Wasteland 2

Little heads-up for any interested people not following the official sources: We might get an update on the dialogue system, soon. Many people are not too happy about the keyword mechanic and while I am fully supporting the more flexible keywords over a rigid dialogue tree, I agree that details on dialogue have so far been communicated a little poorly from the side of inXile. So let's hope the next article will clear things up a bit.

edited 15th Feb '13 10:53:11 AM by TAPETRVE

I have no problem with keyboards. Ultima IV anyone?

Only that Ultima IV had hardly any actual dialogue at all. Communication consisted mostly of asking for information.

For anyone interested: Here's a native 1080p version of the alpha video.

I'm not too distressed about the keywords. inXile asked fans on their forum if they'd be okay with keywords, and being that the majority of forum goers are fans of the original Wasteland they were obviously okay with it.

I think the best way to handle keywords would be to allow the player to be creative with them.

So, for example, if a keyword is "Dog," you can put any words around "Dog," to form an actual dialogue sentence, so long as those words aren't also keywords.

Just because typing in keywords is so... not interesting.

You don't type in anything. Just click on them.

The only keywords I need are Name, Job, Bye.

It's both. You can click on the available keywords or enter your own keywords if you want.

The original Fallout had a similar system. There was some information, though none plot important(?), that you could only access via input.

For some reason that Dialogue thing reminds me a bit of Morrowind (didn't play it for a long while though)

We'll most probably end up with keywords and action modifiers. There definitely will not be fully-written multiple choice dialogue like there was in Fallout, but it'll get a lot deeper than just clicking through bullet points.

Are you talking all Fallout, or just 3 and NV? One and two feel like they hit the same balance, and the same approach as, that this game is going for.

Actually, I'm strictly ruling out Fallout 3 and New Vegas .

Seriously, though: Wasteland 2 will work a bit differently. As of now, you simply have two lists of keywords, local (quest-related) and global ones, plus a parser. Each keyword represents a subject you want to talk about. Depending on parameters like stats, traits and passive skills, the dialogue partner will approach you differently. I strongly assume that additionally there will be skill-based modifiers that allow you to intimidate, coax, plead, lie etc., allowing you to follow an actual dialogue tree without having to resort to prefab responses.

@Nicknacks: The thing about the keyword system in Fallout 1 was that it was completely superfluous. So much so that some editions and patches completely removed it.

I'll be honest, I didn't even notice Fallout had a parser the first few times I ran through it.

Yes, you can make each of your characters from scratch!

Yeah, the feature whas completely useless. Not sure what to feel about it's return, but eh, maybe it can work.

edited 19th Feb '13 4:51:46 AM by eternalNoob

Actually, it's supposed to be pretty crucial to the game.

...and here's the next update with details about the camera, HUD and - most importantly - the dialogue system.

Meow? Huh?

edited 22nd Feb '13 9:27:25 PM by Nicknacks

I'm not sure if that was a joke or a very amusing typo.

I loved how many options there were to that dialogue with 'Bob'. If that's how open-ended the game is as a whole it'll be amazing.

Meow. As in Super Troopers.

edited 23rd Feb '13 6:54:53 AM by TAPETRVE

"TO TITAN!"◊

I wish there was an option to embed pictures...

Augh, and I had just got done replacing all my backgrounds with stuff from Torment Numanera. What the Christ do I do now, replace all my avatars?!