Anyone else feel the quest NPCs talk too long?

DarkWombat

Dont get me wrong, some of these stories and quests are pretty good, but often I find myself starting to skip some dialog because the NPCs just talk too much.

God forbid I meet ONE DAMM NPC who wants to give me a quest that has two sentences. Instead with each quest I get paragraph after paragraph, all spelled out for me, which actually takes away some of the mystery. I get too much background story to the point where I become numb to the situation.

Isn't there ONE QUEST where someone says "hey. over here, help me out with these bandits, they kidnapped my sister" and that's it?

Elirienne

No. This is a story based game.

Naguur86

Try to view it this way:

You are going around, adventuring. Suddenly a guy pops out of the woods, he's panicing and tells you in just two sentences that you have to go into that dark cave because his wife is in danger there and he can not go because reasons.

Would you go based on that information or would you rather suspect that his bandid frineds are waiting there to knock you unconcious and rip you off?

DarkWombat

I know its story based, but this is not a novel. I dont need to know the whole background and everything that has happened. Give me that option, or let me ask that question if I want, but not when you first start talking.

Elirienne

DarkWombat, again , the never ending cry for "options". When will people realise that you are playing a game Bethesda and Zenimax have created and dreamt up for you, and not the other way around? Their vision is a dark elf in distress who runs to you and talks a lot about how her brother got kidnapped, and it's their game, so the dark elf should damn well speak as long as she bloody pleases.

RazzPitazz

I understand both sides. ZoS made a wonderful back story for all of the quests, but sometimes it takes away from itself. It does occasionally feel absurd when I habe been pressed to complete an objective, that the NPC's and the quest itself deem to be imperative and must be dealt expeditiously only to have them give the entire lore of the dark cave. That is simply a dark cave with nothing actually special to it.
Look at it this way. If you were to run up to someone screaming about how your sognificant other is stuck in a cave and needs immediate help, ar you really going to talk about the history of the incident, location and lore involved? "Go gety my wife I will give you whatever you want just hurry!" Seems alot more "immersive" and likely.

Misty

Not really. I enjoy the story along with the npc's individual personality's, and love the role playing aspect. I think it is this that lifts ESO high above other same-o mmo's.

True, that after a few runs you do tend to skip quickly through the dialog, but this is only because you already know the story, no harm done.

zaria

If they talk painfully slow just read the text and jump ahead however I always read it.

And not only read it but understand it.
Yesterday I did the public group dungeon in coldharbor: village of the damned.
Reached the end and the questgiver recommended us to jump the cliff.

I came later as some fools in the idiot group rushed ahead, pulled mob who hit me.
So I listened, wondered that to do next then they jumped and died, they had to resurrect at wayshrine and run all the way back.
I waited two other came, boss spawned and we killed it.

mutharex

Why people buy games they don't like? Bah

PF1901

True. I'm also for optimized quest dialogue. Like "Do this quest". Or just...."Quest?" which would be premium optimization. And possible answers would be:
option a) "Y"
option b) "N".
Can't understand why the heck they didn't think of this in the first place.

Cybrdroyd

Nah, the only time I feel like that is when I am with a group and I know they are waiting on me. Otherwise, story, and voice acting is good.

Coggage

Just do what I do - simply click your way through the waffle and verbal padding as rapidly as possible. Usually after 4 or 5 clicks I get to accept the quest and do what the NPC wanted me to do. It would be nice to be able to turn off npc dialogue altogether for the side quests.

Yes, I'll round up your missing animals, but I care less why they went missing. Yes, I'll get your lost item, but I care less who you inherited it from and how you lost it.

Alurria

I'm just baffled, I guess if your aim is to level as quickly as possible. But really why? The story is great. You know I just tried WS for the last two days and that is a game with no story. I am not buying that game, can't stand it. You can click through just like WoW or many other MMOs and not miss a thing.

So many people rushed through this game looking for the carrot and realized it's not there. I hope they never put an option to turn off dialog in. It's about the journey not the end. Not trying to offend I'm just trying to understand why?

KariTR

I won't lie, the Bosmer accent sets my teeth on edge but, while I am tempted to hurry them along, I do grit my teeth and listen to their tale of woe. Usually

To be fair to the writers, the additional information is normally optional and solely dictated by the player-character. Don't want the history? Don't ask. Though it would certainly be more intuitive to gather the back-story after you have saved the day, not in the midst of an emergency. Unless it is imperative to the plot...clues to open doors, for example.

What stands out as awkward dialogue for me, are those interchanges that go:

Distraught NPC: "Please rescue my daughter"
My PC: "So, you'd like me to rescue your daughter?"

Or:

NPC: Instructs you on what you have to do
My PC: "What do I have to do again?"

