• vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I was coming at this from a blank slate approach, think New Vegas, Morrowind, or Baldurs gate 3 ( assuming no premade character or Dark urge).

    • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Sure, but none of those still lets you say whatever you want, you’re still locked to a few alternatives that effectively shoehorn you into a character. In the future, with the aid of AI you could match what you personally say or type to an intent and then map that to pre-baked responses. With attacking you or running away as a response to aggression and a “haha very funny but back to the matter at hand” when you’re being silly. And it’s only when we’re there that I’d, personally, say a “silent” protagonist is as immersive as a voiced one.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        If I see a game with an AI voiced protag im avoiding it. Also I prefer my protags to be silent in RPGs, the constant yapping in fallout 4 pisses me off.

        • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          No I mean you’re the voice for the protagonist, the game reacts to what you say (or type if you prefer). And we’re all different in what we prefer!

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            That tech or atleast the typing part of it has existed for a long time. Old text adventure games used it and even some of the earliest CRPGs used it like wasteland 1, also honorable mention to fallout 1 and 2 which had a watered down version. Theres a reason ya dont see it anymore, that reason is cause its fucking infuriating. Seriously half the time I try playing those I turn into a demented murder hobo.

            I swear to fuck if I see a modern game go “I dont know what ‘talk’ is” im gonna punch the lead dev.

            • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Yes and no, what they did is they used keywords and synonym lists but they were extremely basic and you needed to build a mental model of how dialogue “works” that fit the developers. Hardly ideal. But with LLMs and NLP and some clever programming making NPCs that react convincingly to your typed in questions / interactions isn’t far off.

              • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Given how schizophrenic LLMs can be im gonna guess it wont get past the experimental phase. Its just too damned unstable at the best of times.

                • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  They can’t handle a long conversation, that’s the problem. But no RPG I’ve ever played has very long conversations, especially not on one topic. The flow is generally opener -> pick a topic -> follow up questions (a few different that all land you back on the same “step”) -> conversation ender / go back to pick topic. Total sentences about one topic is generally no more than 10. And from the LLM standpoint it’d suffice if we kept the topic as one, joined, conversation and every distinct topic as their own instances. Thus we wouldn’t have time to dig to deep before the conversation ends and functionally resets.

                  But that, AI generated dynamic responses, wasn’t really what I meant. I more meant using player input in a dynamic fashion instead of selecting pre-baked sentences that your PC “says” without their own voice. So the flow would be that you typed or said “Hello there, can you tell me about the night the dragon attacked?” The AI would then interpret that text and match it to which Voice Actor recorded statement that best fit. So you’d get something like “Oh it was terrifying, the dragon burned down the church!” You’d get the same statement if you ask “whatever happened to that church over there?”

                  You’d also need recorded statements for rude remarks, aggression, that they don’t know (possibly with pointers towards NPC with more information) etc.

                  So you’re only replacing the dialog selector, not Voice Actors and you’re not voicing the protagonist.

                  • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Okay I kinda see what youre saying can’t say I would play a longer game with it as the main source of PC dialogue. But as a hybrid system that could be fun, like Fallout 1 and 2 having a typed question system alongside the normal dialogue. Hell you could probably add some fun shit into it for second time players IE calling the big bad evil guy out before he’s reveled.

                    Also if you want to mess around with a similar concept theres a game called facade which does something similar its just quite old at this point. Its from 2012 or some shit. Its also very very awkward given that its basically a social simulator with a married couple who are having a rough time.