Suggestions to improve dialogues

[Underneath The Stars]

we always keep hearing complaints how dialogues have been repetitive (so was new leaf let's be real here), but how about instead of just saying that, how about we suggest what could be added to improve it....

- hobbies to be incorporated seems like hobbies are more like an action thing, but makes me wonder why they aren't incorporated to what they're saying at the moment. for example, a lazy villager is working out. shouldn't he be complaining about it when you talk to him that time? or someone is with a shopping bag, reading a book or watering flowers, would be neat if there was also dialogue for it that is outside their personality defaults. it would give villagers more depth that some of y'all want.
- villagers mentioning a furniture was a gift from you i've had instances where a villager would say "they" picked out their furniture to make their house comfy. uh, sure. kinda rude you forgot that was my birthday gift to YOU! wish they'd remember that at least (if coding all the gifted items is impossible)
- villager photo storyline saw a screenshot here with a villager having a special dialogue when gifting a photo, but that is per instance. (forgot how, i think when they give it after doing a task?) why couldn't that be the default thing to say instead of giving it like it's just an ordinary furniture. i also remember before having mentions of villager photos (how they would give it to you, or ask you about it) outside of getting them.
- villager gossip gossiping about you & other players are so frequent, that i never hear about neighbor gossip anymore. i want to hear gossip about the villagers not if i dug some fossils via my other character, silly!

what else?

 

[Solio]

Get rid of the " I saw you doing ____ yesterday" or tone it down majorly. I don't need to be told what I myself did yesterday. I know.
It may be fun if you're sharing your town with a relative, but otherwise it's just boring dialogue.

 

[Xara]

in wild world, i remember villagers would have differing interests¿ that would change sometimes. for example, goldie would suddenly really like blue furniture and would ask you to bring her something that is blue.

it’s something that i forgot about until recently but it sort of made the villagers feel more real y’know?? like how everyone irl has different interests at times, too - it was such a tiny thing but i think it’d be nice to have again and while it’s not 100% dialogue-related, it’d make the villagers feel a lil bit more alive imo since rn, at times, they sort of just feel like island decorations ;u;

 

[Jessi]

I miss when friendship level acutal mattered. Honestly thats what also made the convos much more interesting. I remember them being almost cold to you until you worked your friendship up with them, especially cranky and snootys

 

[Loreley]

Just recycle some of the dialogue from Wild World. I just opened my Wild World save and animals aren't even mean. The dialogue is completely normal and would definitely feel fresh to a lot of New Horizons players. Completely new dialogue would be cool too ofc but since the lack of variety is my biggest problem with the current dialogue, I feel like this would be an efficient solution.

 

[MayorofMapleton]

I say give them more sub-personalities within a normal personality.

If you have several Jocks, let's say, instead of using completely the same dialogue, they have variant versions (yes there is something already like that such as Lazies changing what food they want to eat and so on).

But more so if you have 3 Jocks, the game will assign a different sub-personality to each on (not repeating, there would be 10 max sub-personalities for each).

So out of the 3, the first Jock may talk about muscles and all things working out, the second talks more about hiking and outdoor physical activities, the third talks about mainly sports and exercise. Of course being Jocks they would still share key phrases and dialogues fitting for the personality, but they would be more structured and unique to them. So it doesn't feel like you have 2 of the same. This way as well, between players there is even more variations, you might have a muscle minded Dom while your friend's Dom speaks more about protein shakes and healthy living.


On top of that, think adding in more villager to villager conversations, a longer time for them to warm up to you, villagers asking to visit your place in a new way (thinking they took it out due to complaints of villagers just walking into your house), gossip, talking more about the NPCs and asking for food would help as well.

 

[Ananas Dragon]

add the dialogue from the previous games

spice the characters up a notch

Add a few lines from different personalities but keep them limited (don't make a lazy villager say something about always working out)

make them shut up about what I did yesterday

 

[SleepyMimeko]

I'd prefer if they stopped talking about what I do around the island unless it's something big like paying off a loan or getting a five star rating. Today, 8 of 10 villager told me that I was burying bells.
Only Snooty or peppy villagers should talk about your clothes or shoes. I don't need Snake giving me fashion advice.
Conversations should be two-sided. If a villager asks you a question, you should be able to answer them.
Snooty and Cranky villagers should take time to warm up to you. They don't have to be so mean to you like in the gamecube game. Just make them a little more guarded and stand-offish at first.
Conversations should be longer, and not just a bunch of one-liners like "I'm making the most of my day".
It would be nice villagers played more games with you like rock paper scissors, the card game the campers play, etc.
Make them more relatable. Give them other things to talk about other than muscles, becoming famous, bugs on the floor, etc.

