That Thing Obsidian Always Does

[teknoman2]

What I would give to be able to actually ask a merchant : Hey that's a nice sword on the counter there, why it's not in you inventory menu ? I want to buy it, do you really want me to steal it ? ... Then I took an arrow in the knee...

just for future reference, the "I took an arrow in the knee" frase, according to the lore of TES, is nord slang for "I got married"

[J. Trudel]

 

What I would give to be able to actually ask a merchant : Hey that's a nice sword on the counter there, why it's not in you inventory menu ? I want to buy it, do you really want me to steal it ? ... Then I took an arrow in the knee...

just for future reference, the "I took an arrow in the knee" frase, according to the lore of TES, is nord slang for "I got married"

 

 

Yeah I knew that my friend told me it's an old Viking proverb but I am unsure of his sources, I was just pointing out the fact that you can't buy the goods on the table in TES. Nor you can ask anyone if you could buy something they own etc etc. 

[HunterOG]

When big, open RPGs went to voice-over for the majority of their dialog is when I feel that the script was tossed into the trash can.  What makes it even worse is the hiring of six voice actors for several hundred characters worth of dialog (which I still find incredibly surreal).  I for one would hope for something more akin to classics like BG, Arcanum or PsT.  Even when conversations were rote, they had a texture and flavor which is hard to find in newer games.  The peasants in Baldur's Gate say some pretty funny/interesting stuff much of the time, and the fact that dialog didn't have to be spoken freed it up to be more literary.  I think the constant use of voice over is part of an effort to make games more cinematic and 'immersive' - but in an open world game where you have to talk to tons of people with not too much to say, it generally ends up being boring.

 

I think if writers are allowed to cut loose with the expository stuff and freed from financial constraints of casting people to read the lines, the maximalist impulse can't help but creep out, and we'd see more well-wrought dialog.  It existed before, after all.

[Walsingham]

I find it hard to imagine that HunterOG is wrong on this one. Full voice is a foolish dead end.

 

It's quite impossible to believe that being forced to record new lines with actors hasn't cramped the writers, and resulted in poorer QA.

 

EDIT: Although having it as an excuse has probably saved the hair of many team leaders!

Edited August 3, 2013 by Walsingham

[IRMA]

Actually, it's why companions are so popular in the first place, isn't it? Because you have to put work into getting to know them before you benefit from their full power.

 

I don't know that every character in PE should be an evasive jerk or anything, but I would like to see a mix of straightforward characters ("HOW 'BOUT THEM DRAGONS, HUH?"), characters who are evasive until you get to know them ("We can talk... but not about me."), and characters who never entirely give up the goods ("A lady must have her secrets.").

 

Yes yes **** yes mate.

 

Thats why you LOVE the old RPGs, cause the party members feel like people with their own problems and opinions on you and world around them, thus drive you deeper into the background, make you WANT to be friends with them and get the **** done WITH them.

All in lovable simple text form.

 

As for townsfolk NPCs... Torment way please.

Edited December 27, 2013 by IRMA