are out of stock or in short supply. Or any of the million fucking things a droid filling the role of a technician on a starship might need to communicate.

I mean, the final paragraph pretty much dooms your rebuttal to complete bullshit. Astromechs are primarily used in space, where having the ability communicate verbally (or aurally might be a better adverb) would be totally worthless.

We know they have an alternate means of communication for use in vacuum, but that doesn't change the fact they ARE designed to receive verbal input and DO in fact generate audio output. Not only that, but they do so frequently enough that specialized droids serve as translators for other droids, and some people have even become fluent in droidspeak.

Pointing out all these alternate means of communication, then in the very next figurative breath trying to argue that they never need to communicate? Really?

Either concede that the entire clusterfuck is stupid ass design in-universe, and out-of-universe just a simple case of Lucas wanting R2 to "speak" cute beepy noises, or shut the fuck up already.

It bears saying that nearly every character in Star Wars is multilingual. Han can speak a whole bunch of alien languages, Luke most likely has passing fluency with a few more - living on Tatooine, and all that - and while most aliens appear to understand Basic, we know that a good number are physically incapable of pronouncing it.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised of "Binary" as a language was short for something else. "Binary Language Protocol for Droid-Human Communication" or something along those lines.

Yeah, there is really no reason for astromech droids (and every other droid) not to be able to verbally communicate. Even if it is via super shitty synthesized text-to-speech. Because when you tell the droid to go fix something, and then the droid finds out that the problem can't be fixed/doesn't have the parts/can't get there/someone stole the hyperdrive/there is a dead body in the engine room, et cetera, it should be able to communicate this information effectively and efficiently to its human master.

Guys, it's obviously a secret deal between the astromech and the protocol droid companies: the astromech companies save money on vocoders, and the protocol droid companies get to sell more products to customers. Simple.

Stofsk wrote:

Bilbo wrote:Because we all know that your personal computer is as smart as R2-D2.

blow me moron

apparently using an analogy is too hard for some

Go blow yourself fuckhead. Your comparison is a steaming pile of bullshit and obviously your too fucking stupid to admit it. Your desktop computer is a motherfucking abacus compared to R2. So to make some competely fucking moronic comparison that your computer does not need to talk to you so neither does R2. Is competely fucking stupid.

But hey, since your sto fucking stupid I will list out all the reasons your argument is fucking stupid.

1. R2 is sentient your computer is not.
2. R2 can take initiative and do things without any sort of input at all. Imagine how much easier the escape would have been if a talking R2 had told Lando the instant they got onboard that the Flacon's hyperdrive was deactivated. The Falcon could have easily been caught before R2 rolled over to fix it.
3. Your computer has an output device built right into it in the form of a monitor. So your computer does have a method of communicating with you. R2 needs another device to translate.

There are other reasons you fucking twat ball but your not worth the effort. Go fuck yourself and die.

We know they have enough spare memory that one can store the complete blueprints to a hundred-mile wide space station without the owner even noticing. What's more, they're already programmed with sufficient vocabulary and grammar comprehension that their owners can operate them by giving them instructions in plain speech.

This is a nitpick, I know, but Luke and Owen didn't have time to notice weather or not Artoo had a bunch of extra data clogging up his memory banks. Its not like the Larses kept the droids around for a couple of seasons, Artoo bolted the first night, almost as soon as he tricked Luke into removing the restraining bolt, and the Stormtroopers came the next day.

You're correct of course, as far as that goes. Though if I may bring up the EU, it's worth pointing out that R2 apparently also carried around holographic video of the Anakin/Padme confrontation on Mustafar for decades without anyone noticing. That's obviously a much smaller amount of data than the Death Star schematics represent, but taken as a whole it certainly doesn't seem like astromech droids suffer from sharply limited memory capacity.

Even if they did, I'm not sure I'd buy the memory argument. R2 units are already programmed with a sound understanding of the language, allowing them to speak it shouldn't represent a tremendous undertaking.

Is R2 not considered exceptional though, having not had a memory wipe in decades? That and Havs, "we save a killjillion credits" is more then enough to explain why R2 doesn't speak, yet is one of the few droids to exhibit a complex personality.

