Has anyone noticed the dialogue options are very limited, and many imply your character is an idiot?

I know the character in all the commercials was a nord, but that does not stop me from playing an elf, breton, or dark elf.

The ones that really stick out are some of the options in the mage quest line. Which is surprising since doing that quest line implies your character is a mage which implies some intelligence. 'We found some sort of orb thing....' or 'We found something, but ask the other guy about it because I can not explain it.' 'I found some books, I think one might interest you' or 'Have you ever read Night of Tears? Yea that other guy said it was important.'

Or Enthir with the staff... it is obvious what he wants. Why do I have to keep asking questions just for him to get mad at me for not catching on faster?

How about telling the Jarl of whiterun about killing the dragon? Those options were also very vague. Did they do this on purpose so that the Jarl would have to ask me even more clarifying questions in case the player is really slow and needs it spelled out?

In FO games there are dialogue options based on knowledge in that skill or a high intelligence. Intelligence is no longer an attribute, but if my various magic skills are high enough and/or I have read books about a subject can I please have a dialogue option that implies I know what I am talking about? Can I have detailed explanations of things instead of vagueness that has to be followed by 20 questions to understand what I am talking about?

"Was that Dragon on your Side?"

I'd like a Dragon Age style dialog response. :3

They're SUPPOSED to be VERY bare, so you can elaborate on them to fit your character. It's much easier to make responses more personal compared to Dragon Age or Fallout.

For example, the dialogue option might be 'I'll do this for you.', but my characters wouldn't say that. My Orc would say something more along the lines of 'Can't handle this yourself? That's why I'm here.', while my Nord would say something more like 'I better get paid for sticking my neck out. I'll do it.'

So, while it MAY make your character look like an idiot in your mind, it's supposed to be changed to fit the character's personality.

Bite your tongue...HARD!

What do I do with all the BLOOD! It's all over my top, and the couch, and the keys.

Dialogue in this game is indeed simplistic and very lacking in flavour. Even the two options they usually give you lack any real "red blooded" commentary.

Thankfully, I play mostly chaotic evil characters so the dialogue doesn't break the game for me, since I would just assume stick a knife in someones throat before I listen to what they have to say.

This drives me crazy to no end. I would love fallout 3 style dialogue options.

I agree the dialogue doesn't offer much chance for roleplaying. I dislike that you can choose every dialogue option with everyone, as though what they say one moment has zero impact on what they'll be willing to say the next.

EXACTLY.

When Aela asked me if I would ba able to defeat Farkas, I answered "We'd have to try" (or... whatever answer the game gave us. been too long since I did that one lol)

My character was actually saying "Words don't matter, skill does. Wanna try it out?"

This actually works well with D'jinn's character, as she is meant to be childish and naive... she does not understand many things. But there are times when D'jinn imagines herself giving a different sort of response, along the lines of "D'jinn loves to explore tombs! Much treasure there, no? Of course she will go!"

"You'll make a fine rug, cat!

Aren't the Khajiit renowned for their inherent expertise at knitting fine rugs? I'd pay handsomely for you best work, my friend."

I think the dialogs were written with an uneducated Nord barbarian in mind.

Would explain how even though the dragonborn can become the archmage; but still be considered to be an imbecile by his fellow mages in all the dialogues.

Sure shows how little effort they spent on mage characters types on the game though.

Umm, why? DAO was a very good game(better than OB, imo) and it had very nice dialogue options.

I hate the majority of the dialogs tbh..
I just try to block what they or I say and imagine my own things. Which svcks.

NOO! you need all that blood for bleeding! dont lose it you might need to bleed later!

OT: dialog svcks, hardly any options at all (only way to say no is with a resounding silent walk away, and the quest giver still does not give the message and waits for you to come back)

yep makes perfect sense that they would spend all of that money on voice overs, writing, etc, just so you could pretend to say something different .

So far the only option I have liked what when the mage that assists the Jarl of whiterun was explaining something to me, and there was an option that was basically, "I get it, now get to the point!"

Another one that REALLY confuses me. In the mages guild, when the Khajit asks if you have mastered the expert level destruction spells. Your options are essentially, 'no, but one day' or 'I svck at life.' The confusing part, I knew ALL of the expert level destruction spells. Where is my, "Yes I have mastered those spells. Have you?" option?

Seriously? That is the perfect place to have an extra option based on skills... but there is not. What a waste.

They were bare in Oblivion, they're not really bare here. They almsot always have some connotation to the options. "What is life's greatest illusion?" "Uh, the one where the lady gets cut in half?" and often, they'll have something like only threatening sounding options in a dialogue tree. So they ask "Will you do this for me?" and if you want to say no, you have to say something like "I'm not wasting my time on you." and that sort of thing. What if I'm playing a nice character who is just busy? In Oblivion you'd get something vague like "Not right now.".

This is precisely the reason I prefer the Elder Scrolls series to any Bioware game. The more specific the dialog choice, the less likely that dialog choice is going to fit my character.

We must be playing different games, because last I checked, my character didn't have a voice, and I could write out the skeleton responses Bethesda gave us to signal what the NPC would respond with using my ass.

Honestly, Oblivion was probably worse than this. You more often than not got ONE word, and had to elaborate off of that. Did ANYBODY get pissed off about that? Ask yourselves which system you prefer. At least now I can get a general idea of how the NPCs will respond before I decide what my character says because I have more than one word, with punctuation.

Leaving it up to the imagination... Morrowind did that. Vast majority of the time, you clicked on a topic to talk about and read what the other person had to say. You rarely saw what you said, so it could be whatever you wanted. The sliver of time you did say something, it still wasn't much.

And I don't mind having specific options, just that those options included something that was not, "I'm an idiot." And I can not just 'imagine' I said something else when the NPC responds BASED on what I said. If I tell the arch mage I found some sort of orb.... his response is, "Ok you are clearly a moron, let me hike to Saarthal so I can ask someone else. Seriously why did they send YOU if I have to go where you came from to ask someone anyways??? Go ask the librarian if he has a book on this so you won't sound so $^%^#%$# stupid!" Ok he does not say that, but it is clearly what he is thinking. I can not just imagine, 'oh I explained that precisely, I'm on my way to being a great wizard and the arch mage respects me.'

The general complaint in this thread (which I completely agree with, especially with regard to the Mages College) is not that the dialogue is too vague but rather that it is too stupid.

Its no wonder that the player is never recognized as the arch-mage.

He's obviously too stupid to be an arch-mage.

no lollygaggin'

They need to choose completely generic dialogue ala MW (Yes, No, Rumours) so you can fill in the gaps or make the dialogue system extremely in depth

Yes (rude)
Yes (Polite)
No (rude)
No (Polite)
Brawl (Amicable)
Brawl (Angry) etc...