Feedback:User/Leonim/Interactivity in dialog scenes

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Suggestion[edit]

As the title says : interactivity in dialog scenes (which are by the way nice and well done imo, bringing a lot to the game in terms of atmosphere and immersion). And this suggestion is about immersive purposes and character's personality.

The main part is to provide a way for the said personality to express during cutscenes as it may during classic dailogs. It is quite sad that it is not overly available in "main" dialogs like those from your personal storyline and in dungeons especially.

"This is your story..." afterall.


Since gestures and emotes are (nicely done) separate from lip synch in term of animations, we could have a few triggerable during NPC conversations (obviously when our character is shown on the screen and has a part to tell). So placed in the lower part of the screen, near the subtitles : a handful of icons to be able to interact with gestures and expressions.

Lets say up to three (maybe four) if they are dependent of the situation (which would require a remake of the whole speech lines in the game) or more conveniently a few depending on the character's personality structure. Color-coded icons, always one for each of the base personality and two more for the dominant one.

For what purpose could you ask... depending on the player's affinities, either as a fidgeting gadget or an impersonifying tool while following interacting with the cutscenes. The interaction is as cosmetic as in any other game with colorful interaction (Mass Effect and such as a prime example) : as it doesn't change the sequence of the conversation. What it does though is providing interaction where there wasn't and impersonifying chances where it was lacking.

It allow players to effectively score some personality's changes for the character through acting according to the desired angle during those cutscenes. As a reminder, personality doesn't provide any in-game bonuses or any kind of reward except for your own treasurably satisfaction at seeing the game world reacting to your impersonifying choices.


Brushed-up topics[edit]

Personality diagram[edit]

Even if personality would be limited to the only three starting options (charm, dignity, roughness) and wouldn't offer more ways (like the yet-to-be-confirmed bribery), a very practical way to depict the split repartition of the character's personality may be a pie chart in the tooltip (with the dominant trait as a the extruded pie).

For those wondering, pie charts are already found in other sections of the game interface (like the WvW stats and bonuses).

Emotes : body language[edit]

Emotes can generally be divided in several categories :

  • moves or animations,
    • static animations (drums, sit and the like) at the current location,
    • or full moves (like dance and hum... dance) which imply a full range of character's movements;
  • gestures or actions (like salute, wave or knuckle cracking) which provide social hints;
  • expressions (surprise, determination...) which are more tied to passive body language;
  • moods (sadness, exhaustion, joyful, etc.) which are at another complete level in terms of game character.

Many of those are covered in our electronic culture by the use of smileys (from the basic to the more elaborated ones). But it would be ankward to see our characters use smileys "in the text" and so they have to rely on meaningful emotes, gestures and expressions... for our greater pleasure and amusement.

Iw ould like to see more control (or to be exact easier access) in the hands of the player to gestures and expressions.

Interruption[edit]

The first thing that came to mind was about interrupting a dialog scene, a suggestion quite easy in the making, but not really worth the sweat.

Instead of using "next" and "skip" buttons with no effect whatsoever, the latter could be triggering a short voiced sentence depending (and optionaly improving) your current dominant personality. A parting gift as the cutscene dissolve back to the game interface, something along (with more variants) :

  • Brute : "Yeah, yeah. I'm outta here."
  • Charming : "If only I could listen to your pleasant chatter all day long."
  • Dignified : "If you'll excuse me, I have other urgent matters to attend."

As for repeated uses of the "next" button (two or three in a row), it could trigger a "Make if fast, will you?" and an impatient gesture.

Idle behavior[edit]

In the original GW, mercenaries are defined by their main profession and appearance with the addition of a given personality upon which different quotes and emotes will be provided during their stay at your side (as well as henchmen and heroes). Not sure if idle behavior and combat quotes are already depending on character's personality in GW2, but they should.


See also[edit]

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