Also - and I don't want to be rude here - but how about you let other people decide for themselves what they find annoying. You're counting seconds, trying to get some sort of empirical research for something that is entirely subjective. Yes, we get it, you don't find the repetitive NPC chatter annoying (good for you, honestly) and now you're arguing whether or not people are just imagining things by breaking down their videos into "dead air" vs "audio chatter" as if you WANT to take people's complaints literally to discredit their judgement and prove your point. It doesn't work like that.
Actually, it does.
You know what, I'm not here to argue with some dude on the internet, I'm here to give feedback on a game that I enjoy very much but which could do with a few tweaks here and there. But fine, I'll reply to you directly on the matter one last time.
The entire problem with most of the complaints in the threads on this subject is the way they're presented: exaggerated claims, misinformation, dishonest statements.. need I go on?
Maybe they are exaggerated, so what? Your earlier statement of 35-40 seconds for the "pepper" legionary was exaggerated too, wasn't it? You even specified it was on multiple instances, implying more than once. And lest we forget, 35-40 seconds is a rather precisely formulated time frame. So how did you measure it? Did you actually sit there and count it out - one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, ...? Or did you just take a wild guess? Funny how subjective perception works, huh? Unless of course you have a video of said legionary backing your numbers in which case I'd beg you to post it. Your last one isn't exactly representative because it's obvious the NPC was walking in circles due to pathfinding issues which delayed her chatter.
This thread is, unfortunately, not filled with people saying "Hey, repetitive NPC chatter, even mildly repetitive, turns me off from games. Can I please get a slider option to tone it down?".
Yeah, since when are people not egocentric when they feel the need to complain about something? Don't get me wrong, a slider would be the ideal solution and I wouldn't want you or anyone to suffer from the changes I'm trying to establish. However, we're here to give feedback first and foremost and that is what we did. Criticism is a form of feedback, perhaps the most basic form of it but feedback nonetheless. It's not up to us to try and find a solution that fits everyone, that's up to the devs.
The thread is also not filled with realistic, specific examples of problem areas. Instead, it's filled with comments that are grossly misrepresenting the truth and using that misinformation as a platform to demand game-wide changes that will impact everyone who owns D:OS:EE.
Is it, though? I see a couple of videos including mines backing people's complaints, you just have a different opinion on what "constant" and "annoying" means to you and even have the nerve to call somebody out and implying that "gaming might not be for him" if he can't stand the noise. How very professional and non-egocentric of you. Some people are actively trying to hinder your enjoyment of the game, well, just brush them off and suggest to find a different hobby. Classic!
I actually like the current audio in Cyseal. I don't want it to sound like a dead town, filled with NPCs who rarely say anything. Yes, we can have different opinions, but when people on one side start to wildly exaggerate details to encourage change, how is that fair to people on the other side of the debate?
Cool beans. Again, I wouldn't want you or anyone to suffer from the consequences of my feedback. We already agreed that a slider to tone up or down the chat frequency would be the perfect solution. Now there are but two options. Either we propose this idea to the devs or we go on about how differently people experience the townsfolk's chatter.
Now you're criticizing me for using actual data.. well I'm sorry, but I prefer using accurate information to back up my comments rather than pushing a selfish agenda forward by attempting to deceive the developers. If I can use a video to point out that 1 minute of time in the Cyseal marketplace is made up of nearly half dead-air and the remaining half NPC audio chatter, why can't the other side do the same? I guess because it suits someone's argument better to open the B.S. floodgates and suggest it's "non-stop, back-to-back chatter that's constantly overlapping"? Who needs pesky details (or honesty for that matter), right?
I'm repeating myself almost as often as the townsfolk now but, again, you're missing the point by taking people's complaints too literally. If a bunch of people say it's "non-stop back-to-back chatter that's constantly overlapping" and on top of that is
highly repetitive, then it's their perception. It doesn't belittle their criticism if their perception is a few seconds off the mark. If people said there was an NPC who has literally a million HP and takes hours to kill would you ask them to show you a video and if it turns out the NPC has only 100.000 HP and can be killed in 45 minutes would you brush off their complaint as invalid for being inaccurate?
By the way.. your "DID YOU HEAR THAT" video you linked above? Have you tried engaging the skeleton NPCs in a conversation and then moving on? I know, it sounds a lot crazier than just sitting there listening to them until the end of time, but it might just be the fix that works!
And now you're being ridiculous. To get it straight, this video was for the sole purpose of demonstration. You asked us to provide the worst possible example we could find, and now that I did you're answering with a snarky remark? I'm not usually one to make use of Internet slang but - LOL! Yes, I tried to engage in a conversation with these NPCs. And yes, I moved on. To the north, you know, where there's a bunch of burning skeletons in a lava area. Well, those skeletons decided to engage in a fight with me and happened to be level 8, forcing me to be very careful as I'm playing in honour mode. Such a battle can take up to 10 minutes or longer, leaving me in a spot in which Blossius can continue pestering me with his repetitive gibberish. If your suggestion to a flaw in game design is to temporarily lower the audio or leaving the area I honestly don't know what to say other than "Allllllrighty then" and bid you farewell. And no, it's not just them who repeat their lines with barely a few seconds of silence inbetween. This happens with others, too. I have another video that I could upload, starring stagemaster Chaucer which shows throughout the whole, five minutes long recording that there's usually less than 10 seconds of silence between his shoutings. Oh sure, I could just leave the area, right? Oh wait, there's a quest there, so at some point I'm forced to stay in that area for a good amount of time unless I wanted to skip that quest. Bummer.
