It seems pretty obvious to me Bethesda gave the guards all the dialogue they have because players consistently say they want the gameworld react to them. But it's a terrible way of doing this.

1/Their triggers are all wrong. My current character has had several 'favour the bow' comments despite having a sword and shield equipped, rarely using a bow and having a low archery skill. I suspect it's because they were lucky enough to find an ebony bow at about level 22 which is in their inventory and it's the highest tier weapon in their inventory. "Hands to yourself sneak thief" should surely be triggered by actual theft not having levelled sneak. Hell, you get comments for skills you rarely use just because they've gone up a notch. And why does a guard in a city you've just arrived in know about or care about your ability to e.g. cast an illusion spell? Which leads me to -

2/Psychic guards knowing irrelevant information. My current character has triggred the Companions questline but not even done the first proper quest yet - I've only done that questline once and found it to be a bit crap, but thought I might do it again with this character for something that feels a bit new to do. But I haven't got round to it yet - that guy has been waiting for my character at that Cairn for about a week now - hope he brought a few packed lunches. Now I keep getting comments all over Skyrim about being a new member of the companions - how does a guard in Winterhold know I've joined and feel moved to comment when I haven't done anything for them yet? Why do they care?

3/On one hand Skyrim is some kind of big brother surveillance state where the authorities know your every move, on the other hand you get things like guards in Whiterun telling you to stay at the Bannered Mare when you've just walked out of the front door of the house you own.

Players want the world to recognise what they've done - a sensible approach would be to weave this into character dialogue - for example specific NPCs having triggers to recognise you as a guild head. It also makes more sense someone like the thieves giuld would know you're part of another guild and be far more sensible to have a trigger for somone like Brynjolf to comment on it. Leave guards to their knee arrow comments and the like. Only the 'Hail Sithis' one really works as it's kind of collusive ( I once got it from a guard who'd just killed a DB target I'd cast fury on - that was a lovely coincidence)
The guards comment on all kinds of pointless crap, but I've never heard any of them say something like 'good day to you thane' when you've become thane of a hold. Wouldn't that have been the most sensible guard comment to have? Isn't that the one thing they really should know about you?

I think the selection of inane guard dialogue was a lazy and badly implemented way to try to satisfy player requests for NPC reaction to their deeds. It's supposed to be immersive, but to me it's the opposite and breaks immersion.

Or am I being unreasonable?
That's why a started a thread....

I don't know... I kinda like the guards comments for the most part. There's some comments that make me face-palm pretty hard, but for the most part they just stroke my Khajiit's ego whenever I pass them. They comment on my armor, choice of weapon, notice the mastery I have over certain skills.

Overall, the guard comments aren't bad at all.

But I do think it's better than having completely silent guards that walk around like mindless automatons. The comments give them at least some personality compared to them walking around like the risen dead.

The sneak thief thing gets onmy nerves.

Your being unreasonable, no-one has the right to complain about anything ever. DAISIES FOR ALL!

No, its true, sometimes the game drops a real clanger with guard comments, same as Oblivion did

I did the main quest line - with the dragons - on the far end of Skyrim.

As soon as I was done, I fast traveled to a small town on the opposite side of Skyrim. Two houses and one guard.

I walk up and he says something like, "That's a great thing you did. You've saved hundreds of lives, ..... ."

I'm like, where did he hear that? There's no MSNBC/CNN/Fox, no TV, no internet. Yet they know some very minute details about the player that's just amazing.

I don't want them silent. Things like "staying safe I hope" or when they acknowledge your race with "what is it elf" are fine. My argument is they've been given a big chunk of dialogue that often doesn't work that's a lame substitute for NPC reaction to your deeds.

