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[Orange-of-Cthulhu]

In adventure mode I sometimes feel "cut off" from the world of the NPCs. Like I see there's things happening but I can't find out what they are or ask people. It gives this weird feeling that you're a tourist not speaking the local language but using a glossary book

I think it would greatly improve immersion to expand the dialogue options to also include stuff that aren't obviously related to hunting monsters on quests. Sometimes you're just curious and want to know stuff!

NPCs should have access to a section in legend's mode so you could ask them about all the historic stuff in the file about their site in legends mode. Like you should be able to ask "How many times have you been besieged?" and "when was your last festival?" and "Have you ever had monster rampages here?" and so on.

(Optionally there might be levels of access for NPCs to this information, so some peasant doesn't know anything about the history of the site but the high-end people in cities like architects should know everything.)

Histfigs should know all the personal stuff in their file and you should be able to ask them about which sites they've lived at, if they have changed careers and what conflicts they've been in and so on.

They should also have access to the files of other histfigs of people they know in their site.

Optionally there could also be levels of this, so that the bartender or maybe a priest knows everything about everybody currently living in the site but a young peasant doesn't know much about anybody.

I just notied a few things that really need to be fixed, although I don't know where it falls under:

- In some sites, people are fighting each other. You can't find out why and how, all they say is that "the fighting" is a problem. I'd love to ask them how it started. It could generate a project of making one fraction win the fight if you find out what's going on. (I'd love to meddle in such things!)

- I've seen NPCs apparently stalking me for several days. IDK if they're on some mission to stalk me or kill me, but I'd love to confront them about it or be able to yell "Quit following me or else!" to them. You're not able to even talk to them about it - they just say they're in a mission but you can't find out if it's random they follow you.

It should definitely be possible to beat out of people "on a mission" what the mission is - if you fight and make them yield, then they should tell you. Or you should be able to bribe them to spill the beans.

- When you come across travellers, all you can learn is that they're out on a stroll. I'd love to know where to and why they're travelling. If the game hasn't actually given them a destination and they're just walking through the screen, give them some fake destination. Like monks say "I am travelling the word to spread the gospel of ..." or "I am returning to my monastery after a pilgrimage" or whatever.
It would both allow for a much more immersive experience but I think also some player projects would emerge from this.

- I went to some sites I assume are bandit or criminals, but you can't really with the dialogue discover that they are. Again. I'd like an option to bribe them or something - or the option of asking more information about the site would paint a picture of what they are doing there.

[A_Curious_Cat]

What if the ability to lie or exaggerate was added to the gam, both for players and NPCs?…

[Starver]

What if the ability to lie or exaggerate was added to the gam, both for players and NPCs?…

...and also to mistakenly believe, coupled with doubting veracity. As natural continuations of the above.

(Though this does add a whole extra dimension of 'necessary data'. What currently may be face-value information goverened 'only' by likelihood of it being known by this class of character, and/or have been passed on to them through a contact-chain, now has to add in possible distortions and deceptions via a credulity-based chain[1] (even for the true facts) that may involve prior experience of how past 'facts' resolved.)


A double-edged sword. As well as possibly gaining credit for things not done, you could be denied that for things that were. (And rather than avoid gaining a negative rep for some bad act, you could be ostracised for things truly not of your doing.)

I'm sure the whole concept is deeply rooted in the self-disguise ability and the whole Heroes And Villains arc (which I'm not really fully up with, as I don't read the devlogs assiduously, so may therefore be myself mistaken/incredulous about the current capabilities contained within). It could be complicated, though.

No less vital for a fully-fleshed system of factualities in conversation, but I can just imagine the datastructs needed to maintain the knowledgebase (and meta-knowledgebase) involved, even without tracking exact rumourmill paths through various unseen/unspawned third-parties between Histfig and Player (or vice-versa).


[1] Like the old old comic-strip depiction of someone spreading a falsehood for <reasons>, intending to gain a small advantage, to a minor contact, who passes on this fact to someone else slightly more influential, who [...insert more to taste...] convinces the velnerable authority character of the fact, which reaches the ears of the original rumourmonger who then thinks that if the VAC is saying it, it must be actually true, changes their own mind and gets sucked into the falsehood, trapped in the very disadvantage they were trying to promote to others.