Is your ESO character just dumb?

WildLight

I'm not a roleplayer per se but I do love to immerse myself into the story and look at the events through my character's eyes. And I do agree with what have been said in the thread to this point - dialogue options are getting progressively dumber from chapter to chapter and it's painful. My personal way to deal with those is to pretend my character has never asked all those stupid things.

I'm not in denial, you're in denial.

whitecrow

I like to ask Swordthane Jylta "Who are you again?" just to annoy her.

Rasande_Robin

Basically I get the feeling when playing "story-mode" that my character is mute, and hand them notes.

Odovacar

Well my argonian is a tank so yeah...He gets hit in the head a lot. Come to think of it he wasn't too smart to begin with, lol.

Cillion3117

My main is so smart he ask those dumb questions as more of a test to those he's talking to.
At least that's how I justify his stupid questions...

spartaxoxo

Tell me about the boat you enchanted. What does an enchanted boat do exactly?

Vanus: "Surely you can puzzle that one out on your own? It will take you exactly where I told it to go.

But the magic isn't permanent. Best get a move on. You don't want to be on that tiny boat in the middle of the ocean when the spell wears off

"All right. Give me the enchanted boat and I'll be off.

"Give you the—? What, do you think I have a boat in my pocket? That it folds up and fits in your backpack? Ridiculous!

It's nearby, on the docks. I'll mark the location on your map."

At least this dialogue is optional, but it tells me what I need to know about the Vestige lol.

MTibbs89

Maybe losing one's soul damages brain cells? Though it seems like ever since Skyrim, at least, Bethesda (and related companies) have either been incapable of or unwilling to give us intelligent PCs. Or, at least, they just make the PCs very ignorant and a little ditzy. I'd really like them to treat the PCs like they actually know about the world they live in and fill in lore for folks who don't know/are interested to learn more via books or background dialogue. My character might not be a scholar with an in-depth knowledge of the last thousand years of history, but they should at least be aware of who most of the gods are, basic facts about their own race, and what they did last month/week/literally two minutes ago.

opaj

spartaxoxo wrote: »

At least this dialogue is optional, but it tells me what I need to know about the Vestige lol.

To be fair, my Vestige has 50 home-cooked meals, 200 fist-sized gemstones, and 3 trebuchets in her pocket.

(For a more serious response: I'd expect the so-called "Great Mage" could whip up a pocket-size magic boat that just needs you to add water. This is one case where I liked the "stupid" choice, because it was reasonable in its own way.)

Gleitfrosch

Yes, you are dumb in the game.

e.g. During the western skyrim story you learn what the witch pikes are, how they are created and what they are used for. But during the last quest of the story you can only progress if you ask what the witch pikes are and what they do.

I stopped to follow the main stories after northern elsweyr. I did the first few quests from new dlcs but they all soon started to feel like an insult by the forced idiocy of my character. Many sidequests are a lot better than the main quests.

But I bet we all will be like this with every new dlc released:

EDIT:
A few days ago I found a quest in craglon I have overseen, compared the dialogues in the old quest to what we get now. Part of the quest was about an undead bound to another one, therefore he could not die as long as the other one was "alive". He told me that and asked me to kill the other one. one of my reaction options was something like:
"and you think if i kill the other one, it will break the bond and set you free?"
compared to that, in the new dlcs similar dialogue options are like:
"what will happen, when I kill him?"

A small difference, but with a big effect. The first one shows that the Vestige has a brain, the other shows he is an idiot.

ps. my "favorite" in the new dlcs is the forced question "what is your opinion on *random text*"

SantieClaws

Khajiit is smart!

S m a r ... what is the next one?

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Cillion3117

Don't forget that a lot of real life people are.... below average. So the game can't give you too much credit or those people will be lost. Like wandering into the ocean lost.

DagenHawk

No not dumb, but he is a sociopath with Micavilleistic tendencies and a penchant for clandestinely removing those he sees as nuisances.

What?

Nomadic_Atmoran

Its mostly because they expect a lot of new players that may not know much about the lore and the setting. And they might not have enough time or interest in reading books or letters found around the world. So they have to exposition everything and force the player to ask other wise stupid questions that we might already understand or know.

Ratzkifal

They should at least give you two options. One that is more in character and one that is for people who don't know the lore. They can result in the same answers or skip some on the NPC's side but it makes such a big difference on the player side.

"Who are you?" said the Dunmer to Vivec in the city of Vivec after first waiting for an audience to meet with him.

Hallothiel

All my characters are bloody clever; they just play dumb to lull everyone else into a false sense of security. 😄

(At least that’s how I get through most of the awful dialogue. But the last MQ with Eveli pushed me too far & if there was / is an option to sacrifice the perky little pain in the arse, then she is toast. I really cannot describe just how much she irritates & annoys me.)

