NPC Dialogue and Changing Situations

Now I am a fan of the typing in and actually talking to NPCs aspect that SotA is going with. I did however notice one of the "old school" issues that I always had back in the day with these kind of systems. Namely NPCs still delivering outdated dialogue.

When you talk to the medic (whose name I'm blanking on now) about Guard Winslow he tells you about his condition and needing herbs and all that yadda yadda. Then you run off to Kingsport, get said herbs, come back and the medic makes an elixir and you heal Guard Winslow! Hurray! But then if you ask the medic about Winslow again he gives the exact same response about him being injured and needing herbs, etc etc

Is it possible to have their dialogue database get altered by events? Primarily in regards to journal entries. So as an example if I ask about Guard Winslow originally I get the same thing the medic says now. After I get the journal entry about him mixing the potion if I ask about Winslow, have the medic now say something like "He's resting in the next room, please take him the potion I gave you." and after the journal entry of curing him, have asking about Winslow give something like "His condition is much improved. Thank you for bringing me the herbs. We're keeping him here for observation for now" or some such.

I suppose it would add even more work, but it can sometimes be jarring to return to the beginning of a conversation you've long since dealt with.

 

I can't imagine the reams of dialogue that need to be written before launch - consider how many NPCs there are in the Hidden Vale, and how big Novia is in comparison... (Which is why I've suggested a couple of times that they could maybe farm out some of the non-quest-related 'flavour' dialogue to the players, if they can do so without giving away story stuff, to take some of the load off the team.)

But yes, hopefully this is in the works - if you've done something an NPC asked you to do, then they really should react to the fact that you did it and not tell you the same things again!

 

I'd be happy to write dialogue. Not sure if anyone would like it though lol

 

Heh - well, someone would have to vet it, but that's probably faster than writing it...

 

We do some of this already (try talking to many of the NPCs in Braemar after killing the lich, for example) and will strive to continue to do so.

Dreyfus SHOULD already have a different response regarding Winslow once you healed him. I need to make sure that's not bugged.

 

@Lum, quick question:
* Will the sick guard eventually be in bed before you heal him? (and not dressed in full guards armor)

Small thing, but makes all the difference to immersion!

 

Sooner rather than later! At a minimum lying down... Unfortunately he always will be since we don't have the ability in a scene to show one NPC state for you and another for others.

 

I did wonder about how you guys would do that - shame you can't set a flag per player, but I guess that would be quite complex from a dev perspective.

 

If there were actually two NPCs with the same name, both within s small distance, but only one was visible depending on a flag, it might looks fairly seamless. It does mean a flag on each player, so not sure how much overhead we are talking about, but that might work out well.

Actually, I was pondering how to do something similar in my own project, so I'm going to try this.

 

Well I'm sure he would still be resting in bed. Just not actively dying anymore.