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[denzgd]

I'm working on a dialogue system right now, which features a mechanic where you can control the player's tone, when selecting dialogue options. Basically, you are relaying the same information to the NPC, but you can do it more passively, or more aggressively, or whatever, and they will respond either positively or negatively based on how they feel about that tone. I also have a minor stat-building setup, where a player can make their proficiency using a particular tone stronger, thus increasing the benefits they get from getting the tone right.

Now, my main issue is setting up character interaction so that it feels like it makes sense, to the player. By that, I mean, there needs to be a way that the player can tell what tone might work best, without having to randomly guess, and then just spam that tone. For example, in Shin Megami Tensei IV, the player can talk to enemies, and recruit them. But there is no consistency, and even the same enemy type will respond differently to the same approach, and the whole mechanic felt random and unintuitive. It ended up not being very fun.

My game is dependent on this mechanic, so I really need it to be intuitive to the player. I've already figured out dynamically changing the tone an NPC responds to, based on their mood, which is dependent on the tone of conversation. This way, they can't just spam the tone to get the best results. But I need to make it so that the player isn't just button-mashing, hoping for the right tone. I was hoping you guys had some insight, and could throw some tips/advice my way.

Thanks in advance.

[McMutton]

Perhaps you could have the NPC react to the tone as it is at the end of a statement; you could change it in the midst of speaking, and the NPCs face would change accordingly, letting you know what the right note to end on is.

[denzgd]

So you're saying, the player could be able to change the tone in the middle of what they're saying? Right now, the words the player says is dependent on the tone they use at the start of the statement, when they select a dialogue option.

For example, if they ask about where a person is, and they use a more Passive tone, they might say like "You wouldn't happen to know where they are, would you?" But if they choose to use a more aggressive tone, they might say "Tell me where this person is before I break your face." I don't know how I would adapt that mid-statement. "You wouldn't happen to know where - I'LL BREAK YOUR FACE!"

[Djose]

This http://www.mackneymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/game_deus_ex3_6.jpg http://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/wiki-api.ign.com/deus-ex-human-revolution/5/5c/180_right.jpg

But for that you need facial animation and voice acting to really convey the right emotions. With just text (or still images like persona) you'll have to be really obvious about how the npc is feeling. I suggest you watch/play those dialogues sections (with and without the dialogue upgrade), it might give you some inspiration.

Hope it helps and pardon me if my english is lacking. 

[denzgd]

But for that you need facial animation and voice acting to really convey the right emotions. With just text (or still images like persona) you'll have to be really obvious about how the npc is feeling.

There won't be complex facial animations, nor will there be voice acting. It's a rather simple 2D game, and I'm doing everything on my own. I think it's important for the character interaction to seem logical and natural, but I, personally, don't have fun trying to guess how an NPC would react to statements.

I'm glad you mentioned Persona, because this is a good example. In Persona, I would often try to select dialogue options that seem like a good selection, but then the character gets offended or angry, and I fail that interaction. There's no indicator of which one is the correct option, except going online and looking up the answers. At that point, it's a gamble, and the player basically has no control over the results. And I want the player to have control over how the dialogue moves.

I'm thinking, I need to find a way to "game-ify" the dialogue, give players some extra avenue of control over the character interaction that can prevent them from failing an interaction like that. Something that can help them indicate how well the dialogue is going, and help them decide on strategies for moving forward.

[hsnabn]

How about different dialogue colors for the different tones? Maybe you could do some other stuff too, like bolding out aggressive statements/emphasis, and italicizing for sarcasm, et cetera.

[denzgd]

How about different dialogue colors for the different tones? Maybe you could do some other stuff too, like bolding out aggressive statements/emphasis, and italicizing for sarcasm, et cetera.

I actually am doing the color thing already! I'm going to be putting together some UI concepts on the game's Tumblr page, but the player would be using the Q and E keys (or the L and R bumpers on a gamepad) to shift the tone. "Passive/Defensive" is blue and "Aggressive" is Red. And then the default "Casual" tone is yellow.

I played a game on the DS a while back called Hotel Dusk, which used moderately-animated black and white character portraits, which would turn red to signal that the NPC wasn't liking how the conversation was going. I was considering something like that, but a little more complex. Rather than only showing anger or irritation, an NPC would show various emotions, and the player would have to adapt accordingly. But there's still the matter of dialogue options.

