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More dialogue screens

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
2 more screens. Comments are welcome. How are the wall/floor textures? Misc stuff? The models are work in progress, don't pay much attention yet.

Screen 1
Screen 2
 

Naked_Lunch

Erudite
Joined
Jan 29, 2005
Messages
5,360
Location
Norway, 1967
I think there's too much unused space, maybe you could put something under the window? Looking good, though. With some shadows or such put in, it would look very nice.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Torque doesn't handle indoor shadows very well, some workaround is required. The outdoor shadows are nice and very shadowy.

As for the space, we'll put some crap there. We need more space for longer NPC speeches though.
 

Selenti

Liturgist
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
223
Vault Dweller said:
2 more screens. Comments are welcome. How are the wall/floor textures? Misc stuff? The models are work in progress, don't pay much attention yet.

Screen 1
Screen 2

Hey, man, could you add some time-travelling crossbows? Oh, and they should be on a schedule, so you never know when they'll pop up and plug you.

Where'd the ace Pepsi bottle go?

On a more serious note, that actually looks pretty good. Definitely a strong improvement over what you had before. I might actually buy this if the trend continues!
 

Jora

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2003
Messages
1,115
Location
Finland
I can't think of anything negative about these. I love the kind of smart-ass dialogue options seen in Arcanum, Fallout, Bloodlines and Torment. Good to see you're implementing them too.
 

Pr()ZaC

Scholar
Joined
Sep 16, 2005
Messages
431
I liked them. Need a little AA or higher res but they're ok! :cool:
 

Psilon

Erudite
Joined
Feb 15, 2003
Messages
2,018
Location
Codex retirement
It's a little hard to distinguish punctuation against the background with the font you're using, though. The period is what? One pixel in size?

A dialogue scrollback buffer would still be nice, but otherwise things look great.
 

RGE

Liturgist
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
773
Location
Karlstad, Sweden
I agree with Psilon about the punctuation, and it also breaks the flow when Loremaster Feng doesn't contract "you are" to "you're" and such, but then he still says "House Daratan's business" instead of "the business of House Daratan". Makes it a bit difficult to get a good grasp on how he's actually supposed to talk. Does he need to speak slowly and deliberately so that he has time to come up with enough condescending insults? Other than that the dialogue kicks ass.

I think the textures look too light. If it's indoors everything should probably look a lot darker. I don't think that there's too much empty space though. It looks quite cluttered to me.

And skin colour on Feng is still too orange. (Hey, that wasn't much attention, was it?) ;)
 

NeutralMilkHotel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 14, 2004
Messages
389
At first glance I thought the textures/room seemed too bright. Looking at it for a little while more, I'm not too sure. Looks good in any case.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
I don't really care about adding quotations and replacing * lines with something else like "you show him the map" or "take a look at this map". That's cosmetic stuff. If most people here like it, we can change it - not a problem.

I don't like the "you demonstrate your knowledge of lore..." line though, that doesn't fit very well into the conversation flow. There are dialogue lines where you have to prove your knowledge and be specific (sorta like some Myron-related lines in FO2), but this is a short comment that leads to a more specific branch. Something like if you realize that a person shares your interests/background, you would indicate that you are familiar with the subject without trying to prove right away that you actually know what you are talking about. At least that's how I see it.
 

RGE

Liturgist
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
773
Location
Karlstad, Sweden
Major_Blackhart said:
Feng is obviously oriental, so his color is fine.
I thought orientals were yellow, not orange. I can't think of a single human skin colour which leans towards orange. Perhaps someone who eats an unhealthy amount of carrots? That'd also make them lose their hair I've been told, and Feng has no hair. Hm...! :roll:
 

Lancaster

Novice
Joined
Jun 22, 2005
Messages
27
The dialog lines are great. Can you explain each option, VD? Like what it leads to, what's the difference, etc? Thanks.
 

ichpokhudezh

Liturgist
Joined
Jul 9, 2004
Messages
179
Location
germantown, md
Vault Dweller said:
2 more screens. Comments are welcome. How are the wall/floor textures? Misc stuff? The models are work in progress, don't pay much attention yet.
The font is on borderline of usability. I bet on some LCDs out there punctuation would be smudged by interpolation. Why use serifed one at all in something that's supposed to be read (as opposed to 'glanced at')? I would vote for Verdana/Tahoma/Arial over any serifed (especially fragile/artsy ones) any day.
While I might understand stone walls, but what's the reason for the stone floor? It is going to be quite cold, you know, for a work area. Anyhow, grout looks too light for a high-traffic area, imo.
 

