Greeting NPC's to start conversation

[Ralleyon]

This was in-game not long ago, but removed due to some problems.

I'd rather not go into that discussion again, but the feature it provided was very interesting and I feel it would deserve a resurrection.

Why?

It would help with immersiveness as well as improve the way we "speak" to the NPC's. Basically, it feels more natural.


How?

* "Hello NPC_name" (full or short) triggers discussion with an NPC if in his/her range. Does not necessarily require facing the NPC. Does not get triggered when using the name of the NPC out of context.

* "/greet [NPC]" also triggers a discussion

* "Goodbye NPC_name" (full or short) triggers the end of the dialogue. It can also end if the discussion has been idle for more than a reasonable time (1, 2 minutes?). End of discussion can also be triggered by shift of focus from the chat tab of course, just as it happens now.

* The old way of talking to an NPC, via the select & talk way should still be valid as an alternative.

[Mordraugion]

I like this idea and offer a couple of further suggestions

it could help immersiveness if the npc could randomly initiate conversations with players inside a certain range.

maybe just a generic "Hi how are you" or even quest initiation and type of convo could depend on the players faction ratings

[bilbous]

It would be even better if they swear at people they don't like when they see them coming so that these people could get all upset and kill the swearing npcs for the insult.

[Ralleyon]

It would be even better if they swear at people they don't like when they see them coming so that these people could get all upset and kill the swearing npcs for the insult.

That would be hillarious indeed, but I don't see it happening though.

I like this idea and offer a couple of further suggestions

it could help immersiveness if the npc could randomly initiate conversations with players inside a certain range.

maybe just a generic "Hi how are you" or even quest initiation and type of convo could depend on the players faction ratings

That my friend is already implemented! In the cvs NPC's do generate random speech and talk to you like that, the only problem is they don't stop and continue to rant on and on... I like your idea very much and tweaking the existing code to include this feature would be awesome.