Pitfalls In The Dialog System

[Strill]

So I read that the devs plan to have low Int/Cha dialog, which sounds fantastic and reminds me of the Malkavian option in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, but at the same time, this also reminds me of games where NOT maxing out your communication blocked off most of the game. I can't recall exactly which game it was but I know I've played games where if your communication skill wasn't high enough you couldn't accept any missions, or even continue the game's main quest, and the few missions you could accept all had bad endings because the peaceful resolutions were all tied to high communication skill.

 

Another related issue is the question of whether the player character is the only character whose communication skill is used in dialog options. If so then that heavily skews the player character in favor of high cha/int classes. That could potentially be a really jerk move, since that's one of those situations where the player has to make huge decisions at the beginning of the game, the gravity of which they won't discover until it's far too late.

 

In short, I hope they don't go overboard and put too much emphasis on the dialog system compared to other potential options for solving missions.

Edited November 12, 2012 by Strill

[Osvir]

They want to write a dumb character, if there is going to be a dialogue reward system for High Int/Cha characters then I'm sure there is going to be a different form of dialogue reward system for Low Int/Cha. A dumb character (low intelligence a la Fallout 2) gets an entirely different story and gets treated differently, which is a reward in itself (kind of).

[Karkarov]

They want to write a dumb character, if there is going to be a dialogue reward system for High Int/Cha characters then I'm sure there is going to be a different form of dialogue reward system for Low Int/Cha. A dumb character (low intelligence a la Fallout 2) gets an entirely different story and gets treated differently, which is a reward in itself (kind of).

Just like in Planescape: Torment where you could play a dumb character and definitely get just as much out of the game has a high int/wis cha..... oh wait no you couldn't.

[Jojobobo]

I wouldn't worry to much, I really wouldn't think they'd bar whole quests or areas of the game if your IN/CH wasn't high enough. Usually diplomatic options allow for easier gain of information through dialogue, but that doesn't rule out breaking into someone's bedroom to steal a diary and gain the same information, or killing them and finding a letter on their body - that kind of thing.

[Atreides]

Can a smart character pretend to talk like a dumb character when it's advantageous?

[Archmage Silver]

Can a smart character pretend to talk like a dumb character when it's advantageous?

I would suppose so, because otherwise he or she wouldn't be very smart at all.

[AGX-17]

They want to write a dumb character, if there is going to be a dialogue reward system for High Int/Cha characters then I'm sure there is going to be a different form of dialogue reward system for Low Int/Cha. A dumb character (low intelligence a la Fallout 2) gets an entirely different story and gets treated differently, which is a reward in itself (kind of).

 

The problem is, by admission of some of F2's developers, that it locks low INT players out of most of the game's content. Speaking fluently with the retarded guy in Klamath and getting enslaved doesn't really seem like a reward compared to playing the entire rest of the game. The biggest hurdle is that you have to write a huge amount of additional dialogue to have every NPC properly recognize you as intellectually-disabled. Plus I'd imagine a lot of companions would not be willing to follow your lead.

 

Can a smart character pretend to talk like a dumb character when it's advantageous?

 

That could be a kind of check separate from actual low INT. An example in New Vegas was that on Black Mountain, you could try to use Speech to tell Tabitha that the "dumb-dumbs" were taking over, but if your speech was too low, Tabitha would see through it because you don't sound dumb enough to be a dumb-dumb. However, if you have low INT, you get a low INT option that will always succeed because you are dumb. So, certain characters should be experienced enough with the "touched" to know when someone is faking it.

Edited November 12, 2012 by AGX-17

[Tigranes]

In practice, FO2 idiot dialogues were more of a "something new for playing the game the 4th time" rather than something that holds up the entire game. The Malkavian dialogue did a much better job at it.

 

I think it's far, far too difficult to expect too much to be done with 'Stupid' dialogues though, and if they're a bit gimmicky, that's fine with me, since most of the time you'd be choosing to make such a character deliberately. This is different from PS:T where you missed out on a lot of lore by going with an average character, and I doubt they'd do that here.