Last time I briefly covered how the Stance you take can affect the tactical discussion system of Talky RPG (groan). This time I'll briefly cover the work-in-progress conversation map, which represents the topics of discussion that your character is covering with their partner/opponent.
The conversation topics are represented using a grid that the speech bubble icon (representing where you currently are in your discussion) moves through. As it encounters different topics/tiles, they affect the player and computer characters in various ways: they may gain or lose Stress, the computer character may lose Patience, the player may gain the information they require and so on.
The core gameplay consists of the player trying to influence the conversation so that it benefits them - usually by collecting the information they need (represented by exclamation points). They can do this using a variety of skills (partly dictated by their stance), guiding the conversation towards and away from tiles as they see fit.
The computer-controlled participant will also guide the conversation as much as they are able. Part of the player's job is to take into account the ways in which the computer will influence the path and take this into account, even subtly altering the computer's moves using their skills.
It was fun to get into coding a (pretty rudimentary) AI system for the opponent. Each turn, the computer analyses nearby tiles and chooses where it wants to go, steering the conversation in that direction if it is able.
This update took a bit longer than expected because I was laid up with shingles for about a week and a half. Don't get shingles. It's unpleasant.
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