Hazelnut

Erudite
Joined
Dec 17, 2002
Messages
1,490
Location
UK
Sovy Kurosei said:
The textures for the table and bookshelf look pretty good, as well as with the floor. The only problem I have with is the dialogue. Asterisks just don't look right when it comes to having them in dialogue like that.

I'm wondering how it would look like if youchanged a few things and added quotations.

Another edit that replaces the short moron indicator with a longer one. ;)

Interesting ideas, but I think I prefer VD's originals.

VD:

They are awesome IMO. The only comment about the 3d view is that everything looks a little clean - almost like the scene was steam cleaned just before a photo or something. Shadows/darkness/dirt or a combination would help the realistic look somewhat.

Don't get me wrong here though - it's certainly not neccessary for the game. The graphics are fine as they are - indicating what everything is, where it is spatially and what actions are occuring... realism is just icing, and cake without icing I can do if it means I get it sooner!! ;)
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Lancaster said:
The dialog lines are great. Can you explain each option, VD? Like what it leads to, what's the difference, etc? Thanks.
Screen 1:

1. Get some info about the map - main quest related
2. If you have lore skills, you discuss certain map elements with the loremaster, and he gives you more info that opens a different direction.
3. This line works only if you are with a Noble House - different direction
4. You get this line if you joined the assassin guild and took the contract

Screen 2:

1. Kill the loremaster anyway, get to use the line from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", and get hunted pretty much like a dog until you die or get out of this town.
2. You get this line if you managed to meet the Lord and convince him to get rid of Feng. Then you can kill Feng without any consequences and get some bonus points with the assassins.

While Feng is tied to the main quest, you can safely kill him without breaking the quest.
 

Astromarine

Erudite
Joined
Jan 21, 2003
Messages
2,213
Location
Switzerland
Second the awesomeness. One thing though puzzles me a bit. You have a [lore] check on the like "A fellow loremaster? What a s!urprise", which would, I assume, indicate that you will do a skill check to decide the response to that line. I don't think there's too many ways one could respond to that, other than enthusiastically or skeptically. Either way, running a skill check on the *indication* of an interest is weird.

Pipe-dream: that line should check for your *reputation* as a loremaster (Feng would probably pass, being a loremaster himself), which would then lead to him accepting you as his equal (even if you aren't, and had the reputation from bluffing before) until proven otherwise, OR to him saying "LoreMASTER, eh? well, what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? " and generally require you to prove yourself to him. Much more dynamic
 

Spazmo

Erudite
Joined
Nov 9, 2002
Messages
5,752
Location
Monkey Island
A simpler alternative would be to have the line "A fellow loremaster? What a surprise!" from the PC, to which Feng responds with "Eh? What do you know about lore anyways?" Then the PC could go '[lore] You glance at a shield on the wall. "Well, I know that your shield there is a cheap copy of the original. Where'd you get that, Turania marketplace? Five gold, maybe?" '

Then again, tracking reputations does rule.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Astromarine said:
Second the awesomeness. One thing though puzzles me a bit. You have a [lore] check on the like "A fellow loremaster? What a s!urprise", which would, I assume, indicate that you will do a skill check to decide the response to that line. I don't think there's too many ways one could respond to that, other than enthusiastically or skeptically. Either way, running a skill check on the *indication* of an interest is weird.
The skill check is not to the response to that line, but to the line itself. If you don't know lore well enough, let's say it's less than 20, you won't get the line. Now, the loremaster would be skeptical, and it would take way more than 20 to finish that branch successfully. You would have to say something more than "Yay! I know lore too!" to convince him and that would be the line where a skill check would be applied to the response.

Pipe-dream: that line should check for your *reputation* as a loremaster (Feng would probably pass, being a loremaster himself), which would then lead to him accepting you as his equal
He won't. An equal is a threat. One of his quests is getting rid of another loremaster. He would respect a person who may have a good understanding of lore though. If you prove that you are as good as him, you are as good as dead.

OR to him saying "LoreMASTER, eh? well, what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? " and generally require you to prove yourself to him. Much more dynamic
That's pretty much what it is (see above). Each reply leads to something more complex than "Uh, ok, then", just like the assassin reply leads to another fork and a chance to handle it peacefully (eventually)
 

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