However, I do appreciate that not everyone speaks the limited game languages on offer, nor does everyone read/listen to the dialogue. The writers have to cater to all levels of comprehension, so I would rather the writing be as inclusive as it can be, rather than the opposite.

But yeah, those Bosmer...

tinythinker

DarkWombat wrote: »

Dont get me wrong, some of these stories and quests are pretty good, but often I find myself starting to skip some dialog because the NPCs just talk too much.

God forbid I meet ONE DAMM NPC who wants to give me a quest that has two sentences. Instead with each quest I get paragraph after paragraph, all spelled out for me, which actually takes away some of the mystery. I get too much background story to the point where I become numb to the situation.

Isn't there ONE QUEST where someone says "hey. over here, help me out with these bandits, they kidnapped my sister" and that's it?

No. I like the dialogue. Those that don't can skip through it in a couple of seconds. Seems like a non-issue?

zhevon

No .... no problem here; the few times I want them to get to the point I just quickly chose the options and then I look at the quest log. But usually I listen and look at the quest log.

Audigy

I enjoy the story in this game, as I often had the issue in some MMO´s that I didn't know why I just did what I did. WoW has that problem quite often and its intended as they focus on different things there, but ya if you go to a new zone or a dungeon or even a cave not knowing why then this is quite annoying.

I still don't know why I had to actually get those candles at wow and why I had to get large and small ones? Nobody of the NPCs ever explained that, just that they needed them. So was I a thief now stealing from the Vermin or was it necessary to protect the town? A mystery still, after 10 years!

At ESO I know in about 90% of the quest´s why I do what and I also often have a choice how I do something. This gives you a much better idea of whats going on.

Besides that, many NPC´s have a very unique character and you will understand their reasoning a lot better. One guy is scared and you have to advice if he shall become a blacksmith or a fighter and based on his personality you must pick the blacksmith option unless you want him to get killed ...

I even have NPC´s which are so disgusting that you don't even want to talk to them further, its really great and don't forget the gay companion on the ship, who always makes me crack a smile when I get across him.

In my opinion they could had gone even further in regards of NPC´s, but maybe this will come later with the justice system and other quest´s.

Coggage

pieceofyarnb14_ESO wrote: »

I hope they never put an option to turn off dialog in.

'Cause people playing the way THEY want to play evidently affronts you so much...

isengrimb16_ESO

They stop talking when you click ahead. It's not a big deal for those used to WoW and not having to care about why you're doing anything. As Audigy said, WoW (and wanna-be's) only care about the fighting, not the story; it doesn't matter why the NPCs want stuff, they just want it, and you're the peon, you go get it, and you're expected to fight every step of the way just because. Bashiok kind of made that clear recently in a rather wishy-washy way.

I always gather up the backstory, listen to everything the NPC has to say. I like that ESO treats me like a person, not a servant robot.

Jarndyce

To answer the op's question, No. This debate can go on forever. Put five people in a room, you get five different opinions.

Zershar_Vemod

Elirienne wrote: »

No. This is a story based game.

^ THIS.

Sorry for coming off as rude OP, but you just seem impatient / "you want everything NOW."

If you don't like the heavy lore / stories with which TES has always been about, then maybe this isn't really the best choice for you; otherwise, learn to wait...

Tahnour

Elirienne wrote: »

No. This is a story based game.

Showing not telling. Want me to be engaged? Let me see that sister being dragged into a cave using one of those quadrillion instances we have running. Not telling me about her favorite toe nail polish and how it will save the day if I do exactly as I am told.

I had the same problem op. As an extremely fast reader i chose to just mute the npc and read the text, old school. I am so much faster now! You know we have a limited live time right guys? And in my mind, all of those npc have a different voice. It's like a freaking book with pictures!

Tannakaobi

DarkWombat wrote: »

Dont get me wrong, some of these stories and quests are pretty good, but often I find myself starting to skip some dialog because the NPCs just talk too much.

God forbid I meet ONE DAMM NPC who wants to give me a quest that has two sentences. Instead with each quest I get paragraph after paragraph, all spelled out for me, which actually takes away some of the mystery. I get too much background story to the point where I become numb to the situation.

Isn't there ONE QUEST where someone says "hey. over here, help me out with these bandits, they kidnapped my sister" and that's it?

No, but I wouldn't be apposed to markers of the quickest route through dialog. Having made my own quests on Neverwinter foundry one thing became very apparent. Peoples opinions on this are vary varied. Some people want pages and pages and others want simple one liners. Nothing wrong in either.

But, it is a TES game. You come to expect a lot of story. If it wasn't there, there would be riots!

Edit: One note though, I don't like this it's a TES game, it should be like this... Maybe a TES game is not for you....
When they decided to branch out and make an MMO the goal should be to please both TES fans and MMO fans. Otherwise whats the point?

