Todd admits Fallout 4's Dialogue didn't work, you'll never guess what happened next

I'll be damned, has the hell frozen over?

The rest of the article is more defensive of the game and that they just tried new things etc.

Still, that makes me wonder if the Todd does not like it himself, who is the one responsible for this mess?
 
Has he said anything (in other interviews) about the useless settlement building? The butchering of RPG mechanics? The tediousness of their bullet-sponges? Or is it only worth mentioning when there is X amount of backlash?

As to this one, reading between the lines this is kind of troubling to me. Think about it, they like trying new things but it takes them 4-5 years to come out with a new game. So basically, instead of having a strict design that serves a point their games are basically just bags of toys? Just, here's some random new shit, let's see what works! When exactly does this "experimentation" end? They tried it in Oblivion with radiant AI, that didn't work. They tried doing a Fallout game with Fallout 3, that ain't work. They tried doing radiant questing in Skyrim, big flop. And in Fallout 4 we got voiced protagonist, dialogue wheel and settlement crafting. All huge flaws IMO.

So when exactly does the experimentation stop? Is every game going to be a fucking "testing the waters"-type of game? Isn't that what their DLC's are for? Whatever, not like I'm buying any more Bethesda games anyway.
 
MOTHERFUCKER
IT.
JUST.
WOOOOOOORRRRKKKSSSSSSS!
tumblr_inline_ns0u5nnJe61s3cj0w_500.jpg
 
Mr Fish said:
Has he said anything (in other interviews) about the useless settlement building? The butchering of RPG mechanics? The tediousness of their bullet-sponges? Or is it only worth mentioning when there is X amount of backlash?
Click to expand...
IT ALL JUST WORKS
 
I seem to recall him saying in an interview after Skyrim's release that they went too far with the radiant quests and that players prefer them being properly scripted. And yet F4 doubled down on the radiant quests and replaced even more of the bulk of the game with them. So nobody assume that this means that Bethesda has learned their lesson and won't try to give us another shitty dialogue wheel in their next game.
 
Tom Bishop said:
I seem to recall him saying in an interview after Skyrim's release that they went too far with the radiant quests and that players prefer them being properly scripted. And yet F4 doubled down on the radiant quests and replaced even more of the bulk of the game with them. So nobody assume that this means that Bethesda has learned their lesson and won't try to give us another shitty dialogue wheel in their next game.
Click to expand...
Elder Scrolls VI is going to be a further continuation on this dumbing down of Bethesda games. It will have a voiced protagonist and dialogue wheel.

Prestonius Garvius will be the major quest giver. It will probably take about 15 hours to complete all the planned quests, but another 1000000000000 hours of radiant MMO quests. Probably not even a new game engine.

But you will be able to have relations with whoever you want by picking locks and cracking safes so I'm sure Sterling will give it 9.5/10.

I hope you liked Horse Armor DLC because there's going to be all sorts of "Breton Mage Workshop" DLC that costs 5-10 dollars and lets you craft armor with 20 adjectives in its name.
 
Last edited:
Millim said:
http://fraghero.com/todd-howard-finally-admits-fallout-4-dialogue-system-didnt-work-expected/

It appears even Todd thinks the System sucks. Maybe he should just admit that Fallout 4 didn't work as expected.
Click to expand...
I don't read what he said as saying that the system "sucks". On the contrary, he seems to be just hand-waving away any criticism of the system by declaring, "Hey we were just trying new things! So we'll do better with other new things next time, promise!"

He also doesn't say what about the system he decided "didn't work as expected" -

Was it the stupid paraphrase dialog wheel where the "choices" you made may not have had any relation to what actually came out of your character's mouth?
Was it the fact that in most cases, the "choices" you had just amounted to saying the exact same thing with slightly different phrasing?
Was it the generic, bland, stilted, cliched, trite, stupefied dialog itself?
Was it that you could, like Pete Hines was bragging about all over Twitter, just avoid all dialog by walking away so you could get right back to the shootin' n' lootin' that "Fallout is all about!"?
 
