Dialogue Additions + Changes

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by MagicallyClueless, Apr 15, 2016.

  1. MagicallyClueless

    MagicallyClueless Master Astronaut

    I know this most likely is under way so it's not necessarily a new idea that needs to be implemented immediately, as the game will continue to develop. It'll flesh out further and grow more, along with the addition of the two new marriage candidates and the big updates that are to come.

    But, I still really wanted to make a thread about this. I was really excited for more in-law dialogue options when 1.07 came around, and I guess I was a bit... underwhelmed? I really love and appreciate all the work CA puts into the game, so hopefully my dialogue suggestions are possible and that they will be considered.

    I'll make a disclaimer that I have very limited knowledge on EVERY piece of dialogue. I have one main save in which I'm married to Sebastian and another save that I'm not very far in at all. So please, if you have any additions to make to this thread, please do so! I am not a wizard, as much as I'd like to be!

    This post is extremely long, so I apologize in advance.

    1. Townspeople's Dialogue in General
    The dialogue of the people you can't marry are arguably the ones with the least dialogue, at least from my experience. I have 10 hearts with half of them, but many of them are saying the very same things that they've said from the beginning, barring a few (like Linus, who warmed up to you after a while). There are a lot of mysteries about these characters and more things I would like to know about them- so surely some more dialogue upon reaching 10 hearts would be awesome. Of course, I'm not asking you to lay out everything right out front, but I'm such a sucker for character development and the community has certainly picked its favorites on what it wants to learn more about.

    Because of the limited dialogue, after best-friending them I've kinda stopped talking to them since there is no longer decay. Robin is one of my favorite villagers, but after a tsunami of "you're a member of the community now, huh?" and "i'm just thinking about carpentry projects" I no longer really make it a point to talk to her unless I'm buying stuff. Even with the in-law dialogue (she's said two unique things to me, I'm not sure if there's more or not) it just wasn't enough to keep me consistently invested with them. Demetrius is actually worse than her since I don't think he has in-law dialogue at all for me and 80% percent of the stuff he says was from the beginning, which kinda disappointed me since I always wanted to figure out the family situation more. Basically, I would like a little more variety and reward for getting to 10 hearts. More variety in general would be amazing, but 10 hearts can be crucial considering that's more end-game stuff.

    There are also characters we can't really talk to and build a relationship with, like Marlon, Gil, and Gunther, so I think incorporating a schedule for them or at least make them reachable behind the counter would be nice and bring a little more life to the game. The community has figured out some subtext and implications with the little we've seen of Marlon, and it'd just be amazing to expand on that somewhat.

    2. Townspeople's Dialogue After You Marry + Have Kids
    If Pam tells me "if you have kids, you'll understand" one more time despite me having two beautiful lil chittlins I'm gonna roundhouse kick her into the bus. Okay, kidding since I like Pam, but still. I think other townspeople should recognize you're married or have children, and not just your in-laws.

    I think it would be cool for Lewis to ask me what the married life is like instead of him sulking about it. Maybe people comment how they're happy I was able to make such a life. Maybe they could comment about my spouse if any of their dialogue involves my spouse: in example, I remember talking to Alex once who asked what the deal with Sebastian was and if he was a goth (would you honestly comment about something like that if you knew they were married to that person??) But little things like that end up breaking the immersion for me.

    The recognition of the townspeople would also provide more insight on their marriages and families as well, and maybe they could ask for advice or reminisce about the old days or something. Maybe be able to trigger some events that help tie families back together after you've had and handled your own family?

    I'd like to revisit the in-law dialogue as well. Again, I've only been married to one person and I haven't watched LPs or anything so my knowledge on this is limited, but from my experience, only one of the in-laws seems to really recognize that I'm married. The extra bits from Robin is really nice and cute, but I was really hoping for more development on Demetrius' end as well. I know Sebastian and Demetrius are not blood-related, but they're still family and lived under the same roof for a few decades. Demetrius' normal dialogue doesn't involve Sebastian at all, so the very least in-law dialogue could do is recognize me and maybe provide more insight on maybe why they are so distant with each other. As much as I love Robin, I want to learn more about Demetrius, too. Having these extra dialogue options can open that up more.

    I would like special events with every spouse + family (or extra event if they have no family) to tie up loose ends, but that strays a bit from my topic so I'll leave it there I suppose.

    3. Bachelors/Bachelorettes After You Marry
    This point bothers me the most. I just think it's a bit creepy and disconcerting that, after you get married and continue to befriend the single bachelors/bachelorettes, they still develop a crush on you and lay not-so-subtle hints on wanting to live on the farm with you, or talking privately, or anything among that. I know it's silly, but this really does discourage me from getting closer to them because I don't want to be walking around and knowing like 9 other people are giving me googly eyes and wanting to confess the hell out of me like it's some high school anime. I'm a shy person, this is too much attention for me.

    I know that divorce will be an option so I'm not saying they shouldn't develop feelings for you after you marry, but I think their dialogue should change to reflect your marital status, either in support or retaliation, doesn't matter. As long as they acknowledge I'm married, and make some effort in respecting that. Maybe make it so their hardcore flirts are disabled at this time and give them different dialogue, but once a divorce happens, they may comment on that and then their dialogue is mushy and cute as normal, and you can give them a bouquet to escalate the relationship, etc.

