On 9/21/06, Alexander Hupfer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I don't think this will ever be implemented, but it's an idea we could at least talk about:
[...]
Now you maybe wonder what this all has to do with RPGs. I think this could greatly be used for automatic content an dialog generation. For example you could let the player ask "what kingdoms are in the world of Adonthell" and the NPCs consults the semantic engine that searches for countries that feature a "part of" relation to "World of Adonthell" and gives his answer.
One problem I can see is that dynamically generated dialogue most likely won't reach the quality of well-written, "ordinary" dialogue. That aside, I could imagine a combination of hand-written pieces of dialogue that could be assigned to NPCs dynamically as the game progresses. Especially when it comes to "gossip"-topics that provide background-information about characters or factions and their relations to each other. Not sure if that would make sense, but a possibility would be to 1) write small (or larger) chunks of dialogue and associate them with certain topics. 2) Associate NPCs with meta-information. (Friends, Enemies, Factions, Events, etc ...) 3) Add placeholders to an NPC's regular dialogue where smalltalk fits in. 4) During conversation, dynamically insert dialogue matching NPC's "knowledge" or "interest" (however you want to put it). On top of that, we could change NPC's interests/knowledge as the main plot progresses and significant events occur. If multiple pieces of dialogue exist for each topic, conversations could be somewhat less repetitive. Each piece of dialogue itself could have different paths depending on NPC alignment or race or disposition towards the player. So Lady Frostbloom might voice her opinion about Yetis different than Abbot Tham, but in both cases the same dialogue snippet would be used. Next time round, the Yeti topic could be replaced with a piece about the Order of the Keepers. One benefit I could see with this approach from a dialogue writer's point of view is that all information about a certain topic is contained in one spot. That would make it easier to maintain. On the downside, NPC's might lose some of their individual personality if they share pieces of dialogue (especially if the same piece is used for many different NPCs). However, having different paths for different types of characters might soften the effect a bit. What I also want to avoid is turning dialogues into a mere list of topics. Instead I would like to preserve the impression that you are really going through a conversation with the NPC. That doesn't mean that there cannot be lists of topics, they just have to be well disguised. Not sure if all that goes at least a little bit in the direction you proposed, but it would be something that could actually be implemented as an improvement and simplification when we have to deal with more and more NPCs and a more complex game world. And it seems to go fairly well with the idea of having modular dialogues (http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/adonthell-devel/2002-09/msg00000.html). Kai _______________________________________________ Adonthell-devel mailing list Adonthell-devel@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/adonthell-devel