35 réponses à ce sujet

[dunniteowl]

You could always hook up the FXE editor and run them all through that for creating lip synched files.

Just a thought.

dunniteowl

[Eguintir Eligard]

Thieves, from what I've seen in recent releases and beta tests more people (myself at the forefront) are avoiding all zoomed-style cut scenes unless it is a very major conversation and using moving lips when so. I actually do have voice overs, but even most of them are just 1 line in a NWN1 style dialogue box just to feed you the characters mood and personality a bit.

I have to say the early modders style of setting every single little talk with anything from a 1 line barmaid to companion chit chat in zoomed in, letter-boxed silent googly-eyed close ups was hard to take. Totally ruined the effect of using the cut-scene feature as well. The modders now are quite good at being responsive, and take annoyances out based on at least perceived opinion, and I've heard this opined a lot.

Modifié par Eguintir Eligard, 12 août 2010 - 01:58 .

[kamalpoe]

Eguintir Eligard wrote...

Thieves, from what I've seen in recent releases and beta tests more people (myself at the forefront) are avoiding all zoomed-style cut scenes unless it is a very major conversation and using moving lips when so. I actually do have voice overs, but even most of them are just 1 line in a NWN1 style dialogue box just to feed you the characters mood and personality a bit.

I have to say the early modders style of setting every single little talk with anything from a 1 line barmaid to companion chit chat in zoomed in, letter-boxed silent googly-eyed close ups was hard to take. Totally ruined the effect of using the cut-scene feature as well. The modders now are quite good at being responsive, and take annoyances out based on at least perceived opinion, and I've heard this opined a lot.

I'm purposefully messing with that standard (and it is a good standard) some to hide what and who is important at times. Important people always getting cinematic talks and unimportant people always getting NWN1 style gives the player clues you may not want them to have in a mystery plot. Intentional confusion to increase the mystery to the player!    Though I suppose I can change it if people hate it.

[Kaldor Silverwand]

I've played around with having all the npcs named "citizen" and only showing their true names once you have talked with them. This seems more realistic to me. However, it would also lead to the player having to click on every npc in the game just to find the important ones, which would would scale irritation with the number of npcs. This is another way though to prevent the game from giving away too much too easily.



Regards

[Gilradthegreat]

Actually, that sounds like a really cool idea. But perhaps instead of 'citizen', you could just give a generic glance-level description, like "red shirt-wearing decrepit old man" or "high-ranking guardsman". Sounds like a great way to make fetch questing a bit more interactive ("George? He works down at the docks. You will usually see him ordering around the unloaders").

[kamalpoe]

Almraiven for NWN1 did the "citizen" bit iirc.

[MokahTGS]

The idea of setting the names of the NPCs via conversation was done standard in Ultima games.  This can be done in NWN2 via the setname function.  I actually did it in an unreleased gypsy prefab I made for Realms of Ultima.  I think it's a question of bang for buck and what you are really going for however.

Personally I like the companions interjecting in conversation, or via triggers, BUT this option can cause major game killing bugs if the builder is not careful.  The NWN2 OC suffered from this in several places.  I believe it took me 4 tries to actually finish the OC due to these bugs.

[Eguintir Eligard]

Kamal no where did I say every important PC is cut scene and commoners are not. I said I avoid nwn2 style cut scenes ENTIRELY except when necessary. To break it right down, I only use them in a dream sequence, the intro and the finale.

There are numerous (make that, ALL) "plot" npcs including all companions who are NWN1 style. Saved a lot of work, including several scenes where I was actually going for a cinematic zoom in, and surprised myself in finding that it works just as well from a zoomed out overhead shot (yes its technically nwn2 style, but its far and overhead, erego not a zoom in)

I estimate Islander would still be in production till xmas if I hadn't made this choice, as the animations and lips/sounds that go with it.

Modifié par Eguintir Eligard, 12 août 2010 - 10:26 .

[Shaun the Crazy One]

Eguintir Eligard wrote...

Thieves, from what I've seen in recent releases and beta tests more people (myself at the forefront) are avoiding all zoomed-style cut scenes unless it is a very major conversation and using moving lips when so. I actually do have voice overs, but even most of them are just 1 line in a NWN1 style dialogue box just to feed you the characters mood and personality a bit.

I have to say the early modders style of setting every single little talk with anything from a 1 line barmaid to companion chit chat in zoomed in, letter-boxed silent googly-eyed close ups was hard to take. Totally ruined the effect of using the cut-scene feature as well. The modders now are quite good at being responsive, and take annoyances out based on at least perceived opinion, and I've heard this opined a lot.

I tend to agree with Eguintir on this.  My typical rule of thumb is to always use NWN1 style conversations unless the conversation is fully voiced.  I also like using one-liners and speak strings whenever possible, but again that's just personal opinion.

Getting back to the origenal topic though, I don't think it's necessary for Companions to have PC executed conversations.  Better to have companions chime in at set points in the game.  If you do create PC executed conversations, I'd make it based off journal state so that the conversation coincides with the issue at hand.

Kaldor Silverwand wrote...

I've played around with having
all the npcs named "citizen" and only showing their true names once you
have talked with them. This seems more realistic to me. However, it
would also lead to the player having to click on every npc in the game
just to find the important ones, which would would scale irritation with
the number of npcs. This is another way though to prevent the game from
giving away too much too easily.

Regards

That's a great idea.  The issue of forcing the player having to click on every npc in the game could perhaps be resolved by naming important important plot critical NPC as normal.  Particularly for later in the game when new NPCs show up in town.  Either way seem like a really cool game mechanic.

[dunniteowl]

As regards the "citizen" NPC anonymity. I like it. I also liked the suggestion about describing the people by what they wear and how they look. This would solve a lot of issues of naming (until you speak to someone and get a state change) and would require the player to be a bit more observant. It would also require the builder be a bit more conspicuous in how they 'garb' their speaking NPCs, which could spiral out of control, too, if over-obvious. Still, these are good examples of ways to throw off the 'pattern recognition' of how to 'spot' plot related, one liner and very important NPCs, which, IMO, is always a pretty good thing. Keep a player guessing, but not to the point of quitting in disgust. Always something of a balancing act.

dunniteowl

[Eguintir Eligard]

names of the dinner guests in my campaign's tavern:



a pampered dandy

a youthful grandma

an old crank

a suave gentleman

a fancy woman