Advanced Speechcraft Expansion Concept

Gidorick

Speechcraft is one of the many alluring aspects of the Elder Scrolls universe and ESO has a glimmer of this skill in the form of the Intimidate and Persuasive Will guild skills. These two skills being separated into guild skill lines would make it so that Speachcraft isn’t a skill unto itself, but a set of skills that are spread across multiple Guild skill lines. The Undaunted Skill lines show us that it is not necessary for a Guild skill line to include a Speechcraft skill, so it is not imperative that every Guild skill line include another Speechcraft skill. It’s with this understanding that I formulated this concept.

TL/DR:
Additional Speechcraft options other than Intimidate and Persuade would generate more gameplay and result in some crown store purchases.

Topics:

• Speechcraft Expansion Concept
• Additional Speechcraft Skills
• Crown Store
• Quest Inclusion

Speechcraft Expansion Concept:
ZOS should add 3 additional levels (totaling 4 levels) to both the Intimidate and Persuasive Will skills to open up the possibility of future NPC interactions. Each level should give the player a +20% chance of persuading or intimidating the NPC with the skill topping out at 80% chance.

The immediate use for this could play into some mercantile interactions where a player either bullies or sweet-talks a merchant into giving them better prices.

• Fail at persuade and the price goes up.
• Fail at Intimidate and the merchant refuses to do business with you for a set amount of time.
• The player could then be allowed to persuade or intimidate the merchant into doing business with them. If the player is successful, the prices are set at the original price.
  • Fail at persuade and the merchant is locked from any further interaction for a period of time.
  • Fail at Intimidate and the merchant attacks/shoves the player once, but doesn’t pursue a fight.
  • If the player retaliates and attacks the merchant, the merchant should cower and block all damage while the player gains a bounty and heat, as described in my INDAC thread.

This shouldn’t have any impact on any of the current quests, which would only require one point (20% chance) to successfully persuade NPCs. Future quests could require a greater skill in one of the Speechcraft abilities to convince NPCs and wouldn’t rely on the percentage chance. Instead the response options would simply require a certain Speechcraft skill level to be reached before the option is available.

This could be an interesting mechanic for future quests with certain NPCs not being able to be easily intimidated but easily persuaded, or visa-versa.

Another use for these Speechcraft skills could allow players to get out of a jam when they are being pursued by a guard or NPC.

Additional Speechcraft Skills:
Speechcraft mechanics could be expanded as the game develops and evolves. These are the additional types of speech in Speechcraft that could be added to a future guild as a skill. Please note, this would involve adding more guilds, as I discuss in my The Guilds Act: A Discussion thread. Each of these skills would be a 4 level skill that would have an accompanying potion

• Haggling: A Merchat's Guild skill
  • Allows players the ability to suggest a lower price for their purchase or a higher price for the items they are selling. The higher the skill, the better the deal.
  • This skill could also be required to have access to the Barter option in Guild Stores, and to be able to use the Auction Horse. Perhaps the skill would even the regulate cooldown between Auction Horse uses. Auction Horse thread HERE.
• Fence: A Thieve's Guild skill
  • Give the player the option to try to sell stolen items directly to any merchant. The higher the skill, the better the chance of success.
  • An unsuccessful Fence would result in the transaction being canceled and the guards being called.
• Allure: A Prostitute Guild skill
  • Gives the player the passive skill to get a percentage off of the asking price from specific merchants. The higher the skill, the more likely a merchant is to give you a deal. This chance would roll every time a merchant is visited.
  • This could require an additional attribute set to be added to NPCs: sexual orientation. A male Khajiit merchant might be attracted to male Orcs and if you are playing a male Orc and have the Allure skill, you just happen to get a percentage off of that specific merchant’s wares and are paid better for your items. The orientation would never be explicitly known to players and this could be used for a future update where players would be allowed to woo, court, and marry an NPC.
• Bribery: A Dark Brotherhood skill
  • Allows Players a chance to bribe the Guard or NPC that catches them in a nefarious act.
  • Allows players in good legal standing to try to pay any guard to ignore them for a set period of time. During this time, the player could act without being “noticed”. The higher the skill level the greater the chance of a successful bribery price and the longer the anonymity duration. Failure results in increased heat but not a bounty.

Crown Store:
To justify this change, ZOS could add a few new potions to the game and appropriate potion packs and items to the Crown Store. Below I am listing the items and effects, but I am not going to list the effect percentages or durations. I have done that before and it seems a little pointless to do so in the concept stage.

• Potion of Fortify Speech: Increase any Speechcraft Skill
• Ring of Articulation: Fortifies Persuasion
• Ring of Imposing Presence: Fortifies Intimidate
• Ring of Silver Tongue: Fortifies Haggling
• Ring of Charisma: Fortifies Allure
• Ring of Extortion: Fortifies Bribery

Quest Inclusion:
All of these skills could play a part in future quest designs. Different characters could fall prey to different Speachcraft skills. There could even be clues in conversation as to what skill the NPC would be susceptible.