MTibbs89

Hallothiel wrote: »

All my characters are bloody clever; they just play dumb to lull everyone else into a false sense of security. 😄

I'll take this option until the very unlikely scenario that they give us alternate dialogue options that let me believe the vestige has at least half a brain.

DP99

It's partially for new players to explain lore, but it's also partially to give recaps of what is going on if you haven't played in a while and you forgot what the storyline is. The problem is that most people don't do that, they don't quit playing for a while and then come back at a later date, they play through the story in several hours or a few days, so unless they really are that forgetful in real life, they probably aren't going to need those recaps.

spartaxoxo

DP99 wrote: »

It's partially for new players to explain lore, but it's also partially to give recaps of what is going on if you haven't played in a while and you forgot what the storyline is. The problem is that most people don't do that, they don't quit playing for a while and then come back at a later date, they play through the story in several hours or a few days, so unless they really are that forgetful in real life, they probably aren't going to need those recaps.

This is the real answer. And I have found the recaps super helpful in the past actually when I went long times between meeting characters. However, they definitely could do better about making the recap questions optional

NotaDaedraWorshipper

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Tell me about the boat you enchanted. What does an enchanted boat do exactly?

Vanus: "Surely you can puzzle that one out on your own? It will take you exactly where I told it to go.

But the magic isn't permanent. Best get a move on. You don't want to be on that tiny boat in the middle of the ocean when the spell wears off

"All right. Give me the enchanted boat and I'll be off.

"Give you the—? What, do you think I have a boat in my pocket? That it folds up and fits in your backpack? Ridiculous!

It's nearby, on the docks. I'll mark the location on your map."

At least this dialogue is optional, but it tells me what I need to know about the Vestige lol.

This become even funnier by the fact that my main is currently carrying two boats. Pfft, Vanus can't even carry his own enchanted boat.

Gleitfrosch

spartaxoxo wrote: »

DP99 wrote: »

It's partially for new players to explain lore, but it's also partially to give recaps of what is going on if you haven't played in a while and you forgot what the storyline is. The problem is that most people don't do that, they don't quit playing for a while and then come back at a later date, they play through the story in several hours or a few days, so unless they really are that forgetful in real life, they probably aren't going to need those recaps.

This is the real answer. And I have found the recaps super helpful in the past actually when I went long times between meeting characters. However, they definitely could do better about making the recap questions optional

But it won't happen. The devs follow the least effort approach with the dlcs. There are no real options in the game, we just click through the dialogues and no matter which line we choose, the result is always the same. (With one exception during an old sheogorath quest).

RPGplayer13579

I can name two other games where my character is a complete moron.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Dragon's Dogma.

tripp

If I ever make a new character, I'm naming him Thicker-Than-Oatmeal-Bowl, don't steal plz.

DP99

Okay, I gave the real answer.

Now for a silly one.

Maybe we’re all just children of Rigurt the Brash. That guy is dumb as rocks and he gets around!

Gleitfrosch

tripp wrote: »

If I ever make a new character, I'm naming him Thicker-Than-Oatmeal-Bowl, don't steal plz.

Why not an Argonian named "asks dumb questions"?

And if we are all children of Rigurt, I would bow my head before him for being so productive all across Tamriel.

Maya_Nur

I understand some arguments about why those dumb qustions are may needed for some players. But what about wording? Isn't it just impolitely in english to tell somebody "Who are you again?"

Nisekev

That's not our characters, that's how the game treats them.

SickleCider

Reading just the title:

Yes. He's a total himbo.

KalyanLazair

Yes, definitely. Dumb like a brick.

Now, seriously, I'd wish the game took more into account what your character actually is (race, werewolf, vampire...). It does do that in some quests, but they're few and far between. There is a particularly bad offender in Bangkorai relating werewolf characters that's just pure cringe. The quest is otherwise ok, the story is interesting... but if you're a werewolf it's just as awful as it can get.

orgin_stadia

Option 2:
Stop reading the game dialogue.

ectoplasmicninja

I got all the way through the Rivenspire plotline and not once could I remark that I was also a vampire. Nor did anyone notice. Instead I had to all but clutch my pearls when I saw the Ravenwatch feeding on their Dunmer manservant.

It's quite sad how utterly basic the things are that sometimes come out of the Vestige's mouth. Completed Blackwood and stuck your thumb in the eye of the Prince of Destruction? Stroll into the Deadlands prologue and be like, "Who is Mehrunes Dagon?" At this point I assume I'm actually attempting to mock him and Lyranth just doesn't understand my tone.