Pre-existing Dialogue

[Infragris]

This is a list of topics from vanilla Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon that may need new responses tailored to the needs of Cyrodiil. These also give a bit of an idea for what kind of new topics we want to add. Sorted by subject matter.

The Nine Divines

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Akatosh
Arkay
Dibella
Julianos
Kynareth
Mara
Nine Divines
Stendarr
Talos
Tiber Septim
Zenithar
While the normal responses to these topics are generally fine, they can be expanded to explain the influence of the Divines on Imperial culture, as well as practical information like where to find their temples and sacred places, who their knightly orders are. Priests and knights should also receive unique responses.

Daedra

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Daedra
Daedra Cults
Daedra worship
Mehrunes Dagon
Most vanilla mentions of Daedra are very explicitly Dunmer ones, stuff about the Good and the Bad Daedra, the illegal cults, the Tribunal... New responses should show an Imperial perspective, mention that Daedra worship is legal in Cyrodiil, and rather public in some places. New topics should also be added for all the Daedra.

Diseases

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Ataxia
Brown Rot
Chills
Collywobbles
Corprus
Dampworm
Droops
get cured
Helljoint
Rattles
Rockjoint
Swamp Fever
Witbane
Wither
Disease responses have to be rewritten so that they mention new creatures that carry these diseases, and omit Morrowind-specific creatures. I've ignored all Blight diseases except Corprus, which we can mention as a distant and exotic affliction. We can also mention the jungle's influence on diseases, and cases like the Khanaten Flu scare in the south.

Peoples

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Altmer

Example, Imperial to Imperial: The Altmer - we call them "High Elves" around here - are the highly civilized people of the Summerset Isles. Many Imperial arts are derived from their example, though often improved in practical ways, free from the bizarre constraints of Elven tradition. Altmer culture is refined, but static, held back by its own limitations. They continue to resent their inclusion in the Empire, and do everything in their power to isolate themselves from free trade with the rest of Tamriel - to their own detriment, of course.

Argonian

Example, Imperial to Imperial: The strange and secretive beastmen of the southern marshes are perhaps more common in Cyrodiil than anywhere else in the Empire, save Black Marsh itself. Many tribes occupy the region of Blackwood, willfully ignorant of the legal demarcations of the trans-Niben acquisition. Though there is currently peace in Black Marsh, tensions remain high after last year's tribal uprisings, and the Legion continues its campaign along the border. Still, one occasionally encounters a civilized Argonian, proof of the benevolent influence of Imperial culture over even the most backwards of of its subjects.

Bosmer
Breton
Dunmer
Khajiit
Nord
Orc
Imperial
Redguard
New responses with the focus on Cyrodiil instead of Morrowind. In vanilla Morrowind, there is a subset of unique responses only spoken from a Dunmer to a Dunmer PC, discussing the races amongst themselves. Similar Imperial-to-Imperial responses would be a nice touch. The "Imperial" subject should also be expanded, with different opinions and biases depending on the speaker (look at Morrowind topic "Dunmer" for reference)

Places

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Black Marsh
Elsweyr
Hammerfell
High Rock
Imperial Provinces
Morrowind
Skyrim
Summerset Isle
the Empire
Valenwood
Like the Peoples topic above, these should have special responses discussing the relation between these places and Cyrodiil, possibly with a unique subset spoken by Imperials alone.

Cyrodiil-specific

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citizens of the Empire
Cyrodiil
Cyrodiilic brandy
Empire
geographic regions
Imperial corruption
Imperial culture
These should receive responses tailored to Cyrodiil (especially "geographic regions")

Morrowind-specific

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Almalexia
Helseth
House Hlaalu
Nerevar
Red Mountain
Sotha Sil
Vivec
Vvardenfell
These are things the average Imperial might have heard of, but probably does not understand or is not interested in. Helseth and House Hlaalu are well-known to anyone following politics and economics, due to their activities around Cheydinhal. Vvardenfell and Red Mountain are far, exotic places, the Living Gods of the Dunmer are frauds or myths, etc. Most Imperials have never heard of Nerevar or the Nerevarine, explaining why the PC has no status to speak of when arriving here.

