NPC Interactions and Immersion - Beta Criticism

Gameplay
#1

First, I know that I am critiquing a beta, and I know this is a “true” beta, not like something that Ubisoft releases a month before the game actually comes out.

What worries me the most about the beta, however, is the lifeless NPCs and the boring dialogue and quests.

Compared to The Witcher 3, NPC dialogue and life is sub-par. Every choice/line of NPC dialogue feels like it was written in broken English and extremely unnatural sounding. I’m not sure if it sounds and feels and reads more naturally in Czech.

I can forgive the poor performance, the unoptimized menus, and the clunky combat, but I worry that Warhorse does not understand what makes a side-quest immersive and exciting.

Look at the Bloody Baron’s side-quest in The Witcher 3. The dialogue and story encompassed in it was extremely immersive and I felt like I was watching a movie when the characters were interacting and talking. In KCD I feel like I’m playing an RPG with NPC interaction equivalent of a 2006 RPG. The towns have no personality, either, and feel completely empty and void of life. Where are the drunkards, the beggars, the husband and wife fighting, the group of friends having a chat on the side? Instead, it’s just one or two NPCs walking. All day.

I truly hope that the immersion factor is something that is being worked on, because if this is the type of interaction we can expect from NPCs and towns and city-life I will be severely disappointed. I still have high hopes for this game, but sometimes it seems that Warhorse* may be in over their heads. I hope to be proved wrong!!

6 Likes
#2

Hi, I have to agree with you, cities currently feels kinda lifeless.
What did you think about conversations in main quest line (if you played it)? I had feeling that its much better than rest of the game, and it is probably closer to final state, even tho voice acting probably isn´t yet finished. All other conversations are 99% just placeholders, so I wouldn´t take them very seriously for now.
It was stated somewhere, that Bloody baron quest line should be “role-model” for quests in this game, so lets hope they can make it!

BTW: its Warhorse, not Darkhorse :smiley:

1 Like
#3

Totally agree. I wrote about it here:

I also think the comparisons to The Witcher 3 dialogues are spot on. Not because the games can be compared but because of how good they are in TW3. It is one of few games where I haven’t skipped a single dialogue sequence.

1 Like
#4

And the voice actors are not experts in all.
They will improve her skills over time.
But it is okay if people say it isn’t perfect :slight_smile:

#5

hello, thank you for the correction! It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on the game and I completely forgot it was “Warhorse” XP

I will say that the “Main” quests were written and acted MUCH more naturally. Those feel fairly close to being finished and if Warhorse can translate that level of quality into the NPC and city-life, then I’m sure immersion would be fantastic. I have the feeling much of the NPC dialogue and choices are placeholder as well. I just want to make sure that Warhorse is aware that people think this is a big enough issue to warrant a new topic and that we aren’t content with current NPCs. Again, I know this is a WIP and a beta, and I do have faith it will be fixed with the final release.

#6

“It is one of few games where I haven’t skipped a single dialogue sequence.”

Exactly! The dialogue is beautifully written and the voice acting is spot on (even if TW3 developers tended to use the obvious “gruff” sounding voice a bit too frequently imo)

I don’t want to compare this game to TW3 as clearly they are both trying to achieve a much different “end goal” and idea; but there are some basic elements to a game that a developer can objectively do well, NPCs and Immersion being one of them.

#7

Work in progress
These features are not complete and will be improved for the final version
Many character heads are work in progress
Facial animations are just placeholder and will be improved in the final game
Lead character model and his appearance is just temporary placeholder
Voiceovers are also not final, including the main character
Some voiceovers could be missing completely
The game is not optimized, framerate will be improved
Some animations, reactions and AI during the combat are WIP
The battle as it is presented now is just a first prototype and will be improved in the final game
Lot of content is currently missing:
No sidequests In Talmberk
Limited NPC activites
Missing interactions between NPCs
Limited random events in the world

Devs even specified, that dialogs, interactions, random world events, voice overs etc. are not in ready state, so there is quite a good hope that all our complaints will be solved :slight_smile:

I have to agree with you on TW3 - all its cutscenes and quest dialogs were like really really good movie for me, I just did not want to miss any of it :slight_smile:

#8

Sounds quite ok with my Czenglish. But keep in mind that hiring professionals for corrections and voice recording makes sense at point when all dialogs are complete and somewhat polished - I mean without pointless or meaningless stuff. I don’t mind about missing voices, bad pronunciation or strangely sounding English (I’m not sure if phrase “I’ll be silent as a grave” even exists in English etc.). And main guest line is not boring for me, problem is in Samopesh / Merhojed where NPCs are lifeless, they are stuck often or they are not even spawned.