Earlier in development, the design was using Fallout 3 and New Vegas as the basis for dialogue options, but I thought they lacked a sort of personal, emotional quality to it. I don't want everything to just link back to a hub of general dialogue options, and I don't want an emotional character response to be a matter of a few clicks.

[hsnabn]

Ah, nice.
As for dialogue options, how about a radial menu of sorts? There's the Mass Effect series, and the Dragon Age series that uses them. The dialogue wheel's options could change based on the tone selected, or something? EDIT: It also isn't a must to have to use the mouse to select dialogue, either.
You could also have hotkeyed dialogue responses, like first choice is number 1 on the keyboard, second is 2 et cetera.

[oahda]

Oh, so by tone you mean actually changing the wording? I thought you meant literally just changing the tone, but keeping the same words, for example sounding more sarcastic.

[Djose]

Why not make the npc have stats too, and through conversation those stats reveal themselves so that the player know how to act accordingly, like if you have a high intelligence stat and you talk to a npc that also have a high intel' stat he would react better to logical statement and a passive approach , if your stat is high enough you would have a special dialogue option like in the fallout series.
As for the reactions of the npc you could just change gradually the face portrait without being too punitive, with the stat system, you could have some stats linked to being able to read some types of emotions and some not at all, and even, know when someone is faking an emotion.

I don't know,I'm just throwing ideas around.

[denzgd]

Oh, so by tone you mean actually changing the wording? I thought you meant literally just changing the tone, but keeping the same words, for example sounding more sarcastic.

The dialogue options are sort of general, and then when the player selects them, they correspond to a line of dialogue based on the tone.

<Ask about sword> + Passive tone = "I love the sword! Did you get it from Jack's?"

There isn't a silent protagonist; it's a character who has her own personality. Choices made by the player influence what she says, but she puts her own spin on dialogue.

Why not make the npc have stats too

I hadn't considered this. Naturally, the different tones were to work differently for different NPCs, depending on their personality, but the idea of a full set of stats is interesting. I'll have to see what I can do with this.

and through conversation those stats reveal themselves so that the player know how to act accordingly, like if you have a high intelligence stat and you talk to a npc that also have a high intel' stat he would react better to logical statement and a passive approach

I'm not sure how I'd implement something like this. Would the stats slowly roll out as a response to the player's answers? And another thing which concerns me, is how will the NPC respond to neutral tones? For example, in a Aggressive-Casual-Passive tone triangle, a character who responds well to Aggression might not respond well to Passiveness. But then, what of Casual? Would it just move dialogue forward without the benefits of using an Aggressive tone? And if conversation is moving forward, anyway, then what is the point of using tones?

if your stat is high enough you would have a special dialogue option like in the fallout series.
As for the reactions of the npc you could just change gradually the face portrait without being too punitive

This already will be happening, actually. I want to do moderately animated portraits, like Hotel Dusk, or at the very least something like Ittle Dew. I want the characters to have some life to them!

with the stat system, you could have some stats linked to being able to read some types of emotions and some not at all, and even, know when someone is faking an emotion.

I hadn't considered NPCs being able to 'fake' emotions, either. I think I'd rather put the responsibility of seeing through the fakeness on the player, rather than the stats though. Thanks for the detailed input!

Ah, nice.
As for dialogue options, how about a radial menu of sorts? There's the Mass Effect series, and the Dragon Age series that uses them. The dialogue wheel's options could change based on the tone selected, or something?

I have been working with some similar UI designs, but nothing is finalized yet. However, the options, themselves, don't change based on the tone; how the idea is presented to the NPC does change, though.

EDIT: It also isn't a must to have to use the mouse to select dialogue, either.
You could also have hotkeyed dialogue responses, like first choice is number 1 on the keyboard, second is 2 et cetera.

It actually requires no mouse input. I was thinking it might be easier for some people to navigate menus quicker, but I want the player to be able to have both hands on the keyboard, or at least one, as I intend to do a control scheme for people with only one arm or whatever, among other things.

[hmm]

Interactive dialogue is a tricky one to get right. Like you said, its difficult for people to predict the outcome of their choices which can be frustrating. This isn't just a game problem though, its just the nature of real conversations - you don't necessarily know where they're going to go, or what you're going to get out of them.

