Greetings.

OOC:

The biggest thing for me to overcome was the sad fact that it took me an hour to get out of the Tuturial Zone. I had boggled that area so bad, I had to roll another character (not because of losing the Ore item). Apparently, because I had not updated my client since Juvember, I had to re-roll. I thought there was something outside the castle, as well, so I adventured out the castle by climbing a small hill and jumping onto the wall. But, this isn't about my zany adventure in Noobland...

NPCs that are downline of the main NPC (chained quests) they give small clues concerning your inability to interact with them.  If you have the magicial word or phrase, most NPCs with bestow gifts upon you. My whole problem with giving NPCs AI is that they tend to confuse one meaning with another. So, we don't want the NPC to hand you the Sword of a Thousand Truths because you /me sneezed at the NPC.

Ten words to live on is more than enough to get an NPC chatting in the right direction. I find that the 'wrong phrase' will trigger a ton of verbage that is very helpful, but a bit too much. Limiting the responses to no more than three sentences is keeping pace with today's gamers. I admit to being a skim reader, so I am particularly annoyed with redundancy and excess wording (unlike my reply ).

Once you get the NPC's to respond to what is expected (Triggers), perhaps another list of 20 words might be useful in steering the unassuming questor in the right direction. I give an example of this below:

NPC: Actor 1000: Welcome to the Potion Emporium. How Can I assist you today? (Note: 2 sentences)

PLAYER: Hi. I'm looking for the Golden Key of Lost Light. (triggers: Hi (not wanted here), Golden (good trigger), Key (good trigger), Lost Light (KEY PHRASE)

NPC: Actor 1000: The Lost Light Key is hidden in the trunk at Smithy's House. Please hand this note to Smithy to proceed. Do you need any Potions Today? (3 lines)

PLAYER: Who cares about potions, I don't? (Steering Trigger: Potions)

NPC: Actor 1000: To Buy Potions or to sell items please right-click me and choose the Trade Option.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 A worse scenario...

Player: Hi. (trigger)

NPC: Hi. My name is Abelia. Welcome to the Tutorial! Before you continue your travel to the mainland, I must be sure you are ready to go.
NPC: To my left is a Blacksmith named Neave. She is expert in teaching newcomers the art of Smithing. Please tell her, I sent you.
Player: Thank you.
NPC: You are welcome. Please see me if you need my help later. I will be here waiting on you.

(Player begins dialog with the Smithy, Neave...)

Player: Hi
NPC: Welcome weary traveller. How can I help you today?
Player: Abelia sent me. (Trigger: Abelia)

(Same interaction, different verbage...)

Player: Abelia
NPC: Yes, I know Abelia. She is over there, behind you. Have you met her yet?
Player: Yes
NPC: Good the she sent you to see me, right?
Player: yes
NPC: Good. Lets get started on the next part of your tutorial training. I will teach you how to Smith.

My point here is that every player isn't going to have the right phrase, but can be steered if other facts are true. In the examples, the NPC steered the Player because the character had already met Abelia and completed a quest. Given that 'true', it was simple to let the NPC steer without giving away secrets to passerbys or the character itself.

Anyhow...that's a step back from where you are heading, I know. It was just fustrating to have to be too specific in order to get the NPC to move the dialog forward. I spent way too much time finding the word 'ready' but to my surpise, I took less time to find the word that began with the letter 'R'.

Thanks for the time spent...

Taaka