Goddess Maker Mechanic: TALK TREES

Introduction

A Talk Tree in Goddess Maker’s “Lab of God” game section is a quality of life feature that’s meant to be a type of ongoing conversation with a consequential character throughout the long timeframe of the section, engaged at the player’s own pace with opportunities unlocked along the way.

Visual Node-based Conversations

For those who understand the concept of a Tech Tree where you start at a node and branch out from there, the Talk Trees are sorta like that, but are more suited to a prolonged and more open minded discussion where nodes appear to initiate a conversation based around a topic being decision-specific per the actions that “The Lab” makes to affect the outside world, and only in multiple playthroughs can the player view all the possibilities.

Unlike the Lab Discussions and more long-winded events, these conversations in the Talk Tree are fairly short engagements, like enjoying someone’s company and asking them a question that goes along with their character and ethos.

As for the visual side of things, the interactive visual chart of initiating topics that make up the core of the Talk Tree is a reflection of the character’s development based on choices made, akin to a political compass markup of sorts where nodes showing up in a certain area more often signifies a change in the consequential character’s development.

The nodes that appear are displayed in two general ways, those that have been initiated and have been recorded as having occurred or uninitiated nodes that the player can initiate or even disappear from being initiated like a time-specific event.

Accessing New Talk Tree Nodes

There are various triggers to open up new nodes on a Consequential Character’s Talk Tree, as some are there by default like topics about their body and such, some added after events occur, some continuing off of other nodes, some are responses to attribute developments, and etc.

This sort of undertaking may seem to be complicated to navigate, but it’s an goal to make it simple for the Player to engage, as well as providing quick hub of information to inform the Player of Talk Tree opportunities they haven’t been aware of.

Character Specific Side-Consequences

As each of the consequential characters have their own individual external influence on “The Lab”’’s affairs, the Talk Tree is also a form of engaging in influence from the player’s perspective and onto the consequential character themselves.

For example, Susanna’s confidence mechanic is tied to how much of her Talk Tree is filled out, changing her personality and such, affecting the kinds of consequential actions she makes throughout a prolonged “Lab of God” playthrough.

Other talk tree’s such Hans is an open debate between opposing intelligences, yours and his, which plays into the personal conflict that the player can have with Hans, where failing reveals more truth than would been the case if the debate had not been initiated to begin with.

The Partner Character has a Talk Tree of her own which you can access by going to her room, but unlike the Consequential NPCs, hers is limited to exposition to the current affairs, aside from mechanics where talking can heal and better their relationship, especially to resolve serious event-specific grudges.

Romance and Regrettable Initiations

One feature of the Talk Tree that goes against traditional game design is the openness of conversation allowing for the Player to make hasty regrettable decisions like initiating the flirting nodes with another female character and potentially spurring a relationship controversy with the partner character from this type of hastily incurred hubris, whether if the player is experimenting or doing it on purpose.

Not talking is a viable strategy, as per a “plead the fifth” scenario, as the Talk Tree documents the conversations you had and not had, and the player can make things worse for “The Lab” by revealing confidential information that can hurt “The Lab”’s overall reputation, even if the player thinks they have good intentions.

Nevertheless, talking can lead to positive opportunities as well, like acquiring cheaper costs for ongoing transactions alongside other benefits, so it’s up to the player to trend in a direction that they think is appropriate to go, especially in the serious consideration of delivering another to become a god, as opposed to the partner character and themselves.

Talk Tree Progression Importance

For those who do not wish to engage in talking to the other characters in this fashion, as per the not talking option and being a shut-in to avoid making things worse for themselves, it is an optional feature in terms of not affecting the main core of the scientific progression to an ascension route and more or less just the direct line of communication to affect the characters external to “The Lab”.

As per the “Lab of God” game section’s goal of having a section in this ascension story dedicated to “being human” prior to the ascension, interaction with the outer unknown is a part of the overall experience, even if consequences are incurred, as these are part of the symbolic analogy that this game section is going for.