Discussion/Dialogue Systems

Future Game Space Stage
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(I’m not a programmer, but I did some research. Take what I say with a grain of salt.)

The thrive dialog/dicussion system is something that should be discussed in further detail. Starting from awakening, up to space stage, your species will need to use language to effectively communicate with others.

Now, for some context, a dialog system consists of three parts.

The Tracking System

Tracks the actions that the player makes, and choices of the player.

The Reaction System

Based off of the tracking system, which generates a response corresponding to the players actions and choices.

The Triggering System

When a player fulfills a criteria, it provides a response dependent on that criteria.

These are the parts which make up a dialogue system. There are other components, like time constraints, NPC to NPC relations/NPC to player relations, personality, but these are self explanatory.
Now that we have knowledge of what dialogue systems are, we can now dive into some types of dialogue thrive could use.

Turn Based Dialogue

Step based conversations. Easy to understand and follow, but it may lead to very complex and large dialogue trees. Mother 3 is a good example of this.

Dynamic Dialogue

Dialogue which reacts to your choices during action‐‐you control your characters decisions in real time, with a emphasis on reacting quickly. it is more natural, but it can be difficult and confusing to follow. People may miss out on parts of the dialogue as their focus is on other parts of the game. A example is Tomadachi Life Living The Dream.

Branching systems will probably also be in thrive. Its a mechanic alongside dialogue systems which alters the dialog depending on the situation. If you declare war on another alien species, then the dialog gets altered via this system.

Linear

This type is better suited for narrative focused games. You go through a path, and based on which path you take, a different ending can occur. Good example of this is TWD.

Non-linear

Non-linear branching systems allow you to interact with a NPC, which causes a bunch of options to be given at the same time as the starting dialog. Once the dialogue tree is exhausted your sent back into the game. Example of this is Baldurs Gate 3.

This might of been a bit rambly‐‐I’d like to hear which dialogue system you guys think would suit thrive the best. Let me know!

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Very interesting ideas! Thrive would mostly likely have to strike a balance between having enough dialogue variety and not having such dialogue systems be too resource intensive, since we have to be aware that some people, such as myself, play Thrive on older PCs.

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Forgive me if I’m wrong but dialog systems aren’t very resource heavy, so you dont need to worry.

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I presume the dialogue options would be effected by religion, politics, ethics, trade policies, etc? I think “Turn-Based” “Non-linear” would be better for culture interaction, as well as giving orders. I do wonder if battles might need “Dynamic Dialogue” though. Unless it is specifically related to the Ascension Gate or for a Tutorial Mode of sorts for the later stages, I am not sure “Linear” makes sense for Thrive.

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I wonder if we could get leaders and soldiers with different personalities, which would affect how they interact with the player and other AI?

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I thought so too. Thrive isn’t a narrative focused game‐‐I’m half sure there won’t be any lore, but I still decided to add it into my post. Its still nice to talk about it, even if we agree it wouldn’t fit thrive.

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Could there be an option for when people (npcs) have the dynamic dialogue option on but try to stick to the turn based option?

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People who want that can always just mod it in, I don’t really see a reason for the devs to add that option.

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I mean isnt it kind of what humans usually do?

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Oh, this is a great question, and I’m excited for how thrive handles this. Thrive has to add this‐‐it would be so entertaining how different leaders react to you causing havoc. Like, for example… one could be kind, nice, diplomatic. They’d reason with you, trying to settle things down without harm. A millitaristic, rude, disrespectful leader though… This would show best in the space stage since the other aliens will be premade, thrive can use that to their advantage! Very exciting stuff, don’t you agree? There are so many possibilities for player NPC interaction and NPC & NPC interactions…

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What would they speak to, a supernatural unseen being the player is?

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…The players species leader, no? Was the implication not there because I was implying‐‐in the space stage, when talking to other species, you are the leader and can pick what to say. Ask me to clarify next time if you need it, yeah? Regardless, it wouldn’t make sense for the NPCS to talk to you, the player, /directly/. That’s why they talk to the leader instead, and you pick the choices.

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This kind of leaves the question of whether your species DOES have a leader at all. Would then the entire swarm speak up to others?

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Thrive isn’t going to cover every possibility, just the most common ones, which cover a diverse amount of things which could happen. I’m assuming here, but I’m pretty sure Thrive probably won’t let you proceed to space phase, or even society phase‐‐without a leader.

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Not even under the nonlawk settings?

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Some interpretations of Mohenjo-daro, one of the oldest major cities known in history from the Indus Valley Civilisation, are that there was no ruler, and it was a collective society.

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Could be a group of leaders. They need a system of some sort for decision making. The Indus Valley Civilization show clear signs of administrative control, planning, and regulation. We haven’t yet found any record of how many were involved, or how they were chosen, but that sort of layout and uniformity requires some kind of leadership.

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Pure speculation on my part, but perhaps Mohenjo-daro used a democratic system similar to one created by Solon of Athens, where people constantly rotate political positions.

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“Would this be fun from a gameplay standpoint? Would there be a reason to put this in the game which would benefit the players experience?” Alot of these questions forget this… You want it, I get it, but there’s not really a positive affect it’ll have for thrive to add it. It would take too much effort and frankly, for none of that effort to even be used besides from the singular person who asked thrive to add it to /maybe/ use it.

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I’m pretty sure it’s a suggestion rather based on irl collectivist species like the eusocial insects? Which’d make me think it’s more popular than “one person asked for this super obscure thing”

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