Player Dialog Responses - Personalities

councilspectre

When writing dialog for the player (Fed missions), I try to write three options in different voices to add a little variety when it seems fitting. The pattern is usually: Charming\Diplomatic, Neutral (Vulcans or just straight-forward), and Cowboy (think Kirk and Janeway). I try to make the dialog fit with the feel of Trek, and of course, be something that a Starfleet Captain might say.

Lately, I've started to think that perhaps the Cowboy personality might not be necessary. By Cowboy, I'm referring to Spock's reference on the Kirk-era of Starfleet. It also brings up memories of Janeway's "unless you have something bigger in your torpedo tubes, I'm not turning around" line when speaking to the Krenim.

I'm curious to know how other authors plan their dialog. I'm sure there are all types of players who will love or hate certain styles. Do you, other authors or foundry players, think that it's worth having different styles of responses? Do players really care or would they prefer simple and short responses that they can extrapolate in their mind to fit their character's voice?

markhawkman

Yeah, there's a few basic types you can use. Those are pretty good for Starfleet.

For KDF, I start by thinking out what an Orion would say and what a Klingon would say.

johnnysnowball

Yeah i usually write it as Picard (by the book), logical (Vulcans and androids, also some lib Borg), and rebel.

artan42

markhawkman wrote: »

Yeah, there's a few basic types you can use. Those are pretty good for Starfleet.

For KDF, I start by thinking out what an Orion would say and what a Klingon would say.

NPC: "I have what you want"
Klingon player: "Give it to me or I'll bite you"
Orion player: "Give it to me and I'll shag you"
Lethian Player: *Waves hand* "you will give it to me"
Nausicaan Player: *Stabs NPC and takes item*​​

duncanidaho11

Over the missions I've probably drifted to writing for the player as Sisko. There's a strong, to the point, core there but the ability to reflex a personality from time to time (and have fun with the situation.) Personally I feel that works best for what would most likely develop over the course of the STO mission series (and there's a lot of versatility there that doesn't require too many dialog options).

If there's an outright emotional expression I'll also include something that works for Vulcans, but generally I stick to the above template.

markhawkman

Yeah, that's not quite "semi-neutral" but pretty close.

@artan42 Sort of, but 1: that Orion dialog is dumb. 2: the entire example is rather trivial. 3: the Nausicaan example might create a branching point.

artan42

That's because I was being glib and not offering serious dialogue options.

paxfederatica

These days, in most cases I tend to write Science dialogue as though I were writing for Jadzia Dax, Engineering as though for Geordi LaForge, and Tactical as though for First Contact's Lt. Hawk.