62 réponses à ce sujet

[PsychoBlonde]

Firstly, DON'T GO CRAZY.  This isn't the umpteen billionth thread whining about how a silent protagonist is ZOMG SO MUCH BETTER etc.  

No, what I'm proposing is this: what if in DA3 there were a 4th "tone" option, which was: "stay silent".  (Maybe with some animated facial expressions/motions.)

Now, would that be interesting?  I think it'd have some serious benefits.  Firstly, it'd let the devs throw in an extra option without having to do a lot of voice work for the protagonist.  It'd give options when people REALLY HATE all the lines.  And the people who REALLY WANT a silent protagonist . . . could have one.

Just a thought, anyway.

[Chiramu]

I would like my protagonist to be more quiet and thoughtful, but I would still want a voice for when you want to reply with words :<.

[Cultist]

Perfect option. I am ready to skip all facial animations protagonist will make, if that'll make him silent.

[Kidd]

Option to remain silent is nice. Have you been playing The Walking Dead? That option's in the game pretty often. It's neat =)

[zyntifox]

scyphozoa wrote...

I don't think people want a silent protagonist because they want to roleplay as mute characters. I think the idea is that they still want a variety of responses and ways of expressing themselves that aren't voiced. So I doubt that having a "stay silent" option wouldn't really satisfy the people who want a silent protagonist.

Bingo.

[MichaelStuart]

I see no reason why this can't be added.
I would suggest it be more suited to the game options menu instead of being a fourth option in dialog.

[kyles3]

I'm not a fan of the silent protagonist, but a "say nothing" dialogue option popping up in certain situations would be awesome.

[Kidd]

Was just reminded of something I was inspired to write in a romance thread. Namely the very end of it, where picking the paraphrase "Goodbye" lead to the PC not saying anything.

Silence can be a very powerful in a scene.

[brushyourteeth]

I agree with what's been said here already - a stay silent option wouldn't be the same as allowing the PC to communicate a complicated idea without voice and animation, so it's not really a viable replacement for a voiced/non-voiced option.

But being able to stoically and Sten-ishly answer someone with just a look, or ignore them completely has tons of potential for the dialogue - I like!!

[areuexperienced]

Turn off your speakers. Problem solved!

[brushyourteeth]

areuexperienced wrote...

Turn off your speakers. Problem solved!

Not really - the misleading paraphrase would still be there, and unless you had the subtitles on you'd have almost no idea what was actually happening besides a bunch of mouths moving. It'd be like a silent movie. One where you potentially got slapped for saying something you didn't intend to. 

[areuexperienced]

I guess it wouldn't be that hard to add a mechanic that kills animations and sounds for the player character but I don't know how that would work flow-wise, as the game is designed with your character's talking in mind. Hence my comment about the speakers. Methinks the effect wouldn't be that different.

Designing the game with both voiced and silent in mind doesn't seem feasible for me, as you'd essentially be designing two separate games. If voiced is the choice BioWare has made, then that's it and talking about "silent vs voiced" isn't going to change anything.

[brushyourteeth]

areuexperienced wrote...

Designing the game with both voiced and silent in mind doesn't seem feasible for me, as you'd essentially be designing two separate games. If voiced is the choice BioWare has made, then that's it and talking about "silent vs voiced" isn't going to change anything.

Agree completely with all that.    I think the OP's suggesting that there could be times every now and then in the voiced dialogue where we could have the option to just say nothing (rather than spending the whole game silently saying *everything*).

[areuexperienced]

Wouldn't hurt to be used at times, as long as it fits the narrative. The OP seems to be suggesting an additional "tone" along with diplomatic, sarcastic and aggressive. I don't know how it'd work, though, as you do need to say *something* every once in a while in order for the conversation to keep flowing and "silent" isn't really a "tone" or an alignment of sorts, it's just saying nothing .

My comment about "silent vs voiced" is aimed more at the comments after the OP which say that they'd forsake animations etc. as long as they get a silent protagonist.

[PsychoBlonde]

Cstaf wrote...

scyphozoa wrote...

I don't think people want a silent protagonist because they want to roleplay as mute characters. I think the idea is that they still want a variety of responses and ways of expressing themselves that aren't voiced. So I doubt that having a "stay silent" option wouldn't really satisfy the people who want a silent protagonist.

Bingo.

Yeah, but it would allow them the option to avoid RP details they don't like or don't want.  And you don't have to pick *stay silent* for every. single. dialog. option.

Unless you REALLY want to.

