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What is the reason for dialog branching?

martok16martok16 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Why is there dialog branching if, depending on the action taken, braching always ends up at the next map?

Branching is just the same as any programming language, EG:-

if a=b then do this else if a!=b do something else

not, if a=b then do this else if a!=b do the same thing

this is what happens with multiple dialog branching in the foundry editing tool.

One such scenario for multiple dialog branching would be:-

imagine this, your ship is sent to investigate signals coming from satellites around a planet, so you start the mission, on the map, you place your ship inside some rock debri, there you monitor some ships warping in, but your sci officer asks if we should scan the area, now this is where multiple branching would work, you either say "no, initiating a scan would give away our position", that would end the map, you would send a report to Starfleet, etc etc, then warp out, and continue on to another mission, or, you could say "yes, start the scan", but now, doing this would branch off to another map that ends up in a space battle.

As it stands, current dialog branching always ends up at the end of a dialog, regardless of choice.

As I see it, currently, dialog branching is only fit for nothing else but text only missions, you might just as well say, it's a reflection off the old text based adventure games.
Post edited by martok16 on

Comments

  • stoutesstoutes Member Posts: 4,219 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    Dialog branching can be used for making things happen on the same map.

    Let me try to give a very simple example;

    MAP A:
    - Good mob (invisible)
    - Evil mob (invisible)
    - Player Spawn point
    - Satellite (with a task, you place this satellite behind the mob).

    When you (as the player) starts the map, you get a dialog box, you can choose from:
    1) Scan the area and let people know that you mean no harm
    2) Scan the area and let people know that they are breaching fed/kdf space

    When the player chooses (1), you can change the Good mob state to visible and keep the Evil mob invisible.

    The same with (2), only the other way around.

    You could create two (or more) different storylines inside a map, depending on which choices the player picks. You could try CSG2 (in my sig, FYI it's a playtest version and missing the final map) which uses this technique in the last two maps (Kalferi & klink ship).
    maxvitor wrote: »
    Nerf is OP, plz nerf
    That's quite the paradox, how could you nerf nerf when the nerf is nerfed. But how would the nerf be nerfed when the nerf is nerfed? This allows the nerf not to be nerfed since the nerf is nerfed? But if the nerf isn't nerfed, it could still nerf nerfs. But as soon as the nerf is nerfed, the nerf power is lost. So paradoxally it the nerf nerf lost its nerf, while it's still nerfed, which cannot be because the nerf was unable to nerf.

    I call it, the Stoutes paradox.
  • thegreendragoon1thegreendragoon1 Member Posts: 1,872 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    While what happens in the story tab has to happen, any details outside of that can play out very differently. You may only have an objective that says Reach the End of the Maze. Whether you face a complex puzzle you have to solve or fight an assimilated Gorn on the way changed be changed based on choices the player makes in dialog.

    There's also the fact that branching dialog allows for a more interactive conversational experience vs. a book in a box approach.

    The key is to know where the hard walls in the Foundry are and where you can build dynamic elements around them.
  • donperkdonperk Member Posts: 200 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    Also, let's not forget that branching dialogue is a NARRATIVE MECHANISM. It's primary purpose is to allow for a variety of conversations, allowing the author to exercise their narrative creativity and allowing the player to have a more immersive and self-directed experience.

    As the OP focused on and others have answered, branching dialogues are also a MECHANICAL MECHANISM, but as others have noted, the ability to attach triggers to individual branches of dialogue allows the experience outside of the dialogue to be enriched.

    Without branching dialogue, the Foundry experience would be much more lackluster.
  • martok16martok16 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    stoutes wrote: »
    Dialog branching can be used for making things happen on the same map.

    Let me try to give a very simple example;

    MAP A:
    - Good mob (invisible)
    - Evil mob (invisible)
    - Player Spawn point
    - Satellite (with a task, you place this satellite behind the mob).

    When you (as the player) starts the map, you get a dialog box, you can choose from:
    1) Scan the area and let people know that you mean no harm
    2) Scan the area and let people know that they are breaching fed/kdf space

    When the player chooses (1), you can change the Good mob state to visible and keep the Evil mob invisible.

    The same with (2), only the other way around.

    You could create two (or more) different storylines inside a map, depending on which choices the player picks. You could try CSG2 (in my sig, FYI it's a playtest version and missing the final map) which uses this technique in the last two maps (Kalferi & klink ship).

    I looked at every map I created and there isn't anywhere in map properties that has 'triggers', the only buttons present are "General", and "backdrop"

    I created a snapshot of one of the map properties, but I can't see in here where to attach it, so instead I created a screen video of my foundry process:-

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u4rvhtn0qi2hshu/XxbstbD4Ry

    There are 2 files, one is the MPG, it's that one that shows how I created a mission and couldn't figure out after the last dialog branch how to use 2 maps, depending on what choice is made in the branch.
  • thegreendragoon1thegreendragoon1 Member Posts: 1,872 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    You can't trigger maps only objects/npcs on maps. Even Cryptic missions can't branch maps.
  • martok16martok16 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    You can't trigger maps only objects/npcs on maps. Even Cryptic missions can't branch maps.

