talking to npcs

[algunar]

i know you can already talk to npcs and stuff, choose an option and they say somethin else. but do you think it would be nice, or better for role playing, if we could actually talk to npcs, like we do to other players. it could be just like talking to bots. you say "hi molgor", he replies "hi algunar". or you could pm them (i wasnt thinkin that storage npcs would be part of this by the way)obviously there should be more than just "hi" cos thats just boring. maybe some more options like:

-"whats in stock"

-"how are you?"

but im not really very good at thinking up things like this. i also thought that maybe this could be used in quests. so you talk to an npc, they say "go and tell molgor this password and he will give you your reward". then you gotta do the obvious, but talk to him just like he's a player.

so would it be an interesting addition or a load of old poo?

[Roja]

Would be neat but i dont know if it's possible.

[Learner]

i know you can already talk to npcs and stuff, choose an option and they say somethin else. but do you think it would be nice, or better for role playing, if we could actually talk to npcs, like we do to other players. it could be just like talking to bots. you say "hi molgor", he replies "hi algunar". or you could pm them (i wasnt thinkin that storage npcs would be part of this by the way)obviously there should be more than just "hi" cos thats just boring. maybe some more options like:

-"whats in stock"

-"how are you?"

but im not really very good at thinking up things like this. i also thought that maybe this could be used in quests. so you talk to an npc, they say "go and tell molgor this password and he will give you your reward". then you gotta do the obvious, but talk to him just like he's a player.

so would it be an interesting addition or a load of old poo?

That would be closer to some of the high quality text adventure games for the parsing needed to make it good at all. But, it wouldn't be worth the effort because we have people that dont speak very good english and the amount of work needed to make it multi lingual would be much higher.

[Arnieman]

That would be closer to some of the high quality text adventure games for the parsing needed to make it good at all. But, it wouldn't be worth the effort because we have people that dont speak very good english and the amount of work needed to make it multi lingual would be much higher.

Obviously, some people's English skills can be lacking at times.

 

In all seriousness, I thought we already had the presumption for all official channels, like 1, 3, 4, etc., that people should have some sort of a grasp of the English language - why not extend this to this idea, and only program for English? Or, you could even have a few NPCs that only speak in another language?

 

Intriguing idea, but I'm kinda unsure what really this would add to the game.

[Learner]

That would be closer to some of the high quality text adventure games for the parsing needed to make it good at all. But, it wouldn't be worth the effort because we have people that dont speak very good english and the amount of work needed to make it multi lingual would be much higher.

Obviously, some people's English skills can be lacking at times.

 

In all seriousness, I thought we already had the presumption for all official channels, like 1, 3, 4, etc., that people should have some sort of a grasp of the English language - why not extend this to this idea, and only program for English? Or, you could even have a few NPCs that only speak in another language?

 

Intriguing idea, but I'm kinda unsure what really this would add to the game.

People can understand a wider range of 'English' grammer and spelling then the computer can can handle easily. We also have many non-english speaking players that don't use the main channels either.

[Arnieman]

People can understand a wider range of 'English' grammer and spelling then the computer can can handle easily. We also have many non-english speaking players that don't use the main channels either.

True - it would have to be limited what responses the NPCs would take/give (noting that humans are more flexible than programs). As an example, it might be programmed to respond to "hi" or "hello" but not "hey".

 

Again, I know about other players that don't use the main channels, and they also don't speak English (or have limited comprehension in English), but, I was saying, since more official stuff seems to happen in English, use that standard for any speech the NPCs do - or, for some NPCs, have them use another language (Polish seems to be big - I am nearly constantly hearing it in some spots) - or, if there is a volunteer who wants to, provide some limited phrases in other languages... by no means does it need to be much more than a few lines of greeting, and maybe a few of farewell.

 

Such an idea might encourage people actually to talk to NPCs, then again, it may make some high-travel NPCs more "spammy" near them. And, also, that's what we have the dialogue boxes for... If anything, this idea only seems like "polishing" to me, and wouldn't really have much impact for the gameplay.

Edited February 19, 2006 by Arnieman

[RolandR1]

very hard to make a response to everything

[Tanyia]

very hard to make a response to everything

 

I used to have very entertaining conversations with Wandering_Fool, so it is possible, at least to a minor extent, even if saying something which the NPC doesn't completely understand produces a nonsense response, or a change of subject. It seems like it would be an entertaining bonus to the game if there's time/desire to do it, but not absolutely needed.

Edited February 19, 2006 by Tanyia

[RolandR1]

very hard to make a response to everything

 

I used to have very entertaining conversations with Wandering_Fool, so it is possible, at least to a minor extent, even if a saying something which the NPC doesn't completely understand produces a nonsense response, or a change of subject. It seems like it would be an entertaining bonus to the game if there's time/desire to do it, but not absolutely needed.

yeah i was thinking about that too... how did Bongo program all that...