Dialogue

konggary · Nov 19, 2015

I have a few questions regarding the dialogue in SG:

Will time "pause" while you're in a conversation?

What if you're in combat and someone is saying something?

~~How extensive will the player's options for responses be? (Looking at you, Fallout 4)~~

turtleman155 · Nov 19, 2015

all i know is time will not pause during conversations. I remember madoc saying this along time ago.

Tyon · Nov 20, 2015

I think the devs are going with text dialogue because voice acting would limit them too much unless they spend lots of money, but they plan on having some things spoken such as greetings.

Parco · Nov 20, 2015

http://www.baremettle.com/forums/index.php?threads/dialogue-system.61/#post-429

Madoc said:
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...

Mikodzi · Nov 20, 2015

Sad that this thread was abandoned: http://www.baremettle.com/forums/index.php?threads/grand-list-of-dev-quotes-on-features.195/

Holy.Death · Nov 20, 2015

I can't really imagine talking during combat. I mean, how could you control yourself in combat, while picking up dialogue options at the same time? Perhaps voice commands could be the way, but then again such systems are not too reliable (although There Came an Echo is a step in the correct direction)...

konggary · Nov 20, 2015

I tried to take the former information into consideration while making this post, please disregard the third question.

My main concerns were with the functionality of it-
Are characters just mute aside from the occasional "howdy"? It will be hard to strike a balance between feasibility and utility.

This kinda makes companions useless in combat except as a mindless hired sword, if they can't communicate. Maybe a MMO-esque text bubble would suffice during combat? Seems EXTREMELY out of character for the game though.

All-in-all I'm sure they already have these ideas thought out, yet unimplemented.

Elaxter · Nov 21, 2015

Fallout 4's dialogue system is atrocious.

Dwarf Fortress is developing a nice dialogue system. You have a huge list of things you can say, and you can even say these things to the world around you. You can taunt the enemy, or try to stop them from fighting (doesn't work as of now). I think Exanima would benefit from a "Talk to everyone" button that would pause the game so you could throw out a taunt, or ask for help, yadda yadda.

Tyon · Nov 21, 2015

I'm hoping that you'll be able to give simple orders to your comrades when in a fight (eg. charge, stand back, advance steadily, etc)