"So whats the deal with the dialogue?"

I wanted to type up some notes on the current issues with the dialogue system and what will go into fixing those issues in future releases. I wanna type up stuff like this semi-regularly. 

Right now there's a functional dialogue system in place that only partially works with triggers. The problem right now is that the triggers are almost random in practice, and it's hard to tell what causes dialogue. I've gotten some feedback that this makes dialogue seem like it's just "there". 

This is of course going to be fixed so dialogue triggers are more clear and relevant. The issue came from me not fully understanding the implications of what I was asking for. After all you can't have a system check a list every single frame indiscriminately. So right now the system checks certain object times at certain intervals which is an inaccurate solution but worked for now. 

The current plan is track more than "dialogue" at certain intervals but instead have more options. "Realtime", "Oninteraction", "OnNaomiArousal", etc. to give these checks context based on need. This will make testing crucial and likely time consuming once everything comes together. At some point we'll likely rely on testers more with route instructions or something. I'm well aware this is all going to end up very complicated...

Other stuff is adding support for dynamic dialogue choices under "speak" that appear and disappear automatically based on similar conditions to Naomi's dialogue. Which besides "triggers" there's another matter that needs implementing.

Multiple conditionals at once. Being able to have the game read if you came in Naomi, pet her head, and told her "good girl", and only under those conditions she'll proclaim she'll forever be your pet. This is the most important part of this system, and also the trickiest, more so than the previous issue. 

Not only do i need to make sure the trigger occurs the way it needs to be read in a optimized form. I also need to make sure the conditionals i'm checking for are the optimal conditions. And once things get huge making sure there aren't conflicts or any particularly bad overlap.

I'm expecting some issues, which is why future versions of the dialogue box will be set up like a chat log. Allowing you to view the history of conversation easily, even if dialogue may sometimes unintentionally appear rapidly.

I've also considered doing things like making some dialogue pop up in the gameplay area, like have somewhat comic/manga style moans and pants, and maybe even smaller inconsequential bits of dialogue too...That will be more a later addition more than likely though. And i need to determine if it fits the games style. I don't usually do stuff like that in my personal works...

Whelp, hopefully this gives some insight into the challenges we're facing. As while next month focuses on adding features, how much gets done will be determined by how we resolve these issues. Hopefully this will make up a bit for the lack of a devstream today.

I may type one of these again layer, maybe to explain the creation of the new ending scene animation, or discuss audio issues and such. Let me know if you enjoyed this or not. 

Thanks for reading and support!

~sacb0y