Realms Beyond - Reactive Dialogues

The latest update for Realms Beyond explains reactive dialogues and shows off some new screenshots.

Reactive Dialogues (and new screenshots!)

In the weeks since the last update, we've been hard at work designing quests and locations. And to make sure that our quests are as good as they can be and offer the highest possible degree of reactivity towards the player character, we've also improved our dialogue system and added a handful of new features to it.

In this update, we're going to show you the new features of the dialogue system, as well as screenshots of some beautiful new locations we've added to the world of Argea. The section of the update that shows off the dialogue tool will contain minor spoilers for early content in the game, as well as a side quest later in the game. If you wish to avoid such spoilers, please take note of the warnings and skip ahead.

In an RPG, it is important that the game recognizes the player's character build. And since Realms Beyond allows the player to create (or to recruit) a party of six characters, a diverse party should mean that NPCs react differently to each of them. Different characters should also be able to react differently to NPC statements. While most characters might agree with the assessment that orcs are savage barbarians, a half-orc character might object to such a statement.

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Dialogue options can depend on many things: the player character's gender, race, class, ability scores, skills, equipment, current status effects, faction reputation, and more. If you want to find a peaceful solution with the orcs, letting your half-orc do the talking might be a good idea. Similarly, in a village where everyone is prejudiced towards elves because of an old grudge that has never been forgotten, an elven or half-elven character will have a harder time winning the sympathies of the populace.

Warning: minor spoilers for early content ahead!
To skip any spoiler, please jump to the screenshot section at the end.

[…]


Quest spoilers over. You may continue reading from here if you wanted to avoid them.

Finally, we're going to show you some screenshots of a cozy village on the remote island in the Northern sea. Enjoy the scenes of tranquil village life!



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The chopping block, where prisoners condemned to death meet their end. You can sit down in the tavern next door and watch the execution through the windows, comfortably seated with a mug of ale in your hands. The pinnacle of entertainment in a sleepy little village like this.
The local physician's house. He cares for the sick and also serves as the local coroner. His cat is doing its best at keeping the village rat-free.
Click to enlarge
He's not drinking on duty! He's merely sampling the ale to make sure it is of high enough quality. A diligent guard would never let his officers taste sub-par ale. He's just doing his duty. Besides, it's not like these prisoners need much guarding. They're locked behind bars, tight and secure, with no way to escape.


And that's it for today! We've given you a more thorough look into how our dialogue system works, along with a glimpse of one of the game's many side quests - and keep in mind, this is the very same dialogue tool you will be able to use to create new modules for Realms Beyond, so all the power of setting custom conditions for dialogue checks and writing quests with multiple solutions and outcomes will be in your hands!

More information.

Nice. I wonder how far away they are from a game release? Can't wait to get my hands on that module building tool.

How did I miss this one? Looks great.

I'm always suspicious of grand claims about quest reactivity prior to release -- since that's something that's very frequently whittled away over the course of development as the ship date looms nearer -- but if they can deliver what they describe here, I'll be thrilled.

And the village in the screenshots was very lovingly put together -- of course graphics aren't the main point of an isometric game, but when you can see real care has been put into the placement and design of art assets even on this small scale it speaks very well of the team's attention to detail in general.

I suspect the actual launch is still quite some time away, and you know there will be some early access stage that will likely linger for months. At least it's coming, and I think it will be worth any wait!

Months? I wouldn't be surprise if early access lingered for years.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I suspect the actual launch is still quite some time away, and you know there will be some early access stage that will likely linger for months. At least it's coming, and I think it will be worth any wait!

Very Nice! Art style is reminiscent of Ultima VII.
I'm looking forward to my boxed edition and cloth map.

Love the screens and all the details in it.
There schedule is quite ambitious and iirc release is planned for 2020 with early alpha and beta access for KS supporters.
Can't wait to play this, but hope they take their time and get it right. I also like that they give the RP aspects as much room as the combat mechanics.

It is planned to be released in parts. It was discussed in my preview of Realms Beyond of last year: https://www.rpgwatch.com/articles/re…eview-455.html

This is the relevant section:

The plan is to release the game at the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020 and will be released in parts, meaning that only a part of the map will be available at that time. A total of 3 parts are planned. The second and third part will be much lower priced than the first part and will come in the form of expansions to that first part. They are doing this, because they will need the time to create the content for all the parts and in this way the game can already be made available for a large part. The mod tools will be released with the first part, so people can already start creating mods for the game.


Edit: Developer feedback to releasing in 'parts':

Released in parts' is probably a little bit misleading here.

We plan to release additional parts or expansions as the Gold Box series did with Forgotten Realms Volume I-IV (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness). But in contrast to those titles, our game will receive a huge update/DLC that unlocks the new content instead of releasing a whole new product. And we're talking here about another 60-100 hours gameplay that require about 12-16 months development time to make.

With every new 'expansion', the player will be able to explore new continents/regions of the world but keeps his/her character party. Along with new spells/classes/feats/items/monster, the level range of your characters and monsters will increase with each expansion.
Our approach is probably more like the one with Pen&Paper scenario/campaign books than with traditional sequels of games.

I am so looking forward to this, I'm hoping these guys can be one of those little studious that can.

Oh aye, the episodic nature of the project will also extend how long it will take for all parts to be available. It looks well worth the wait though, so I'll bide my time and hope for the very best.

If they started with all the Chaos Chronicles code they could be pretty close.

I skipped through most of the screenshots since they are spoiler-ific. Steam page says 2020 release date. I want them to get things right but hope the release won't be too long away!

Originally Posted by purpleblob
2020 release date.

2019 is really turning into a very damp squib of a year for cRPGs isn't it. Still, it should make the end of year voting a lot more interesting and weird than normal.

This one somehow missed my radar. Definitely will be keeping an eye on it though.