So much yes to this. I would love an option to mute all the background chatter, or at least make it much quieter so it's actually background chatter. I've actually taken to turning my sound off when I'm in Cyseal because this is so obnoxious. Most games do a non-invasive "crowd chatter" noise when you're in a busy place rather than having loud, clear voices repeating the same jokes every dozen seconds.
Marketplace pitches like "try my cheese" might make sense once a minute or so, but I agree with the earlier suggestion that things like interactions between soldiers should be maybe once every five minutes, or once when they come on screen period.
"Dead air" is not a bad thing. If you go walk around a real marketplace, you're not consciously hearing specific, loud, clear & isolated voices every few seconds. That would drive people crazy, just as it does in this game.
