Dialogue System

[PirroEpirote]

This has been treated tangentially in the "Non-Combat Gameplay" thread, but I wanted to ask more directly: What kind of dialogue system, if any, is this game planning to have?

More explicitly, I'm wondering:

Will it be a non-responsive info-dump (as in Diablo)?​

Will it be time-limited, with generic responses (Yes / No / Punch in the face) as in Alpha Protocol?​

Will it be text based? If so, text heavy or sparse?​

Will it have finely tailored responses for each and every character or a generic database of dialogue "subjects" (as in Morrowind)?​

Will your own character's responses be detailed and intention/subtext specific (as in Torment), or "generic"?​

And, most importantly - will rich dialogue be a focus of the game at all? If not, what mechanisms will be used instead to convey the rich story background developed for it?

Just so you know where I'm coming from, I'm partial to the traditional dialogue system employing finely crafted, text heavy and responsive dialogue trees, and where every dialogue feels like a little "choose your own adventure" game. In particular, I'm partial to its best implementation - Planescape Torment. However, the open-world philosophy of the game makes me think that this will not be the approach of Sui Generis (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Anyway, I've already made my pledge, so no risk in saying "we'll use the highly acclaimed Diablo dialogue system".

 

[hredthel]

I'll add one question to this mix if you don't mind...
Will dialogue choices have serious changes on the world and/or how its characters interact with us?

 

[Madoc]

Diablo has dialogue?!

Dialogue will be text based, voice would be too restrictive in terms of the quantity, choice and dynamic qualities of dialogue. That said we are still considering giving NPCs voices by having them speak greetings or short phrases. We potentially have access to a large number of skilled voice actors. We will get your feedback on this.

In terms of volume of dialogue we want to leave this largely up to the player. You can be very brief but if you push NPCs for more information the dialogue can extend significantly.

Ideally we want to give you a broad choice of things to say to anyone. This would be done by providing a large volume of possible preset questions and statements and a choice of attitudes to adopt. NPCs would react to what you're saying and how rather than just answer you. They might get annoyed even just by the volume or repetitiveness of what you say.

We've even seriously considered a natural language interface but this a little too ambitious perhaps!

Edit: Forgot to reply to hredthel. The basic idea is that actions count for more than words. You can influence people and change their attitude towards you but just saying something doesn't make it happen, doing it does. Same with telling / persuading someone else to do something, they might inted to do it but you or someone else could still prevent them. Anything could happen...

 

[BrecMadak]

Madoc, your reply was quite satisfying, thanks for that firstly. Also let's not forget how great it was to ask "anything" but anything to some npcs via typing in Fallout 1 out of dialogue content. Sadly it was removed on its sequel for some reason.

Seems like testing npcs patience shall be hell of a fun, needless to say !

 

[dktne]

Something like the original kotor games or any sort of dialogue that changes depending upon your character's qualities would be nice. Race, class, skills, history, notoriety, etc.

 

[PirroEpirote]

Hey, of course Diablo featured a revolutionary, in-depth dialogue system! Indeed, I fondly recall the excitement of the varied and far reaching choices it provided (Buy/ Repair / "Talk")!

Thank you for your response Madoc. Text-only with very limited "flavour-voices" is the way to go, if you ask me. Having attitudes associated with your statements and advanced NPC reactivity seem to be intriguing ideas, too.

And the talk of natural language interface takes me back to cool experiments in that regard in text based adventure games and RPGs of olden times.

 

[fluffydino2000]

Hey, I must say I am truly excited by the potential of this game and will be backing with £40 soon.

In terms of dialogue, I would seriously consider a natural language interface. This way, you do not make particularly crafty solutions to certain problems by having it as an option in dialogue. It means that if I want to deceive a character, I have to consider it myself rather than just picking the most deceptive dialogue option. It also means that asking for favours could be achieved in a clean way that could be well integrated with opinions.

For example, "Hey Jim, will you follow me into this cave?" You were polite to Jim, that adds let's say 2 to his incentive, you also helped Jim with a quest earlier, let's add another 5. So far he has a positive incentive to go, but wait, Jim is terrified of the cave, -10 from his incentive. Jim politely replies "Nope". You need Jim's help, however, so you offer him a monetary incentive "What if I give you 50 gold". You are impatient and not polite, -1 to put Jim's incentive on -4. However, Jim is greedy as you know from the last quest you did for him, he takes the money as +5 of an incentive to take his total to +1. Jim will follow you into the cave, reluctantly, and will probably run at the first sign of trouble.

