-Make it clear which conversation option is a decision or "decision", and which lets me ask more questions. I often want to go trough all the dialogue options before continuing,
This turns conversations into checkboxes and it actively diminishes games that have it. I vehemently hope they DON'T implement this.
It's up to the player to think things through, but hey, sometimes conversations don't go where you expect them to go. How things turn out is not for your character to decide, he or she can only make choices for him- or herself.
but it often turns out option i picked continued the conversation so i can't pick the option that i actually would have.
This makes no sense. It's the option you would have picked, but you didn't pick it? Huh?
Lot of reasons. There is usually more to talk about than just 1 thing, why would i start conversation by first telling my big final decision before i have all the information and end conversation forever when there is more that i could by game's own design and by real life logic continue to talk about? There is lot of information i would like to hear before making a decision. So i first talk about the less important things, then get on the important topic which might involve big decisions. And the big decision could with a good reason end the conversation and i know it, so i want to leave it last.
And people in real conversations often go back to what was earlier said if it was something important/interesting they wanted to keep talking about, another thing you can't do in these games for somewhat arbitary reasons.
Its many times not clear what game considers a decision and what is designed to be "talk more".
It's up to the player to think things through, but hey, sometimes conversations don't go where you expect them to go
Sure but that is different than what i am talking about. In real life there might be arbitary time limit for conversations, but i don't just accidentally end conversations and leave people standing there waiting for me to come back even when i could and would keep talking with them. But that is what happens in the game, because some dialogue is conversation ender for no clear reason.
Its fine to have situations where you just can't talk about everything, even situations which seem like you should be able to but you for example get interrupted and don't have time to talk about everything. You could even make game's interface look like normal, like it would allow you to ask more questions. It does not need to reveal to player what will happen, but it should make it clear to player what player character
intends to do with conversation decision they choose: this is my opinion/decision versus "i want to talk more about this" Player in real life would know this, player character would know this.
In real life or tabletop RPGs you also can correct lot of misunderstandings in conversations unlike in the game, where people may misunderstand your question as a decision and you have no way to correct it.
And conversations in these games are some of the best parts, i don't want to accidentally end them without a good reason, like if i offend somebody or if somebody ambushes us in middle of conversation or if we are in middle of a battle and there is no time to talk much.
