I think it's just another thing that was a great idea, but the execution has some serious issues

let me guess someone stole your sweetroll

Dam it someone has to do it!

I once was an adventurer like you until i took an arrow to the knee!

there...its done....

TBF, they are both sort of easter eggs. Sweetroll one is from a shoutout to a previous game; arrow in the knee refers to the fact that Skyrim doesn't have leg armor, apparently.
However, while easter eggs are nice, they shouldn't pop up every. Other. Line. Should be rare. Logical dialogue for the guards to say with more restrictions and less frequency would be nice.

I will say that Beth should have added some effort to bring the same kind of reaction to NPCs and quests in general, too, to make an interesting storyline. It's annoying that only guards know what's up, and no one else.

I want all of my "STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM" back.. i missed those in oblivion Along with "WHY. WON'T. YOU. DIE?!!??!?!" and something about falling down and bleeding to death.

Yes, I think you're being unreasonable. But good thread idea.

I love the guard comments and think that they are a fantastic idea. Obviously they aren't perfect but what is? The guard comments, for me at least, do a good simulation of awareness in Skyrim. You see "psychic guards" but I see attempts to simulate the gossip and banter of a real world. If these weren't included then I would feel a lot more disconnected from the game world.

One criticism I have though is that they all have the exact same voice. One or two more actors voicing the guards is necessary I think.


So what would you do to remedy this situation? Remove all NPC comments entirely because they get repetitive?

You really seem hung up on such a minor part of the game. You need to lighten up a little.

*Assaults guard. Guard kills me*
"You've been seen in the company of the Companions. That's an honorable path you're on friend."

I dunno, I kinda see the guards as Skyrim's version of the stereotypical "beat cop" that can be found in some form just about everywhere. They walk around making what seems like idle and very repetitive pvssyr either to kill time or to cement relationships with the folks on their beat or to give the impression that they know what's what so maybe you should think twice about causing trouble in their jurisdiction. No matter where you go, it all sounds the same because everywhere you go the job itself is basically the same and human nature is basically the same.

Besides I'm a huge Discworld fan and when I see Skyrim's guards I can't help thinking of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and that makes me smile inside.

I don't think anyone wants them to say nothing, this isn't a light switch issue.

My observation is that Bethesda has made the public too talkative, when they've only a few lines to say for the most part. I'd find it far more realistic if NPCs just nodded at me most of the time in passing, with an occasional "good day", once in a while or maybe a scowl if they were guards and your bounty levels were not exactly criminal but still high enough to stretch their trust of you. I'd rather trigger their dialogue by my initiation of it, not just having it blurted out at me.

The shop keepers should have a simple greeting, their scripted "colorful" greetings are fine, but the efffect is totally losst when different voices on different characters still say exactly the same thing. "Me... I call them treasures!" should not be everyones modus operandi !

Personally I've found the quieter companions to be the far better ones. Illia in particular can say a lot with just the way she is animated. Your imagination tends to make the story behind her gestures and facial movements. RPG anyone?

For the future, I'm wondering if Bethesda shouldn't concentrate on creating 5-7 very well crafted companion NPCs, rather than the hodge podge were all House Jarls are saying the same things, and others such as the mercenaries share various lines as well. There is some delineation, but there really needs to be much more.

This but yeah some of the comments are just out of place and annoying. Though I have to say, for some reason I love the "Your breath is foul, what have you been eating?" comment.

Let me guess, OP. Someone stole your sweetroll?.

when you are a newbie in skyrim, the guard comments are pretty good.
But if you are like me, after 5-6 months, you probably hear all of their lines already. Thats when you start to think its annoying.

BUT!
For people like 'Papa says i wont see roggvir anymore' and 'I work for belethor'..............

No - someone else made the good suggestion they should have concentrated on making some well-rounded followers - I'd say that would have have been a better idea than a very lame attempt at giving guards 'character'. Guards are guards who guard things. What Bethesda did was attach virtually the entire 'world reacts to what you do' part of the game to about the least important NPCs in the game in terms of characterisation. As a substitute for having name NPCs react to virtually anything - very few references to race, practically no reaction to what you've done - they hung everything onto the guard comments. who have repetitive lines with badly thought out triggers so what they say often sounds weird and makes no sense. My suggestion is it's a lazy and badly implemented attempt to cater for players wanting the world to react to them. And having the world react to them is something players often say is something they really like. So Bethesda have catered for that by having faceless clones continually comment in a jarringly unrealistic and often inappropriate way.

Regarding NPC comments in general, I don't know who at Bethesda thought players would want to hear "I work for Belethor at the general store" every single time they walk past a certain NPC. It's totally inane. It's good to have NPC pvssyr, but all this constant 'I do this, I do that, have-you-tried-mercenary-work-it-might-suit-you' just by walking past someone as opposed to a greeting (and ambient pvssyr between NPCs in the background) is in my book ridiculous. But that's an old story.

In itself, you can say it's pretty minor. But I'd suggest it's symptomic of Bethesda's broader problem with their writing being poor and deteriorating further over time. So I see it as part of something I see as important as I love their games to bits but feel frustrated that a truly great game is badly let down by shockingly bad writing of which the guards stuff is a part - admittedly not a major part, but I'm not going to get carried away spending ages going on about how bad and often nonsensical a whole load of quest writing is.

Guards comments are great, and funny.
Of course we have some inconsistencies,but at the end they're nice - at least more than the majority of other Npcs annoying comments.

I hate especially the 'honeyed words' comment. Reaching 40-50 points in speech is very easy by selling unwanted crap to merchants. Why the guards should treat me like I'm a well known orator or stateman?