So far it feels like it is designed more for TES fans than the MMO fans. Maybe this is down to experience, they do seem to be changing things such as XP in PVP.

RubyTigress

No.

If you're in a rush, you can always jump to the next screen.

Bhakura

Still prefer this questing over,
"Go fetch me 20 wolf hides".
"Now 12 flowers, 12 fishheads and euh, 12 somethings, sigh, just look at map theyre indicated with dots, cya soon!"
"ha you are back, good good, now go kill a bunch of bears, say , 30? nah to much grinding, make it 15, of you go!"
"What, are you here again? leave me alone go talk to the other guy overthere."
Woohoo, level up.
You walk away and go talk to the other guy overthere.
NPC /rolleyes *another one*
"Go kill some bats i guess, 20 will do"
"Now go fetch some thingies that grow on that thingy with the thingies, you know, those things. About 15 is what i need"
"Haaa, nice thingies you got there, what? Nono, i ment THOSE thingies, silly, let me grab those. Anyway, bet you noticed the thingies at those thingies right, well, go kill a few, say 25."
"All done? Good, well see that woman overthere? Go talk to her, sure she has more stuff for you, cya."
Woohoo, level up.
You walk up to the pointed out woman.
"Hi there, mind grabbing me 10 berries?"
"Now go kill me some ..."
etc etc etc untill you are max level.

Salsadoom

I wish there were more dialogue options. With more options you can more easily change what happens in the future for quests/attitudes

Ruwyn21

Has anyone clicked anything other than the top option in the quest dialogue? I don't give a crap why I have to do something....just tell me what I have to kill or collect, give me my .02% xp for my lvl and let me move onto the next one.

Also....gotta hate the quests that make you run around town talking to half a dozen people for next to nothing other than a time sink. Again top option only....no idea what the hell is going on in most of the areas, nor do I care.

Oh and why can't we have more than one quest at a time in a single area.....thanks for the one quest that took 10 min. Could have given me 3 to do in the same time frame and actually made the VR solo grind bearable.

isengrimb16_ESO

Bhakura wrote: »

Still prefer this questing over,
"Go fetch me 20 wolf hides".
"Now 12 flowers, 12 fishheads and euh, 12 somethings, sigh, just look at map theyre indicated with dots, cya soon!"
"ha you are back, good good, now go kill a bunch of bears, say , 30? nah to much grinding, make it 15, of you go!"
"What, are you here again? leave me alone go talk to the other guy overthere."
Woohoo, level up.
You walk away and go talk to the other guy overthere.
NPC /rolleyes *another one*
"Go kill some bats i guess, 20 will do"
"Now go fetch some thingies that grow on that thingy with the thingies, you know, those things. About 15 is what i need"
"Haaa, nice thingies you got there, what? Nono, i ment THOSE thingies, silly, let me grab those. Anyway, bet you noticed the thingies at those thingies right, well, go kill a few, say 25."
"All done? Good, well see that woman overthere? Go talk to her, sure she has more stuff for you, cya."
Woohoo, level up.
You walk up to the pointed out woman.
"Hi there, mind grabbing me 10 berries?"
"Now go kill me some ..."
etc etc etc untill you are max level.

Hah. Did you ever do a WoW quest called "Welcome to the Machine"? (Horde, Hillsbrad). That was actually probably the best quest in that game, outside of punching Deathwing in the face.

And yeah, I feel the same way. ESO NPCs talk to me like I'm a person, not their servant-woman.

"Servant woman! Bring me a drying-cloth right now! Woman? Woman!"

fredarbonab14_ESO

No. Try to enjoy reading.

LadyLothi

Like many already have said, this is a story based game. You are a character who walks through his/her life and you meet people on your way, talking to them, getting to know them, helping them.

I try not to see those encounters as quests I have to finish as soon as possible, but as if I'm the protagonist in my own movie or book.

If this game - like other mmo's - would have only presented me with the same old fetch/kill and fed-ex quests, I'd be long gone.

If I wanted that, I could've played one of the dozens f2p mmo's out there.

Yesterday an old dying soldier asked me to bring him his shield and sword from a cave in which he had sustained his injury so he could go on to Sovngarde with his gear. When I came back he was already dead. The shield and sword was placed next to his body and for some reason this moved me almost to tears, so I typed "/pray" and took a few moments to wish him a nice afterlife.

If you rob yourself of the emotional involvement the game has in store for you (had a few lol moments as well), then you are really missing out on a lot of enjoyment.

isengrimb16_ESO

Yes, I've used emotes to laugh or cry as appropriate around NPCs. My lizard laughed so hard while doing that Naked Nord quest ...

It's probably a good thing our characters can't poop their pants from laughing.