Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General I dont like that dialogue options start with "say"

All those "say", "tell him", "suggest" littering reply options.
I feel they are unnecessary and just make dialogues clunky and difficult to read. It actually bothers me more then I think it would.

Yeah i feel the same. One reason i liked D:OS was the funny dialogue and overall the dialogue system filled the lack of a serious plot. This kind of dialogue makes me feel distant from my character.

I actually find it interesting. Its something different. And It lets you narrate your own version of the dialog.

I don't mind, since alot of games uses the written text to convey a sentiment while the spoken dialogue is used for what is actually said.

Isn't this the case because the dialogue simply isn't finalized yet?
Because in several conversations, the old format, with direct quotes is back.

Quite possibly so, I didn't even think of that!

Yes, it's probably ot finilized yet. I remember the very beginnings of DOS alpha where they also used the "say", "tell" placeholders.

[quote=Kuv]This kind of dialogue makes me feel distant from my character[/quote]

Exactly!
Plus there are tons of words and texts that bring no value, but you have still to read them. I hope its just a placeholder, and not their experiment with dialogues system

I agree, it totally makes my character feel very distant from me.

I understand that this experiment was meant to add a new layer of immersion, letting us - the players - imagine the way our character talks, but I'd rather have to choose a generic sentence than reading *tell him* *say that* etc all the time!

Actually, for me this new system is more immersion-breaking than ever!

Completely agree, the "say" is talking from third person. I prefer dialogue to be first person, as if I'm my character, it's much more immersive.

It is just a placeholder. Remember, this is just an Alpha and not the final game.

That's the downside with this Alpha, it's way better, stabler and nicer than most Betas (and even some release candidates!). It's so easy to forget it's an Alpha.

I absolute hate the indirect dialog. It constantly pushes me out of immersion. It reminds me that I'm just the puppeteer pulling the strings instead of experiencing the story from the character's perspective.

Unfortunately I don't think it is placeholder text at all. There were comments posted by one of the writers in a kickstarter update that mentioned something about this being done.

It is awful and really hope they take the time to rewrite it all. It leaves me not wanting to even click on a single npc and just kill them all instead. At least that way I get to maintain immersion.

Completely agree. Not sure if it's because it's alpha or they're just trying something, but it breaks it for me.

I'm hoping it's just placeholder guides that'll be written in later. The line writing in D:OS was probably THE thing that stood out the most for me about the game and was a huge part of why I loved it as much as I did. I haven't had the same impression with OS2, and while I don't expect it to be perfect in Early Access, I'll be very disappointed if it's a stylistic choice they carry through to release.

It's not even consistent. I've seen many instances of full lines, and the contradiction there is even worse than the "narrative dialogue" itself.

I think what's most annoying are the asterisk symbols at the beginning and end of each line, making it harder to read, especially when next to a speech mark... you don't see books using asterisks.

Are you sure about that? Because I think this is a precise writing choice, not an Alpha thing.

Also, what would be the point of this placeholder? Writing "*say that you like what you see"* is not really faster than writing "I like what I see!". Actually, it would be easier the other way around! XD

Because writing is, shockingly, more than just the physical action of typing :p

It's very easy for any designer to come up with some dialogue lines like "*say that you like what you see*"

What's more difficult, and why writers are important, is coming back and giving the line a real voice appropriate to the context and speaker. The first Original Sin was fantastic at this.

I fear this is intentional, especially since they said they wanted to do this.

But I agree, it doesn't work, it feels distant, inpersonal, like you're just an impartial observator rather than that character.
I would love for it to be changed too!

When did they say that?