Online talk:A Special Request

Fortunata's dialogue tree

Fortunata's introductory dialogue tree is a hideous mess, and I say that as the guy who transcribed it. Every single line she has is a branch. Even if the lines all lead to the same place, we still don't have a way to represent that cleanly. Consider

   A ---- B -\  /- D ...
     \        \/
      \       /\
       \_ C _/  \_ E ...

Our current way of displaying dialogue would be

"A initial."

B player.

"B response."

C player.

"C response."

D player.

"D response."'

E player.

"E response."'

But that's not readily distinguishable from

   A ---- B -\
     \        \-- D ---- E
      \       /
       \_ C _/

I formatted the article for this, but it's going to be redundant:

"A initial."

B player.

"B response."

D player.

"D response."'

E player.

"E response."'

C player.

"C response."

D player.

"D response."'

E player.

"E response."'

And it gets even worse when we factor in the subsequent branches; her dialogue is pretty much this criss-crossing structure. So how do we even fix this? Even if we take the cop-out of just showing one dialogue tree on the quest page, we still need all branches added her own article. DavidJCobb (talk) 20:45, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

I think it could be solved somehow. But I'd need to see exactly what and how the crisscrossing stuff looks like first, and my old DB screenshots are in an external drive somewhere in the cellar! Tib (talk) 21:20, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

If the dialogue is so messy, it doesn't sound like it should be part of the walkthrough anyway. Only dialogue relevant to quest progression should be included here, and while paraphrasing is discouraged, readability of the walkthrough is most important. All the dialogue with all its branching nuances belongs on the NPC page. ABC labels could help; I think we use that elsewhere but I can't remember where right now. --Enodoc (talk) 08:40, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

True, but I did say we'd still need to find a way to represent it on the NPC page. DavidJCobb (talk) 03:58, 16 June 2018 (UTC)