Good evening my fellow Kindred,

As tradition dictates, and it’s the 13th of December it’s a Dev Diary day! What we’ll talk about today? Probably one of the most important systems driving the narrative. If you thought about the dialogue system you’re right!

As you know in all RPGs, the narrative part of the game is important if not the most important aspect of the entire game. Without it, the game would be a pretty blank walking simulator where you don’t have any interaction with the people that surround you. After all, it’s the essence of RPG and interactions with the surroundings and NPCs.

If it is about design we’ll stay with the vertical UI you already know. it’s more versatile leaving more space on the screen.  It’s also more modern resembling walls you scroll on your phone when you look around your social media. It also gives off a feeling that your character is writing along in his pocketbook. You’ll also see portraits of the characters that are speaking.

As for a list of features you already saw a piece of dialogue system - in the game jam version of the game - but we plan on many more.

I hope I sparked your interest! So, let’s start.

• Discipline usage in the dialogues - all of us use Discipline when we are talking with mortals. Either something subtle like Presence or something with a flash like Potence.
• Willpower re-rolls - as a vampire constantly fighting with the Beast you have to have strong will, but what’s the point of strong will if you can’t use it in a different situation? Well, you’ll be able to! You don’t want to fail that roll? Here is your rescue.
• Percentage success tooltip - we want to be as clear with players as possible in the case of social rolls. After all, you know your strong sides and weak sides and this will help you to assess if the effort is worth it.
• Companions help - you are a leader of the Coterie, so it’s not weird that you take point in conversations. But you can’t be the master of all. That’s why you have companions. In combat, it’s clearer, because you can give them orders and allow them to work as one. Dialogues shouldn’t be different. You may not be good with persuasion so why not ask one of your companions for help? For the sake of conversation rolls only the highest dice pool will be used - no matter whose it’ll be.
• Companion relationships - companions are living NPCs with their convictions. And they have ears and eyes too. Don’t be surprised when they will comment on your choices during the dialogues.
• Morality system - yes, we all believe in something, and that something is the only thing that keeps the Beast at bay. It also helps to function in a mortal society without bigger problems. But humanity isn’t one thing. Everyone interprets it differently. And this is how we want to handle your convictions. You’ll have opposing absolutes that will shortly describe your convictions and understanding of what this ambiguous construct called “humanity” is. Companions will have their convictions too and will react to your decisions during gameplay accordingly.
• Hyperlinks - hyperlinks that give you a short description of a given topic are quite handy. Especially if you are new to Kindred society. You don’t have to look around the glossary to see the explanation of what the Ancillae are. You will have it instantly when you hover over the word that is of interest to you.
• One-time option indicators - we know the frustration you may encounter when accidentally you lock out the dialogue options because you chose one that closed the given dialogue branch and jumped to another. We want to remedy this by giving you a clear indication of whether you’d be able to ask something several times or only once.
• Indicators for unavailable dialogue options - You don’t have given Discipline? Skill? Or maybe you don’t walk along the path of given morality? Well… you won’t be able to see what you can do - because you don’t - but as a player you’ll be informed that there are options open for different playstyles and characters. Maybe you’ll feel the urge to play again with something different.

We want our dialogues to be as immersive as they are clear and versatile allowing you to just sit, relax, and read so we hope that all those features will be helpful and seamlessly woven into the complicated fabric of vampiric politics. I hope this entry was interesting and stay tuned for more next month!