Secret/alt conversation options you can type out

[Pegasus Organs]

Back in the early stages of the game, I remember there being topics that you can type out and get a response on, that would never nomally appear in the choices. With the game changing so much, and so many more topics added to conversations, I wondered if there were any left, and if we could get a list going to help people like me.

[neil]

Ive wondered the same
The manual says its possible
Ive tried as often as I could.
Nada zip nothin
:-(

So I'D be interested in an answer too

(ps Sorry cant help wiht an answer !)

Neil
Aussie Land

[HoroSaga]

From what I understand, they ended up abandoning the whole "type-in" responses in dialogue because it just seemed to confuse a lot of people.

During the Beta, for example, you could only resolve the situation in the Rail Nomad Camp peacefully if you typed in the proper dialogue option during the final negotiations. A few people figured it out, but far more people expressed frustration or confusion at having to actually type in a dialogue option. As a result, they ended up largely removing that feature.

They hadn't gotten very far toward implementing this mechanic before they decided to minimize it. But, if I recall correctly, you used to be able to ask the various scientists around Darwin Village about each other - theoretically allowing you to guess who the traitor was in advance. You also used to be able to ask the Rangers around the Citadel about each other, and about various plot points from the original game. As far as I'm aware, that was all removed from the release version of the game.

In the post-release version, I think the only thing it's still used for is the "secret skill book" that you can get in the Citadel.

[Pegasus Organs]

secret skill book? It would've been cool if they just had non-essential stuff or secrets used for the typing mechanic. I don't get why that wasn't done. Seems to make sense.

[neil]

Sorta what I had surmised
But that makes it clearer
Not to mention Ill stop wasting my time trying to

Thanz

Neil
In the land downunder

[.//slayer]

They haven't abandoned the type-in system entirely. I played the game over a year ago, so I forgot most of the details, but the one manual response I remember is actually very important in making peace between the two warring chiefs in the Rail Nomads camp. I think you can use it to manually type in the option that lets you persuade them to make peace in case your characters can't do that through the in-game methods. And there's a hint to this response in the dialogue lines that you hear from the chiefs.

In case you want to know:

During the final dialogue between the two chiefs, just before the shoot-out starts, you can stop it by saying the word "Both" as an answer to their rhetorical questions.

[HoroSaga]

Oh, I remember that you could also ask pretty much everyone around the Rail Nomad Camp about "Helllrazor", the ranger who you found dead near the hobo camp. That would allow you to eventually gather clues about who had killed him, and point you toward Darwin Village.

But, like the other hidden dialogue options, the secret Hellrazor dialogue options were cut out of the release version of the game.

Originally posted by .//slayer:

They haven't abandoned the type-in system entirely. I played the game over a year ago, so I forgot most of the details, but the one manual response I remember is actually very important in making peace between the two warring chiefs in the Rail Nomads camp.

It used to require typing in the secret key word to resolve that quest peacefully. But it was revised in the release version of the game so that the key word appears normally when you're resolving the quest.

Originally posted by Pegasus Organs:

secret skill book?

The skill book that gives you the "Secret Kickstarter Backer Skill", which in turn just gives you small lore entries as you progress through the game. You prompt an NPC near the beginning of he game to give you the skill book that unlocks the secret skill by using the type-in interface and giving them the password needed to receive the book.

It's pretty much the only thing that the type-in interface is used for in the release-version, which is a shame.

Originally posted by Pegasus Organs:

It would've been cool if they just had non-essential stuff or secrets used for the typing mechanic. I don't get why that wasn't done. Seems to make sense.

That's what they were doing initially, during the beta portion of development. But at some point they apparently decided that there weren't enough people using the "hidden" dialogue functions, so they just stopped bothering with it.

EDIT - It's similar to the way they approached the "flavor text" mechanics. Early in the game, in areas like the Citadel, Ag Center, and Highpool, you can see dozens of items that you can click on to get funny little bits of flavor text. Ag Center in particular is filled with over a hundred interactive objects with amusing descriptions attached to them. But once you get past the first few areas in the game, you start seeing fewer and fewer of those interactive objects.

