Bethesda’s Todd Howard has taken part in a Q&A-style interview during which he revealed more details about Starfield’s dialogue system as well as a first look at the persuasion minigame that will feature in the space role-playing game (RPG).
The persuasion system is a rehashed look at the simplistic system that featured in 2006’s Oblivion. During an earlier discussion in a developer roundtable, Howard had said that the new Starfield persuasion minigame “feels like you’re having a conversation where you’re actually trying to persuade somebody of something” (via, The Loadout).
An unlisted video on Bethesda’s YouTube channel takes a deeper look into exactly how the persuasion system will work, which was spotted by Biosnake on ResetEra. Choosing a dialogue option that is persuasive will send the player to another menu with a variety of responses, which each cost a certain number of points.
There are a limited amount of attempts to successfully persuade whoever the player is speaking to. The on-screen UI also shows an auto-persuade function, for those that would rather not complete the minigame. “It feels natural, not like I’ve just entered some other mode where I’m not doing regular dialogue,” said Howard.
Some updated statistics on the dialogue in Starfield were also discussed. Speaking to IGN during Summer Game Fest, Howard gave a figure of 200,000 lines of dialogue, but this has now grown to 252,953 and counting, according to a graphic in the video.
Despite the fact that, it seems that dialogue is still as important as ever in the remainder of the game. Bethesda announced in June that would move away from the heavily criticised likes of which saw players complain that the recorded dialogue meant character responses were limited.
