Quest, NPC's...and foreign langages

[Khutin]

Yep, I also observed it.

This \"exact phrase\" problem sometimes makes me nervous. I started the quest yesterday, but I couldn\'t finish it yet because of the stupid \"exact phrase\".  X(

[tygerwilde]

I like the concept, but not the implementation. I remember, we used to have someone on SW:G forums that was building a chatbot, it took him a couple of hours a day of work, but in the end, it could outtalk a lot of humans on the boards.


I could see something like that working for PS, but it would take a lot of effort, seeing as every npc would need someone to design thier chat interface...

[Khutin]

According to what I have already read here in some topic, the development team is already using some AI algorithm with the NPCs.

Maybe this algorithm offers some flexibility about, let\'s say, \'recognition degrees\'. Something like \'I\'ll recognize till certain point, not beyond it\'. Considering this fact, players should talk in a natural way with NPCs, and they\'d recognize the sentences meanings. However, if the player types something too complex or far from one of the expected meanings, then the algorithm wouldn\'t recognize it at all.

I think it\'s possible, but I don\'t know how much effort they\'d need to put working.

[tygerwilde]

man, I tried a lot of different sentances on them, everything from asking them about the weather to the color of the sky, I only managed to coax an answer out of one of them... I don\'t even remember what it was now though...

[Kathmor]

Yea, same here. The only thing I know they respond to is \"hello\". I read the npc guide and tried the suggestions in it but even they didn\'t work. I think the real quest is getting an npc to understand you.

[lostprophet]

A lot of the time, when you say \"how are you\", or \"tell me about you\", they\'ll mention a person or place, which you can then enquire about by saying \"tell me about...\", for example. Almost every npc responds to \"tell me about Laanx\" with the same response, if you want to practise, and the Kran guy standing near the library has a surprising amount to say compared to the other npc\'s (ask him about Jayose).

[Khutin]

Well, in my opinion the AI algorithm needs tons of setup, indeed. In future versions they should optimize it (at least, I hope! ), but now it\'s far from good.

[tygerwilde]

so we\'re NOT supposed to speak naturally, we\'re supposed to talk like in the old pre-mouse sierra games huh?

[Khutin]

Well, I\'m suposing there is an AI algorithm behind the NPCs, but I don\'t think it\'s that much...

It tends to improve, as since players are complaining a lot about it. Let\'s wait for CB and see if it\'ll get optimized.

[hook]

i don\'t know if any of you remember, but the devs said that the AI system records every single for every NPC in PS what sentances it was told ...so they can analize which sentances are more natural to use

[Khutin]

I think this is one of the best ways to optimize the interaction with NPCs. If there\'s a log of what is said to the NPCs, surely it can be used to calibrate the algorithm.