How Would You Handle Having New Dialogue?

There is also a strange situation where like say the Personal Logs that are initially encrypted but if  you click them and it says still encrypted blah blah, then when it becomes available it still shows as you have "read" it so to speak.

This happens on other NPCs and stuff too occasionally.  Like it doesn't "renew" the status of the prompt since it changed.

Would also be nice if they improved the flow of NPC dialog as well.  Sometimes you have to visit a person 3-6 times to hear all they have to say about stuff depending on where you are/last time you were there.

+1 to the exclamation on their heads if they have new to say, with the ability to disable it if the player chooses.

---

@PretzleMe wrote:

Wouldn't be bad if they had an audio que either.  Like, "Ryder, it's been awhile," and you would know they've got something new to say.

---

ME2, aside the yeoman reminding you someone had urging matters to discuss with you, when you were to have a Loyalty mission, some characters had a different animation. It could also help if they actually used more body language ...

---

@PretzleMe wrote:

I wouldn't mind the exclamation marks above people's heads, but mainly if people had the option to turn them off.  I wouldn't turn them off, but others should be able to do so if they'd like.

Wouldn't be bad if they had an audio que either.  Like, "Ryder, it's been awhile," and you would know they've got something new to say.

Still don't think you should have to exit and start a conversation multiple times to get everything new out of a character.  Maybe, a dialogue option to just ask for their thoughts.

---

Maybe instead of having exclamation points over their heads as you walk around, they could be on the map, similar to how we have the new mission available designators. In many cases you could just stick it on the edge of the existing people standing around designators.

Yeah this is kind of a thing that can be annoying at times. On the one hand it feels like we get bombarded with emails, but I would prefer the npc's to actually say something when you get in proximity, like "hey, do you have a second?" or something like that.

Alternatively, it would be ok for me to make it a visual thing like subtle but noticeable glow over the character that says there is something new. I would not want this for the standard preprogrammed discussions that are there from the start, but anything quest or romance related it would be good for.

I prefer not to have things like exclamation marks over people's heads for that sort of thing.

And we never answer those e-mails either.

@PandaTar

"...some characters had a different animation..."

Hmm, either I don't remember this or I just never noticed but this could work as well.  I'd still prefer something obvious, like a glow or exclamation mark that you could turn off but this would be better as an immersive option.

On that front, I'd still like an audio indicator.  Like say Cora has another war story she's willing to tell.  Cora: "Hey Ryder, I just thought of another story you might want to here."

"...And we never answer those e-mails either...."

That's cause we're too busy finding paths to find the respond button, lol.

---------

@fudgietroll

Not a bad idea.  Again, I think it should be a setting we can toggle on or off and not with the UI.  That is, don't link it to turning the UI on and off, make it a separate thing a person can turn on and off as they wish.

This is especially good because some people already have an icon on the map at times.  Maybe they don't if they have nothing new to say or they do, but it is a different color based on if they have something new to say and what it is.

So maybe instead of green it is gold if it is mission related in some way but it is a different color if it is just something casual.

Me too. Hell, even if the character glows, outlined or any other indication is fine.

I mean, there's already indicators on the map showing where you're squad mates are. If it's easy enough to pass a character's event hooks to the map UI it would be simplest to just change the icon's color or put a small icon next to it, like some gold lips if it's quest related, silver if it's just new chit-chat and red if they have romance dialogue available.

Actually, I discovered for the first time on my NG+ run that even the conversations you've already had, that show greyed out, still have additional conversation threads.  An example everyone probably already knows is Cora's war stories option.  You can get a story or two out of her and she'll actually reply to come back and she'll have another.  There are a couple like this that are obvious, but others that aren't (at least not to me).  Lexi's crew evaluations change as the game progresses as another example.  I've found these conversations on the Nexus, with the crew, and with various NPCs on the planets.

The first thing they need to do is "un-grey" these conversations to make it clear there are new ones.  That's pretty much conversation 101.  Even Fallout 4 got that right (MOST of the time).  Witcher 3 bugged out sometimes, but also USUALLY got that right.

THEN, when that level is fixed, we can move on to OP's valid concern.  I'm good with anything that gives some kind of visual cue.  Most people think over the head or on the map.  But you could also do a discreetly colored circle at the feet as well that just lays on the ground around their feet.  Anything would be better than nothing (of course giving people the option to disable that don't want it).