• If the NPC seems unsure, they can be persuaded
• If the NPC seems nervous, they can be intimidated
• If the NPC seems attracted to the player, they can be allured
• If the NPC speaks of coin, they can be bribed

All four choices should be available whenever an NPC can be susceptible to Speechcraft. The Speechcraft attempt should be allowed once. If a player chooses incorrectly, the Speechcraft options should then no longer be available for that NPC during that quest.

As stated before, another mechanic which could be used instead or in conjunction would be that the specific Speechcraft option for a particular NPC simply isn’t available unless a player has attained a certain Speechcraft Skill.

There could also be a 3 level passive skill in another guild that removes one of the incorrect options per level, or lessens the required Speechcraft level for a conversation choice to be activated… but that, is for another thread.

What are your thoughts? Would you like more Speechcrafting skills? Are there other Speechcraft Skills that you think should be added to ESO?

Heromofo

Dam it Gidorick stop been so brillant i think each episode is going to contain one of your ideas each time.

Gidorick

As a note, I actually had 4 more skills than I posted but realized they didn't directly relate to Speechcraft as it's used in ESO, so I snipped them out for a different, yet to be posted, thread.

Gidorick

Heromofo wrote: »

Dam it Gidorick stop been so brillant i think each episode is going to contain one of your ideas each time.

dafox187

yet another great idea from gidrick you should apply for a job and zos

leshpar

I like this idea a lot. I really have nothing to add.

SHADOW2KK

Zeni kindly employ @Gidorick promptly and set him in charge of implementing without delay anything he comes out with, as I and many others have seen many of this posts and they always make sense, so kindly do so without delay pronto quick thanks:P

Sausage

Great idea, but Im thinking they should add entirely new skill tree, so they can start to give CPs as rewards.

Deome

I love this. Bump.

Make it a World skill involving the use of the Fighters/Mages Guilds passives, Intimidate and Persuade. Much like Legerdemain appears after a successful lockbox pick.

Hlaadriel

Gidorick wrote: »

[*]Allure: A Prostitute Guild skill

You did play Arena and Daggerfell, didn't you I miss those content. great ideas!

Smiteye

I like this kind of idea... it's fluff but fun.

MissyMad

Yea cool idea, definitely more of a side project. Another thing, is in the customization screen - say I make a Khajit. Shouldn't my Khajit sound like one? Idk how it is for the males but it seems most of the female sound "voice" options go from manly grunts to high pitch grunts lol.

Gidorick

Hlaadriel wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

[*]Allure: A Prostitute Guild skill

You did play Arena and Daggerfell, didn't you I miss those content. great ideas!

Heh. I did indeed.

Gidorick

MissyMad wrote: »

Yea cool idea, definitely more of a side project. Another thing, is in the customization screen - say I make a Khajit. Shouldn't my Khajit sound like one? Idk how it is for the males but it seems most of the female sound "voice" options go from manly grunts to high pitch grunts lol.

Khajiit are all over the place with their voices.

If you play a khajiit download an addon called khajiit speak. It's awesome!

Hlaadriel

Gidorick wrote: »

Hlaadriel wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

[*]Allure: A Prostitute Guild skill

You did play Arena and Daggerfell, didn't you I miss those content. great ideas!

Heh. I did indeed.

Gladd to see I'm not the only one

Gandrhulf_Harbard

SHADOW2KK wrote: »

Zeni kindly employ @Gidorick promptly and set him in charge of implementing without delay anything he comes out with, as I and many others have seen many of this posts and they always make sense, so kindly do so without delay pronto quick thanks:P

This.

If even 10% of Gidorick's ideas were implemented this game would be improved immeasurably.

All The Best

Gidorick

Thanks @Gandrhulf_Harbard. Like most of us here I want ESO to become something unique and rare and special. I believe it still can be what we hoped it would be!

Oxkill

Your ideas are great

Gidorick

Thanks @Oxkill. I try my best to suggest ideas that fit a criteria:

1: Would it be fun?
2: Would it be beneficial to players?
3: Would it add to the game?
4: Would it make ESO more TES like?

I think there are many TES mechanics that would work really well within the MMO environment that simply hasn't been tried before. I also try not to suggest concepts that are in complete opposition to ESOs design. This is a good thread to illustrate that.

Mashille

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes!

Oxkill

Gidorick wrote: »

Thanks @Oxkill. I try my best to suggest ideas that fit a criteria:

1: Would it be fun?
2: Would it be beneficial to players?
3: Would it add to the game?
4: Would it make ESO more TES like?

I think there are many TES mechanics that would work really well within the MMO environment that simply hasn't been tried before. I also try not to suggest concepts that are in complete opposition to ESOs design. This is a good thread to illustrate that.

I was brought here from another post of yours, actually, where you put all your proposals. I really hope ZOS will consider them, since they seem, not only cool, but plausible.

Cillion3117

I always thought something like Haggling or Bribery would be a given when the Thieves Guild comes out. I hope they do this.

Prabooo

@Gidorick Excellent ideas. My memory is a disaster, do you recall a MMORPG where the different races could not understand some of the languages amongst them and you had to either learn the skill or have someone else translate it for you?

Gidorick

The only MMO I can think of with that mechanic is Archage @Prabooo.

I know there is a Cyberpunk game coming out (or was it canceled?) where there will be different languages.