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THIS. To the max.

Come on, team, making alternate paths via eventing is not hard, right?

Actually, good party interaction throughout the game, and in multiple places, is easy in theory, but in practice, it's one of the most complicated things to get right.

You're making a whole web of who's in the party, at what point in the game is it, where are they, who is the lead character, who are they talking to, is this the start of a conversation or are they continuing something they've already been discussing, is the person they're talking about in the party ... there are WAY more possibilities, conditions and responses than almost ANY other quest-related interaction.

Go and remake the party interactions from AV1 (Sedona), AV2 (Grimm's Farm), GON (Castle) or TLO (Underfall), and make them better than they are ('cause they're not good enough now), then come back and tell us again how it's not hard

Yes, since you mention it, it's right, because every conversation depends on the character's character too. About what it is, how it started, stuff like that, etc. And well it's not that they are not good enough.

Just that it could be more to dialogue to it, and more choices during the game that affect the ending instead just making a choice there and then it's all done.

Hmm, a pretty good interaction example could be Everlong. Since AV4 is a new start, I just think everything could be more different this time, instead of getting married to someone just because you get gifts from them. That doesn't mean I don't like Amanda's games, I played all of them, they are amazing and Aveyond was the first RPG I ever played so other RPG games can't pretty much fit my tastes.

Her games are amazing, just the interaction needs a little more worked on. Because the routine of gifts and interacting into a house kinda got old, and everyone hopes for something more, and new...

I agree to Shaz saying it is easy in theory, but hard in practice, since doing the interactions could take some more time, since it's also important like the mapping, and such things, but worth a try... right?

Yea like interacting on a ship before setting sail.

Geh, I was under the impression that we're talking about branching paths because Shy mentioned gifts. Teaches me not to go reply posts on 6 AM in the morning.

But shaz... We can't even try to remake the party interactions if we don't have the RMXP game file for Aveyond! Are you telling us to remake Aveyond from scratch?

I don't think it would be a good idea... XD

No, I'm saying to try and make a scene with party interaction where you can have up to 8 members, any one could be the leader, and they can talk to any one of the others, and the conversation will be different based on who the character is, who the leader is, and at what point in the game you are.

If you have a party of 8 people, and any of those could be the leader, and can talk to any of the others, that would be 56 event pages you would have to create just for a single conversation between each pair. If you had two main events in your game and want conversation to reflect those events, multiply that 56 by 3. That's over 150 event pages just to keep conversation between team members meaningful to the game.

Of course, I'm saying to use event pages per person/happening to keep everything completely separate - you could just use conditions instead, unless you needed someone's appearance to change. But still, that's 150+ different conditions/event pages you'd have to include just to allow a slightly dynamic conversation between any two of your team members.

So, in theory, yes, it's easy to say "more interaction, and make it meaningful", but in practice, well, you can see how it turns out.

And unless romance is a critical part of the game, which it's not (AV3 was about the orbs and the Darkthrop curse), then it's not worth 150+ branches just to get a few brief interactions.

That... wasn't what I had in mind when I said "party interaction".

Okay, what I had in mind is probably more of those mini scenes that you get when you do stuff. Like when Eddie and Stella go help people in TDP and Eddie was complaining that the reward was kinda sucky. That kind of interaction. So if you did X, then it will affect the interaction elsewhere. You know, so it's more like a Visual Novel.

The interactions in the "resting house" is good enough to me. Well, maybe a few more conditional branches to discuss major quest events, but other than that it's fine.

Oh wow shaz, that is sure alot. And I'm guessing if Amanda would ever consider doing meaningful romance convos, it would make the game's developing harder and it would probably be out in more than a year. Well, I guess then that's what VN's are for. Untill then I'm just going to stick to them.

I agree with d_a too, interactions during an side-quest would be nice too. Lol, I liked when Eddie was whining and Stella was trying to comfort him On that Edward was pretty childish.

I don't think it matters what kind of game you're doing. If you're creating something with a lot of interaction between a lot of characters, and want to cater for conversation reflecting events that happen in the game, there's a whole lot of branching going on. Something in Ren'py that does the same thing would require just as much effort.

I do like the conversations that happen during the quests too - not just your team talking to NPCs all the time, but stopping to interact with each other. It does make development between characters more obvious (though that also leaves less to the imagination).

Yea it is a whole lot of work (just realizes that I have had a pain with interactions)! I have been doing similar but without Aveyond's scripts (except UMS is in it) and either way it is kinda hard shoving words on their tongue. Rainbow Dash I had make her aggressive in some situations (like when you choose threaten and she becomes very aggressive). And Derpy I had make butt in at certain times and react to different muffins. Not easy. I once ended up with like over 6 pages for one event. Don't get me started on Pinkie Pie. Since she is so talkative I had to add 'Blah blah blah...' to parts of her conversation due to how offtopic she was for that scene. So I know how difficult it is.

@shaz: That is true. I guess I'm just the kind of person who actually thinks doing the extra branching is no big deal (even though it's SUPER PAINFUL TO DO OR TEST).

@binas: You sound like you're just having problems with your characters being very chatty and spews words like no tomorrow, not making branching conversations

Word choice is what I am getting at. Some of them I had to use very childish words and valley-girls/fashionistas talk with attitude. I want a colorful scene. And if I remember correctly before my RPG make crashed I had some somewhat complex dialog and I am trying to recreate it with dozens of switches, variables, and common events (the talking clock that Pinkie laughs at every time you talk with it (southern part of Galeston (lower) )...

How long before Aveyond 4 will be released? It seems it has been forever, a couple of years, since we were told about it.

What information can you give us? I say "us" because I have my daughter-in-law and my grandaughter hooked on the Aveyond series now too.

How about it? Some info for us??




Merged topics.
~Mopiece

Given that there are currently three other games in development and they've been working on some new custom game engine or something for AV4, it will probably be a while.

Uuuum.... It's only been a little more than a year since TDP's release and the announcement to AV4. Be a little more patient?

Plus, like Esme said, the team is working on this new engine that will allow Aveyond to be ported in various devices. Isn't that just cool? You guys will have it on iPads and iPhones and all the whatshiz It'll be worth the wait!

What. The issue we're discussing is how to make the conversations "realistic" and meaningful. It would require a lot of programming because RMXP doesn't exactly give you too much tool to make things complex. RMXP is meant to make a mostly simple game anyway.

A couple of years? Amanda announced on Facebook that she was starting to brainstorm ideas for Aveyond 4 in early February this year. Aveyond 4 was added to the 'Coming Soon' section a few days later. So that's only been a few months.

Now. Let's wait for word on Amanda if we can hear some spoilers! Come on. Tease us!

And hear d_a grumble/complain about every single teaser lol.