There is now a conversation mode ingame. The parasite can chat with its host and later with the other NPCs. How it works is you first need to complete the tutorial (open access to the timeline), then use one host for a period of time until the affinity between you grows to a high degree. At this point a new menu action "Converse With" opens up which leads into the conversation mode. The purpose of any conversation is to gain the consent of the interlocutor. Each turn the list of actions is regenerated from a list of possible ones. Using the analyze action you can gain information about what the target wants and their character aspects if there are any. These, in turn, influence the result of manipulative actions to be positive or negative.
At first your chat attempts will fail due to the lack of skills but you can use the brain probe on hosts to get some, plus these skills are increased on each communication attempt. Once the consent is high enough, the rewarding actions open up. These may include questioning for information (gathering timeline clues), consulting for skill gains, requesting items (try to get a cop to give their gun to you!), de-escalation of area alertness and even some related to the --REDACTED--. In case of the host, the highest reward is maximum consent itself, since it makes the host agreeable to the parasite's presence, which results in a lot of energy-related benefits, the main one being that area movement will not spend any energy of the host. Maximum host consent also allows the parasite to use their mouth to speak with other NPCs.
The conversation is, of course, not without inherent dangers. Some manipulative actions risk provoking a negative reaction, up to and including violence. Some can result in NPCs getting emotional with very negative results. The NPCs are still alerted by seeing you but the positive manipulation offsets this. The most important thing is that instead of the host energy, chatting requires parasite energy which means that parasite can exhaust itself and die while trying to communicate. There are more details about the mechanics in the ingame encyclopedia. Enjoy!
NOTE: The price of the game was increased by 1 USD or your regional equivalent.
Changes:
- Conversation mode
- Host affinity and agreeableness
- Skills are now sorted and grouped in the lists
- Security now has radios (I wonder why they didn't...)
- Energy word replaced with 🅴 icon everywhere
- Paper clues in generic locations are reduced in number
- Blackops now have bonus attributes
- Spoon mode: No ambushes in habitats flag
- HUD now has "team is very close" text marker when that happens
- Reverted colors for team distance and changed wording in the body window
Fixes:
- Clicking on self in region mode does not skip a turn now