Yeah, fan art always looks better than the actual thing

Now that The Witcher 3 features this kind of architecture http://assets.vg247.com/current//2015/12/the-witcher_3_blood_and_wine.jpgmaybe Bethesda will feel compelled to up their city building too.

The dialogue wheel is just a tool, it can be expanded to 6, 8, 16, etc options. Just imagine hovering over one of the 4 options opens another 4 sub-options.

Not so. Not so at all. The companion interaction already shows that Bethesda is aware that the system can be used for expanding options, easially allowing for up to 4 categorical choices of 4 options each. Again, that's a easy potential for 16 dialogue choices at any given time, far more than any RPG has ever used.


Remove the single-line divider to speed things up and you're already looking at a more versatile system than the cumbersome menu interface.

I don't care what it is I don't like dialogue wheels or the expansions that they can get.

I like dialogue lines written in full sentences, with decisions to make A LOT MORE than a dialogue wheel with choices.

The writers must have been sleeping at the wheel all these years, they tried to reinvent the wheel and made a shiny new dialogue wheel but forgot to put meaningful choices behind the bloody wheel. The dialogue seems like the fifth wheel in the game more often than not. I hope the wheels are turning for TES VI already and, wheel or list, they oil the wheels for a better dialogue system.

So it's the actual wheel-based dialogue that you dislike, well, svcks for you, I have a feeling the same will be implemented in TES. When BGS jumps to the next level of one game component ( say voiced dialogue, killcams, ect) they never go back, it's here to stay. I don't think they bothered to change the dialogue interface just for one game.

So, you decide that poor use of a tool means the tool must be stupid then, hmm?


Let's be clear about something. I was against the Dialogue Wheel. I thought it was a limited, stupid mechanic and would bring down the Fallout Series. And how it was used definately supports that initial conclusion. But when I stepped back and looked at how it worked and what systems were already in place, it became clear that the tool wasn't the problem, Bethesda's use of it was.


The vague one or two word options and generally limited choice in dialogue are both writing issues and not the least bit related to a flaw in the Wheel it's self. And in a game without a voiced PC, the former issue is barely even relevant anyway, while the latter is, again, easily expanded to exceed what we have seen prior. Yes, there is a lower potential, but until games give us 20+ dialogue choices, that's not an issue.


Meanwhile, let's look at what the system DOES offer.


Snap-conversation. The system already allows for quick interaction with NPCs in passing without commiting to a locked-in conversation or interface.


Mobility. As it stands, the system allows for easy disengagement and movement THROUGHOUT a conversation. This feature alone opens up RP and strategic opportunities because it allows you to react to the flow of conversation as well as gives you control of possitioning.


Categorical organization. This doesn't really need any explanation. It was great in Morrowind, it's great now. Having the ability to clearly condense things based on their intent means you don't have to clutter the screen with absolutely every option all at once.


As it stands, with no additions and just smarter use of the mechanics already in place, the Dialogue Wheel does MORE than any dialogue interface Bethesda has used. It does more than Wild Hunt does. Hell, it even does more than Bioware's accomplished with the same concept.


Why waste work trying to get a menu to accomplish the same thing, when you already have a system that does it?

This is by far my favorite addition, I mean I always wanted the dialogue to be more fluid, more like in real life.

That the Bethesda writers need to step up their dialogue branches I think we can all agree, but the mechanics behind the new interface are clearly an evolution, at least for me.

And you think Bethesda Game Studios couldn't improve with all of this on the dialogue system that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has?

Also The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt set the bar for open world RPG video game storytelling with choices and consequences.


Lets agree to disagree ok?

Disagree with the facts all you want. It won't change them, and it's not a constructive way to go about criticising things.

In all likelyhood, the wheel is here to stay. So better to look at how to improve the showing, than complain about that fact. Especially when it's more work to make the Menu just as functional than it is to make the Wheel do everything you want.

Lol and you think if the Witcher has set the bar, now all the other games should copy its dialogue interface?

if attributes come back, I hope dialog responses are different depending on the attributes. especially with personality & intelligence.

if attributes are gone for good, then at least allow us to change facial expression, and speech tone and perhaps etiquette for NPC reaction.

no offense Ballowers, but you saying "witcher 3 does this" in everyone of your posts actually makes it harder to take you seriously.. sorta makes you sound like an overly devoted fan

Particularly when Wild Hunt didn't really have much in the way of consequences... The world didn't change in dramatic ways, and 9 times out of 10 the only people dying were nameless peasants you'd never see again.

No offense, but I don't believe you played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt just because of all of this stuff you just said.

There are choices and consequences that happen throughout the video game world, depending on the choices you make, most of the people who die are not nameless peasants either they are either a Witcher, a wealthy person, a peasant, and so on etc.

