Conversation System

I really like the natural conversation system we have in SOA but as expected it needs a lot of work before it's really useable. In it's current state you can get quests and such but from a social aspect there is one thing I noticed that does not seem to have improved in any new releases.

When you are talking to an npc he will often make some comment about himself or indirectly ask a question not necessarily meant for you. If you then reply to his comment or question he has no idea what your talking about even if you use his exact words. With npc's not able to recognize when you are talking about something they just said, from a social aspect, the conversation system is completely worthless. To go a step further the npc's should also recognize when you are talking about something you just said to them and this also does not work. I realize to make the system work like this is quite advanced and requires a lot of work and tweaking but this seems to be what Lord British and team have set themselves to do in SOA.

Has anyone else noticed this behavior? Is this something that is going to be fixed eventually or is social npc conversations not intended to work correctly?

 

Generally I like the written dialogues. They are interesting and you get a lot of information. I agree that sometimes responses seem awkward and as you say in some cases the NPCs talk about something and when you ask them about this they don't seem to know what you are talking about.
But I am sure that this will be improved over time until we get coversations with a relatively "natural flow".
So generally I like the dialogues.

The only gripe I have with the conversations is the interface. I said it after every release and I will say it only once this time. Right now the chat-interface we have for conversations makes the conversations feel like you are doing a Computer IRC chat with the NPCs in your vicinity opposed to talking to them through a "real" system that focuses on you and the NPC. You do not even have to look at them to "chat" with them. So I am very anxious to see the final conversation interface for the game, which hopefully looks and feels like conversation-interfaces similar to other RPGs - Skyrim, Risen, Wasteland 2, Divinity, Dragon Age...

But there is one other thing on my mind: In the "old" Ultimas the dialogues also included a description of the NPC you were talking to as well as a description of what they were doing. For example: "George scratches his long beard, looking puzzeled: "What did you just say?" His lips tremble."
This gave the NPCs more personality. Will this be the case in SotA, too or will the dialoges be presented in a way in which the NPCs will act and look so detailed that such descriptions would be obsolete?

 

This system seems very obolete to me. I prefer classic RPG conversations.

btw: I got an idea while reading Lord_Darkmoons post. What about adding option to NPCs so window pops up and I can read their whole story but not for every stupid merchant of course that would be too repetitive and I dont like these, expecting some new info and then I get the same information again. It would be better than long chaotic conversations about their past and it can be longer and detailed for lore enthusiasts. Ppl not interested in their ranting can just run through the quest dialogues. Maybe it can update or unlock more information as I complete quests. I think I would like this more then books so If I want to know something about some NPC I would just visit him/her instead of searching it in books.

 

You may want to elaborate on your use of the term "classic" in this context.

Many users (myself included) would term the *current* conversation system as a "classic" model, being as it pre-dates the more modern "Here is a set of speech choices, choose one" model.

 

Yeah I guess you are right. So what I mean is "modern" style - nice dialogue window with nice font and whole senteces to choose which I want to say. I dont want to type "how can i help" or things like that.

 

If you don't like typing an actual conversation, you can click on the underlined words in the NPC text instead. In the future this is supposed to be an option that can be toggled, but at the moment it's on all the time.

 

modern style... as in click next, next, next, accept style... LOL modern style conversation system doesn't require the player to read the conversation... just click the Accept Quest button and you're good to go.. the quest object is then displayed on screen like Kill 10 Foxes 0/10... or Talk to Lord British... you also don't need to search for the quest objective because you can just click for example Lord British and you're character will automatically run to where Lord British is... that's the modern style... you don't actually do anything... except click links and buttons.... many MMORPGs are like that today... some even have built-in botting systems... players just sit back and watch... hehehe