Characters not remembering conversations(/ meeting the party)

[macce2]

I know this is kind of minor Issue;
and may have been discussed earlier;
but many people you meet in the game; when traveling with your party; don't necessarily seem to remember the conversations you had with them before
(keywords !?) , or generally, meeting them,
at all.
One example is the bandit you meet when
approaching the shop of the thieves guild.
One bandit appears and he tells you
that he's in a hurry, to get to
the Spannenberg weaponry shop;
but doesn' t leave the area ( disappear).
Instead, he's still there, repeatingly telling you his
plan; after you have left the place and re-entered
later on.

[Pyrdacor]

This is just how simple NPCs work. Basically they are text popups without any logic. It would be a huge effort to change that and I am not sure if other RPGs of that era were different.

[macce2]

Sure. Pyrdacor, You're right.
Maybe most of the other RPGs of that era were no different.
However, I'm a little kind of embarrassed to say this;
but I think Ultima VI by Origin Systems did have quite a good
implementation of in-game conversations.
What I least like, is to underestimate Ambermoon or
Ambermoon Advanced.
Because I'm not into programming per se;
maybe sometimes, it's quite difficult to know,
how hard it would possibly be to implement some
improvements, which may seem to be quite simple
to implement at first glance.

[Pyrdacor]

It is pretty hard to implement that. At least for the simple NPCs which are only text popups. You have no possibility to add logic here so the only possibility would be to replace the whole NPC by another one which looks the same and has a different text index. Not only is it much effort but also a waste of resources.

So I rather would focus to do it for real NPCs with a conversation window. There you can add logic. Indeed I tried to consider this for all new NPCs so that they will react dependent on the state of quest or other events and they react to words they should know something about.

I also extended some old NPCs in the Advanced version and plan to do it a lot more. But I won't have the time to adjust every single old NPC for the upcoming episode. And as mentioned won't do it for the simple NPCs. They represent hints and have basically no connection to your actual game progress.

[Pyrdacor]

But I have an idea. If you could identify all NPCs which are affected and provide a list, I might improve them if it's possible in a reasonable time at least for the Advanced version.

[a1exh]

One bandit appears and he tells you that he's in a hurry, to get to the Spannenberg weaponry shop; but doesn' t leave the area ( disappear). Instead, he's still there, repeatedly telling you his plan; after you have left the place and re-entered later on.

This is a cue at the start of the game introducing you to shops in the game. You can't delete this cue until the user has visited the Spannenberg Weaponry Shop. And even then you might not delete it in case the user forgets about it.

I personally don't think it is a bug unless the NPC text is about an event that has already completed. e.g. the NPC tells you about a mission, you go away and complete the mission, the NPC still responds with text as if you had not completed the mission.

P.S. This is not a high quality bug report. The more detailed the bug report, the more likely we can action it. e.g. the location, exact name of the NPC (if they have one) and the exact text they say (character for character). This will make it much easier to find the exact part of the game code.

[macce2]

But I have an idea. If you could identify all NPCs which are affected and provide a list, I might improve them if it's possible in a reasonable time at least for the Advanced version.

Great ! I could start making a list !
However, I think that would take much time.
And practically, completing the game
would be needed !?

[macce2]

Ok, here's some characters to begin with:

Aman (thing)
(Bandit near the shop of thieves guild)
Baron George (doesn't seem to remember the reward he gave etc)
Clementine
Sandra (does teach the animal language again and again;
repeats the same sentences)
Tolimar (doesn't seem to recall getting his property back)

To be honest; I don't remember; whether the problem
did appear on the "original" English release v 1.07;
which I used to play years ago.

Generally, i think one most first decide how to
define an attribute of a game a bug / issue.
In my opinion, NPCs available for conversation
not remembering things at all (!?) would be a quite serious flaw.

If there problem has to do something with saving game states;
I don't know. (?!?)

By the way, I did upload my recent Ambermoon Advanced
Savegame files in the Zone of EAB forum; and I'm requesting
someone to investigate them; just in case.

I hope my list doesn't get too long.

[Pyrdacor]

I'll look what I can do about it.

[Pyrdacor]

I will track the state here with check boxes.

• Aman
• Baron George
• Clementine
• Sandra
• Tolimar
• Canth
• Tristan

[macce2]

I will track the state here with check boxes.

* [x]  Aman

* [ ]  Baron George

* [ ]  Clementine

* [ ]  Sandra

* [x]  Tolimar

According to my current experience of the game;
I would check Baron George (doesn't seem to recall the problems
being solved already).

I would also add Canth to the list (wine goblets).

[Pyrdacor]

But checked means it is fixed and he would recall it. It is the bugfix status.

[macce2]

Some more characters I'd add to the list:

Tristan (Cavetown / tavern)

Darbog

Tar Der Dunkle

Kire (the response you get when you have already returned with
Dorina and do ask Kire about Dorina again)

[Pyrdacor]

Added