The short blade skill didn't exist in Arena. In fact, no skills existed in Arena.

By that I meant sarcastically "good idea", I don't really understand the whole cookie thing either...

Speech emulators aside from Microsoft Sam need to have voice actors before they work so they won't actually replace them for a long time. Aside from that, they are choppy and unnatural sounding. I think there was a tool for Oblivion that chopped up the dialogue and allowed you to create new ones for mods and such and I seem to remember that worked pretty well, Enhanced Quest Roleplaying used it and it worked for what it was supposed to do, but obviously that was dependant on the game's pre-recorded dialouge and wouldn't be ideal for creating entirely new dialogue.

EDIT: Actually after doing some research it actually has improved, still don't know if its good enough to use in a game though...

WTF. :facepalm:

Yes lets blame the console crowd. It's definitely our fault. It's all because we are idiots and can't play a game if it isn't fully voiced even though texted games is really not anything new to us.

It's not really the crowd's fault. I'd rather blame the console itself... and the developers.

I think that the Fallout 3 system would be good. My main problem with the Oblivion system was that there were only 13 voices for standard NPCs. I say at least 3-4 voices per race/gender combo, and don't blow the voice acting money on celebrities.

I don't see how this is the consoles fault? It was a design choise, Bethesda made that choise. If you want to blame anyone, blame them.

...I did, I know it probably could be understood at the developers of the console, but I was thinking Bethesda.
They made their choice because of the console and it's limits, but I do see your point and it's a good one.

The dialogue system in Mass Effect 2 would be great, as long as your character says what it ACTUALLY SAYS.
Sorry if your unfamiliar with Mass Effect 2.
It will be the same dialogue system in Dragon Age 2.
BioWare references stop now

What limits? you don't think the XBOX 360 and PS3 could handle a text based dialog system? :hehe:

As far as i know, the dialog in Oblivion take up around 50% of the space. If it had anything to do with the consoles and their "limits", it would have been smarter to keep the texted dialog system from Morrowind.



Yes that was SO ANOYING. The dialog wheel is a good idea in theory but the fact that you never really know for sure what Shepard is gonna say before it's too late totally ruin it. The only thing worse is the Heavy Rain system where you just chose an emotion but then again, Heavy Rain isn't a roleplaying game. I hear the dialog system in Alpha Protocol is similar though.

Voted Fallout pretty much both times

What I'd really like is to see the pre-written lines you have to choose from available in polite and blunt forms as well, allowing a player to give their character a bit of a voice. Although I'd imagine some people would find that they don't like exact words put in their mouth, the positives generally "win" because it's a bit more of a "Sell" of the conversation than "Daedra", "daedric shrines", "Sheogorath". Wheee. Much better is:

"Excuse me, sir. Would you perhaps be able to share some knowledge of daedra?" "I'm looking for a daedric shrine." "Tell me about Sheogorath or I'll rip out your intestines and skip rope with them."...

Just seems to me that it'll never be perfect, but at least this offers a good general case... to me...

I really enjoyed Fallout 3's system, and I unno maybe I'm just odd but I couldn't help but laugh in joy at Moira's voice..........

It's not odd when somebody doesn't know something. It is extremely odd however, when you can only ask someone about stuff they know...or don't know, but still want to be asked about it (what?!)... :rolleyes:

Of course it could handle a text based dialogue system. I was thinking more about a fully voice acted game with a lot of topics and conversation trees. Like Fallout 3's dialogue with more options, topics and a larger variety of voice actors.

Funny poll results. (Almost) Nobody seems to like Oblivions system. I'm actually IN favour of voiced dialogue as it helps a lot to create immersion etc, but the biggest problem is the limitation of the lenght of dialogue as well as the similiarity of many voices. I found it pretty annoying to have people kind of talking to "themselves" in the city due to the lack of voice actors. It's also annoying for modders...

I think Oblivions dialogue system has earned a lot of criticism due to the very limited amount of answers and dialogue you could choose for yourself, thus always being forced into the same way, ignoring the difference backgrounds and interests our characters might have rp-wise.

If TES V finally comes and I'm not 80 yet, I want it either to be similiar to Fallout but with a bigger dialogue tree etc, or textboxes like Morrowing but I assume this would feel like a downgrade to most people. Funny thing though, as Oblivions system felt like a downgrade to me compared with Morrowind, but this simply depends on your own our perspective I guess.

Those synthesised voices people were talking about is pretty much out of question, it's not developped enough yet. I give it about 4 years till the first game uses this technique and hopefully clears the way for it, though I wonder how the voice actors are going to earn money then

Please no
A consequence of DA2 being fully voiced is limitation of character choice. Your race will be human and your name will be Hawke, like it or not.

Fully voiced might work for an adventure game like Redguard where you have no choice over the character you play but its too limiting for a RPG especially one with 10 races to choose from

I'd like MW style dialogue with major NPCs being voiced
Oblivion voicing didn't work well since it led to massive curtailing of dialogue and still had a very limited number of voices, a classic case of trying to please everyone and failing to please almost everyone

Your sure right, its more for action/ shooters with a bit of role playing aspects.

I like Fallout's system the most, because just choosing a topic and being subjected to a short lecture isn't dialogue. It feels contrived and artificial, and very immersion-breaking. Fallout's system makes you feel like you're actually talking, makes it more interesting, and manages to fit all of the exposition in as well.

In my opinion, the prewritten dialogue trees of Fallout 3 was a step in the right direction.

I have mixed feelings about this, because whilst you're right that the topic system's one-way conversations make your character feel disconnected and inhuman, Fallout's may be a bit too personalized. I haven't played Fallout 3, but if its dialog is anything like FO1/2 where you can ask people for a sandwich or threaten to bash their head in, it may not feel entirely "right" when roleplaying a certain personality. Perhaps the two could be combined somehow?

The Dialogue system should be exactly like Fallout 3's. You can't get any better than that. I would really hate it if Bethesda changed it to be like Mass Effect's. Don't get me wrong, I love that game, but no Dragon Age II is going to have the same dialogue system and it just wouldn't fit for The Elder Scrolls.

Fully voiced if possible.

Custom, as in Daggerfall.

True to that. I play Fallout 3 these days, and I think that it is 1 of the few games, where the player actually feels like talking to the npc's in ar real conversation.

On the other hand, Morrowind had so much content. You talk to an npc in Fallout and Oblivion, and maybe 5-6 topics will come. In Morrowind, almost every npc had about 6-12 topics and some had even more.

I just wish that the players Speech Skill will lead to a way more interesting way of interacting with npc's.

In Oblivion I always use sub titles anyways, and prefer reading them instead of looking at the npc's face and just listening.
+Morrowind
Fallout 3 has a very fun dialogue system.
+Fallout 3
...Oblivion?-
BOO

I agree with this.

I mostly read the text... I do that in quite a lot of voiced games in fact. I kinda like the idea of a Fallout 3 / Morrowind dialogue system mix.

What was the "fun" in Fallout? I'm not trying to bash it, I just don't remember how it was different to Oblivion. The skill speech options?