Fallout 76 - Wastelanders Dialogue System Preview

[Silver]

A new update for Fallout 76 offers a preview of the Wastelanders Dialogue System.

This week, we're sharing a preview of the dialogue system coming to the game with Wastelanders. We've also got a reminder about how you can tune into our Fallout 76 panels live from Bethesda Game Days on Friday and Saturday. Finally, we're kicking off a new Double XP event a little later today. Read on to catch all the details.

Flex Your Social Skills in Wastelanders

For the last year, you've been working to rebuild America and beat back the Scorched plague with very limited human contact. Now, the time has come to brush up on your Charisma. People are about to return to Appalachia in droves, and you're going to need to rely on your conversational prowess if you want to get to know your new neighbors.

Whether you want to learn about what life is like outside of Appalachia, warn others about the dangers you've encountered since you left the Vault, or just make a few new friends, the dialogue system coming with the Wastelanders update is going to play a crucial role as you navigate this next chapter in your survival story.

Choose Your Words Wisely

Whenever you're chatting up your favorite Ally, a Faction leader, or one of the many other characters you will meet during your adventures, you will be able to choose from a variety of response options. The words you employ during your conversations with others can, at times, be even more powerful than your favorite weapons. The decisions you make may help you forge alliances, find an alternate way to get something done, or even have an impact on your reputation with the Settlers or the Raiders.

The new faces in town aren't the only ones who are interested in having discussions with you. We've also revisited some of our existing NPCs, like Rose, MODUS, and others to outfit them with dialogue. While the quests they send you on will be the same as they are in the base game, we hope that your interactions with them along the way will feel more flavorful and fun than before.

Don't forget, as a Vault Dweller, you're S.P.E.C.I.A.L.! Depending on how you've allocated points into your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes, you will sometimes find you can pull off conversational feats that others cannot. For example, , you may be able to convince someone to give you a weapon, find solutions to problems more quickly, or know just what to say to ease tensions during a tough moment.

Take Control of the Conversation

As part of the dialogue system, we've also added a few controls that can help you make the most out of your conversations with other characters. You can keep track of everything that's said using the new History option at the bottom of the screen. This can be toggled on or off to show up to eight rows of dialogue subtitles at any given time. If you're replaying a conversation, or just want to get to your responses more quickly, you can Skip each of an NPC's individual lines to help speed things along. Finally, you can adjust the camera angle during your conversations whenever you'd like to get a better view of the person you're speaking with.

More information.

 

[mat9813004]

The dialogue system and faction NPC's might be the tipping point for me to return to the wasteland. If only they had blue wasteland elves as romance interests. (As compared to blue space elves in Mass Effect).

 

[ikbenrichard]

The dialogue system and faction NPC's might be the tipping point for me to return to the wasteland. If only they had blue wasteland elves as romance interests. (As compared to blue space elves in Mass Effect).

the only tipping point for me is fallout to return to its roots.

 

[StintDArt]

I'm looking forward to the DLC - but I never really needed NPCs in my Fallout.

To me, FO76 is almost like a cooperative System Shock 2 with 1000 hours of content, instead of around 15.

It's got a great in-depth character system, a fantastic weapon modding system, nice and long-term itemization, above and beyond exploration, great locations, tons of variety - and, to top it off, it's got cooperative multiplayer, which was pretty much the point of the whole damned thing.

That the whole internet got together and did a little Trump "fake news" hysteria bit - making it out to be the worst game of all time, does little to hamper my enjoyment of it.

Launch was rough, and it's not as polished as it should be - but it's fantastic for what it is.

Sure, most people are dead - but that doesn't make the locations and the audiologs less interesting. In fact, I'd argue that works in favor of exploration and slowly establishing what happened in that huge world.

But, hey, if people need to click a few dialogues to feel it's the game for them - that's ok.

 

[crpgnut]

I got bored of it eventually, but I have a couple hundred hours in FO76. It still is the weakest of the TES/Fallout games though. I'll go back when the wastelanders has been out a little while. Let them iron out the bugs and wait for the inevitable flood of folks dies down.

 

[StintDArt]

Oh, I got bored with it as well - but I don't expect infinite playtime from my games.

I think I have around 150 hours or so, and I'm not done - just had my fill for now.

To each his own.

The weakest of the TES/Fallout games would be Arena by a very wide margin, if you ask me

 

[crpgnut]

Lol, yeah I forget about that one. I loved Daggerfall though and may have preferred it to Morrowind. I will definitely go back to FO76 once all the content has been out for a while. It's been over a year since I stopped playing and I've heard there were quite a few changes. I wonder if they ever got rid of the 600# weight thingie.

 

[StintDArt]

Lol, yeah I forget about that one. I loved Daggerfall though and may have preferred it to Morrowind. I will definitely go back to FO76 once all the content has been out for a while. It's been over a year since I stopped playing and I've heard there were quite a few changes. I wonder if they ever got rid of the 600# weight thingie.

They've increased the cap - and I believe they're increasing it even more.

However, it's not a trivial issue to deal with - given the multiplayer nature of the game.

One of the better features of the Bethsoft Fallouts is that items are actual physical objects that take up actual space in the world.

The engine was never designed for multiplayer - and they originally developed it for only one player with local storage.

That said, I never personally had a problem with the cap - as I'm not big on keeping worthless shit around.

 

[mat9813004]

I've increasingly developed the opinion that some people will like a game for its systems and others the narrative, which probably means emotional engagement and forms of actualisation. I tend to like Bethesda games for the narrative, which probably means relationships to NPCs, emotional engagement and forms of actualisation. You sort of need systems for that. Am I describing a story coating over treadmills and pellet dispensers facilitating a form of operant conditioning? Probably. At least here I have a choice of my Skinner box.