    But yeah, I know I want to befriend everyone and get them up to max hearts, but getting up to 8 hearts for the single people can be hard for me. Especially knowing some of the events, it's just... an awkward situation for my poor farmer to be in, and all she's been doing is saying hi.

    4. Special Reactions to Specific Gifts
    This has been suggested in other threads before, so I in no way take credit for these ideas. I still do want to touch up on this, though!

    I think every person should have a sort of gift that makes them react in a specific way. For example, one of Sebastian's favorite dishes is pumpkin soup, something his mother made when he was young. That's also a recipe that Robin gives you herself, to help cement the fact. It'd be nice to get a nostalgic/gushy response after gifting that to him, rather than the usual prompt for items he loves. I have a mountain of sashimi, so something like pumpkin soup should be special! I know there are other marriage candidates with special items (I believe Sam and Cactus fruit is one?) as well as the townsfolk, so more variety like that would really liven up the characters.

    Someone also made a suggestion thread about a special response upon giving spouse truffle oil. I think that'd be hilarious. More playful banter between you and your spouse is always wanted on my end.

    Other Suggestions + Threads
    NPC Dialogue Should Reflect Changes in World - They posted this right before my topic, but they're closely related so I'm gonna shamelessly plug this here. They make a great point that would help SDV feel more immersive and lively in regards to character development.


    I'll leave that here for now. If anyone would like me to add some helpful suggestions, feel free to comment! I just think that the townspeople have a lot of character that we should be able to discover more about. The lore and characters of Stardew Valley is what interests me the most, aside from gameplay. I look forward to the additions to come, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to add what I'd like to end up seeing on the dialogue side of things.

    (I might add some points about spouse dialogue later but a lot of improvements have been made on that front and it's not something that really gets to me right now. If I think of anything significant though I will add it)
     
      Last edited: Apr 15, 2016
    • ishizu29

      ishizu29 Subatomic Cosmonaut

      i´ve yet to see any "special in-laws dialogue" (married Sebastian) all i get from robin is the "member of community-speech" and "carpenter stuff" and all demtrius talks about is job related stuff. :/ sebastian has a few new lines though :)
      at least robin has stopped using the "have you met my son sebastian" -line. so yeah i would like for most of the NPCs to stop sounding like broken records.
      i recently got to the "dinner at jodis,kent,sam,vincent - quest" and i was honestly wondering if the game had misunderstood who i was married to and thought i´d married sam.
      especially since jodi says as one point " you´re almost a part of the family" or something in that line.
      and really,,,why can´t there be something similar with the in-laws? after looking it up i realized that everyone gets this quest at some point when you get enough hearts, but why not have something like it with your (future) in-laws?
       
        nekoCrimson likes this.
      • MagicallyClueless

        MagicallyClueless Master Astronaut

        If you want to know what Robin has said to me, here:
        She lets you know that Seb told her he was quitting smoking, which makes her proud; another dialogue is that she thinks the farm life is good for Seb
        but that's really it so I was hoping for more things. I'd honestly love to learn more about childhoods. Some of them are sad, some are silly. I'd just love to know about 'em.

        And yeah, a dinner with your in-laws would be pretty awesome and I'd love a scene where you just get to talk and learn about everyone in the family.
         
          nekoCrimson likes this.
        • Voc

          Voc Void-Bound Voyager

          I agree to everything here. We need more ways to interact with the townsfolk and the world needs to undergo change (without completely overhauling the established programming). With Divorce becoming a thing in the next update, you could definitely see some form of hostility/negativity/major friendship point loss for the directly affected villagers.

          And while it is a bit more on the adult side of things (which given the fact the game touches on corporate dystopia, PTSD, forbidden love, hints of a war in the background, etc), I honestly wouldn't mind love triangles or even being the 'Other Man/Woman', and being able to swoon already married couples. Yes, because Robin and Jodi. That might lead to a rift of certainly a few friendship hearts dropping by one or two across the community, and maybe the rest of Maru's family wouldn't speak to you or you'd have an event where Kent threatens you...

          Something along those lines. It might be more 'in your face' than the topics I mentioned above, but I think it'd be do-able.
           
            MagicallyClueless likes this.
          • MagicallyClueless

            MagicallyClueless Master Astronaut

            saw this again and thought it'd be good to bump up

            a lot of this still applies even after 1.1, hopefully more dialogue will eventually arrive!
             
              nekoCrimson and Roskii Heiral like this.
            • karcea

              karcea Scruffy Nerf-Herder

              I completely agree with this! I'd love to see more improvement on interactions among you and your spouse with the townsfolk, especially their family!
               
              • LuthienNightwolf

                LuthienNightwolf Oxygen Tank

                I'm glad that the modding community has been actively working on this, I'm considering installing all the new dialogue mods out there just to have some new content. You explained it perfectly up there so I'll just add my +1. :)
                 
                • MagicallyClueless

                  MagicallyClueless Master Astronaut

                  i'm praying for this in the next content update
                   
                    nekoCrimson likes this.

                  Share This Page