[Scott]

Cyclopean Dialogue Adventures -- from the little team that keeps on giving, Team Omega!

What is it?
Using a small Flash app authored in the Outer Void, Cyclopean Dialogue Adventures previews in game interactive dialogue for Cyclopean fans to peruse.

How does it work?
The application requires Flash Shockwave Player, a freely downloadable plug-in you probably already have.  If it does not open in one click, try to Open With Firefox, or other (uncool) browser of your choice.

Bug reporting
If you think there is an error in the dialogue, or in the result of a choice you have made, please note the slide number, which appears at the top left of the screen.  Usually, the format is something like 'npc9_1'.

What won't be changed
Right now, player responses do not remain on screen alongside NPC responses.  This may be counter-intuitive to the RPG veteran, but if you pay attention to your choices it shouldn't be too confusing.

This first CDA is an introductory conversation and quest assignment from Agent Wrenwood.  It does not feature an amazing array of character Background/Skill/Trait checks, just the ones I thought made sense for the situation.

Comments welcome.

[MountainWest]

Heh, that's pretty neat. I tested it a couple of times and the only things that struck me as odd where:

At "npc 1 4" you have "grape vine" when it should be grapevine, no?

At "npc 2 1" you get the option to blurt out "What?", which I find not only vague in a what-what-way, but also uncivilized. This becomes a bit jarring when the next option is "Perhaps, if you would elucidate just whom you represent."

There's one more thing, but this is just a feeling: at "npc 5 1" you have "Within you soon see...", which just bugs me. Don't know why, but perhaps it should be: "Once inside...".

[Gondolin]

Nice little adventure. But why can't Wrenwood understand that Grimsby had it coming, the bastard? 

[Meat Circus]

There seems to be a slight inconsistency of tone. Wrenwood seems to sometime address you with contempt, and at other times with a more noticeable chumminess. Perhaps if the tone changed as he starts to make his mind up about you, but he doesn't seem fully able to decide in what manner to address you.

Nicely atmospheric, mind. Not nearly overwrought enough to be genuinely described as Lovecraftian, but that's no bad thing. The man couldn't write humane dialogue for toffee...

[GarfunkeL]

Seemed fine to me. There were skillchecks where they mattered, even a trait-check. Didn't spot any typos or silly sentences so atleast that's good!

[ushdugery]

Would be even more awesome if you could tweak dialogue influencing stats a bit but I understand that wasn't the purpose of the exercise. Mostly fucking awesome but it's sometimes a bit jarring that the npc dialogues are so much more verbose than that of the player I wouldn't suppose that we're always playing a man very guarded with his words some players might want to be a bit more over the top.

[renkin]

Nice! The only thing I found strange was that I could insult 'Teacup' quite a bit (calling it Teabag and whatever) before it started to affect Wrenwood's respect towards me (I think it took three semi-insults in a row).

[GarfunkeL]

Nice! The only thing I found strange was that I could insult 'Teacup' quite a bit (calling it Teabag and whatever) before it started to affect Wrenwood's respect towards me (I think it took three semi-insults in a row).

The first ones are valid questions, no-one should get pissed off about those. It's only when you insist that Teacup is same as occult cults that he gets angry with the player. I think it's cool, that there's something between "even though you are annoying, you are my friend" and "eat my sword, bastard!"

[Julius]

Hmmm. Think I found something a loop.

After Grimsby scares when I tell him I don't want to go to his car, I go back to Wrenwood, and I have the option to say that Grimsby was looking for a 'forbidden book', but he didn't tell me any of that. Normal?

Edit : Maybe it was supposed to be a lie? It's not a book he's looking for, I just did it again. It seems weird to me that you'd say something like that. "I have a job for you, find what he's looking after" "Huh... a book too horrible to mention?" "Ok here's your money". Wouldn't you say something a bit less far-fetched, like drugs or something? Guess I'm not into the Lovecraft universe enough to get this one.

[Scott]

You've got a point.  I gave the player a vague response for a lie ~"Forbidden" books in Lovecraft are a dime a dozen~ if he knew the item in question was cult-related, but when the quest is given he doesn't.