Artemas wrote:Yeah, there is really no reason for astromech droids (and every other droid) not to be able to verbally communicate. Even if it is via super shitty synthesized text-to-speech.

Durrh, yeah. I'm a bonehead who's been making this sound way more complex than it is. An R2 unit can already converse in text form. All one really needs is the SW equivalent of Microsoft Sam or something, and bam, talking droid.

...for no real necessary reason. I don't buy into the lack of memory issue myself not only because of the Death Star plans but mainly because you can apparently reconfigure an R2 into an automobile minibar with no loss of function ('Vape? Cold one' NTM R2 storing Luke's lighsaber in RotJ) which means if need be there'd be quite a bit of room for additional RAM chips/HDDs but WHAT FOR? They don't really NEED to be able to talk to humans, because humans don't really figure into their jobs all that much. They get told to do 'X' and from then on they exclusively interface with MACHINES. IF and WHEN they need more detailed instructions from a human they can get them BY INTERFACING WITH SAID MACHINES. They're DESIGNED to be plugged into a high tech infrastructure that can translate for them if and when they NEED translating.

Not to mention that everybody who read the Wraith Squadron books should know why they maybe don't WANT all of their droids to be able to speak.

Batman wrote:They don't really NEED to be able to talk to humans, because humans don't really figure into their jobs all that much. They get told to do 'X' and from then on they exclusively interface with MACHINES. IF and WHEN they need more detailed instructions from a human they can get them BY INTERFACING WITH SAID MACHINES. They're DESIGNED to be plugged into a high tech infrastructure that can translate for them if and when they NEED translating.

Jesus Christ, have any of you people ever held jobs or been responsible for telling someone what to do? I'm constantly astounded by this notion that when having to give instructions, especially instructions regarding complex technical work, potentially under combat conditions, the ability to communicate quickly and efficiently by simply speaking back and forth is some sort of crazy capability that nobody would ever want.

Such a crazy and unwanted capability that even though a given droid is programmed with a perfect understanding of the language, and in fact is completely capable of using it to form responses, giving it simple text-to-speech ability is some sort of ridiculous idea.

It's like having a bunch of employees working for you who refuse to speak and only communicate by sending text messages on their cellphones. Keeping a damn McDonald's operating efficiently would be a pain in the ass under those circumstances. Around the third time you had to put down whatever you were doing to pull your phone out of your pocket or walk over to a monitor, just to see that the kid standing right next to you wanted to let you know you're low on lard, you'd fucking slap him.

Various models of R-series droids were used for everything from coordinating gunners aboard capital ships to janitorial work. There was a model produced specifically for use on the farm. One can imagine a MILLION scenarios where the ability to speak intelligibly would be a useful feature.

We spend the entire series watching people talk to R2, we see R-series droids rolling down public streets and in the possession of everyone from fighter pilots to mechanics to dirt farmers, and again there were a fair number of people who actually learned to become fluent in droidspeak. The idea that these droids were only used for a narrow range of tasks that required little or no human contact is blatant bullshit.

Especially when all we're talking about is adding a simple TTS program not unlike the one every dumbass current-day PC ships with. Maybe a slightly better one, Microsoft Sam sounds kinda shitty, but since they're so much more advanced that we look like cavemen next to them, I think they should be up to it.

In the original trilogy the characters that understand droid speak best are those that spend a lot of time maintaining complex machinery and interacting with droids on a regular basis.
Han performed a lot of the maintenance on the Falcon himself and according to one source kludged the Falcon's computers together out of three separate systems that normally would not be used.

Luke may be a farm boy but with only himself and two others the Lars family must rely heavily on droid labor. Keeping droids functional in a hostile environment like a desert planet is no easy task so he must be very, very good at droid maintenance and repair.

Is it so hard to belief that people who have so much exposure to droids in their day to day work can pick up parts of some form of technical language?

In contrast, Lando could not understand R2 and needed C-3PO to translate when they were escaping cloud city.

IIRC R2 type droids can be upgraded to speak basic. In the Corellian trilogy the Solo kids' tutor had an astromech that spoke basic.

