Abysmal on 26/5/2016 at 10:39
Edit: They're fine.
Yandros on 26/5/2016 at 11:59
Conversations are a ton of work, not to mention just writing good dialogue isn't easy; that's why few authors do it, I believe. I rarely play missions these days so I can't recommend any specific missions, but (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146674) Waterfront Racket which Tannar and I are releasing any day now has around 80 lines of dialogue, although those are all between the player and another character. The other two projects I'm involved with, Death's Cold Embrace and RandomTaffer's unnamed swamp campaign, also have many lines of dialogue (DCE around 250, swamp easily over 100 and growing) so be on the lookout for them later this year.
Renault on 26/5/2016 at 14:14
@Abysmal - I think you'r overstating things a bit, I wouldn't call missions without conversations "lifeless." You still have all AI by default making sounds, like talking to themselves/mumbling/whistling, and ambient and environmental sounds helping out as well. Good mission briefings can set up the mission well too.
That said, the mission that sticks out in my mind is Broken Triad, which has multiple conversations and complex in-game cutscenes that really do a great job of conveying the story. 7th Crystal comes to mind too, with the camvator intro.
FrenchDecay on 26/5/2016 at 14:41
Quote Posted by Abysmal
I've been getting back into FMs lately, and the one thing I've noticed by and large is that the majority seem to rely on shoehorning the story and characters into gobs of readables. Everyone is walking around in near-silence and there's just no life to most missions. This is in stark contrast with the OMs (and T2X) in which every human mission features multiple conversations, events, and human interactions, and the story is conveyed in a much more natural, believable fashion. I understand that not everyone is a voice actor or has quality recording equipment, not to mention the voices wouldn't match the already built-in grumbles in the game, but I really believe this total lack of dialog and human interaction puts a damper on the overall experience.
So with that said, what are some great FMs that break the mold and DO feature multiple conversations and events?
I don't have any FM in mind to suggest, but you just gave me an idea. I haven't looked at Thief 2 English snd thoroughly yet, but when I had my French version I remember trying to stick bits of snd files together that were not used in any conversation. Now I've never made a conversation in DromEd, it looks so complicated but maybe there's a way to make guards interact with each other using the AIWatchObj link, it may emulate some sort of triviality. But this has probably already been suggested long ago, isn't it? :rolleyes:
Severian_Silk on 26/5/2016 at 15:00
I agree with Brethren and I don't mind the lack of custom dialogues, garretisms etc. in a Thief mission. Lack of ambient sounds is what makes a fanmission lifeless for me, however :( .
Anyway, Rocksbourg 3 had some great voice acting.
bbb on 26/5/2016 at 16:55
Yandros is right, conversations are difficult. The only thing I find more challenging is getting objectives to work right. I do try to put in a few conversations in each mission. On one of my missions, I almost lost my mind getting a conversation to work and I think I send the file to Yandros who figured out the problem (probably in between 5 other projects).
Personally, I love conversations and think they add a lot to a mission, but I can absolutely enjoy a mission without conversations. I also love to climb but can enjoy a mission that is horizontal. In my opinion, anytime someone completes a mission, it is a real feat and I have nothing but praise for authors. I actually enjoy the simple missions as much as the complex missions.
All that being said, if one wants to put a conversation or two in his/her mission, there are many many posts and lots of help available.
BBB
R Soul on 26/5/2016 at 17:05
I think this discussion is better off in the Editors' Guild.
One way to make convs easier to work with is to use ConvMaster.
Ricebug on 26/5/2016 at 17:15
And where does one find this ConvMaster?
bbb on 26/5/2016 at 17:19
R Soul
Glad you mentioned that. I had read about it but forgot about it. Will definitely use that tool when the time comes.
Thanks
BBB
TannisRoot on 26/5/2016 at 17:56
I agree with Severian_Silk that ambient sounds go a long way to breathing life into a mission: things like fans while you are in a duct or crickets or wind. There are OM without conversations that are very effective at telling stories, namely The Haunted Cathedral. While voice acting is great, it's by no means necessary to tell an interesting story.
