How will we reply to NPC's now that we can walk and look around freely?
They didn't really mention it, although I'm expecting for a little list to come up with a number, and you press that number on your keyboard.
For console users, d pad.

I suspect as much. Seems like a good system to me.

I don't think it's been mentioned, maybe they'll go with the system you suggested, or maybe the game just pauses when it's time to choose your response, and it's chosen like normal.

no no, todd howard said your going to engage in a conversation with someone, and a tree of options will open in the left or right, dont remenber, he will keep talking, and doing anything he was doing before, and you can stop talking to him by pressing B (on the xbox) and the tree of possible options to ask are going to dissapear and your free to go, but the npc will keep talking, like if he was still in a conversation with you, if you walk away, he mighty eventually stop talking, since he realised you dont want to hear any more, or they may even follow you for a short period of time, until they stop talking better saying, thats all what Todd Howard said in the OXM interview, only avaible on the xbox live, im not speculating or guessing anything, so, its all pretty much confirmed, unless you dont believe in todd howards word lol

And when it finally dawns, it dawns in FIRE!

They said the NPCs could move, not you.

So if you engage in a conversation with someone, they will continue doing what they already were doing, while a tree of options appears on one of the sides. When you say goodbye (end conversation), the tree disappears, but the person might continue talking to you or even follow you.

Did I understand it correctly?

Todd himself said you could walk away during a conversation.

That's not how I understand it. When entering conversation, they start talking and a list of topics appears. The world keeps moving and they keep doing whatever they're doing while talking. You can press some button to remove those topics, and the NPC will still keep talking, and you can re-engage with them to bring the list of topics back. eg:
- Engage an NPC, they greet you, and a topic list appears
- Pick a topic to talk about
- Press whatever to close the topic list, they will keep talking, and you're technically still in conversation
- While remaining within distance, you can:
- - Move somewhere else
- - Pick up stuff
- - Etc
- Re-engage the NPC to bring back the topic list (they don't re-greet you, as you never left)
- Pick the next topic you want to talk about
- When you walk far enough away, then the conversation will end (there may be an explicit "goodbye" option with the topics, too)

That's how I understand it, at least.

Pretty sure YOU don't move around, THEY do. It is an attempt to break Oblivions artificial zoomed in conversations and has the NPC going about their business. I'm 80% sure you can't move while conversing

That sounds right and good on the realismn/imerssion side.

mabey you move automaticly? kinda like a cutscene yet you get the "tree" (if im not mistaken isnt that how mass effect does it?) and if you press circle your done talking n walking. and i do hope inns will have people eating and not just standing around.

Nope, you do move, confirmed by Todd himself...

I suspect that on the PC, some hotkeys that first-person games typically don't use (like Y, U, I, O, P for example) will be used for that. Another possible system is that there will just be one "Reply" button that temporarily unbinds your mouse from the camera to let you choose an option from a popup menu.

I believe Pete Hines 9or was it Todd) has covered this is a podcast

When talking to NPCs, you are free to do other things. The NPC will continue talking as long as you dont move too far away. The NPC will also perform tasks like sweeping while they are speaking to you.

The will be a menu of topics to talk about on the side of your screen and you can pick each one accordingly.

I have yet to see someone provide any sort of proof to that effect. I remember reading or hearing in an interview or podcast that the NPCs move, I have not heard a single comment about the player moving.

Todd said that if the player moves too far away, the NPC stops speaking. Infer what you will.

You should also note that it wouldnt make sense for the NPC to be free to roam while the PC is frozen in a fixed position. This isnt Mass Effect, the camera isnt trained on the NPCs anymore, so if they start moving there is a good chance they would leave your screen.

Said where? What is the quote? This is all very ambiguous. It makes plenty sense for the NPC to walk around, they have a job to do; You on the other hand are only there to talk to them so what would YOU be doing? Also I can think of no logical way for them to implement the dialogue method proposed in this thread, a D-pad system would be far too clunky.

yes you did!

well thats exactly what i was trying to say, but alot more detailed =]

*looks through forum topics*
*sees title "Something that just dawned on me"*
*immediately thinks along the lines of....*

Awesome. Thankfully what did dawn on you wasn't Fire.

Anyways on topic.

Pretty sure a list of tpoics will pop up, and you'll be able to select from this list somewhere on the bottom left/right of your screen. I can imagine you press a button on your controller/keyboard corresponding the topic you wish to choose. I'd like it if I could keybind these choices, I'd like them to be numbers from the numpad, if not I might just get a controller for my keyboard; It depends on what the buttons are for choosing topics. And on leaving the conversation, didn't Todd Howard say that you could walk away/press B to leave the conversations?

I'm really hoping that this system is extremely quick compared to the other system. I'd like it if I could ask NPCs riding past me on their horse where they were going for a one-word response along the lines of "Riften!" or "Whiterun!". Off-topic, I'm hoping for the ability to interrogate bandits.

It's been on youtube from day one courtesy of 360RPGplayer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Xn0GbweAE

Thanx, that's helpful. So essentially when you talk to someone you choose a dialogue option THEN you move around. I wonder how it works for when they finish their statement, do you have to talk to them again or does the menu automatically pop back up?

was it truth? covered in fire? oh god get it off!