 

[Pintuition]

I think it would be neat if they asked more questions (like that already sometimes do) and then incorporate whatever the answer is in the dialog. It would be awesome if it learned what you're into and added it slowly over time. For example, if a villager walks up and asks me what I like to do in my spare time and I pick "bake" they could ask a few days later if I'd baked anything good, or share they made something at home and thought of me. Something, anything, that's interactive would be nice.

I also agree that hobbies would provide way more variation. Not all the peppys want to be a pop star, some have other hobbies/aspirations, for example. I'd love to be able to help them "follow their dreams" more than just slamming a microphone in their yard because they like to sing on the plaza sometimes. Hobbies alone would be so neat, never-mind even more dialogue!

 

[loveclove]

Anything they added would be super fun. I'm just tired of what we already have.
But I recently discovered some older games had storylines with the NPCs that started on set dates of the year, that would be so cool. They could do something similar with villagers... Some drama or background story developed between them

 

[Marshmallows]

The villager dialogue is very limited and boring... seems like an easy fix, so hoping it happens someday.

My pet peeves are when they mention other player characters or visitors that came to my island only once. I miss when they'd confront you about rumors they heard about you... or make up rumors about others.

My normal villagers have the personality of a plant. The dialogues are too short and don't go anywhere. "I should call my parents" or "what should I do today?" is not a conversation. It should be "Wonder what I should do today?" they list off some things, you help them decide, they react. And then a while later, if you talk to them again, they should tell you if they did it or not or how it went. (And each time, this should be different... different choices, different reactions, different outcomes.)

Basically... interactive conversations that go somewhere, more topic variety, more quirky funny comments, and speech that doesn't repeat so much. It should be fun and unexpected to hear what your villagers have to say.

 

[Hypno KK]

What I really want is for them to stop pointing out how weird it is that someone placed a random object outside. Mine usually do this with things you'd definitely expect to find outdoors, it's not even weird stuff. It gets kind of annoying to hear about how weird it is to see a trash can.

It would be really awesome if they generated dialogue using information about a villager. I don't know if NH includes (or will ever include) those random bits of information like their siblings, dream job, etc. but they could have lines based on that. Maybe a villager would reminisce about their annoying younger brother or tell you about their dream of becoming a designer.

I really want more conversations where they ask you something and remember your answer in the future. I love it when that happens, it makes the game feel more immersive.

 

[faerie]

Bringing back time capsules and unique dialogue unique for that villager.This could also be good for hide and seek. Have special characters talk about your specific villagers. Bring house visits back and add gossip to the mix. Villagers could actually catch a critter be so happy and tell some sort of story. Bring Brewster and Harriet back to have interesting dialogue with villagers in the shop where you can only hear this at theses shops. Have Tom Nook, Isabelle etc. come out of the resident services for unique dialogue as well.

 

[Underneath The Stars]

i completely forgot about time capsules

need to post that on “things you forgot from the old games” thread...

I miss when friendship level acutal mattered. Honestly thats what also made the convos much more interesting. I remember them being almost cold to you until you worked your friendship up with them, especially cranky and snootys

right? it was annoying how i thought sisterly’s saying like “this island isn’t big enough for both of us” was gonna be something like that, but you still get that dialogue even with bff status which means, working up your friendship really isn’t a thing still. sure, we get more conversations as time goes, but i’ve had convos with *new* villagers that i thought was just unlocked because i became friends with someone of the same personality before.

i think so far, the most memorable “change” was smug’s because i remember how i struggled to connect with marshal early on. maybe sisterly & smugs are the new snooty & cranky (with different style ofc)

 

[AnnieAppleseed]

I miss having my villagers ask me for things when I first talk to them. It's a pain to have to bother them several times in a row to get a request.

 

[CrankyCupcake]

It would be really awesome if they generated dialogue using information about a villager. I don't know if NH includes (or will ever include) those random bits of information like their siblings, dream job, etc. but they could have lines based on that. Maybe a villager would reminisce about their annoying younger brother or tell you about their dream of becoming a designer.

I believe such dialogue is available in NH. (I'll omit the names of the villagers in what I'm about to write so that I don't spoil. If you want to know who said what, I can reply.)

So far, I've had one villager, who wasn't a jock, tell me that he wanted to be a baseball player but it didn't happen. Another one talks about her parents, grandparents and a friend back on the island where she grew up on. She also mentioned an old lady who kinda scared her when she was a kid. One villager had a conversation with another about what he wanted to be when he is older. Yet another villager mentioned his friends back home when I talked to him in the aquarium. A resident told me he was called "tedious" by another villager and why. A different resident told me a story about twins he knew who dressed like each other and swapped jobs without anyone being the wiser.

