Suggestion for Conversations

Um what? This is probably be the opposite of what I want...I want the npc's to have dialogue and want them to be on the level of one I saw in Ultima 7, not "I work in mill." when asked what his job is. Reading what the npc's say is to me a important part of the game, especially if this is supposed to be a story rpg.

 

I wonder if NPC familiarity is still in the works and how complex that system will be.

 

There was a thread about it...I think lum even commented on it...it's already in the system they just have to set it for NPC's if I'm not mistaken.

 

Well if you don't have to use them then why are they there? It's not like people don't have brains, we can figure out what we want to ask the NPC, and then ask them. People don't need hints for what to ask.

 

I know what you mean. But I still think they should carefully consider each sentence, and see if it is necessary, or if it could be reworded to make it better. That is what all writers do, and I don't think game writers should be any different, you know?

 

I'm not sure what would be best, but the chat window as it stands is really ugly and unimmersive (IMHO). As for actual content of conversations, I'm definitely for extensive backstory, amusing whimsy, etc. but it does need to be well-written "each sentence carefully considered" otherwise I find myself just glancing over the waffle/dialogue and looking for keywords. In fact, that's another reason to not (or at least have the option to not) highlight the keywords, it forces you to read for significance and results in a more satisfying world.

 

The conversations with NPCs as they are now don't work for me. The dialogues need a separate interface and I would really like it if there would be some camerawork, too, like in Dragon Age for example.
I could imagine something like this:
You begin a conversation and the camera shows you from behind on one side of the screen and the dialogue-partner in front of you - for a little bit of a dynamic view. If you say something, you type it into a speech bubble that shows up above your head. Pressing enter the focus of the camera shifts to the partner showing him close up and his response is shown in a speech bubble above his head. Then the camera either shifts towards you with a close up or back to "over your shoulder". There could be a few camera positions that rotate by a random pattern to create a more cinematic approach to dialogues.

Also I think, dialogue should have enough text to make the conversations interesting as well as giving away information about your dialogue-partner. No trimmed down texts like in WoW to just give you information. Reading texts is part of the fun of playing an RPG.

 

Conversation has it's quirks. NPCs are too generic at this time - for me - but I have hope. The quests are not in place yet, so I'm hoping that has a lot to do with the 'bots' walking around who don't know much of anything, and are socially disfunctional. The Devs did stop all of the NPC spamming in MPO, thank goodness. There is still one goof in Fire Lotus' Tavern who won't shut up. Ha.

I appreciate the two tabs in the conversation box, and the boxes you can check to filter. That let's you just see whispers, or Party, or NPCs in one tab if you like. Unfortunately, the only reason I find that helpful is due to overall cumbersome chat. Since in order to whisper, one has to type out the entire name - and some are very long. Ugh. I suggest that the IRC chat idea be used: type the beginning of the Player Name and Tab, and the name fills in for you. Currently, entering a new area makes you type out the entire name again for a whisper. We are forced to whisper, or to spam!

Spamming everything you say to an NPC or a PC is awkward and annoying, both for you, and for those who 'hear' you. Party is also disfunctional. Anyone can join you, and without an invitation! A pet peeve of mine has been (in other adventures) to have Players toss up 'invites' in my face without introduction or prior conversation. Right now, this is worse, because you are simply told that someone has joined your Party! Where is my option to say 'no thank you'? Sometimes more the merrier, but sometimes, I'd like to limit who I speak with, or else we may as well spam everything.

While I am on the subject of Spam, I suggest we have some way to test things ( /test - ? ) without spamming. For example emote testing. People come in and start testing emotes. Spam! I suggest a very limited area for anyone to 'hear' any typed communication. Perhaps let a Player know their friend is on, and other than that, have distance limitations. Whispers could be sent, or Party Join requests.

Thanks for consideration!

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=rpg games that use text boxes&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=kA8KU7_1KKL4yQH4koHQCQ&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=894&dpr=0.9#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=3aq2cFvBvxuOAM%3A;7Oz8AFMQTiIM3M;http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fgamelife%2F2011%2F07%2Fbarkley.jpg;http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fgamelife%2F2011%2F07%2Fbest-indie-rpgs%2F;660;495

I like the idea of some form of chat bubble but wouldn't want to see a nightmare like someone posted (sorry I forgot who,( senility must be setting in) lol) There are a couple of examples in the link I posted that I thought were quite good. Like the one that shows a picture of the NPC then his comment not above his head but where your attack icons usually are. You are immersed in the conversation and the other stuff goes to the back ground. Others would not see it.

 

Customizable chat tabs, once working properly with more filters will make this a bit less annoying. But definitely need to:
- emote filters
- proximity chat vs entire instance chat
- thankfully NPC barks are no longer in the chat window so let's keep it that way for player Vendors that bark also or have a filter for it
- chat tabs need to highlight if there's new text to read, perhaps even the number of lines to read such as "n" or "n+" (where n is the number of new lines to read)

But in regards to the conversations with NPCs, I haven't tested that since R1. It hasn't been listed as a major feature to test so it's unlikely that they've vastly improved it since then. NPCs need more content, keywords, responses and better contextual parsing.