Factions

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almoners
Arch-Mage
Blades
Dark Brotherhood
East Empire Company
factions
Fighters Guild
Forts
Guildmaster
guilds and factions
healing altar
Imperial Blades
Imperial Cult
Imperial Cult doctrine
Imperial Cult Ranks
Imperial Guard
Imperial guilds
Imperial Legion
Imperial Office of Census and Excise
join the East Empire Company
join the Fighters Guild
join the Imperial Cult
join the Imperial Legion
join the Mages Guild
join the Thieves Guild
lay healers
lay member
lay servant
Mages Guild
other cults
politics and religion
Thieves Guild
vampires
vampirism
vampirism cure
All these faction-specific topic will need new responses or work-arounds to function with our own versions of these factions. A lot of them can also be used to impart new information.

Gameplay Guides

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animal products
armor style
clothes
exotic armor types
exotic products
Food
heavy armor
heavy armor styles
light armor
light armor styles
material and craft
medium armor
medium armor styles
mineral products
transport spells
vegetable products
Various guides to items, alchemical products, etc. New responses should filter out mentions of Morrowind-specific stuff and replace it with new information

Hostiles

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Bandits
bears
Goblins
Smuggling
Wolves
Talk about various enemies, creatures etc.

Worldbuilding

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Arena
Dwemer Artifacts
fines
fines and compensation
foreigners
fortune
Imperial urban style
Imperial law
law
martial arts
mercenaries
moon sugar
necromancy
Peace in Black Marsh
preserve the peace
raw ebony
raw glass
Recall the Legions
Repeal of the War Tax
skooma
Talos Cult
Unrest in Cyrodiil City
Uriel Septim
A large number of misc. topics from rumors, quests etc. that can be re-purposed for Cyrodiil.

Generics

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current events
latest rumors
little advice
little secret
my trade
Services
someone in particular

[Worsas]

It would be great to get all of these written up together. If everyone contributes a bit to this bulk, i think we could get past these relatively quickly.

In some places it also is a question of pre-planning. When we wrote up the skyrim versions of 'For My Gods And Emperor' and 'Ordo Legionis', we had to come up with Legion fort locations in advance, for example. We may need to do something similar here in some places and keep record of it.

I'm a bit too involved in other things and too tired to make a start right now. But I'm all for giving dialogue stuff full priority, since it is the one big thing that is currently in the way of a release.

[Infragris]

We've got it a little easier than SHotN since we already have names and locations for a number of fort locations. As a matter of fact, I think I still have half an Ordo Legionis lying around from when we discussed the Legion in Master Planning. I'll look into that real quick.

[Worsas]

After looking at a number of these topics in the CS, I realised that many of them (apart from the Generics, of course) are assigned indiviually by npc-id. There are certain masters of arms or certain smiths offering you a response on armors, for example, but not all smithes and not all masters of arms do this. It is something that makes the npc appear as a more knowledgeable person.

It may have been decided by keywords contained in the invidivual greeting texts, of which the developer thought that the player may want to ask about.

I think it would be a good idea to keep an eye on these "half-generic" topics and use them once there is an opportunity to do so. I would, however, not write them up before we are actually in need of them. Also, many responses are prone to be very individual from place to place, since Cyrodiil is so much larger than Vvardenfell.

So, I would propose to go like this:

Most of the Generics at the bottom will be across the whole province. These are the ones we can write up completely in advance, if we want to. 'Services' and 'Someone in particular' will be created by location, of course.

Now if location- or npc-specific dialogue contain certain keywords that may be of interest for the player, we can write up those topics (or expand on the vanilla ones above) and make the previous response unlock it, so the player will experience a flow of information as it is provided in the original game. Every topic that appears to be reusable for other npcs can be transported into PC_Data later.

[Infragris]

True, a lot of these are specific to certain quests or NPCs. I mainly selected them on the idea that they might be subjects that might play a more prominent role in Cyrodiil.