My recent thoughts on NPCs and dialogue

Before I being I'd like to say that this isn't easy for me to say. In fact, int's a little painful. But it's an honest opinion.

I've read a lot of posts somewhat recently and well.. for a long time really about NPC dialogue and the chat system and I find myself thinking about this myself recently. As much as I hate to admit it, I think a lot of the issues people have brought up are correct.

I really liked that you could 'chat' with NPCs.. actually write something and have them respond.. but I just don't think that.. as is.. it's a good match for SotA. In order for it to really work well, NPCs need to be able to converse with players at least as well as a moderately respectable chat bot, and that I think it's just too much work for a small team to implement without a strong concentrated effort.

I should be able to walk up to ANY NPC and ask "Hey where's Joe Smith?" and they should all be able to say "Oh he's over by the docks around this time".. but NPCs have a very limited set of keywords with an equally limited knowledge base to draw on.

In short, much like bag mode.. if you don't have the resources to do it as well as it should be.. it needs to go.

So main point here is.. that 'chat-bot' feature just isn't adequate. Plus, having all the keywords listed negates any incentive to engage in an actual 'conversation' so what's the point?

This being the case I also have to agree that NPC dialogue is too wordy. I might not otherwise be if that chat was more engaging, but it's not. As someone who has always been interested in chat AI.. it's the AI side that's missing and the reason why it's not engaging to me as a player. So even I find that I'm just fast clicking on keywords to quickly get the information I want.

The small text size in the chat window is also a factor. Too much text pushes the player away.. it's too much work to read all that for a tiny bit of information.. and being small and "distant" if you will.. makes it a very impersonal experience.

I think this is probably why I don't really go around looking for quests or even just 'talking' to NPCs.. they feel like.. well.. NPCs.. They slowly walk to a destination point and then just stand there or sit there looking like automatons. Not very interesting at all.

Then I started thinking about Ultima VII.. an all time classic if you ask me and a personal favorite that got me interested in game design.

Despite the tech behind UVII, NPCs didn't just follow a schedule.. they performed tasks. Cooks, cooked. Blacksmith's worked the forge. They actually DID stuff. They had a life and they lived it.

NPC dialogue was, while brief, was large and 'in your face'.. which feels more personal and engaging. Not everyone had a quest to give but they all had something to say... even if the generic guards all said the same thing..

So here's what I would do.. .

1. Allow NPCs to 'sandbox'.. rather than just stand around all day. Give them stuff they can do and interact with.

2. Give them a new chat dialogue..

3. Larger text

4. Shorter dialogue whenever possible. No more than 2-3 sentences at a time as a general rule. Even if it means making the player activate more keywords.

2-4 is just stuff people have already been asking for.. but I think one of the reasons why 4 is a big deal if you think about it.. real conversations are more like this. They're back and forth between two people just a few sentences at a time. Any more than that and one person is just listening and not engaging.

The days of text adventures are gone. Walls of texts may have worked before because they were necessary to engage our imagination.. well we have visual and audio to that now.

Now if I had my way, we'd have a full on chat AI attached to every NPC and they'd all look and act like NPCs in Skyrim.. (perhaps with a few player mods installed) but that's not what SotA is or what it needs to be..