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AJARTCGA
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« on: August 26, 2014, 05:54:26 PM »

So, my team and I have our dialogue engine down. It works like a charm.
Now that we have started writing dialogue, we have realized how hard it is to make it seem natural. Choppy sentences make it hard to bring the character to life in a realistic fashion.
I have done some searching, but I haven't found a whole lot. One website said to keep dialogue short and sweet, but add as much flavor as possible.

Before I get too carried away here is our backstory: We are creating a medieval fantasy role-playing game. We have tons of lore, a nice big map all figured out, and tons of NPCs to add.
Each NPC will get their own dialogue, even though that may involve a few copy and pasted prompts, maybe.

Anyway, I have a few questions when it comes to writing natural, flowing dialogue. Most of them are personal preference.

1. How long should one 'slide' or 'prompt' of dialogue be? If a guard is telling you to explore a dungeon, do you want him to just tell you to go, or give you the details? Any estimate of how long those prompts should be?

2. How many responses do you like to have? Do you like to have ten choices, so you can choose one that specifically fits your character? Or will three or four more general choices work just as well?

3. How much dialogue should random NPCs(Those who do not give or take part in quests but are just there for flavor), have? I know some games leave them with one-liners or a general prompt or two and that's it? I personally like to be able to hold a conversation with every NPC, but I just want some more viewpoints.

4. Any other tips? Personal experiences?

Sorry to bombard you guys with questions, but thank you!

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Kyuugatsu
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« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2014, 07:37:34 PM »

I would say just play Skyrim or Fallout with subtitles enabled and see what they do. Mute the game if you think voice acting is cheating.
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AJARTCGA
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« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2014, 07:46:54 PM »

Okay. I have played through both of them before. I probably play around with them again, but not tonight.
Anyway, so you like their number of options and the length of their dialogue? I remember sometimes feeling limited with responses, but that may just be me. I like to have options. I just don't want to give the player more options than he/she wants to read through.

One thing I have noticed before, is how NPCs repeat themselves. If you talk to an NPC, and they describe this long quest to you, but you turn them down, and then return later, they feed you the same exact dialogue.
While I understand why devs do this from a technical and time-conscious perspective, it seems to me like areas like that could really make characters come alive. I notice details like that, so that's why I am always chocked full of questions! Sorry about that! Thank you though!
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guybrush
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« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2014, 03:38:44 AM »

[snip]

Before I get too carried away here is our backstory: We are creating a medieval fantasy role-playing game. We have tons of lore, a nice big map all figured out, and tons of NPCs to add.
Each NPC will get their own dialogue, even though that may involve a few copy and pasted prompts, maybe.

Anyway, I have a few questions when it comes to writing natural, flowing dialogue. Most of them are personal preference.

1. How long should one 'slide' or 'prompt' of dialogue be? If a guard is telling you to explore a dungeon, do you want him to just tell you to go, or give you the details? Any estimate of how long those prompts should be?

It really depends on the context, on what came "before" the slide/prompt. If there was a long, meaningful conversation that led up to a request/question, it might be worth to write the prompt so that it sort of "recaps", or "recalls", the whole thing, rather than a short question implying a yes/no answer.

About the amount of details, it should again depend on context. To follow up on your example, if the guard just wants you to go into the dungeon, you could keep it short, but if the guard gave you details, motives, and information about why and how you should go to the dungeon, I personally would make a "prompt" that hints to all of that while expressing the question.


2. How many responses do you like to have? Do you like to have ten choices, so you can choose one that specifically fits your character? Or will three or four more general choices work just as well?

I am a bit of a freak, so I like 10 choices or so. Mind you, though, if it's just 10 different ways of expressing 3 basic replies, I would find that annoying. I do like my answers to mirror the character I'm playing and, if there is one, to be reflected in the character's own alignment and maybe even in the story or in the amount of information that NPC is going to give me. And yet again, it's contextual: some requests can lead up to a plain yes/no reply, other might branch into more an articulate follow-up.


3. How much dialogue should random NPCs(Those who do not give or take part in quests but are just there for flavor), have? I know some games leave them with one-liners or a general prompt or two and that's it? I personally like to be able to hold a conversation with every NPC, but I just want some more viewpoints.

Again, I like fully-dialogue-able NPCs. One good example of this would me Morrowind, where the player would be able to have a conversation with most NPC about the town, his quests, other NPCs, or general information about the world. Of course most of it would turn out to be the same identical conversation, but occasionally one NPC would reveal one or two additional details, really bringing the NPC population to "life", so to speak. One liners are a no-no-no, in my books: rather than one-liners, I'd have non-interactive NPCs with random lines spoken out, to contribute to the "background" noise of the scene.

[snip][/quote]
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AJARTCGA
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« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2014, 02:10:17 PM »

First off, thank you so much guybrush! That was a wonderful reply, and very informative!
It really depends on the context, on what came "before" the slide/prompt. If there was a long, meaningful conversation that led up to a request/question, it might be worth to write the prompt so that it sort of "recaps", or "recalls", the whole thing, rather than a short question implying a yes/no answer.

About the amount of details, it should again depend on context. To follow up on your example, if the guard just wants you to go into the dungeon, you could keep it short, but if the guard gave you details, motives, and information about why and how you should go to the dungeon, I personally would make a "prompt" that hints to all of that while expressing the question.
Okay, that's about what I was thinking. If you ask my colleagues, I have a bad habit of going into too much detail. I love to read into nice, informative dialogue. And stories, oh my goodness, I love reading through what an NPC has to say about a particular event. So there is someone else who likes some nice dialogue! Awesome! 

Quote from: guybrush
I am a bit of a freak, so I like 10 choices or so. Mind you, though, if it's just 10 different ways of expressing 3 basic replies, I would find that annoying. I do like my answers to mirror the character I'm playing and, if there is one, to be reflected in the character's own alignment and maybe even in the story or in the amount of information that NPC is going to give me. And yet again, it's contextual: some requests can lead up to a plain yes/no reply, other might branch into more an articulate follow-up.
This was also very helpful! I too enjoy having several responses to choose from. I agree, if they all represent just a couple basic ideas, it is pointless. But we have already factored in many things to our dialogue engine, such as how well the NPC favors the player, and we are adding new functionality all the time. So hopefully we can avoid that on this project!

Quote from: guybrush
Again, I like fully-dialogue-able NPCs. One good example of this would me Morrowind, where the player would be able to have a conversation with most NPC about the town, his quests, other NPCs, or general information about the world. Of course most of it would turn out to be the same identical conversation, but occasionally one NPC would reveal one or two additional details, really bringing the NPC population to "life", so to speak. One liners are a no-no-no, in my books: rather than one-liners, I'd have non-interactive NPCs with random lines spoken out, to contribute to the "background" noise of the scene.
I know what you mean about games like Morrowind. I enjoyed how much information you could get out of any given NPC, and then in Oblivion, all you could ask half of them were for rumors, and that's no fun! I think we will probably give most NPCs plenty of dialogue, and even if it is more or less the same info, try to flavor it a little different for each one. And like you said, if a certain NPC can provide a little extra bit of info on a topic, that can really make them pop!


Thanks again, guybrush! That was very helpful. And I am glad that I am not the only person who enjoys some nice dialogue in games. Haha.
Now the real trick will be for my friends and I to try to make the dialogue flow. So far it seems a bit choppy, but hopefully that will improve as we get more experienced.
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