A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a game called Betrayal at Krondor. Why do I mention this age-old title here? Because it also used the keyword-based conversations system, and had a nifty little feature you might want to include in Planeshift: When you talked to the NPCs, if you typed something that got a response, it would remember that phrase and store it in a box on the screen, where you could click on it to use it again. I understand the HD space implications of putting something like that into Planeshift as is, but here is an idea you might consider:
(My ideas is to make it so that...) when a character clicks on an NPC and says Hello, the UI opens an NPC chat window on the screen. This window contains, listed along the right, a list of useful phrases, such as \"Goodbye\" on the bottom (But, obviously, not Hello), as well as some suggested phrases to respond to what the NPC has said and, if aplicable, some conditional phrases based on the Player\'s current Quest status. Then, in the middle, it would have a pop-up menu with the Buy/Sell and Give (and possibly steal) section, if the character knows it is a merchant. (In other words, if the NPC doesn\'t say he is a merchant, then it does not list the option! The player must find out himself!) This would allow for secret merchants and the like. Also, it would mean that, as a reward for a Quest, a character could be given access to a \"Special Shop\".
I believe that something like this would greatly reduce confusion, and (in general) smooth some of the bumps of Gameplay.
