Advices on dialogues, NPCs' interaction, and some minor stuff.

[Mr. Detective]

Hi guys,

I sorta have some trouble with setting up NPCs in my game. Well, let's get straight to the point:

1. How many NPCs should there be in a medium sized map?

2. What kind of dialogues should I give NPCs who work in a police station, hospital, and TV station? I managed to do quite a few, but I am running out of ideas.

3. I intened to let players be able to talk to all NPCs (they all have their own names and faceset), but this is quite a headache. I need quite a lot of NPCs in the train station, hospital hallway, and the food court. Is it okay if I just put filler NPCs there, ones that the players can't interact with? Since writing dialogues for that many NPCs is really overkill.

By the way, would someone who is good at writing be kind enough to create a thread where people can post their dialogues for help with revision? Well, that's it for. I might have forgotten something, but I'll be sure to ask again later.

 

[AcosmicDevi]

There are no rules that say NPCs have to all be friendly. You can have some who tell the player to go away or just walk away if the player approaches them. Another option is to put NPCs in places that are not accessible, like far behind a counter.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

1) Depends on the map, I won't really expect an NPC if it's a secluded Cave map for example


2) Everyday life stuff? recent news?


3) If most are interactible, players will assume everyone is

 

[ThatMaestroGuy]

By the way, would someone who is good at writing be kind enough to create a thread where people can post their dialogues for help with revision? Well, that's it for. I might have forgotten something, but I'll be sure to ask again later.

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/22987-writing-with-humor-and-such/

Well, granted, that's for a paid-services kinda thing, but I don't mind handing out a few freebies. A-a-and sorry if that looks like shameless advertising. It's not MEANT to look like shameless advertising! Really! But y-you asked for a thread where people could ask for dialogue revisions and stuff which that thread does mention it does. Sorry if it seems like shameless advertising...it really isn't!!! DDDD:

 

[Diretooth]

I don't think it's shameless advertising. You're simply offering your services.

Anyway, giving people dialogue depends heavily on the area. But, generally, some people will talk about work, others will talk about non-work related things, others will reminisce about their younger days, some will want to play games with the hero, some will be in love, et cetera. Ultimately, it is what the person's personality dictates. A funny, crazy looking person isn't going to blab on and on about fishing and farming, they're probably going to claim they're the Great Dragon God of the Kingdom, or maybe even talk about how the potatoes are watching them. (Which can serve as a small pun if you're knowledgeable about potatoes.)

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Go do some people watching. Good dialogue is realistic dialogue. Be a little nosy and listen in on how people interact with one another. Sure! That sounds a little creepy, but a lot of writers take experiences from their real lives and incorporate them to their text.


How many NPCs should depend on the area, like those above me said. Think about the population of the town/city/etc and what sort of people are needed for the place to function. Start with those NPCs and then build families around them.


Like a small town for example. Say you want to have an inn and a shop in this town. The town needs some way to harvest food so you decide to also have a hunter and a fisherman living there who sell their wares around town. Next, give those core people families. Sprinkle one or two extras (still, try to give them a purpose for being there) and you've got a nice little small town. That's the sort of logic I use to decide how many NPCs I am needing to design for a location in my game anyway.


As for having NPCs you can't talk to - If I can stand next to them and press the action key and nothing comes up, I'm ticked off. That's personal preference; I have seen this done in professional games before. It's worse when there's no easy way to tell who you can and who you can't talk to. If you do decide to go this route, make sure that is easily identifiable! Having NPCs you can see and can't reach is fine though. Maybe you have a desk in your police station and have a few cops sitting behind the desk where you can't talk to them - that adds realism, adds NPCs, but doesn't make you have to write more dialogue.


Though, if you are going to have a very large town with lots of NPCs who have -no- involvement to the plot or sidequests, then I would actually suggest against giving everyone their own faceset and name. The player isn't going to be bothered to memorize the name of every single person standing in the supermarket. "Man" or "Woman with Bag" or "Handsome Boy" or things like that works just as well, saves you some time, and doesn't overload the player with a ton of names that they don't care about.


A thing I see in games with some NPCs that I really like is not having all of the NPCs talk directly to the player. Maybe their are two NPCs talking to each other and when you talk to either one you actually hear their conversation with one another and they don't stop to acknowledge you. Or you try to talk to someone while they are shopping and they just mutter their grocery list off in their head. I think it's important to remember that not every NPC has to interact with the player--they have their own lives and they can just continue interacting with their own agendas and ignore that pestering hero.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

also, you can really do away with not naming everyone... just name those that are important...


you can also opt to use Yanfly's Gab script for the non-important talks...

 

[Mr. Detective]

Uhm... I should have added that the game is a fan game. It features all the characters from other anime series as supporting NPCs, so they all have names and faceset. So, going the "random name and no faceset" route isn't going to work.

As for having NPCs you can't talk to - If I can stand next to them and press the action key and nothing comes up, I'm ticked off. That's personal preference; I have seen this done in professional games before. It's worse when there's no easy way to tell who you can and who you can't talk to. If you do decide to go this route, make sure that is easily identifiable! Having NPCs you can see and can't reach is fine though. Maybe you have a desk in your police station and have a few cops sitting behind the desk where you can't talk to them - that adds realism, adds NPCs, but doesn't make you have to write more dialogue.

There is no NPC that you can't interact with. I am thinking that, for the NPCs that the players can't talk to, I will put a silence balloon icon above them. This means the NPC just want to be left alone. Tales Of Xillia does this, except that it's the other way around. Would this work?

I did read all of your posts, guys.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

There is no NPC that you can't interact with. I am thinking that, for the NPCs that the players can't talk to, I will put a silence balloon icon above them. This means the NPC just want to be left alone. Tales Of Xillia does this, except that it's the other way around. Would this work?

That's an interesting idea. Sounds like it would work! It shows the player they can't talk to the person, so they don't have to hodgepodge guess who they can and can't interact with. Which is really key in that sort of setup.


And! Yeah, if all the NPCs are cameos and such then it won't be so much information overload to the players, because chances are they'll already be familiar with the NPCs in question. So naming them all in that instance shouldn't be a problem. :>

 

[Diretooth]

Given that this is a fan game, you're probably going to want to observe the characters and understand their personalities really well to create good dialogue.