Banter suggestions

[JimBobTwo]

Hoping the title draw a few people in! If you want to avoid an essay, scroll down to the bottom and read the tl;dr section.

 

Long Version:

Anyway a little bit about what I'm doing and why I need some help. It's always bugged me that the roads of the mojave are empty as hell, yet, there is dialogue in the game suggesting that caravans are moving, people are wandering about etc. It just frustrated me they copped out on all of this at the Mojave Outpost with a little "Yeah the roads are out". Anyway so what I've done with my mod is just made the roads a bit more alive. Caravans owned by factions will be moving a wide range of items, from low ranking military gear to supply low value outposts guarded by low ranking troops (and vica versa), the Silver Rush will be supplying their important clients with merchandise, the Followers of the Apocalypse will be expecting their medical supply caravan to come in. I've even fixed the overpass to the north of the map so caravans can come in from the north. There will also be guarded VIP movement. over time, I also hope to put in a storyline with a Highwayman faction.

However, as you can guess there will be times where certain factions meet. I have on the whole tried to avoid interactions like Legion Caravans meeting NCR (not saying it doesn't happen at all). At the moment, if they come across each other they just idly wander by without a word, but I can set it so if they do meet they have a little conversation before moving on which I think seems more realistic. So essentially I would quite like some suggestions as to what certain faction caravans would say to each other when they walk past. I've had a look at my map and jotted down a few of the factions that meet, I was wondering if, for a bit of fun, people would like to make some quick suggestions on conversations they could have?

 

tl:dr version: Making a mod with faction caravans, sometimes they meet on the road. Thought it would be fun to ask if anyone had any ideas on what they might say to each other when they do meet just to make it a bit more interesting.

 

Gun Runners & NCR

Gun Runners & Silver Rush (briefly)

Crimson Caravan & NCR

Great Khans & Silver Rush

Silver Rush & The Thorn Hunters (Hunters can be found travelling to and from creature locations. Just to add, these caravans can be attacked and killed by wildlife and bandits and highwaymen. Their respawn time depends on how high value they are.)

NCR & The Thorn Hunters

Silver Rush & NCR

Powder Gangers & The Thorn Hunters

FotA & Silver Rush

FotA & Gun Runners

FotA & NCR

 

These are just the interactions that I already have put in to my mod and some of the ones I am currently working on. If people are interested I'll do another one on the next batch, if not I'll just leave it. Thanks everyone!

 

[TheBlob2]

That would actually be pretty neat. Although I doubt we would be able to draw any audio for the banter dialog unless we use existing dialog and edit it extensively. There's also the issue in Bethesda games, of how when NPCs casually interact with each other it usually feels stilted and mechanical, and what they are talking about is usually completely pointless and they repeat the same conversations over and over again (see: oblivion).

Things we need to consider before starting this mod:

1-the banter has to feel natural so that it doesn't break immersion

2-what they are talking about has to be trivial enough to feel casual and unimportant so the player knows that they don't have to listen if they don't want to. But also important enough to justify it being there at all. If the player is hearing someone talk outside of the dialog menu it should have a purpose, like illustrating the relationship between 2 factions and general flavor.

3-banter has to be diverse enough so players don't get sick of hearing it, and that the likelihood of them hearing the same dialog twice in the same playing session extremely low

4-it has to change as the world around them changes, as well as current events or things the player has done. So by the time player get sick of the banter, they walk by a caravan and all of a sudden the banter is about the player and what they did recently, which would feel dynamic and fluid and it adds to the depth of the game world, as well as inflating the player's ego