We already know Bethesda Game Studios quest writers can write good or very good quests and our very own Gstaff plays The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, so I'm sure he's giving feedback to Bethesda Game Studios quest writers to try and write more quests with choices and consequences depending on the choices you make.

Heck I'm 100% sure even Todd Howard plays it. Most video game developers play their competitions video games or RPG video games anyways.

I'm really hoping for The Elder Scrolls VI that Todd Howard will strive harder than ever before to have absolutely fantastically well written quests, with choices and consequences depending on the choices the Player Characters (PC's) make.

For every decent quest line, there are at least 12 that aren't so impressive. Frankly, if you're not invested in the characters (which makes up for nearly 80% of why the Witcher or Dragon Age are perceived as better) the actual quality is...okay. If anything, getting side quests up to Oblivion or New Vegas standards would probably be the ideal.

I would love very much to see the quests in The Elder Scrolls VI close to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind's, but The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is ok as well.

Hand placed loot and notes written in journals, giving directions to that loot, where to go and telling their stories is what I want to see.

Frankly I wasn't too keen (though I may be forgetting them) on the non-guild or main quests. I thought Oblivion was pretty bad across the board, but I found most of its side quests were actually pretty good.

For those with pc knowledge what were thechanges in graphics they made from old gen-new gen and if f4 was skyrim how would it compare to a graphicslly modded skyrim

What are your minimal expectations and fid f4 exceed them?

I will elaborate on some of the ideas in my original post. I was not suggesting that the Redguard employ slavery but rather the Thalmor. The I removable gauntlet I believe can be handled contextually. As in the Gauntlet can be summoned in a similar fashion to how players used shouts. It would appear as a ghostly silhouette superimposed over the players left hand and could be used to use special contextual abilities such as augmenting ones shield or weapon with special temporary enchantments; for starters. (Think transmogrification of material and properties.)

As for the the bringing back the dwemer. No. I thought the idea of the Skyrim quest line where the player was collecting elven blood samples to help create a crude dwemer composite sample was interesting. And I thought, hey wouldn't be cool if the was a special gene or something the was rare and originated with the dwemer that their technology responded to. Say maybe the gene that governs left hand dominance?

The PC version of Fallout 4 has DirectX 11, Physically Based Rendering (PBR) (Physically Based Rendering (PBR) makes materials like cloth, metal, and wood look more realistic.), dynamic volumetric lighting, and a 64-bit executable. All of which the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim does not have.

Since the PC version of Fallout 4 has Physically Based Rendering (PBR) it should look graphically better than the modded PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Todd Howard said that Fallout 4 has full Physical Based Rendering, but some PC gamers who are modders who worked with textures in Fallout 4 so far have said it's not even implemented fully.

Well, as I said, you can disagree with the facts all you want. 64 hours on my Steam Profile clearly says that, yes, I have played it. Quite a bit in fact. And it was a good game, definately one of the best of 2015, but it's not nearly the Second Coming some people make it out to be.


O can think of 2 quests which had any real impact, created any real dilemma, or had any real consequences. The Cursed Tree, and Reigicide. Maybe the game offers more consequence if you make poor decisions, but it goes out of its way to say 'THIS IS THE RIGHT CHOICE! YOU SHOULD PICK THIS ONE!' most of the time that it doesn't matter. From the future king of Skellige, to the Red Baron, to Dikstra, the game doesn't present you with difficult decisions, so any 'Consequence' can only be a result of deliberately trying to make bad decisions.


Not that such an approach is inherently bad. Giving you a crap ending if you insist of making crap choices is better than not giving you the choice at all. But it's certainly nothing revolutionary.


Even then, its storytelling has little functionality in TES, because of the way TES handles its progression. Unless Bethesda wants to swing the Dragonbreak bat every single game (and overuse one of their coolest concepts) you can't have that type of diversity in the majority of its questlines.

Regarding massive cities, if Balmora was that big in Morrowind it would have taken up the entire West Gash. Not that it isn't doable, but they would either need to massively increase the playable area or only have a single megacity that dominates a large area with smaller settlements around it. Something like Vivec placed like New Vegas.

It also needs to have content. If it only has five shops and ten quests spread over two hundred city blocks and a couple thousand personalityless NPCs for filler, it won't be very fun, just a chore to navigate while you try to do stuff. Vivec was cool, and I could probably make a character that never leaves and still has plenty of things to do, but having to go there and navigate that maze to find a single NPC for a quest originating in a different city was annoying.

-Redacted-

I don't think they should scale up the map that much. Vivec or the Imperial City should be about as large as their cities ever get, IMO, and the focus above that should be making them feel more lively. Having kids running around playing and merchants shouting out their deals, stuff like that, added a lot of life into Skyrim's cities for me.