BAck a few years ago there was a really cool game called Reelect JFK, it was one of those that you pull out of a bargin bin, since it was sort of limited in its audience. Anways, when you conversed in it, someone would say something to you and you would have a menu of choices such as: Angry Impartial Enthusiastic (sp) You would choose from one of these and it would give you some response (in the voice of JFK) based on how you responded. Basically, it had a greater element of strategy to it then determining which answer is the correct one from a list of responses. After all, 9 times out of ten there is only one answer that you dont need to reload after giving-every other answer gets you killed or loosing a quest. The problem with this was it was easy to head into dead ends if you pissed off a cecrtain senator or some such thing, but generally there were work arounds. Anyways, basically what I am saying is that instead of specific responses, I would like to see different ways to respond. Opinions anyone?

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Original post by DrMol
Anways, when you conversed in it, someone would say something to you and you would have a menu of choices such as:
Angry
Impartial
Enthusiastic (sp)

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Years ago I was thinking along these lines, and had a sketch of something similar to include in an RPG type game.

You would have a ''tone'' you could set your character on, like you''ve got above: angry, neutral, happy. This would influence the responses you get from the NPCs.

Example:

Tone == happy

Happy PC: Hello! How are you?
NPC: Hullo''. My name is Bob. I''m doing good.

Happy PC: [Job] [Status] [Bye]
Happy PC: What do you do, Bob?
Bob: I mine the hills for silver. What do you do?

Happy PC: [Respond] [Status] [Bye]
Happy PC: [Long list of possible jobs]
Bob: Good to know. (internally, a descriptor is attached to Bob such as PCNAME_Job= for future reference, or, if someone asks Bob if they know PCNAME he can tell them yes and relate the descriptor as PCNAME''s job)

Happy PC: [Status] [Bye]
Happy PC: Farewell, Bob.
Bob: Take care.

Tone == neutral

Neutral PC: Hello.
NPC: Hullo''. My name is Bob.

Neutral PC: [Job] [Health] [Status] [Bye]
Neutral PC: What do you do, Bob?
Bob: I mine the hills.

Neutral PC: [Health] [Status] [Bye]
Neutral PC: Bye, bob.
Bob: Goodbye.

Tone == angry

Mean PC: *greeting grunt*
NPC: Hullo''.

Mean PC: [Name] [Job] [Health] [Status] [Bye]
Mean PC: What do you do?
NPC: None of yer business.

Mean PC: [Name] [Health] [Status] [Bye]
Mean PC: Bye.
NPC: *ignore*

You can see the possible range of different responses from this basic example. Of course there would be many more conversation options. Like when he said I mine the hills for silver, we could have queries allowable for [Mine], [Hills], and [Silver] with responses varying based on tone. Could be like:

[Mine:Happy] Yes, I dig up ore to smelt. [Dig] [Ore] [Smelt]
[Mine:Neutral] I dig ore. [Dig] [Ore]

[Hills:Happy] The Faraway Hills, about 5 miles west of town. [Town]
[Hills:Neutral] The Faraway Hills.

[Silver:Happy] Best grade of silver this side of Faraway Hills. [Hills]

Note that some options are missing based on your tone. For instance, you wouldn''t even be given to chance of asking him about mining, the hills, or silver (and anything branching from them) if you were initially angry with him.

For version 1 of any game I would include this kind of system in I would probably make the initial tone what determines the NPC''s behavior for the rest of the branching. It might add a lot of complexity if we allowed mid-tree tone changes. Haven''t thought it through though.

Anyway, that''s my response. I definitely have plans on incorporating this kind of thing into any game I end up making, even the RTS I''m working on (I really want to make a RPS, a kind of hybrid, like Warcraft III I guess).

Care.

Florida, USA
RTS Engine in Development
http://www.knology.net/~heaven
Jesus is LORD!

Ideally, a system in which you typed a response and the code parses your sentence for grammar and so on, and then searches through it for specific key words to try to figure out what you want from the NPC in question. Basically the grammar-parsing is necessary so it doesn''t misunderstand what you''re saying by reading the keywords out of context.

So if you said, "I went where you told me to and found the key to the dungeon," the parser would separate that statement into its two clauses and notice the words ''found'', ''key'', and ''dungeon'' in the second one, and realize you have the key for the NPC to take. Otherwise it might notice the words ''where'', ''key'', and ''dungeon'' and think you''re asking where it is.

This is probably very difficult to do well though... but it''s ideal. Hey, we can dream.

~CGameProgrammer( );

Perhaps in a few years we can fit a supercomputer into a toaster and a full text parser will be possible.

Easier to make a lines that represent some task, like ASK_FOOD:

"1. I need food, do you have some?"

I was thinking to create these lines in a way that player can really use talking as a tool to survive in the game. In "real world" when you mostly talk? When you have something to say, or you need something. This is the way it should work in gameplay too.
This covers also different tones like mentioned above. If player or npc is angry about something there should be something like INSULT_DWARF:

"1. Your mother was orc, and ugly one!"

RPG dialog sucks as it is currently implemented, stilted, stagnant and repetivie.

Go the sims route, place a layer inbetween the player and their characters, and let emotes, character action , reaction and the players imagination tell the story.

Let the player piece together the dialog, but if certain pieces of information are nessecary to the game, they should be cataloged within that dialog, for the player to review (as summaries of the avatars, which can have a special slant to them from the avatars perspecive, so different avatars can get different info from the same person)

The player can ofcoruse direct the avatars down different paths of questions.

-ddn

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Easier to make a lines that represent some task, like ASK_FOOD:

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I''m working on something along similar lines. The player enters a conversation command with appropriate arguments, which vary from command to command, and the game builds the sentence or question for the player. I much prefer this as a player and a programmer, as the player isn''t required to play "guess the right word" and it''s easier to implement than a sentence parser but the results are the same (unless the player really enjoys the experience of typing proper sentences).

Sean

I developed a system called matrix conversation in which everything the NPC knew was placed on a grid with four extremities and numerous interconnected kernels. The idea was that you navigate the grid by choosing an emotion connected with each extremity the way you would a minefield, ie. by guaging the NPCs reactions each step of the way. Go too far and they blast you back with whatever emotion you were pushing for; play it smart and you can avoid certain barriers - play happy till friends then impatient, etc.; patterned choices would lead off into trivia;.

The beauty is the simplicity: four keys and a handful of responses that are visually arranged based on their proximity to certain emotions (with no predetermined path and plenty of room to meander).

Kruice, as I see it that would seem to be a good way to go, however, after a few INSULT_DWARFs the insult would get repetitive, since it is alkways the same insult (or however many you put in) The only way to really overcome that is by making a crapload of those statments

I thought the sims conversation engine was great. Sometime sit would be a little repetitive though. I would end up with huge stacks, I wish there something like "Improve realationsip" on their when the sim would talk and flirt and tickel and all without my having to supervise.

deClaver, can I hear some more abnout your system? Sounds very interesting. Are you saying that your guy choses an emotion which links them to another set, or knowledge that links them to another set of knowledge?