    Well, as it can't be done, I guess I'll just have to wait until Cryptic decide to change the tools for the better, with actual 3D object in-world placement and manauverability, and maps that can be attached to dialog branches.

    Thanks for everone's help.
  • doffingcomradedoffingcomrade Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    As far as I can tell, the Foundry is designed to produce only railroad plots with fake choices, so it really doesn't serve any purpose to even have dialogue since the user cannot change the outcome by engaging it. Just throw in more stuff to PEWPEW, the Foundry is only good for making farms anyway. The only thing you otherwise accomplish is looking obnoxiously pretentious without actually constructing anything of substance.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • starswordcstarswordc Member Posts: 10,963 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    As far as I can tell, the Foundry is designed to produce only railroad plots with fake choices, so it really doesn't serve any purpose to even have dialogue since the user cannot change the outcome by engaging it. Just throw in more stuff to PEWPEW, the Foundry is only good for making farms anyway. The only thing you otherwise accomplish is looking obnoxiously pretentious without actually constructing anything of substance.

    I don't know if you noticed but the whole game is like that. Get off your high horse.

    The worst offender by far is not any mission we've written, but one of Cryptic's: Episode "Romulan Mystery", mission "Divide et Impera". If you're paying attention you can tell fairly quickly that SPOILER there's something seriously wrong about Admiral Zelle, but the mission railroads you into being unable to do anything about it.
    "Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
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    VZ9ASdg.png

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  • adverberoadverbero Member Posts: 2,045 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    starswordc wrote: »
    I don't know if you noticed but the whole game is like that. Get off your high horse.

    The worst offender by far is not any mission we've written, but one of Cryptic's: Episode "Romulan Mystery", mission "Divide et Impera". If you're paying attention you can tell fairly quickly that SPOILER there's something seriously wrong about Admiral Zelle, but the mission railroads you into being unable to do anything about it.

    That is very true, I sometimes feel the game lets me down , but then i have been spoiled by other more interactive single layer games, The reality is, in an MMO we have to the same end point, from the same start point on every mission

    But hey, '' It's not the destination so much as the journey ''

    And to that end i try to use as few story board elements as i can , while putting up dynamic map changes and puzzles on the path, many of which are affected by your dialogue choices using triggers
    solar_approach_by_chaos_sandwhich-d74kjft.png


    These are the Voyages on the STO forum, the final frontier. Our continuing mission: to explore Pretentious Posts, to seek out new Overreactions and Misinformation , to boldly experience Cynicism like no man has before.......
  • pendra8080pendra8080 Member Posts: 30 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    Once I had a mission where the captain had to take the decision: Help someone and risk violating the prime directive or go away.
    I placed a small area trigger into a space map. If the player chose to help, a sat was spawned in the zone to show the exact position. Otherwise, he got a short debriefing and was instructed to drop the mission and leave the map. There it is, choice.

    I had another mission where the player had the choice to land on a barren, moonlike asteroid or the tropical planet it orbited. On both location, he had to look for clues. Of course, he received different tasks and different clues depending on the choice.

    I once made a little mission where you had to decide which deck you want to visit first. You selected deck 6, you went there. You selected deck 4, and when you left the turbolift you were in deck 4. Any order worked.

    So with triggers and branching dialogs you can make real adventures and real choices. I recreated ST 25th Anniv first 2 missions, complete with all the possible outcomes save for your captain dying. You are not obliged to follow Cryptic's full linear, no consequence, win by default mission design. On the other hand, 90% of the players are happy with this mission design. If you try to deviate, if you make a mission fail-able, your mission will sink pretty fast. "What a stupid mission, it ends badly." They don't even realize they can replay it and win.
  • doffingcomradedoffingcomrade Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    starswordc wrote: »
    The worst offender by far is not any mission we've written, but one of Cryptic's: Episode "Romulan Mystery", mission "Divide et Impera". If you're paying attention you can tell fairly quickly that SPOILER there's something seriously wrong about Admiral Zelle, but the mission railroads you into being unable to do anything about it.
    Ayup, those missions are terrible. On top of that, the pay is lousy. Completely not worth doing. Clearly a relic of the dark ages of mission creation...not that recent offerings have actually improved all that much.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • bazagbazag Member Posts: 375 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    doffingcomrade:

    I would like you to try my KDF Spotlight mission: The Honour of Profit

    And see what you think of the alternate and branching structure that I managed to create in that mission.
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