Quote Originally Posted by Dr Mario View Post
You kinda need something like that if you want actual language-based input.

If you're content to use the old text parser approach of noun the verb, then you can bypass all this. That just comes with its own ways of frustrating the player (and design limitations. The format really starts to struggle in any context where you might have multiples of the same object onscreen concurrently). It also makes its limitations very apparent, which is part of the reason that it fell out of use in favour of GUI-based control.
My approach would be to use patterns to categorize and then sub categorize the text. (For instance, is it an order, a question, small talk, etc. and then sub categorize for instance the question, is it asking about why, where, how etc.)
Then find keyword(s) in the sentence. ( These are in-game words, such as names, places, objects, etc. which can be in a list)
Each character would need a knowledge database, which it would have to cross check the keywords with to produce relevant replies.
When character is created, the knowledge database is randomized. If it's story character the knowledge database is designed by developers.

This is something I thought up in minutes. Obviously there's gonna be more to it. But it IS possible. I just hate the "no one has done it before, therefore impossible" kind of thinking.