Should Bethesda Game Studios update or overhaul the dialogue system for Fallout 4, like remove the dialogue whee and give more than Yes, Yes, No, Yes options?


The dialogue wheel needs to go I don't like reading words in a wheel shape or oval shape. Since Bethesda Game Studios developed video games give you hundreds of hours of gameplay time. I think if I ever purchase Fallout 4, doing conversations with NPC's for 75 hours or more I might damage my eyes I have a eye health problem which actually makes my eyes hurt staring at dialogue in a circular pattern.

In Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 if I stare at the dialogue wheel for three minutes or so it ends up hurting and straining my eyes.

What are your thoughts?

I think Bethesda Game Studios should take people with eye health problems into consideration.

They should just copy what the full dialogue mod did and apply that.

There is already a mod that makes the dialogue system similar to Fallout 3's dialogue system and console users should be getting it in a few months. As far as getting more dialogue options, that is just not possible. Many of the Voice Actors have gone on to other projects so would be unavailable for the forseeable future and it will probably take at least a year to get the dialogue in the game. All we can hope for is that Bethesda has learnt their lesson and Fallout 5's dialogue system will not be the dialogue wheel.

Nothing like reading exactly what your character is going to say right before they say it. Give me the dialog diamond/cross (four points with no lines connecting them do not make a wheel, and yes I know this is the pettiest of semantics) any day. The best compromise I can think of is previewing the subtitles for what an option says by hovering our mouse over the option, or holding down the button instead of just pressing it.

Yup. The modder just used the subtitles right? Took like a few days after release and it was out, would be no problem to patch it in. Get on it Beth!

As for actually re-recording dialogue to offer more choices? Not happening. Wait for DLC or the next game.

I'd go with this.

I actually prefer having a voiced protagonist, for the most part. I always felt like my characters in previous Elder Scrolls games lacked means to properly emote into the world - that's at least one of the ways to skin that particular cat (though I think there's also other approaches that would strive toward the same goal.) And I think if you're going the voiced route, then the dialog "wheel" is the best method for that thus far. To me it works fine if properly implemented - if each cardinal direction gives you some sense of the mood you're going to emote and they're consistent with that and properly descriptive in the summary options then I rarely run into issues with my character saying something from what was intended.

The "hover for full preview" option would seem like a decent compromise I could go for - some way to double-check an option if you really were all that confused.

Either way, though - it's a matter of presentation. Most of all dialog in all videogames is smoke and mirrors. You get four or so options and most of those will just loop back in on themselves within a permutation or two. Very few will actually have any lasting effect on the game beyond the info dump that they usually are. No matter how it's presented, what the dialog actually impacts isn't going to change.

The main problem with this is two fold:

1. You would need to record new lines, which would take enough time to be considered making a new game, which you might as well.


2. Second is that there really is not enough RP in this 'rpg' to really consider this more than a waste of time.

Overall, not really something I care to get into another argument about (had an argument about this before).

I could live with a hover, altho it is not optimal in my opinion. Conversations can begin to be lengthy I would think, especially main quest critical conversations, if I have to hover over every option in order not to pick the wrong one. Luckily tho, I am on PC, so as soon as the mod came for showing the whole sentences, I was over it!

As for presentation and impact, well, it has always been a matter of the illusion of choice. Problem with the wheel is, that it takes it away in the most annoying manner ever in a RPG, when you think you will say one, and totally doesn't. Not only do you take away the illusion that you are in control of your character, but you are also side-tracked because it didn't turn out to be what you wanted. So yea, in my book, the wheel should just silently roll out under the curtain, and then we can pretend it never happened

This basically sums up all Bethesda needs to do with the dialog. There have been quite a few times my PC would say something completely off the wall and I hate quicksaving before important convos.

mmm... then really why have any "false" choice at all? Seriously, seems like if that is really how the DEV wants it then I would think the player should just walk up to the other actors and then the player sits back while your actor and the other have their conversation.

That would be much more cinematic and give that "smoother interaction" (more immersive?) I hear some people believe they are trying to go for.

If they had done that I would have been less upset with the change because it would have clearly been a huge deliberate change to the game play and not some (in my opinion) bad compromise between the old way and the new way they have decided to go.

Funny, as much as I did not like the speech craft mini game in oblivion when I first saw it, I sure miss it now...

I just want what I choose to say or how I say it to effect the other actors disposition I guess. And thus have that effect what happens in the game. I hope that is not really, a part of Bethesda's game design they are phasing out.

This

One issue I've found with the dialogue wheel is that removes any real nuance in the tone of your replies, as it can obviously only accommodate four options. I've found it's hard to play as, for example, a reluctant hero when the dialogue often only gives you the choice between a mercenary or an all action, vanilla hero. It seems to be very black and white at the moment.

I wondered if others feel the same about this?

I would qualifiedly say no. Unless Bethesda is fully committed to returning to the awesomeness of the dialog mini-game in Oblivion, its not worth returning to the very slightly better dialog mechanic in FONV than we have in FO4 (as atrocious as it is, admittedly).