I really enjoyed these personal tidbits of information about my residents. I think a lot of these conversations are locked behind a high friendship level, so it isn't easy to get them. So often I read about players being bored with the same old dialogue and it makes me wonder if that's because they haven't gotten their friendship levels high enough to hear something different.

Although I'd love even more depth to conversations with my villagers, I don't feel particularly disappointed so far.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

we always keep hearing complaints how dialogues have been repetitive (so was new leaf let's be real here), but how about instead of just saying that, how about we suggest what could be added to improve it....

- hobbies to be incorporated seems like hobbies are more like an action thing, but makes me wonder why they aren't incorporated to what they're saying at the moment. for example, a lazy villager is working out. shouldn't he be complaining about it when you talk to him that time? or someone is with a shopping bag, reading a book or watering flowers, would be neat if there was also dialogue for it that is outside their personality defaults. it would give villagers more depth that some of y'all want.
- villagers mentioning a furniture was a gift from you i've had instances where a villager would say "they" picked out their furniture to make their house comfy. uh, sure. kinda rude you forgot that was my birthday gift to YOU! wish they'd remember that at least (if coding all the gifted items is impossible)
- villager photo storyline saw a screenshot here with a villager having a special dialogue when gifting a photo, but that is per instance. (forgot how, i think when they give it after doing a task?) why couldn't that be the default thing to say instead of giving it like it's just an ordinary furniture. i also remember before having mentions of villager photos (how they would give it to you, or ask you about it) outside of getting them.
- villager gossip gossiping about you & other players are so frequent, that i never hear about neighbor gossip anymore. i want to hear gossip about the villagers not if i dug some fossils via my other character, silly!

what else?

I misjudged this post! I like the idea of talking about realistic improvements for village dialogue! So often the conversation seems to be just either ‘villager dialogue is terrible, I hate them and there is no point to even caring about it anymore’ or ‘villagers should be able to have realistic, individualized dialogue with me’ (which yeah, that’d be nice, but...I think the game would be much more expensive).

for the second of your suggestions, I feel like this one is doable, since villagers remember the clothes you give them, so there is already this kind of mechanic in game.

I also agree with people above noting that the conversations about burying bells, collecting shells, shaking trees etc cans be a bit...much (though there is this one specific peppy dialogue about shells which is more rare - I’ve gotten it once from tabby and never from bangle - and it is literally my favorite thing)

i think incorporating the hobbies would be great and is not impossible (I don’t know much about game coding, but it seems like the preferences are already part of the characters’ design)

I think the ‘around the island’ talk could be spiced up by putting in some silly ‘gossip’ kind of dialogue with randomizer details -like the way different foods and craft types get substituted into the same lines —still happy thinking about fauna’s ‘dubstep crochet project’

 

[Underneath The Stars]

I misjudged this post! I like the idea of talking about realistic improvements for village dialogue! So often the conversation seems to be just either ‘villager dialogue is terrible, I hate them and there is no point to even caring about it anymore’ or ‘villagers should be able to have realistic, individualized dialogue with me’ (which yeah, that’d be nice, but...I think the game would be much more expensive).

for the second of your suggestions, I feel like this one is doable, since villagers remember the clothes you give them, so there is already this kind of mechanic in game.

I also agree with people above noting that the conversations about burying bells, collecting shells, shaking trees etc cans be a bit...much (though there is this one specific peppy dialogue about shells which is more rare - I’ve gotten it once from tabby and never from bangle - and it is literally my favorite thing)

i think incorporating the hobbies would be great and is not impossible (I don’t know much about game coding, but it seems like the preferences are already part of the characters’ design)

I think the ‘around the island’ talk could be spiced up by putting in some silly ‘gossip’ kind of dialogue with randomizer details -like the way different foods and craft types get substituted into the same lines —still happy thinking about fauna’s ‘dubstep crochet project’

i’m glad you got what i was trying to say

yeah those rumors about what you’ve done get annoying when it’s too much because i just don’t see the point. you already know what you did, you don’t need to keep hearing it. i’d rather hear rumors about THEM.

and yes!!! incorporating the hobbies is not impossible since villagers can talk about their surroundings (they say weird stuff about furniture outside- they could have improved this imo), the current weather (rain, rainbow), the current events so i can imagine it wouldn’t be that difficult for them to have a little sub-personality with their hobbies or what they’re currently doing too.
it’s like when they do this, not only dialogue is improved, also personalities, because in this way you won’t feel that personalities are all the same & repetitive. individualized dialogue is reaching for the stars, so this is the best alternative.