[AbsoluteApril]

*saves grumbles over voiced PC for another thread*

PsychoBlonde wrote...

No, what I'm proposing is this: what if in DA3 there were a 4th "tone" option, which was: "stay silent".  (Maybe with some animated facial expressions/motions.)

Do you mean, like when you take Oghren to see Felsi and you can either speak to Felsi, prod Oghren along or 'just watch' and let them have the conversation? I did like that option.

[PsychoBlonde]

brushyourteeth wrote...

areuexperienced wrote...

Designing the game with both voiced and silent in mind doesn't seem feasible for me, as you'd essentially be designing two separate games. If voiced is the choice BioWare has made, then that's it and talking about "silent vs voiced" isn't going to change anything.

Agree completely with all that.    I think the OP's suggesting that there could be times every now and then in the voiced dialogue where we could have the option to just say nothing (rather than spending the whole game silently saying *everything*).

Exactly.  

Plus you'd be AMAZED at how much chatter you can get out of people if you just make eye contact, look interested, and wait.  They already have *activate companion* lines, so if silent is your dominant tone you could just replace the intial "what's goin on here?" line with one of the companions saying the same thing.

Silent would be an actual animated option, though, so if you had scenes where the Protagonist needed to, say, knock over a bench or whatever, they could still do that, you just wouldn't get an actual dialog line where they, say, reminisc about their school days at Hogwarts which annoys some people.  AND, if you do like that stuff, YOU CAN HAVE IT.  Plus your character would be like Clint Eastwood in a Western.

EVERYBODY HAPPY.

[PsychoBlonde]

AbsoluteApril wrote...

*saves grumbles over voiced PC for another thread*

PsychoBlonde wrote...

No, what I'm proposing is this: what if in DA3 there were a 4th "tone" option, which was: "stay silent".  (Maybe with some animated facial expressions/motions.)

Do you mean, like when you take Oghren to see Felsi and you can either speak to Felsi, prod Oghren along or 'just watch' and let them have the conversation? I did like that option.

EXACTLY.

Plus, you could have interactions where if you persistantly refuse to verbally communicate or explain yourself the principle gets progressively weirded out.  Those would be fun, especially if they involve you busting down somebody's door and smacking them around.

Modifié par PsychoBlonde, 31 août 2012 - 05:04 .

[brushyourteeth]

I really like this. Remember how intimidating it was to have the Arishok just look at you all calculatingly and take an extremely long pause before he answered you?

Like that. But just with a look. The only problem with that could be that the devs would have to animate an auto-"tone" to your facial expression, whether sarcastic, angry, etc. But they'd probably just go with your dominant tone at that point.

Being able to stay silent during an interrogation or give one of your companions a look like "Really?" or intimidate an NPC by silently waiting for the response you both know it would be beneficial for them to give you... I think that sounds amazingly fun.

Or having a quest where you're picking up so-and-so's lost dagger from a market stall, and when the seller says "That'll be 10 gold, messere!" you just stare him/her down, like that price isn't even worth acknowledging, until they stammer something about a discount. Fun!

[BatmanPWNS]

Silent protagonist is.... wait for it......... so much better!

[Demx]

When you are silently staring at them; what would the facial animation be? If it is controlled by the dominant tone, then the game would have to force you to talk at some point to determin what tone is dominant. It's an interesting concept if done right. I would prefer, after selecting the silent option, a choice on my expression for the situation. Still this option has nothing to do with what people are arguing over. I don't think I've seen threads asking for literally a mute character. Plus Bioware tend to do talking heads. (less animation) A mute in the medieval times would probably use their body to get their point across. Which would require more animations, instead of just stare. Origins had a literal mute character, but she had a person that would speak on her behalf. I believe they knew each other for years before she became one. So it seemed reasonable for her not to move around a lot.

[PsychoBlonde]

Siradix wrote...
Plus Bioware tend to do talking heads. (less animation)

Body motions are not "less animation" than facial motions, it's just that with talking heads you generally have less to worry about in terms of size scaling and clipping issues.

But, for the record, AGAIN, I'm not talking about having a MUTE protagonist.  I'm talking about them giving you the *option* to say nothing as part of the tone options.  They don't necessarily ever have to force you to speak, either--they can just animate the silent option as its own tone if you don't have a dominant one.

Lots of movies have major characters that don't talk much.  Not everybody is prolix.  

That, and I'm getting sick of the huge quantity of unnecessary verbiage usually present in these games.  Less is sometimes more.