[Claw]

I was very impressed that Wrenwood is angered by murdering Grimsby and doesn't only care about the mission. It strikes me as unusual for an RPG that completing the quest isn't the only priority. Also, that you could apparently continue by telling a lie when you failed.

Some odd things:

- The option to "charm opposite sex" in npc5_2. May I assume that in the game only female chars will get this?
- You can lie to Wrenwood without a skill check, especially since what you tell him is at odds with his expectations.
- The interface. Is that how it's supposed to look and work in the game?
- Some dumb or offensive response without respect influence. Maybe it would be too much work to modify respect every other response, though. It would however be interesting if you'd lose some "respect" with Grimsby every time you "stumble" and could get him to leave the tavern if it occurred too often. Not bloody likely, it just occurred to me how you can act and behave very suspicuously from start to finish and still succeed.

PS:
You could, in fact, design the entire conversation around not loosing so much "respect" that Grimsby leaves rather than having certain dead ends. More work I know. Maybe too much. But also interesting, at least to me.

[CandyStick]

I dig this, I like the way conversation feels natural. A question though, do you plan on allowing players to move through the world via dialog like in the sample here, or would the player actually have to walk over in game to the inn after getting this quest <for example>. Also, I think people with poor english are going to find this game challenging to say the least.

[Hector]

Then they should lern to raed and rite like what I does.

On an unrelated note, I got ambushed and possibly killed.

[Scott]

I was very impressed that Wrenwood is angered by murdering Grimsby and doesn't only care about the mission.

I thought it was logical.  If you're part of a clandestine organization, do you want to hire some schmuck who randomly kills people?  At the very least, it draws a lot of attention.

- The option to "charm opposite sex" in npc5_2. May I assume that in the game only female chars will get this?

Yes.

- You can lie to Wrenwood without a skill check, especially since what you tell him is at odds with his expectations.

There is no skill check because Wrenwood can't verify what you've said.  He does doubt what you've said, because it's not what he expected.  This is reflected in the absence of any Respect gain for this resolution.

- The interface. Is that how it's supposed to look and work in the game?

No.  I don't even have a game engine, I have no idea what the interface will look like.  I guess I should've put a big red banner at the top of the screen like I did for the Character Generator.

- Some dumb or offensive response without respect influence. Maybe it would be too much work to modify respect every other response, though. It would however be interesting if you'd lose some "respect" with Grimsby every time you "stumble" and could get him to leave the tavern if it occurred too often. Not bloody likely, it just occurred to me how you can act and behave very suspicuously from start to finish and still succeed.

Grimsby is very minor and what his Respect rating is at the end is irrelevant.  The dialogue is a pass/fail test.

You could, in fact, design the entire conversation around not loosing so much "respect" that Grimsby leaves rather than having certain dead ends. More work I know. Maybe too much. But also interesting, at least to me.

This will be the standard for more important dialogues.

I dig this, I like the way conversation feels natural. A question though, do you plan on allowing players to move through the world via dialog like in the sample here, or would the player actually have to walk over in game to the inn after getting this quest <for example>. Also, I think people with poor english are going to find this game challenging to say the least.

In most cases you would travel on your own, especially if it were to a different town.  Dialogue-driven travel is still useful for more scripted events.  I hope the highfalutin English doesn't keep our international fans away.

[Claw]

- You can lie to Wrenwood without a skill check, especially since what you tell him is at odds with his expectations.

There is no skill check because Wrenwood can't verify what you've said.  He does doubt what you've said, because it's not what he expected.  This is reflected in the absence of any Respect gain for this resolution.

A skill check would still have made sense, but that's good enough I suppose.

Grimsby is very minor and what his Respect rating is at the end is irrelevant.  The dialogue is a pass/fail test.

That wasn't my point, but it's ok to prioritize and not make every dialogue extremely sophisticated.

This will the standard for more important dialogues.

Cool.

[GhanBuriGhan]

Enjoyed the dialogue, certainly a notch above what is usually seen. I couldn't quite get a feel for the Grinsby character, so being mugged in the alley came as a surpirse, he didn't seem that type to me (which is fine if it's intentional). The number of available options seems about right, although some more extreme options might be nice here or there.