I hate comments in general from NPCs when unprompted. I walk through a town to a chorus of alternate greetings or pointless comments. Whilst it is rather impressive that NPC's react to many things relative to your character, it's annoying to here a cacaphony of generic NPC dialogue that I am exposed to every time I approach an NPC, which is repeated over and over by that same NPC.

the biggest thing for me related to this area you mentioned briefly, how and why do people not hail me as "thane" or "arch mage" or whatever the leader of the champions is called... same problem as Oblivion i remember walking through the college grounds and would try to talk to somebody and they would say "im busy" or whatever it is they actually said, and im like "im the ARCHMAGE MOTHER FCKER BOW B!TCH"..but they seem to not know and or dont care.... about the only thing worth while i remember being hailed as is the savior of Kvatch.


having ranted, they are still the best 2 games and i love them both very much.... and probly too much...

Stop right there criminal scum!

Pretty much every NPC makes unprompted, repetitive comments, it's one the few but major flaws that detract from the realism. In regards to the bow favouring comment, shouldn't that only happen at high levels of archery..?

The skill comments are set to go off when the skill level is at 30.

That's right, 30. Barely Apprentice level.

Guards wearing helmets that cover the face is a big fail to me since they are basically clones with no personality, only a select few show their faces such as the ones in the first dragon encounter and are much more identifiable as separate characters. Been asked to conjure up warm beds got stale the first day I played the game I would rather them say nothing than repeat the same cheesy lines over and over.

It's better to have them say something, other than nothing. Isn't it?

All they need to do to tame the annoyance is give each inane comment a long cooldown timer, like a game week. That way, you won't hear the same garbage over and over, like "I work for Belethor, at the general goods store", and the game will be forced to go through a greater variety of comments at any given time.

You can get skills accidentaly that high. No wonder they give the enchanting comment for every one of my characters.

Funniest thing is when you kill a certain person for the DB in a ruin far away from everywhere, the guards know about it immediatly. Every move you make, every step you take, they are watching you. Scum

And why does no one call me "scum" anymore? Don't they like me anymore?

I love it x)
But like in oblivion NPCs react stupid.
But they react fine if you have a character that just focus on one thing like not a mix of mage and warrior etc

Probably the Adoring fan

It would have been nice if the skill comments didn't trigger until lv 70 or so. It's too easy to get skills to lv 30 by accident.

I don't mind the guard comments so much, but often I will go out of my way to avoid npcs so I don't hear their same repetitive comments. It wouldn't be so bad if there was a variety in their comments, but everytime I pass them, it's the same line over and over.

I really like when the guard comments on obviously visible stuff. Such as "Now there's a beautiful sword, like a sliver of midnight." (Ebony Sword).

But some of the acknowledgements are so horribly out of place, and jarring, I wish they were gone, such as the Dark Brotherhood acknowledgement.

An unreasonable desire as well, would have been to open up some of the better acknowledgements to citizens too. It's kind of weird that only the guards seem to be in on the latest gossip. I'll be honest though, I prefer minimalistic "Passerbye" comments. When I get near an NPC, I don't need his whole life story (Olfrid Battle Born, I'm looking at you.)

I like it as is. I'll admit it is sometimes a little buggy, but for the most part it's accurate and it is so much better than what we had before.

I love stuff like:


It's not perfect, but again so much better than them not acknowledging anything at all.

I like the one you get for the mace of molag bal "huh? G-get that mace away from me!" heheheheheh

Yeah, its annoying, guards comment on your ablility at a skill at level 30, which is way too low. I'd only do it when they reach 90, but rarely, level 95, sometimes, and 100, often. That way, you actually have to use a skill and master itin order to comment on it, you can't just have it accidentally over 30.

The worst offense, to me, is you're walking through Whiterun on your way back to breezehome, mentally blocking out half the not-so-random tirads from all the passer-by's, when uopn reaching your front door someone stops to make thier comment to you...and literally follow you into your house to keep babbling that [censored] at you.

I think they're a wonderful addition to the game that really makes it feel far more alive than previous ones.

Sadly they wont remove it, they think they are funny [arrow to the freaking knee]