Well, that's a start.

However, for all the "new things" he claims to be trying, how many of said things are actually adding depth to the gameplay and how many are gimmicks or "streamlining" of concepts already in the games? I have very little confidence in them suddently coming up with a bunch of new stuff they want to try, that actually will result in a more meaningful gaming experience.

He's not clear on exactly how much of the dialogue system he thinks didn't work out. Was it sacrificing dialogue options for a voiced player character? Was it sacrificing dialogue options for a dialogue interface that couldn't hold more than 4? Was it getting rid of stat- and perk-related dialogue options, for god knows what reason?
 
Shardik said:
I don't read what he said as saying that the system "sucks". On the contrary, he seems to be just hand-waving away any criticism of the system by declaring, "Hey we were just trying new things! So we'll do better with other new things next time, promise!"
Click to expand...
So basically:
"We didn't *streamline* the game enough! We need to go...DEEPER! DUMBER!"

Next game will have a dialogue wheel that just has:
Happy Face
Frowny Face
Sarcastic Face

I suppose Fallout 4 does *technically* just work. In that it loads the game. It just (barely) works!
 
Here's some gems from the facebook page where that article was posted

stupid comments.png
 
Last edited:
Yep, I wish he went into detail.
If it was because the choices don't match up with the character is saying, then do something about it.
That should have either been fixed before the game went out OR it should be fixed via patch.
But again, just let the Modders do that, why shouldn't they as they are doing it for free.

If it was the whole Dialogue wheel in general, then it should be taken out for their next game.
That's the only way I could play a Bethesda Fallout Game again, if Elder Scrolls VI fixes the issues I have Fallout 4.
 
The fun part is, when you think about it, they actually never do really try new things. Since Morrowind they have followed the same basic formula. All they did, was to simplify it more, streamling the skills, removing choices and butchering dialog. Actually, as far as Bethesda goes, if they made something like Age of Decadence for example, then(!) I would say they really tried something new. Something they have never done before. I say this without the intention to insult them, but what ever you think about Beth, they are not a company about innovation. I mean take Mc Donalds, they always change something in their menue. But they don't stop to sell you fast food, just because they have this new fancy burger there or selling you now country potatoes instead of freedom fries.

Earth said:
Well...it's a small victory at least.
Click to expand...
Maybe. But its all over town that F4 has some of the shittiest dialogue in a long time when it comes to RPGs. So the fact that he recognized that it was less succesfull as expected, is like he said now, grass is green, the sky is blue and gravity makes stuff drop to the ground ...
Otherwise they would have simply said this in 3 or 4 years when they released their next game, oh! You know we had this and that issue with our previous game, we know the shooting lacked something and it was pretty good! But it still not quite there where we wanted it. So we tried something different here this time! And it just works great! Our playtesters are still masturbating over it.
 
Last edited:
As a Fallout fan who came in with Fallout 3 and grew to love the classics and Fallout: New Vegas more, Fallout 4's dialogue system was the biggest disappointment of 2015. I can't believe they even went this shallow route. Even 3 had some bloody effort in it with SPECIAL checks and alternative quest choices for "evil" or immoral players. 4 is just an amusement park ride.
 
Bittersteel said:
As a Fallout fan who came in with Fallout 3 and grew to love the classics and Fallout: New Vegas more, Fallout 4's dialogue system was the biggest disappointment of 2015. I can't believe they even went this shallow route. Even 3 had some bloody effort in it with SPECIAL checks and alternative quest choices for "evil" or immoral players. 4 is just an amusement park ride.
Click to expand...
It was just pure, utter crap. It reduced every NPC in the game to a cardboard cutout with all the charisma of a piece of used toilet paper. I've tried twice to play through it, but both times have quit at the 50 to 60 hour mark. I just completely lose interest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top