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Conversation options?


Mistb0rn

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I have not read through all the many posts out there; I'm just wondering what, if any, plans have been made for altering/improving conversations.

 

I personally wouldn't mind a more BoA/scriptable approach - I do have some issues with the BoE-style conversations - but I wouldn't necessarily want it changed over entirely, as there might be times when we would want the old version too.

 

Thoughts? Comments? "The discussion you're looking for took place already"? tongue

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Ehhh... I do like BoA's approach, but I think thrusting it upon BoE would probably not be worthwhile. I'm open to arguments on the subject, though.

 

 

As for improving conversations in general? To be honest, I don't think I have thought about it much, but possibilities include expanding the list of "special effects", allowing matches of words less than four letters long, allowing matches to check more than just the first four letters...

 

 

 

I also had a plan to completely rehaul shops so that they are done in a more BoA-style way, ie you can put anything you want in them without being constrained by the order that items appear in the list. I haven't really work out the details yet, though.

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The difference in conversation formats is one of the primary differences between BoE and BoA. It's also something that many people have strong opinions about. Changing that over entirely would alienate some potential players. Just creating the option to use it seems like a waste, since that improvement could not be applied to the hundreds of BoE scenarios that already exist, whereas other potential improvements could apply universally.

 

However, and more saliently, the BoA format is coded very differently from the BoE format. You use the word "scriptable"; BoE doesn't use scripts at all, just nodes, which -- although similar with regard to control flow logic -- are very different as far as the interpreter is concerned. They are also much more complicated. Even making it an option to use them would be an awful lot of work for something that already exists in BoA.

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The reason I ask is because I hate the interface, graphics, and most other parts of BoA,(though I will admit I haven't actually tried making a scenario for it,) and vastly prefer BoE. The conversation system is the one thing that I'd rather have more control over.

 

(It somehow doesn't have the same impact to have the options "atta" or "join" as it would to say "As it so happens, Sir Emzwalt, I would rather kill you and take your palace for myself. Prepare to die!" or "Certainly I would be honored to join your imperial legions as their commander.")

 

But, even if BoA-esque-ness is out of the question, would there be ways to more smoothly integrate conversation with the rest of the world? For example, allowing conversations to be force-started by nodes could be very useful, or the ability to both set a flag and force a conversation end. Things like that.

 

Another thing I'd be interested in would being able to can change the look/name/job replies based on flags, or apply specials to them - like you can normal conversation nodes.

 

 

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Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn
But, even if BoA-esque-ness is out of the question, would there be ways to more smoothly integrate conversation with the rest of the world? For example, allowing conversations to be force-started by nodes could be very useful, or the ability to both set a flag and force a conversation end. Things like that.
Yes to both of these.

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

Another thing I'd be interested in would being able to can change the look/name/job replies based on flags, or apply specials to them - like you can normal conversation nodes.
Hm, not sure. Maybe.
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Originally Posted By: Cryolemon
I like the idea of being able to change the look/name/job texts based on an SDF. How easy it is likely to be to implement is a different matter though.

I 2nd that sentiment.

On of the problems I had with BoA was that the interface wasn't as user-friendly & the difficulty curve was much higher. The whole point of BoE was so that anyone could make a mechanically simple scenario for others to go through, or a mechanically complex one. BoE did this much better than BoA, in my opinion. Though, I will admit, BoE does need some work & I look forward to seeing what the community comes up with.
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Did any scenario designers create conversations that made use of the fact that you can't see right away what's clickable? Something like little bonuses or extra details for being observant with the conversation.

 

You can already spam clicks until you find a word that works, of course, and/or "brute force" by typing in each word you see. But it might "take the fun out of it", if the game highlight keywords; so I'm just wondering if that's a concern to anyone?

 

Plus side: it would make it more obvious to scenario designers during play-testing if their NPCs accidentally used keywords earlier than they were supposed to.

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Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel
Blades already has clickable words as I recall
You recall correctly.

Originally Posted By: icelizarrd
Did any scenario designers create conversations that made use of the fact that you can't see right away what's clickable? Something like little bonuses or extra details for being observant with the conversation.
Probably. It's been too long since I've played BoE, so I can't tell you who did.
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