Starfield will not be limited to the simple concept of voyaging through an infinite universe. It will also have a significant amount of dialogue. Because of a recently published interview, we are receiving our first look at how adventurers can talk their way out of danger. Engaging with the locals will be one of the essential skills needed to survive in the frontier, and thanks to this interview, we are getting our first glimpse at how to do so.
Bethesda CEO and Starfield game director Todd Howard noted in a recent interview, “We’ve gone back to a traditional Bethesda-style conversation.” This indicates that the player will glance at the person speaking and then answer using various alternatives.
Or a large number of choices. Howard disclosed that Starfield contains more than 250,000 lines of dialog, and the total is still growing. That is more than twice as many as Fallout 4, and given that the player character can not speak, they can only be attributed to the narrative’s main character.
Not only did Howard show us some dialogue, but he also showed us Starfield’s system for influencing people. The example shown was a conversation with a character who was either a raider or a pirate. In this conversation, the player has several options: to either talk their way out of a violent encounter by intimidating the other person or to talk their way out of a violent encounter by smooth-talking them.
A points-based system is utilized to accomplish all of this. It will require a more significant number of points to win over someone resistant to your arguments. You can only attempt to persuade others about your topic several times before the turn limit kicks in. We did not see what would happen if the persuading failed, but in previous games from Bethesda, such a result was typically settled by the use of violence.
