In Fallout 3, as well as in Oblivion, we were able to interact with the overhwelming majority of NPCs in the form of engaging them in conversation, to the extent that we got several dialogue topic choices.

Admittedly, I have seen very little leaked footage.

For the people that have seen significant amounts of Fallout 4 gameplay concerning NPC interactivity, are we able to converse with NPCs in the same manner as in Oblivion or Fallout 3? Or is it more limited as in Skyrim (meaning that when you try to talk to random, non-quest related NPCs they just say one or two lines)?

As an altmer-american I resent your username good sir.

Back on topic though, from everything I've seen so far, the dialogue system is....not so good.

You never really get a chance to flesh out your character’s personality. At best you can be sarcastic or hostile at times, but it all seems very disjointed and schizophrenic. The issue is made worse with the inclusion of voice-acting, so you can’t pretend your character is delivering his lines in a way that would make sense for his personality.

Fallout 4’s character doesn’t seem to leave room for many other personality-types, and I feel like the one we’re given will grow stale in subsequent playthroughs.

I'm not sure about non-quest related npcs because honestly I haven't seen that many so far, nor have I seen any streamers try to talk to them.

To answer the question: genetic NPCs such as 'security guard' cannot be talked to. They just say one-liners just like the guards in Skyrim.

Since I've gotten multiple comments about my username on these forums, I'll explain.

In Skyrim, I sided with the Stormcloak rebellion upon learning of the atrocities committed by the Imperials and their pointy-eared masters.

Ever since, I have endeavored to make my playthroughs in Skyrim as Elf-free as I possibly can. Racist? Yes. Genocidal? Possibly. But if that's what it takes to allow my fellow non-Elf citizens of Skyrim the freedom to practice their freedom of speech, religion, and the freedom of not having their sweetrolls stolen, then so be it.

Back on topic, I appreciate your feedback. Hopefully I'll be able to find this out soon.

Thank you for answering my question.

That is disappointing, but not entirely unexpected.

However, mods ftw.

It's significantly more limited than Skyrim. Typically, after you have a conversation with a character you can never talk to them again in Fallout 4 - they react to your attempt to communicate with them with a one-liner. Large numbers of people react with one-liners by default, too.

Conversations also have 'paths' that almost always just keep on truckin' - you typically can't start one branch of a conversation and then try and see another (for example, asking a question could move the conversation forwards so you can't ever choose the other answers).

With all that, you're probably only going to see 1/2 to 1/4 of the possible dialog in the game - making it so there's less actual dialog in one run through the game than there was in Fallout 3 even though the total number of lines is greater.

Yeah, I haven't been hearing to many good thigns about the dialouge system, though if it does such and the voiced PC thing doesn't work out, at least Beth knows for next time.

Jesus Christ it's THAT bad?

Nothing unexpected for me, that's the usual consequence of Dialogue Wheel conversations.

Granted, unless it is a trader you don't really talk with people more than once or twice anyway. I hope at least the journal is worth something otherwise it will be like Wasteland 2 for me (no game, I don't remember what that guy told me the last time I was able to play this game which was two damn weeks ago!).

What?!

If that's the real drawback of speaking player character then that svcks big time!

Does anyone know what can affect dialogues beside Charisma? Like other specials of Perks?

Seriously? Such [censored]. Much disappoint.

See, and this is why I was concerned about the dialogue wheel in the first place.

A friend of mine who is about 25 hours into the game has said the conversation mechanics are easily the worst thing about the game he has seen thus far.

Wow that's....bad.

To be honest, this sounds worse than it is. As I mentioned, unless it is a regular quest-giver or merchant, you don't generally speak many times with an NPC in RPGs (and half of those also stop talking to you and start answering with one-liners, no matter what dialogue system the game uses).

The real problems with dialogue wheel are, IMO, these ones:

- modders are now limited to less dialogue options. Now, PC gamers will no doubt get mods that alter the UI to old fashioned selection, but console players will get stuck with what they have

- you don't get the flavor of saying something the way you want to say it. What the Voice-actor says, you hear

- it has only four options. If you HAVE to put in the Dialogue Wheel, why not do it like Mass Effect which has six?

- it might be hard to know what your character will say (my most common problem with dialogue wheels). Mods might fix it by replacing the one word with a sentence that your protag will say though

- not related to the dialogue wheel, but the voiced protag: this will be a large punch in the guts for quest mods. We got around voices NPcs by volunteer Voice Actors from he community, but how can you make up for the voiced protag?

All in all, I think that the Dialogue mods will be the first and the most popular mods for PC gamers.

As far as we know, nothing.

EDIT: So, a good example of the 'once you talk to someone you can't talk to them again' thing I saw yesterday:

In a 'town' area, a kid popped up and offered to give the PC a tour in exchange for some caps. After paying the caps, the kid walked off but the PC didn't follow; after thirty seconds or so, the kid complained that the PC wasn't following them and ended the tour. After that, there was no way to talk to that kid again - to, for example, ask for the tour to continue or to demand the caps back or anything like that. The kid was still there, and you could attempt to talk, but all it resulted in were one-liners.

Sounds like we have one of the most popular mod ideas ever. Personally, I am hoping that it is like Mass Effect's Dialog system with the Investigate option instead of having a choice of 4 options like it was shown in the E3 videos.

I haven't heard of any specific perks that involve the old speech skill, and I have heard all but two ranks of the entire charisma perk trees.

I've actually heard of one about a Charisma perk, but that's it for now.

Not being able to go back in a conversation kind of makes sense, forces you to not just test to see what the person you are talking with will do, but when you can't fully control what you yourself can say, it's a problem. Especially if I end up saying something I don't really mean, or the person I talk with assumes that I agree on something, and then just end the dialog there. Will probably have to save before every conversation just in case I end up saying something that wasn't according to the dialog option... Will have to see how it plays out, but from what I have heard now I very much prefer not to have a voiced protagonist :/

It isn't the dialogue wheel's fault that there are only four options or that you're unable to go back and choose different options, see DAI for how that can be averted. Upon reflection the NPCs never speaking to you again might actually not be that big of a deal. How often did you go back to retread old dialogue with someone whose dialogue you've exhausted? It might be a bit weird if no one has anything to say to you ever again after you've spoken to them once though.

For those of us who play these games for immersion and roleplaying this is a big deal, though I totally understand why it wont matter at all to most people.

It's also a bit jarring that I can't feel like I've become friends, or enemies, with people after I've completed their quest. I can't ask follow up questions, ask them how things have been since I helped / harmed them...I just get a one liner and that's it.

So there is a meaningful distinction in your immersion and roleplaying if you can open up dialogue with someone, have no option but immediately saying goodbye vs them barking a one liner at you?

Yes, but this has always been the case. It isn't something new. Barring some exceptions that is the land NPCs are banned to.

We don't know about that. The game doesn't lock you out of conversation with them after talking to them once, but after they have nothing else to say.

I expect we can ask this to certain NPCs when we meet them after a major quest and they stop repeating it the next time we meet, though they may just change their one-liner (which is the same in games like New Vegas where their introductory sentence changes after a major event, but not their dialogue options).

No, just no.

New Vegas had NPC recognizing you quite well, and in Fallout 3 many NPC did too.