A couple of questions about your game: Is there a fail state to the dialogue? Is there an objective that the player will be trying to achieve through dialogue? I'm just wondering if the dialogue itself will act as a kind of minigame, or is it for narrative purposes.

I personally enjoy dialogue trees that act as a way to engage more deeply with the characters and story, rather than create a barrier to player progression. You never really 'fail' at dialogue, but you are allowed to express yourself through the dialogue options and influence character relationships in a subtle way. The Walking Dead and Mass Effect have nice, natural feeling dialogue trees.

[denzgd]

Interactive dialogue is a tricky one to get right. Like you said, its difficult for people to predict the outcome of their choices which can be frustrating. This isn't just a game problem though, its just the nature of real conversations - you don't necessarily know where they're going to go, or what you're going to get out of them.

Yeah, I'm not necessarily even looking for a way to make dialogue feel more realistic; I just want a way for players to not feel like they are just randomly selecting responses, and hoping for the best. I want players to feel like they at least have some strategic options that don't include searching for a GameFAQs guide for a given conversation.

A couple of questions about your game: Is there a fail state to the dialogue? Is there an objective that the player will be trying to achieve through dialogue? I'm just wondering if the dialogue itself will act as a kind of minigame, or is it for narrative purposes.

The game's narrative is dependent on dialogue. The goal with dialogue is to make an NPC like you more. at various intervals, based on how much an NPC likes the player, more of their story will open up, allowing the player to experience more of the game'a narrative, explore more areas, etc. Dialogue is the basis for character interaction. There is not necessarily a permanent fail state, rather than an NPC disliking the character, which in turn makes it harder to progress with the game. However, the game is on a sort of loop, much like Majora's Mask, which resets characters at the beginning of each loop.

I personally enjoy dialogue trees that act as a way to engage more deeply with the characters and story, rather than create a barrier to player progression. You never really 'fail' at dialogue, but you are allowed to express yourself through the dialogue options and influence character relationships in a subtle way. The Walking Dead and Mass Effect have nice, natural feeling dialogue trees.

I am a big fan of social sim content in games - Persona, DOA Volleyball, visual novels, and the like. In these games, naturally, character interaction plays a large part in the experience. I want that deeper level of character interaction, but I don't like how actually talking in many games like this is limited to selecting dialogue options which feel out of the control of the player, almost random. But I want the player to feel like they do have some control.

[hmm]

The game's narrative is dependent on dialogue. The goal with dialogue is to make an NPC like you more. at various intervals, based on how much an NPC likes the player, more of their story will open up, allowing the player to experience more of the game'a narrative, explore more areas, etc. Dialogue is the basis for character interaction. There is not necessarily a permanent fail state, rather than an NPC disliking the character, which in turn makes it harder to progress with the game. However, the game is on a sort of loop, much like Majora's Mask, which resets characters at the beginning of each loop.

Ah right, that sounds interesting. I think the loop idea is great, allowing the player to try things differently the next time around. In terms of making this system feel less random, you could consider providing the player with notifications or other feedback that help to explain why a character responded the way that they did. The Walking Dead notifies the player of anything that a character will remember later on, which helps to highlight the consequences of your choices. Its a little heavy-handed, but more feedback is always nice to have.

[denzgd]

I think the loop idea is great, allowing the player to try things differently the next time around.

It does create the problem of having to restart multi-day quest arcs, such as the dreaded Kafei and Anju arc in Majora's Mask. I need to figure out some ways to make the player not feel like they are constantly having to redo the same things, so gameplay feels interesting and fun. Part of that is putting a lot of small side quests in the game which can be completed easily in a small percentage of time, in the context of the game's loop.

In terms of making this system feel less random, you could consider providing the player with notifications or other feedback that help to explain why a character responded the way that they did. The Walking Dead notifies the player of anything that a character will remember later on, which helps to highlight the consequences of your choices. Its a little heavy-handed, but more feedback is always nice to have.

I definitely don't want the player to feel like it's heavy-handed. I think there should be something to indicate, or at least suggest, which dialogue routes the player should go through before they select an option. Just like with Pokemon, how the player knows that water beats fire, so if an opponent has flames all over their body, water is likely going to be effective.

Perhaps the sequences with tone shifts need to be distinct from simple conversations; for example, if I'm just trying to ask to see a shopkeeper's wares, I shouldn't need to consider whether I'm saying it aggressively enough.