PST style in Coran's flirts question

[SimDing0]

Oh, how come the style of Coran's dialogue seems to be inconsistent? The last screenshot in the first post shows PST-style text, while the one before shows regular BG1-style. Has this been altered?

[Domi]

Coran's screenshot you are talking about is a Coran-initiated flirt, which long-windedly describes a romantic situtaion, and would look very odd in BG style. There are 5 of them all together so far. The rest of the dialogues are normal BG style, where actions are on 'only if you have to' basis and descriptions absent or nearly absent. So, yes, it is inconsistent.

[SimDing0]

Wouldn't it be better to at least use bracketted text instead of suddenly introducing speech marks?

[Grim Squeaker]

Wouldn't it be better to at least use bracketted text instead of suddenly introducing speech marks?

I agree. Although the PST style is better than the BG one, I say keep it consistant (unless someone feels like making a translation from BG style to PST style for BG2).

[Domi]

I do not know. Big blocks of descriptions in brackets and then speech normally... not sure. I will probably break blocks appart using multisay and have actions/descriptions as usual in ** and speech as separate line.

[jastey]

Same problem for the Ajantis romance, too. Problem is that there are no event descriptions in BGII, so every action description seems out of place.

 

I really do not know: How do I write a flirt that goes *After wakeup, you find a flower laying beside you* - Well, I could create a flower in the inventory, I guess... Now that's an idea. (Brainstorming while typing... great thing... )

 

But how do I write one that goes (*NPC XY is looking at you*)? If there is no conversation the only thing remaining is describing the actions... Although I don't like this inconsistency myself. Suggestions anyone?

[Grim Squeaker]

Well the mod standard is using brackets .

e.g. from the flirt packs:

 

(You smile as you look upon Aerie. You have both learned much about each other, about love and life, over the past weeks.)

[Domi]

We will need to stay consistent, Jastey. We do not use braketc in BG1NPC, appart from Edwin's hidden thoughts, so let's go with:

 

= ~*Description, description, description*~

= ~NPC is talking, talking, talking~

= ~*Action description*~

[jastey]

That's no problem, Domi, I use whatever standard there is for the mod.

But wasn't the original discussion about this "= ~*Description, description, description*~" part being inconsistent with the rest of the dialogues?

[Domi]

I thought it was about:

= ~And when the skies grew dark he said: "Bloody Hell, it's the prime time for a shug!"~

 

As far as I know PST style means that the text is conveyed via direct speech with verbs indicating that the character speaks and direct speech is indicated, while everything else (actions, descriptions) is not. BG style is opposite - direct speech is not indicated, while everything else (actions, descriptions) - is.

 

If it's about advantages of () over **... well, I do not really want to re-edit to ().

[jastey]

Ah, that means nobody is having a problem with some dialogues only consisting of spoken text, while others would be only action-descriptions? Then I got the discussion wrong, I thought we are talking about that.

[Domi]

Flirts, as they developped presently, are action/description heavy and generally skew the style... so unfortunately, nothing can be done about it, appart from eliminating flirts, but since a person can eliminate flirts by asking char not to flirt with him/her, I see no reason to blindly pursue stylistic purity within flirts. Dialogues, though, are better left with less of action/descriptions, rather than with more actions/descriptions. Simply because majority of them are.

[jastey]

My problem is that some Ajantis-initiated flirts are action based but for the player it seems to be a dialogue like all the other lovetalks so there would be the inconsistency in style that bothers me...

[Domi]

That's the reason why I personally do not like writing flirts - they are such a mish-mash of things; but it is to be expected, since courting/flirting often goes beyond words. Just do what feels right for the situation and see if some of the actions can be converted into options/dialogue (ie *he licks his lips, watching yours intensly* to "Would you think it too bold if I kissed you just now?").

[jastey]

That's how I tried to do it at most occasions and it worked fine for the LTs. I'll spend more effort on that for the flirts, too. Thanks!