Basic Conversation
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Basic Conversation
When BIOWARE first developed NWN, they tried to incorporate the AD&D rules and game play into the game. It was not an easy task because a pen-and-paper AD&D game depends a lot on the interaction among players. If you have a bunch of uninteresting characters who do not "get into" the game, there is very little to carry the game play. (It's just like going on a trip with friends. With the right group of people, the vivacious interaction can cover many sins, and even overshdaow the food you eat!) Hence, things you do together in the game can sometimes out-weigh the (weak) plot of your story.
The conversation element (or feature) of the game eventually took over a major part of this interaction. Conversation was used to setting the background (like the rising yellow-colored texts in the beginning of Star Wars movies), drive the story-lines, etc. The Toolset comes with a very nice Conversation Wizard (in NWN1) to allow developers to create Conversation, as well as set Conditions for the conversation to occur. Because Conversation plays such a major role in the game (and game making) process, the developers of NWN2 expanded quite a bit on the conversation capability.
Designing Conversations
Because Conversations can make or break your game, you should spend some serious time in designing it. Noticed I use the word "design", because it is really an art. As you build more games, you will slowly learned the art of conversations design. A properly designed conversation can bring a virtual character to life. I am sure you will remember Neesha, the planetouch in NWN2. Her lines (conversations) in the game portrays the character very well, and that what make her memorable. (You feel like you have met her in person.)
Also, when you design conversations, don't just make a one-sided conversations. By this, I don't mean "Monolog" but that you should try to incorporate both "good" and "evil" responses into your game to give the player more choices. In this way, as they play the game, they can make decisions accordingly on how to respond to the NPC themselves.
For example, if you have a player whose favorite character in role-playing game is an evil wizard, he wouldn't enjoy a game with all "nice and sugary" conversation, right? Providing both ends of the spectrum in human moral will also fill out your game more.
[Note: I know, this is easier said than done, because you are essentially designing two stories – a good guy, and a bad guy. Sometimes, you may even have to include a neutral path, which make three stories! Yikes!]
Conversation Wizard
You will find the CONVERSATIONS Tab next to the AREAS Tab in Section A: Areas. Click on the Tab to open up the panel.
Conversation Thread
You will see two panels, left and right. Right click anywhere in the blank area of the Left Panel, and choose Add to start a new conversation thread.
At the top of the Right Panel, you will see the word Root. This is the starting point of the conversation.
The following image shows what a completed "Conversation Thread" looks like. Notice at the bottom of the screen (the status bar), there is even a "Word Count" for your conversation thread, in this case: 384 Words .
[IMPORTANT Notes: Notice that the conversation thread is color-coded.
- The NPC's conversation appears in RED.
- The PC/Player's conversation appears in BLUE.
- In a conversation, the NPC is always the first person/creature who speaks.
- The end of every possible conversation is denoted by [END DIALOG].]
Starting a Conversation
Create a new Conversation (it will be defaulted to Conversation 1) and rename it immediately to frans_01. This is the conversation Frans will be using when you step into the Speak Trigger zone.
Click Add from the Conversation Toolbar (just above the Right Panel), and start typing your conversation.
If you have already "designed" your conversation using an external text editor (such as Microsoft Word), you may now "Copy & Paste" from that file into the conversation thread.
In the next tutorial, we are going to create the first dialog between Frans and the player.
Once Off Speak Trigger
There is one advantage for using a Speak Trigger. You can design two conversation for Frans: (1) the one time only Greeting (and use it with the Speak Trigger), and (2) a second conversation: Frans_02 as the default conversation.
Bear in mind that the Speak Trigger is a once-off trigger: it can only be used once.
Thus, once the player "finishes" the (Speak Trigger) conversation Frans_01, Frans will return to pacing his Way Points. The next time the Player approach Frans, Frans will default to conversation Frans_02, and will not use Frans_01 any more.
Continue to » First Dialog