AI chat system. Hmmmm, I'm unsure...

@Smack
I don't know if "casual/casuals" is a word you can apply to this situation and game. Sure you can say it, but your personal definition in this case and the standard definition may be two different definitions.

 

Everything in context.

 

Can't disagree with that.

 

Well, dont waste your time with one word per line, just jam them all on a single request:

job title Kinsport quest inn Owl's Head name, etc....

We did this in R1 and had a spam string to get all the answers from every npc. Seems this was not really updated in R2, and the only difference is now the input text has been reduced (it was 32k at one point).

I dont seem the system really changing, as that is the core of it currently: keywords.

Cheers.

 

Yes, I agree. I stood there for half an hour trying to chat with the guard who wouldn't let me into the city unless I said I came from the village where his mother looked like a chicken. You know what his response was?

"I don't understand." But he went on to say.......and who can blame him...........

 

There will be many quest logs. They are called wikis in modern tongue.

 

So pretty much like Morrowind? I could get behind that.

For the record, I am strongly anti-chatbox. I fail to grasp how it has anything to do with immersion. Typing out reams of text in the hopes of chancing upon a keyword in order to elicit a meaningful response is not immersion.... it's an unnecessarily annoying abstraction.

 

While I appreciate the sentiment behind minimal UI, I think the current conversation model would feel much more user friendly if players could open a private chat window with npcs at will or something, especially with quest and utility related npcs.

I enjoyed most of my first npc conversations in R1, so I know under the right conditions the current system can work beautifully and be pretty immersive; I feel like this release was more of a stress test on the system than a tweak of it. This kinda stuff probably isn't too hard to fix, its just a matter of finding the right design balance.

The retro style parsing is rough for sure, but I'm hopeful that with time and more story it'll be endearing, because the other mainstream alternatives are also unappealing to me.

 

LOL. Well we can't stop that! But its not the same as a constantly updating quest log with map markers.

 

Still cheating, it goes against the spirit of RG's grand vision.
Anyone who uses resources (including the inter-webs) other than a pencil and notebook (not the electronic, computer kind) violates the trust of LB himself, and is a disapoint.

Old school or nothing.

 

I am almost loath to say it, but I'm in agreement with the OP. For my part, I tried to type out full sentences for my own benefit, but it turned into a waste of time quickly. My typing skills are a bit rusty and I found myself correcting typo after typo after typo to get anything out of the NPCs. I guess I'll get better as time goes on, but this is definitely going to be an annoyance, which is never good.

It's the little things that add up....

I will say though, I'm genuinely sorry I don't like this system much. I want to like it, but it's just not grabbing me.

 

I'm probably in the minority in that I enjoy it. I wouldn't mind seeing the keywords being clickable so people don't have to type them.

That still allows for hidden keywords, and some typing, to get conversations started so people will still have to think and pay attention, especially without a traditional quest log/map.

 

Actually that highlighted part is not a bad idea, as an alternative (not a substitute). In fact its innovative enough to be suggested to the devs!

 

I think the chat system will be great once more key words and phrases are implemented and recognized. As it stands, far too much is going unrecognized by the NPC's and they come across as "dumb". I love the general idea but it seems there is a long way to go to get it up to speed!

 

This reminds me when I first bought Alternate Reality: The City by Datasoft for my Commodore 64. I quickly realized I was going to need a map of the city to find my way around, so I pulled out some graph paper and starting sketching walls. I ended up with I believe 4 sheets taped together with the city mapped out. I remember feeling quite satisfied with myself when it was complete.

 

I love the chat system, but remain skeptical about how deep they can make it. It is indeed keyword based and given an open input field, they're opening themselves up for anything and everything. I've said it before and it bears repeating: the success of this conversation system will live and die by the size of its keyword dictionary. If there aren't enough expected responses for even the common everyday words, people will give up and resort to only typing in the highlighted keywords they see. They won't even bother with full sentences. At that point, just make the keywords clickable.

So while I have high hopes on this game changing NPC chat system, I remain skeptical at its success. Perhaps they should consider crowdsourcing some of the non-quest, non-story related banter.

And please consider the NPC social / knowledge graph idea. It will make the NPCs smarter and give knowledge sharing an organic feel within the game.

 

Remember, we're trying to make a quality game here (Portilarium and the backers & founders), lets stay away from needlessly "dummbing down" the content.

 

Well it would be dumbing down if there was only the clicking part. Besides, I wouldn worry more about dumbing down other parts of the game and would consider this a convenience addition.

 

I don't know if you can piece it out, or cherry pick and serve individual elements a la carte, and not consider it dumbed down.
If you're going to do that, you might as well do the rest too, right?

 

Well, I dont think that what Mishri suggested compares to turning this game to a themepark.