Why are we forced to play dumb? (Dialogue options. Again.)

Michae

The dialogues overall could use improving. I'm not the guy that skips dialogues, I enjoy them in many rpgs, but NPC's in ESO are way too much "talkative". They drone on and on about stuff, repeat themselves, treat you like a dummy, and explain every part of the quest. Couldn't they just tell me what to do without a lecture or telling me their life story every time? Or at least could they talk a bit faster?

NotaDaedraWorshipper

Time to awaken this thread a little again because I've forced myself through more questing. I knew I was going to see some questionable writing and feel like wood elves were forgotten when it came to druids of High Isle, but I didn't expect it to start with a dialogue of the same quality as argonians being needed to ask what the Hist are.

The character I played on is a wood elf and I need to ask this?

Araneae6537

While I would greatly appreciate more choices and dialogue options just for RP flavor, I make it work for me by imagining that my characters are asking obvious questions with the intent of being underestimated and to evaluate the answer they receive. Yes, of course my Arcanist knows about Hermaeus Mora, but what are this other person’s views and what is their perception of what my character knows or wants to hear?

tinythinker

Some of it is for new players, some for returning players. Most of it is optional, so if someone already knows what is going on the extra dialogue can be skipped. Wanting improved dialogue is great, but just skipping a little when the redundancy is required to move the quest forward isn't hard.

tinythinker

KlauthWarthog wrote: »

I am not annoyed at the existence of "recap" questions. I am insulted by their wording.

And I am annoyed at the lack of options to call back to other quests related to the subject or NPC in question. My character has been furry-face to slimy-tentacle with this specific aberration before, and said aberration lied to my furry-face about the rewards involved on that event. Yet this is somehow not important enough to get a side note on the dialog?

Edit: removed some unnecessary angst.

Better wording is fine to ask for, we all like that. But I would prefer more callbacks as well.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

tinythinker wrote: »

Some of it is for new players, some for returning players. Most of it is optional, so if someone already knows what is going on the extra dialogue can be skipped. Wanting improved dialogue is great, but just skipping a little when the redundancy is required to move the quest forward isn't hard.

Most of it is not optional at all and you need to pick it to progress the quest.

Treselegant

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

tinythinker wrote: »

Some of it is for new players, some for returning players. Most of it is optional, so if someone already knows what is going on the extra dialogue can be skipped. Wanting improved dialogue is great, but just skipping a little when the redundancy is required to move the quest forward isn't hard.

Most of it is not optional at all and you need to pick it to progress the quest.

I once described the game's current story as a "thinly written visual novel" and I think that's pretty much the state of it. Info dump press next, info dump that usually repeats the previous info, press next. If you have a question available it's usually something that makes the player character sound like an idiot.

I'm pretty much at my wits end with the writing. Who is this game for? It's written like the average player has less than two brain cells to rub together and the media comprehension of a two year old.

Danikat

tinythinker wrote: »

Some of it is for new players, some for returning players. Most of it is optional, so if someone already knows what is going on the extra dialogue can be skipped. Wanting improved dialogue is great, but just skipping a little when the redundancy is required to move the quest forward isn't hard.

Look at the example above your post:

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

There's no option to skip that. Your choices are to act like your character has never heard of Y'ffre or simply say 'goodbye' and end the conversation, so if you want to do the quest at all you have to ask stupid questions.

There are some times when it's an optional extra, usually I think on daily quests which I suspect is because ZOS realised it would get tedious when you've done the same thing multiple times and still have to click through several screens of dialogue just to accept the quest. But non-repeatable quests require you to ask these things or skip the quest entirely.

If it was optional it wouldn't be a problem, but that's rare.

kojou

I wish every dialog choice had a good, neutral, and evil response option. I hate seeing the only thing be "Tell me more about..."