JGregory32 wrote:
Luke may be a farm boy but with only himself and two others the Lars family must rely heavily on droid labor. Keeping droids functional in a hostile environment like a desert planet is no easy task so he must be very, very good at droid maintenance and repair.

From TESB: "If your saying coming here was a bad idea, I am starting to agree with you."

I might not be remembering the quote word for word but I do remember fairly well that Luke said "if" which means he was not understanding exactly what R2 was saying.

In addition being able to get the jist is just not good enough. Take a technical person who speaks Spanish from Spain and a non-technical person who speaks Spanish from Mexico. They can say hello, have a casual conversation. But the shit will hti the fan if the technical person needs to clearly explain how long, potential problems, and what parts are needed to fix a car, computer, engine, generator, etc etc. Give them pen and paper and it gets easier but the problem is that R2 and Luke did not always have pen and paper. As the X-Wing was sinking into the bog how was Luke going to get into the ship or plug R2 into the ship so the conversation could be done easily.

How is R2 going to ask Luke to grab part X or Part Y out of the storage bins while he is doing repairs?

[quote="Bilbo"]In addition being able to get the jist is just not good enough. Take a technical person who speaks Spanish from Spain and a non-technical person who speaks Spanish from Mexico. They can say hello, have a casual conversation. But the shit will hti the fan if the technical person needs to clearly explain how long, potential problems, and what parts are needed to fix a car, computer, engine, generator, etc etc. Give them pen and paper and it gets easier but the problem is that R2 and Luke did not always have pen and paper. As the X-Wing was sinking into the bog how was Luke going to get into the ship or plug R2 into the ship so the conversation could be done easily.[/quote]

According to Vision of the Future, Luke can use a datapad to translate the feed from R2. While this is still not a very effective solution, it is better than nothing.

Adamskywalker007 wrote:

Bilbo wrote:In addition being able to get the jist is just not good enough. Take a technical person who speaks Spanish from Spain and a non-technical person who speaks Spanish from Mexico. They can say hello, have a casual conversation. But the shit will hti the fan if the technical person needs to clearly explain how long, potential problems, and what parts are needed to fix a car, computer, engine, generator, etc etc. Give them pen and paper and it gets easier but the problem is that R2 and Luke did not always have pen and paper. As the X-Wing was sinking into the bog how was Luke going to get into the ship or plug R2 into the ship so the conversation could be done easily.

According to Vision of the Future, Luke can use a datapad to translate the feed from R2. While this is still not a very effective solution, it is better than nothing.

Well that would be a step up for technical items. But it still requires one to carry around an item to communicate with his droid.

Maybe Luke being more of a pilot then a mechanic is an exception. Han seemed to understand the repair droid quite well in TESB and the EU has made Han out as someone who is not all that thrilled with droids. So maybe most techs do clearly understand droid.

He doesn't. That is the fucking point. Astromechs have a job, they do it and that is that.

Take The Phantom Menace for example. Remember the part where they had to tell the Astromechs how to fix the damaged shields and had to talk to them while they were doing it? Remember how they had to give them explicit instructions on what to do and what to fix?

Oh that's right, you don't because it didn't fucking happen. OMG HIGH PRESSURE SITUATION HOW CAN I TALK TO THE ASTRO- Oh you guys already fixed what was wrong, because you are smarter than I am, have advanced sensors and diagnostics so you know exactly what is wrong and a plethora of tools to fix pretty much anything... on your own? Without me having to talk to you... at all? Sweet.

Bilbo wrote: In addition being able to get the jist is just not good enough. Take a technical person who speaks Spanish from Spain and a non-technical person who speaks Spanish from Mexico. They can say hello, have a casual conversation. But the shit will hti the fan if the technical person needs to clearly explain how long, potential problems, and what parts are needed to fix a car, computer, engine, generator, etc etc.

The problem isn't the language barrier, it's the stupidity of the Spaniard for hiring a guy who NEEDS all that explained in detail instead of a competent technician who'd already KNOW that stuff. You know, like an R2 unit.
Curiously enough, that's actually how it worked when I was doing IT. I got told 'Something's wrong with Mr Smith's PC, go fix it'. I was supposed to know HOW to do that on my own.

