Dialogue in this expansion feels… messy?

[meerfunkuhtron.9725]

I find this expansion particularly loud. I mentioned this in another post and afterwards, I realized that my partner has complained about it and people in map chat have also complained about it. So now I'm here to 1- see how people here in the forums feel about it and 2- share some ideas on how to alleviate it I guess.

What I mean about the game being loud and messy is mainly in regards to all the talking and yelling that doesn’t seem to let up. You have a demon in your head, on top of other NPCs contacting you through comms for quests or conversations regarding the storyline, and that's alongside NPCs in the map for whenever an event is triggered. I remember several times wherein I didn’t catch what was actually being said about the story, because some other NPC would start yelling in the background or another one had decided to call through the comms. The overlap was just too much at certain points, and they’ll even cut each other out so I ended up missing out on dialogue completely (meaning the rest of the conversation was also cut off in the chat log). I honestly don’t know how many voices I can handle in my head. It just feels chaotic. I know I can choose the route of turning off all voiced dialogues altogether, but I'd definitely like to see a different approach, 'cause I do like that aspect of this game. Just not... this much.

I also found that I was triggering dialogue that are spoilers in nature or otherwise just don’t make sense for my character, because the triggers seem to be location based as opposed to something connected to your progression. So not only was I getting dialogue for a future event in the storyline sometimes, I was also getting repeated lines afterwards as if none of those events had already happened. This doesn’t work well.

Contributing to the dialogue annoyance for me is that the game is also visually loud, with tooltips constantly popping up whenever you hit a leyline or updraft before you’re able to master them, or whenever you got a special skill from certain events. I know these types of tooltips have been around for a bit, but I don't remember them being this unpleasant. I get they’re trying to give people clear guidance, but I am not going to stop and read some lengthy tooltip midfight. Some of these tooltips are also needlessly repetitive.

Some suggestions:
-I think the tooltips would be fine if they didn’t stay close to the middle of the screen, permanently waiting for the player to toggle them off. I could see a method wherein the tooltips pop up for 2 to 3 seconds, then get moved to the side of the screen as a question mark symbol or something. That way, the tooltip is available for you to read when you're ready to but without it crowding your view. It would also help if they didn't pop up each time you hit something that you've already encountered before.

-For the dialogues, I honestly would just like for the comms chatter to be toned down. Allow us to get more dialogue and information through interacting with the NPCs, like we already do in some parts of the game. Reaching a point of progression doesn’t always necessitate NPC commentary (progress in my quest tracker would suffice!). And if I need to talk to an NPC, it would be nice if Anet gave us back the ability to initiate communication (maybe make the calling thing look different if people find the constant flashing to be obnoxious). That way, if there’s other types of dialogue or activities happening around me, I can choose to get to that part of the quest at a better time. 

A bit of a side note, but I do hope they add other types of quests in the future maps aside from group quests/events. I know renown hearts have been contentious for awhile, but I feel like Anet can keep those side quests without making them a requirement in any form. I just feel they add a lot to the storytelling. I’d like to see side quests that don’t have any markers on them at all, but are rather found if the player initiated dialogue with them. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed in RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, wherein players are encouraged to explore the game’s story on their own, and are then rewarded by either getting quests out of it or interesting dialogue. If Anet went this route, people who enjoy doing side quests can get their fill, while those who don’t find any fun in them can ignore them completely without any negative consequence. 

Anyway, that’s it, just some thoughts. I’m enjoying this expansion in a lot of other ways though. I'm especially intrigued by the storyline, the new enemies, and new environments we'll be seeing in the future. I’m willing to see where Anet goes with all this, but also would definitely like to see some things improved.

Edited August 27, 2023 by meerfunkuhtron.9725

[Cronospere.8143]

Completely offtopic, but lol how did you change the font? 

[kharny.3284]

yea, had the same issue, it's too busy again, also there's overlapping events where the blabber just becomes one goo of stuff.

[meerfunkuhtron.9725]

Just now, Cronospere.8143 said:

Completely offtopic, but lol how did you change the font? 

I typed this up on Google docs 'cause I was moving in between so many windows, I didn't want to accidentally lose it lol So I just copied it from there.

[Nico.9361]

Sorry, due to the font color, your post is impossible to follow (on dark theme).
Somewhat like the ingame dialogue.

I hope both get fixed in the next patches 🙂

Edited August 27, 2023 by NotTooFoolish.7412