It's obvious that they started off having fun with the idea of having object descriptions all over the place, but then ultimately decided that it wasn't worth the effort. The result is that you see them all over the place during the early portion of the game, but by the time you get to the second half of the game you barely encounter them anymore.

[.//slayer]

It used to require typing in the secret key word to resolve that quest peacefully. But it was revised in the release version of the game so that the key word appears normally when you're resolving the quest.

It didn't appear for me. I remember this because I had to google the playthrough of the game to resolve the quest peacefully, otherwise it ended in a bloodbath. Possibly this happened due to my suboptimal actions, low charisma score or the absence of social skills. Either way, typing in the word by hand actually allowed me to circumvent all these restrictions and achieve the happy ending. (And yes, it was in Director's Cut.)

[HoroSaga]

Originally posted by .//slayer:

It didn't appear for me. I remember this because I had to google the playthrough of the game to resolve the quest peacefully, otherwise it ended in a bloodbath. Possibly this happened due to my suboptimal actions, low charisma score or the absence of social skills. Either way, typing in the word by hand actually allowed me to circumvent all these restrictions and achieve the happy ending. (And yes, it was in Director's Cut.)

Good to know. I've definitely heard some pretty inconsistent information about the ending of the whole "Rail Nomad Camp" questline. For me, the keyword appeared normally as one of the dialogue options, but only after I had selected a fairly high difficulty dialogue skill check with Kekkahbah (Kiss Ass, I think). But I did also see a number of other people state that it never showed up for them, and it's been hard to track exactly what causes it to only sometimes show up.

I have heard some people say that they were able to use the type-in dialogue box to trigger keywords that they missed in other conversations, though. So that would seem to be the case here, as well. :)

[Pegasus Organs]

Can you tell me what it is please? The secret book skill thing? And whom do I ask?

[Luke]

There are still quite a few left in. You can ask Vargas about almost any of the characters and many of the places from Wasteland 1, and he'll have something to say.

Spoilers abound: https://www.reddit.com/r/Wasteland2/comments/2jkzqq/list_of_secret_conversation_topics/

[HoroSaga]

Originally posted by Pegasus Organs:

Can you tell me what it is please? The secret book skill thing? And whom do I ask?

http://wasteland.gamepedia.com/Southwestern_Folklore

Originally posted by Luke:

There are still quite a few left in. You can ask Vargas about almost any of the characters and many of the places from Wasteland 1, and he'll have something to say.

Spoilers abound: https://www.reddit.com/r/Wasteland2/comments/2jkzqq/list_of_secret_conversation_topics/

Interesting, I hadn't seen that list. There are definitely more "type-in" dialogue options than I suspected.

Though it does also confirm that several of the old options that existed in the Beta version of the game were indeed removed. Almost all of the dialogue options that used to exist in Ag Center and the Rail Nomad Camp are gone, and several of the dialogue options in the Citadel are gone (though oddly, General Vargas still has all of his).

And it definitely rather clearly displays how they almost entirely abandoned the mechanic in the second half of the game.

[Pegasus Organs]

Weird. Despite being a backer I don't remember getting this code. Thanks for the links! Very informative!

[ppaladin123]

The Rail Nomad "secret solution" is still present (I just did it). It is a nice back up way to get the peaceful solution to the conflict if you didn't otherwise do everything perfectly (e.g. make sure the ralphy's girlfriend is not captured)

[Pegasus Organs]

Well, I've found ones not listed. Sad that no one has the drive to find out secret topics. I found even minor characters like a farmer burying his wife in the Prison area had secret topics you could ask.

[neil]

I tried to get a conversation with that "Farmer"
I failed to guess what I could trigger it


Im now at the Rail Camp. Im going to see if I can stop the slaughter with the conversation to the leaders

Ill keep on trying then
Just want to progress forward and not spend ages trying to guess some key word if its a waste of time

Neil
Aussie land