#9

Kingdom Come: Ghostlands

There aren’t many npcs as it is, and that alone hurts immersion for me. I feel like everyone migrated somewhere else. Maybe it’s the lack of children.

2 Likes
#10

One other problem I find in relation to NPC’s, dialogue and immersion is that they all have gone Harrison Ford on me. All NPC’s sound and act either worried, annoyed or worried AND annoyed. And this applies to Henry as well…

#11

Man, you just nailed it! Something was bugging me whole time in every conversation, but I could not identify what it was…

And you found out! There really isn´t ANY happiness in anybodys voice, they all sound like they just stepped in the really nasty horseshit or like somebody just kidnapped all those missing kids… :smiley:
More variety would be great :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#12

More importantly, NPCs need to stop cursing with “Jesus,” “Jesus Christ,” and “God” all the time. As one of the 10 commandments, to curse in this manner would have been a cardinal sin and grounds for excommunication, if not remedied through penance. At best such a curse would be muttered to oneself in private, not shared freely with passing strangers.

In medieval Europe, peasants did NOT take this lightly.

Sure, it’s no big deal today, but that just makes the dialogue sound weirdly anachronistic and modern.

1 Like
#13

Also feel the same about cities, there is something missing like the buildings feel generic inside, but again this may be due to the beta, so I don’t want to judge this aspect.

I do remember the first video that was shown on the game that the towns looked very detailed, lots of diverse buildings and interiors, hope this is still the plan :slight_smile:

#14

i played the witcher 3 and kind of prefer deliverance’s more natural sounding dialog. it’s not over rehearsed or over written. but yes, some of the dialog is clearly quite work in progress. also, witcher 3 went the fully modernized route and i prefer deliverance retaining some semblance of old style english syntax and terminology if only for the sake of it sounding just right for that medieval setting.

#15

There are no towns in Beta just villages and interiors vere probably quite generic even in real life.

#16

I really don’t like the camera looking at my character when I choose the dialogue when speaking to an NPC, it feels unnatural. I would prefer remaining in 1st person and addressing the NPC directly all the while keeping them in the position in front. No need for cut scenes, it kind of breaks the immersion somewhat. It surely would be easier and less time consuming for the devs to implement a TES: Skyrim type interaction for conversations.

1 Like
#17

I would actually prefer some sort of animated cut scene while talking to someone. Just like the ones we have during the opening sequence of the beta. And this should work even with character customisation (It is done very well in Saints Row 2 which makes the cutscenes hillarious if you done some work to your in-game character).

#18

I don’t think using the bloody baron quest as a standard by which quest design and dialogue is based off of is a good idea for this game.

That quest in general utilizes a lot of melodrama and supernatural elements to tell its story. This game unless im mistaken is marketed as being more true to life, and as such needs to rely on historical events and a more natural delivery.

I think once we get some good voice actors to give the NPC’s more life, the entire atmosphere will improve considerably. So far the quest design feels good, it feels natural, it feels like it belongs in this world. Not everything needs to be accented. In comparison to a drummer, its the difference between a beginner smashing his cymbals as much as he can to a professional using them for very specific accents. Having quests in very specific arcs in the story with a good amount of drama I think is the way to go.

Warhorse, personally I think think you guys are on the right track just keep polishing!

#19

I not saying that they need to duplicate the Bloody baron quest in terms of melodramatic effects etc. But the cinematics used to bring life to the dialogue are pretty nice.

#20

Oh visually, yeah for sure! The characters right now look as stiff as a board lol but im almost sure that will change, if not…
it would be the equivalent of outfitting a Ford Taurus with a Bugatti engine, awkward.

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