[Adonthell-general] Re: dialog design

[Andrew Phillips]

For anyone else who wants to use or check out what I'll be using:
Nils used Graphviz - an open-souced CPL-licensed product of Bell Labs
(I think it's bell labs)
http://www.graphviz.org/Download..php

On 4/25/05, Andrew Phillips <address@hidden> wrote:
> Mein freunden,
> 
> While out on the road today, I tried to spend a fair amount of time
> thinking about the dialog writing process - who talks to who, etc. I
> was talking into a voice recorder at the time, so I will summarize
> here.
> 
> I think I made some progress on that front, though I still need to
> make some kind of relationship map of the characters, so we will know
> which characters are likely to have information or strongly held
> opinions about other characters. I think I will try to use the same
> software you used to create that node mapping of the plot.
> 
> I think it might help to make three such maps - one for each of the
> conversation intensive areas of the game map - Waste's Edge and
> Uz'dunkal - as well as a third summary map that takes in the other
> less populous areas of the game map.
> 
> As we design, document, and build the dialog tree, I suggest keeping
> track of quests impacted by a given node, as well as other characters.
> Some of this might easily be accomplished by adding information to the
> plot document.
> 
> Something else I thought about was the matter of displaying names over
> the npc sprites. Most games seem to just give the names of npcs away.
> It's a good clue to players when they are trying to determine which
> npcs to talk to - particularly in crowded areas (the Hive in
> Planescape: Torment) - but at the same time, they leave open the
> question of -how- the player characters know npcs they've never seen
> before. Does it seem better to have the player "learn" npcs as he or
> she hears about them, or just give that information away?
> 
> Andrew
> 
> On 4/25/05, Kai Sterker <address@hidden> wrote:
> > On 4/24/05, Kai Sterker <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> > > Okay, lets try it today, 20:00 GMT (22:00 MEST), irc.freenode.net,
> > > #adonthell . Everybody welcome :-)
> >
> > First of all, thanks to all who could make it. For those who couldn't
> > come, here's a brief summary:
> >
> > me talking on the phone from 20:00 to 21:00 GMT - so no discussion due
> > to the lack of other developers. Apologies again, folks!
> >
> > In the remaining hour or so we talked a little about Wikis, with the
> > result that the best way to set one up would be to register a project
> > at berlios [1]. It would be possible to run a Wiki on sf.net too, but
> > I doubt that any of us is eager to reactivate our account [2] there.
> > Unfortunately, running a Wiki on Savannah seems to be out of question.
> > It might be possible to do so at linuxgames.com, but there we have the
> > problem with advertising so I thing berlios is the best alternative we
> > have.
> >
> > Chances are good that I will be available for another meeting next
> > friday and sunday, so maybe we can continue discussion then. Please
> > let when know when it suits you best!
> >
> > I will try to setup the Wiki until then, so perhaps we can then
> > collectively populate it with current documentation or the propsed NPC
> > dialogue list. Anyone interested in writing some code for Adonthell
> > (or doing artwork, etc.) is welcome as are any fans. Would be cool if
> > there would be once again more fans than developers (although I also
> > hope that next time there will be some developers other than me!).
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Kai
> >
> > [1] http://developer.berlios.de/
> > [2] http://sf.net/projects/adonthell/
> >
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> >
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