Custom conversational system

hey,
i’m currently writing my first IF parser game, and just implemented a custom conversational system
of which i don’t know if it’s too divergent from commonly used ones. i haven’t played enough such
games to be able to tell myself if this system is one that people would enjoy having in the game or not.
so here’s a scenario to demonstrate it (i’m afraid the mentioned highlighted words in the reply choices fall victim to the preformatted text):

“Jason, are you there? It's the RED wire! Do you copy? The RED wire! Over.”
Michael's voice, emanating from the walkie talkie, sounds about as nervous as you feel yourself.

Choose your response by entering the highlighted word, or press enter to remain silent:
- Ok, got it. The red wire it is! Over.
- I'm sorry Michael. I can only hope that one day you'll understand why I had to do this.

>ok

“Ok, got it. The red wire it is! Over.”
“Good luck.” is Michael's only reply.

>ask michael about the blue wire

“No, not that one, damn it! I thought we'd settled this - it's the RED ONE! Over!”
You've never heard Michael this agitated before. You can't blame him.

> cut the blue wire
You take the pliers to the blue wire, close your eyes, and hope to god
that you're making the right descision.
As soon as the cutters connect, the alarm sounds.

“Jason! Jason! Are you there? What the hell happened?”
You can barely make out Michael's voice over the sound of the alarm sirens
coming from all directions.

Choose your response by entering the highlighted word, or press enter to remain silent:
- You tell me! I cut the red wire, just as you said!
- I'm sorry Michael. I can only hope that one day you'll understand why I had to do this.

>red

“You tell me! I cut the red wire, just as you said!”
“Fuck! This whole thing was a setup! Walters better pray for his life
if I get my hands on that bastard! Jason, get out of there, now!”

now the two aspects of this system that are different from the ones i’ve come across are, firstly choice based replies to NPC initiated exchanges, but the standard ASK/TELL procedure for initiating conversation yourself, and secondly, not actually having your choice of reply lead to any actions
being carried out by the player character, which is probably the more controversial of the two.
i really like the engagement and immersion that these two techniques offer, and would be thrilled to hear that i’m not the only one using something like this in a game, or that you believe this to be a viable way forward nonetheless.
(there’s also the aspect about typing in a keyword, instead of selecting a number for the replies, but i just happened to read that that’s been done before :slight_smile: )
thanks for reading!

collin

1 Like

Your system looks interesting. It sounds like the player makes choice by typing a word in the response instead of a number of a list of choices or clicking one of the options with a mouse. I myself have used the Hybrid Choices extension for Inform 7 so that any conversational ask/tell type command regarding a character directs to a conversation menu. Also NPC-initiated conversation does exist - the Principal character in Fair was implemented to approach the player at specific moments during the story and initiate a conversation.

Nothing wrong with that - it’s a tried and true method to direct conversation instead of just relying on raw ask/tell.

thanks! and what do you think about replies like "Ok, I'll cut the red wire." not actually doing that, but leaving it up to the player to actually do so? i can imagine that being confusing to some people, but i’d really like to keep the game realistic, and being able to not actually do as you say seems like an important aspect of that.

As a player, I think I’d prefer not to have a conversation option at all there—that is, I would just say “>CUT RED WIRE”. A game that made me tell someone what I was about to do, then type it a second time to actually do it, would get annoying quickly (unless lying about what you were doing was actually an important part of the gameplay or story).

You mean making the player type the actions but choose for dialogue responses? I think that sounds good on paper, but I’m concerned about how it’d play out in practice. Even in your small example, what happens if the player decides to walk away or dance or read or do any other action than cut the wire at that point? The tension in the scene would completely die.

The only other option would be to prevent the player from doing anything other than typing “cut the red/blue wire”, which would make me wonder why I’m being forced to type the whole command if I’m being railroaded into picking one of two choices.

So I guess what I’m saying is maybe save it for events where it’s okay if the player decides to wander off and do whatever instead of events that clearly have time constraints.

thanks for your reply!

Even in your small example, what happens if the player decides to walk away or dance or read or do any other action than cut the wire at that point? The tension in the scene would completely die.

in my example, Michael would first be confused, and then angry, and feel betrayed when he realizes what happened (the same as when you would have chosen the I'm sorry Michael.. reply). my game relies heavily on human interaction, and incorporates different emotional states for the NPCs, and their impact on the relationship with the player.

Depends on the game and the flow of the scene and expectations you’ve set up. If the player needs to have a conversation first and then do it that’s fine. I would just make sure you don’t switch in the middle - conversing about actions carrying them out in one scene and then it doesn’t carry them out in another.

If defusing the bomb is supposed to happen during a tense conversation, code it that way. How you phrase it should communicate to the player whether actions are involved. “Okay, I’ll cut the red wire.” vs “Okay, I’m cutting the red wire right now!”