That is just one example of how a player can interact more affectively and think for themselves rather than selecting the two dialogue options "follow me" and "bribe(50 gold)", the player had to consider Jim's personality and the varying circumstances in which Jim would follow them. Of course, a player could lie, but as soon as Jim found out they were really doing something else, he would develop a very negative incentive and lower his opinion of you.

 

[wrags]

Hey, I must say I am truly excited by the potential of this game and will be backing with £40 soon.

In terms of dialogue, I would seriously consider a natural language interface. This way, you do not make particularly crafty solutions to certain problems by having it as an option in dialogue. It means that if I want to deceive a character, I have to consider it myself rather than just picking the most deceptive dialogue option. It also means that asking for favours could be achieved in a clean way that could be well integrated with opinions.

For example, "Hey Jim, will you follow me into this cave?" You were polite to Jim, that adds let's say 2 to his incentive, you also helped Jim with a quest earlier, let's add another 5. So far he has a positive incentive to go, but wait, Jim is terrified of the cave, -10 from his incentive. Jim politely replies "Nope". You need Jim's help, however, so you offer him a monetary incentive "What if I give you 50 gold". You are impatient and not polite, -1 to put Jim's incentive on -4. However, Jim is greedy as you know from the last quest you did for him, he takes the money as +5 of an incentive to take his total to +1. Jim will follow you into the cave, reluctantly, and will probably run at the first sign of trouble.

That is just one example of how a player can interact more affectively and think for themselves rather than selecting the two dialogue options "follow me" and "bribe(50 gold)", the player had to consider Jim's personality and the varying circumstances in which Jim would follow them. Of course, a player could lie, but as soon as Jim found out they were really doing something else, he would develop a very negative incentive and lower his opinion of you.

i agree and i'd like to add a suggestion to the developers: IF there are such fluid options then i think it's detrimental to the immersion to show (explicitly) the player how your actions or statements affect a situation. my recent experiences make me feel that being able to see light side points or dark side points gain (a la recent bioware games) takes away from the connectivity between the player and their character. i'm not entirely sure how far the dialogue in this game will go, but consider the dialogue system in morrowind: if you said something "wrong" you'd lose rapport with the npc. you had no idea how it would affect them before you said it. if you've played some of the recent computer rpgs nowadays you'll find that a lot of the dialogue questions have the modern light/dark gain, but it adds a subtle "obligation" for some thing you saw in the endgame, the way your character looks for example. ultimately i feel that if i'm trying to think like however i've envisioned the character to think like, then i'd rather not prejudice his/her actions based on some "goal" that i have, i'd rather "play in the moment" as that's what makes games fun (for me at least).

 

[dktne]

That sort of freedom to direct events with speech, instead of just action and usually just combat, sounds really nice. This'll be groundbreaking if implemented well.

 

[hredthel]

Diablo has dialogue?!

Edit: Forgot to reply to hredthel. The basic idea is that actions count for more than words. You can influence people and change their attitude towards you but just saying something doesn't make it happen, doing it does. Same with telling / persuading someone else to do something, they might inted to do it but you or someone else could still prevent them. Anything could happen...

Thanks for the reply Madoc, and It was certainly not similar to the answer I had guessed I would hear! I think that kind of diverse decision making would be great. Dialogue choices are very finite, and I am always wishing for more "courses of action" in games. I do like speech having a lasting affect on NPC's, but it might be better if this is not the main focus. It would leave a bigger window of opportunity to play your character in their defined role (or just your own play-style).

 

[Rod_Lightning]

Diablo has dialogue?!

Dialogue will be text based, voice would be too restrictive in terms of the quantity, choice and dynamic qualities of dialogue. That said we are still considering giving NPCs voices by having them speak greetings or short phrases. We potentially have access to a large number of skilled voice actors. We will get your feedback on this.

This is how I like my games best dialogue wise. I'm loving this game more and more each passing day.

 

[BrecMadak]

I'd die for a complicated dialogue system done in SG specifically designed interaction between daemon and a player. Such ones Diablo had done great with perfectly fitting voice acting at the time, some of them were;

* a bit off-topic though, is there any chance to see a goat man in SG maybe in undergrund levels ?