Suggestion for Conversations

Hi,

I really like the old-school approach with typing in what you want to say.

But I don't like the chat windows in which this happens. First it looks like a generic multiplayer-chat window which is annoying. Also you see the whole text the NPC is telling you in the chat box before he "says" it in his speech bubble which distracts from reading what the NPC says. Also annoying is that you do not only read what the NPC you are talking to says, everything that is going around is shown, too. So when you talk to someone who is standing in a crowd you get a chaotic mess of text in the chat window.

I would love to have a totally different chat interface, one that is more like Ultima 7. You see what the NPC says above his head, but instead of keywords you can click on like it was the case in Ultima 7 you have some kind of window in which you can type what you want to say. You could scroll in the speech bubble of the NPC to read again what he said. But having the bubble and a generic chat window doesn't appeal to me, it distracts me from the conversation.

Another thing. As far as I recall there won't be full speech in the game. So just having to read what the NPC tells you doesn't create a dense atmosphere like in the older Ultimas. There should also be descriptions about the person you are talking to, his mimic and gestures etc. Just like it was the case in Ultima 6 and 7. This creates a much more dense atmosphere than just reading what the people say.

Just my 2 cents abouts the conversations.

 

I agree with Lord Darkmoon. The generic looking chat window and the overhead bubble compete for attention. I've never been a fan of chat windows. I prefer the bubble pop ups because it keeps you focused on who is speaking. I like the suggestion of having a text input box inside the NPC's bubble to initiate and hold conversations. Maybe the chat window could still be an option for system messages and conversations going on around you.

 

I dont mind a chat window as long as it looks like its artistic. For example the Ultima 5 remake (Lazurus) had nice chat windows IMO. Regardless the text should have custom (Fantasy) fonts and should be immersive.

 

I would like to have the conversation take place with whomever you have targeted. If you just throw random speech out, you seem to get a response from the closest NPC, but with the character not being able to go behind vendor stalls for instance, you only get to talk to the bum out front and not the shop keep. At least until the bum toodles off.

 

Great chat windows but terrible font choice lol. I had to download a font mod for Lazarus so I could more clearly read what the heck anyone was talking about

 

I agree. It would be nice to have clickable keywords in an actual chat window like the Ultimas rather than the generic multiplayer text box.

 

I personally like the old school feel of having to actually chat with NPCs. I think technologically we're much more advanced to make it work in a really slick way compared to the issues games from the 80's ran into.

 

Alas, I must strongly disagree with thee! We've been there and done that with the Ultima games and every other RPG on the market I can think of has something similar, or even more controlled. I think it will be amazing to have this new and improved old school chat window where we can intelligently speak with NPC's in game. Who wants same ol same ol, when they're out to make an innovative game for us? I say bravo to the SotA team for putting forth the effort to making the new conversation system work!

 

I'm not sure if it makes a difference if they're highlighting the keywords anyway. I would say typing out keywords is good constraint on players because it forces them to be investigative and fully read the conversations -- but it doesn't do that if the keywords are highlighted. There's not much of a difference between highlighted keywords and a list except you need to use your memory a little more. They should remove that as an option if they want to be really old school.

And yet, normally, I would say if keywords do exist, go ahead and list them for players, since some people want to use their mouse. However, there's also in advantage that you chat with your fellow PCs and with NPCs both by typing, rather than switching between two methods of input. If we're going to be typing at the keyboard anyway, for PCs, there's no reason to put us into a different system for NPCs.

At any rate, the most important thing is they're getting rid of quest markers!

 

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of an actual conversation interface.

My only concern is a problem I remember from older games that relied on text parsers for conversation - trying to figure out new stuff to ask and having to just spam stuff into the text box. We'll obviously know some of the key words and from there that will lead us to others (hello, name, job, bye), of course.

As far as lists go, I'm not really too big on the idea of just being given a complete list of keywords. I like the way it worked in the single player Ultimas, where we had keywords obviously but we found them via actual discussion with the npc or through other npcs, although it wasn't a text parser so it was more intuitive.

That said, I am fine with trying a new take on something, I trust Lord British.

Yeah, I agree. The game facilitating interaction (and immersion) with the world, exploration and discovery is part of what I think we all loved about the Ultimas.

 

It should be easier to exit conversations, typing 'bye' and then hitting enter twice to close the chat window is way too clunky for a modern game. What if you suddenly get attacked? That extra .2s could cost you a lot lol

 

I was just using ESC to exit out...

 

Interactive chat bubbles were fine for a 2D Isometric interface where the camera is pulled back considerably. I'm not sure how it would work in a 3D third person or even first person mode (when that's implemented). If you're interacting in that way and the interactive chat bubble is above the NPC's head, then your view camera is constantly angled upwards, with the NPC's head either at the very bottom of your view or even off "camera" completely. Or, you simply must always pull that camera back far enough whenever you talk to an NPC, and be forced to drop out of first person mode if there is such a thing later.

 

For some reason, ESC didn't work for me... I just ended up with a chat window full of wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssdddddddddddddds lol

 

^ lol, that was def not my experience. Its so early I am sure they'll be changing some of things when it comes to the convo mechanics though

 

I know this will be regarded as heresy, but another cool feature might be morrowind-style hyperlinks so that we don't have to type so much. Of course this has the side effect of "leading" dialogue, so maybe its a bad idea

 

For people that hate to type, here you go...a mashup of SotA and many other games that used clickable keywords.

 

I agree with Darkmoon. I would love to see the NPC and my character responses over head.

 

One thing I think is that the NPC dialog should be kept as brief and to-the-point as possible, without being curt, if you know what I mean. People want to play the game, not read.

Another thing is, I don't know if this will be in the final game, but in the pre-alpha I saw that some key words that the NPC says are highlighted. If it possible I think this should be avoided, because it still goes back to essentially choosing an option from a menu, like Lord British wanted not to do.

 

If you look at Smack's post above you, that's not how the highlighted text works though. This system gives us the option of using both, and exploring whatever avenues we want. If you see highlighted words, you can further explore those or keep asking questions and prodding the NPC's for info. You don't have to use those if you've already got the info you needed or want to close the dialog box.