Planeshift Creators should checkout Facade

[DameonGrey]

I know I looked at this a while ago, but I just rediscovered Planeshift yesterday, and this time it worked for me (meaning, I wasn't stupid this time XD)

I was interested to find out in the tutorial how to converse with other characters in the game, namely the NPC's.

It reminded me of another game I've played as an assignment requirement. It was called Facade. A free download.

I hope it's ok that I link to this site, http://www.interactivestory.net/

It's an AI based game, it's extremely short, and has no real combat or goal or much interacting for that matter. What they focus on is the interaction between characters based in conversation. It is pretty amazing. When they don't understand you which they usually do amazingly enough, they pass it off as not wanting to discuss it or mumbling something and bringing up a new topic. They do this instead of "I'm sorry I don't quite understand you. Would you mind rephrasing that?"

As in they say, "Uhh, well we're trying to avoid that for tonight." or something. "Um... Hey! Come over here and look at this painting."

You can even get into some awkwardly inappropriate conversations and risk the head of the household kicking you out as punishment.

I think it would be useful for the dialog developers to take a look at, maybe give them some ideas, if this is where they're headed with the dialog in Planeshift.

I am getting a little lost in the dialog, I'm having trouble with talking to the NPC's, but that's the best part about being ADD and easily entertained and having plenty of homework to procrastinate. XD It's not to hard to let one thing go and search for something else to do.

[Prolix]

Have a look in the newbie forum, if you can mange to sit through it there is a lot of useful information.

[DameonGrey]

Well it wasn't as much a cry for help as it was simply a "Hey, this is awesome too. Check it out!"

I love the way PS is headed, this game, Facade, is scary it's so accurate, If they manage to make PS like this, It'll be huge.

You should totally check out Facade, it's a very small free download, and it's won a few awards. I'm betting they're headed in a similar direction, can you imagine how amazing it'll be?

But when I say scary, I mean it, I was SO not used to game dialog like this, where you don't have a number of response options to choose from, or you have a pre-chosen response. Facade is scary because it truly is AI, it's like REAL conversation but with NPC's!

Ok I'll stop ^w^ I'm waiting for my nyquil to kick in ^w^ ~yawns~

[Lanarel]

I only watched the you tube trailer. It looks really smooth, but I think this is just the game manipulating you . It does not say 'I do not understand you" but just pushses you in the right direction.Good example:
Trip: Describe this painting in one word
You: ummm, ravioli?
Trip: No! Romance!

Translate this to planeshift quests:
NPC: WHat is the answer to my question?
You: 5?
NPC: NO! It's yellow!
You: Ah, thanks, that is much easier than the old way of doing conversation with you guys.

I am sure they are doing a lot of other smart things to make it feel much more realistic than it is now in Planeshift, but going too much in that direction will not make solving quests more fun

[Jeraphon]

I've played Facade. It's coded cleverly, but by no means is it smart. Most of their responses are coded to single words like "finance" or "lifestyle" or "angry." Apparently you get the best ending if you ask them about themselves and say "why" a lot. Trying to solve and asking them about their feelings will break them up. Try to deviate and they ignore you and push you forward, or the game ends. The reason the game takes up so much space is not because of the parser, but from the voice acting and the facial expressions.

It's overhyped, in my humble opinion.

[DameonGrey]

Coding or not, I still think it's brilliant. I've never seen something where you don't already have a few preset responses that the game will know how to respond to. Or a pre-recorded scene. It obviously has to understand to some extent what you're trying to get at in the conversation. You have to admit.

And I like that PS is doing that, I think it's the right direction. I know they have other things to work on, but they have plenty of time right?

This wasn't really, "It'll make the quests easier" although I won't say that wasn't on my mind at all when posting this thread,  I simply think it'll be something to look forward to. If it were developed to the same level as Facade... oh goodness >w< We're gonna have some fun with those NPC's XD


ok it's late @_@

[Under the moon]

We can do much of that in PlaneShift already. That game uses a simple NLP based on single words and combinations. Likely based on a binary table. We can achieve a very similar effect for shorter sentences, though it is a lot of work. Longer sentences are impossible for the NPCs to understand if the meaningful words are at the end (more than four registered words in). So far, we have been devoting a lot more time to making quests and giving out information than common conversation.