I’ve gotten to a point in my WIP where the conversation system is limiting what I want to do. But I don’t think it would take much to change it into what I want.
I’m using Eric Eve’s “Conversation Responses,” but I’m already mangling it so that most of what it does is redirect to my own code. Up until now, that’s worked fine, but now I want to do more with NPCs saying things spontaneously on their own … or even potentially multiple NPCs responding during a single turn. Also, I may have some characters temporarily unable to speak.
So I took a step back and asked myself, “how should conversation work?” And I came up with a pretty simple answer, that to my knowledge has never been implemented. Then again, I don’t know how Emily Short does conversation, so maybe I’m wrong. Here’s how it goes.
When the player types a command to say something, the check rules determine whether the PC is able (and willing) to speak. If they are, then the check phase ends.
The carry out rules determine who heard the PC.
The report rules tell what the PC, and only the PC, does.
Then the every turn rules come along. A rule loops through every NPC who heard the PC and each one has a chance to respond. Kind of like ReactAfter, I guess.
Has anyone ever done it this way in I7? If so, I’d like to hear how it went. And I’d be curious whether you’d be interested in using such a system, and what benefits and drawbacks you think it might have.