How is R2 going to ask Luke to grab part X or Part Y out of the storage bins while he is doing repairs?

Via the X-Wing's interface?

Havok wrote:He doesn't. That is the fucking point. Astromechs have a job, they do it and that is that.

Seriously, have you never had to give anyone instructions? User error alone is a good enough reason to let them talk. Instructions received might be illogical, redundant, or just plain unfeasible.

Hey I just yelled over at that droid to abandon it's current task and begin another, but all it's doing is jabbering at me in droidspeak. Does that mean another unit is already working on the new task? Does it mean the new task can't be completed for some reason? What reason could it possibly mean? Are we lacking materials? Is something damaged beyond repair?

Hell if I know! All it's saying is beep-boop, let me stop whatever I may be doing to pull out my datapad, or walk over to a monitor, or call a second droid over to play translator for the first droid! Oh yeah, have I mentioned someone is shooting at the ship this whole time? No hurry!

Take The Phantom Menace for example. Remember the part where they had to tell the Astromechs how to fix the damaged shields and had to talk to them while they were doing it? Remember how they had to give them explicit instructions on what to do and what to fix?

Oh that's right, you don't because it didn't fucking happen. OMG HIGH PRESSURE SITUATION HOW CAN I TALK TO THE ASTRO- Oh you guys already fixed what was wrong, because you are smarter than I am, have advanced sensors and diagnostics so you know exactly what is wrong and a plethora of tools to fix pretty much anything... on your own? Without me having to talk to you... at all? Sweet.

Those droids were on the outside of the fucking ship, so I don't know what relevance you think that scene has to a discussion of what languages droids use to speak out loud, but are you seriously trying to argue that there's absolutely no method for them to communicate with the crew from out there? Really?

And if so, are you actually prepared to argue for this being anything other than ridiculously fucking stupid? The crew can't command the droids to prioritize tasks in a particular order, or even ask how much longer a given task will take, and you think that's just hunky fucking dory? REALLY?

Besides which I notice everyone conveniently ignoring the fact that not all R2 units are used on the exterior of starships, not all droids are R2 units, and even within the R-series specialized models existed for everything from working in cooperation with gunnery and security crews to farmwork. To listen to you twats, you'd think that one exterior scene in TPM was the only time we ever saw a droid in Star Wars so gosh why would they ever need to talk when that's all they ever do?

There hasn't been a new argument worth shit in this thread for two days. Quit repeating yourselves like a bunch of slobbering morons, I'm getting tired of saying "But it might want to tell you there's a problem!" over and over and over to a bunch of dipshits who can't fathom that a droid doing the job of a technician on a starship might ever have anything it needs to tell someone.

Maybe guys, memory isn't the problem. Maybe it's physical space. R2 has a lot of tools littered around him to make him that walking toolbox that the space required for a beeping sound processor as opposed to something that vocalizes on a level being discussed here might actually make a difference. Doing a basic transmission over a wireless frequency to some hand-held computer to put the words on a palm pilot screen isn't that big of a stretch to fall back to as an option.

R2 already possesses a speaker and text-to-speech is just software. Besides, there was room to stow a lightsaber in there, plus the mechanism to launch it, in ROTJ.

DudeGuyMan wrote:R2 already possesses a speaker and text-to-speech is just software. Besides, there was room to stow a lightsaber in there, plus the mechanism to launch it, in ROTJ.

The speaker is hardly the only thing he'd need for that kind of system. That is, unless, you think the sound hardware for the ps1 is the same as the sound hardware for the old school Nintendo.

R2 already possesses all the vocabulary data and grammatical logic required to generate speech, as evidenced by his ability to understand it and even formulate text responses in ordinary language. Since he can generate text, he literally doesn't need anything more than a speaker and a little bit of text-to-speech software.

It can accept audible input in either Binary or Basic, but generates audible output exclusively in Binary despite being expected to work with beings that primarily speak Basic. This is not good design, no matter how you slice it.