ya i dont think betthesda would do that. i liked being able to talk tto every individual i saw in oblivion

I have no problem with the change. Infact it is most likely good, coupled with the radiant quest thing. So, just because you try to talk to an npc and they have nothing to say doesn't mean they won't seek you out later and be like "Hey, I heard you're a bad ass. Can you help me with something?". That makes more sence than you running into their house and asking if they need help.... lol

Aside from the 1 or 2 unique lines they may have, yeah. Not every dialog interaction I do needs to be important. As someone who tries to roleplay, I like talking to various people in certain places. Particularly Chorrol, as I find it a nice place and where I have a house. Not everything I do needs to be related to quests or treasure hunting. If talkative NPCs help with that (even if they say the same things most of the time), then that's awesome. I would've much rather preferred it if Bethesda worked more on making NPCs more unique and interactable, even if it meant not adding many more over Oblivion, instead of adding in a bunch more NPCs and making them all more generic with little interaction.

As far as I could imagine, people who have something to say to you will still talk to you. Those who don't will still most likely have a greeting or something.

Audio files take disk space, voice actors must be paid. I'd rather they trim some "filler" when it comes to what people have to say and add extra more interesting stuff to the game. Like a crafting system, birds, fish in the water, better weather effects, an actual world economy, and bigger more populated cities. So you can't have a meaningful conversation with some of the peasants, it's not the end of the world. It's better than cities/towns seeming empty and lifeless. Morrowind and Oblivion both had modders add in extra citizens to make cities/towns feel more alive and these mods are pretty popular downloads.

If you look into what other things have been added to Skyrim you should see that this time around Bethesda seems like they're trying to make the world feel much more populated, vibrant, and alive than in previous games. This will only add to immersion, not take away from it.

Are you 12?

the fact that npcs all say the same thing, and that 'cities' have 20 people in them helps you roleplay?

I think you can talk to those players, you just get a very quick reply back and there is no dialogue tree - essentially they have nothing to tell you extra - rather than 50 option and they end up replying I dont know.

I get the feeling the dialog system will be an evolved form of what was done in FO3/NV and The Witcher (evolved in that you can still walk around, and there is no zoom). Regular people will just say some quip (like saying "hi" or "[NUMMIT] you, s'wit!"), while quest givers, those involved in quests, merchants, etc will engage in a conversation with you.

In fo3 and fnv you could talk to a lot of people who weren't quest givers, just normal people. That's what I assume it will be and besides they said they are changing the way you speak to people so it may be like in mass effect where you can walk by and hear others convos and whatever.

(@hellmouth- I'm agreeing with you, I'm just using your quote to collaborate with mine )

Oh...good, was about to contact a plaguebearer to pay you a visit if you were disagreeing with me. Well, looks like I don't need him...for now! :chaos:

Yep thats what i`m thinking and to be honest I would prefer that anyway. Oblivion was incredibly tedious with the generic type conversation.
It will still add plenty of immersion when townspeople call out greetings or rude remarks as you walk past. Red Dead Redemption uses that system well.