What exactly is the point of dialogue like this?

  • If you speak with one of the shopkeepers within Sanctuary Outpost named Tyler you will get these very interesting lines of dialogue which may seem very intriguing and cool:

    What friend?
    Door under the water near Wanderer's Refuge?
    Key to open that door?
    Key to open ANY door..?

    Naturally the very first thing you would be doing is searching the whole outpost for a key like this, right?

    ...but then you realize there is no such key or location that exist or was put in the game, it's just pointless filler dialogue that serves no purpose with no worthwhile information. All it does is create false hope and waste your time.

    It bothers me that dialogues like exampled here is just mindlessly written and added but the actual content and what's being said in the dialogue is just a bunch of nonsense. I'm not saying that you should add every single thing mentioned here to the game, but why would you have the NPCs say stuff like this in the first place if it serves no purpose and holds no meaning? At least have them say things that makes sense in terms of lore and things that exist within the game or not at all in my opinion.

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  • @mad-mordechai

    LOL! You know, this is just one of many things about this game that leaves you just staring blankly at the screen shaking your head.

  • I don't think I have ever talked to him before(I don't go to Sanctuary practically ever) but going off the screenshots I would assume its supposed to be a mistaken identity bit?Maybe just not pulled off well. Going off the "I...er, know you? Yes, of course I do, never forget a face." line as well as the option for "Have we met before then?". I would assume hes thinking your someone else and all the following is just whatever he did with someone else.

    But like I said I have never spoken to him to know all the dialogue to say for sure.

  • Now see, I like stuff like this. Gives some flavor to the world. And who knows? Maybe it's foreshadowing something for later.

  • Like @John-Hatter said, it's a comedy bit where the vendor mistakes you for someone else.

    More to the point; Why would you assume that the game would simply give anyone who reads this piece of dialogue a key that can open anything?
    It'd be completely game breaking, because we already don't need keys to unlock any chests, and if we could use this invention to open Fort Treasure Rooms, no one would ever bother to finish a fort.

  • @tundra-793 The point here is that this is very specific filler dialogue, I don't understand why it would be so specific if there was no truth to any of what he said. He mentions a door under the water near Wanderer's Refuge, but there is no such thing at all. So why does he even talk about it?

  • @mad-mordechai He mistakes you for someone else, who did the thing with the key.
    The whole bit about the hidden door, and invention happened to some other NPCs, it has no bearing on us as players.

    It's meant to enrich the world, since we now know that some other pirates might have invented something very useful, and therefore valuable.
    But it's not like we're ever going to get a key that can open anything.

  • This reminds me of the merchant npc who mentioned catching sharks, hopefully they add in content that makes it true, otherwise I kinda agree that with the game we have stuff like this should be there already if the dialogue is. Maybe it’s in true rare style and there really is just an extremely hard to find Easter egg like in old games, because it used to be that if you found dialogue like this, 9/10 it had some meaning within the game world, even if it was just a stupid invisible wall with a room with an Easter egg or something. Those were single player games though.

  • I'm going to regret typing this but...

    ...has the forum really run out of things to complain about that we are dissecting all the in game dialogue for broken promises?

    I'm all for flushing the game and if they choose to use things mentioned in passing by NPCs then that's kinda cool but I don't really see a big picture issue here. NPCs say things to make the world feel alive...at no point does that have to mean anything else. Heck some NPCs trash talk other NPCs but I hate to spoil it for you....the two character models have never met and will probably never be near each other.

    I really don't want to come off rude over this and I accept full responsibility that my choice of wording above is probably a bit hostile but I am just having trouble understanding the point of view that dialogue HAS to equal content.

  • @john-hatter I don’t think it Has to equal content based on most games, but this being Rare, and the lack of content in the game makes it a bit obnoxious, it’s similar to the lack of thought put into pricing cosmetics... I don’t think mordechai is anywhere near being truly upset about this, just that it’s one of many things to question what rare was thinking, at the very least there should be a locked door on wanderers, as is it’s like the guy is speaking about a different game lol.. one that has npc and players interact with meaning, and has hidden secrets on islands and items like keys to use. As is we have none of the above.

  • @a-cranky-eskimo
    I dunno. Maybe it's just all the RPGs I played before voice acting in games became a thing but I'm used to reading all kinds of dialogue and references and back stories and then if the developers took the time to actually add connecting dots/'physical' references then it was just a cool little tidbit but I never found myself disappointed in a game for not going the extra mile when in reality the bits in question are just that...extra.

    Different times and different standards maybe. It just sounds like nitpicking to me but all well. To each their own has always been my motto.

  • @tundra-793 It would have enriched the world if it had some base in reality here, because there is no such landmark. The whole dialogue should have been about something else or been less specific in this case. Maybe if they had followed it up with a little note somewhere on the outpost explaining that the key had been taken or lost forever? at least have something that backs or follows up on the very specific story parts here at all, but there isn't.

  • @john-hatter yeah I hear you, I would probably agree if the game wasn’t lacking content, and dialogue based Easter eggs weren’t a thing Rare is known for.
    No worries, but nitpicking is all we have left, we gave them ideas for 2 years in depth and we ended up with bananas to eat and an oil spill and 3 out of the like 7 forts active, and fetch quests with lots of item skins, that serve no specific purposes.

    I think posts like this come from a place of “well maybe they can handle changing dialogue or the cosmetic pricing, since that only requires typing” atleast from my perspective I can’t speak for mordechai.

  • I looked, but not super closely, and couldn’t find a door. I couldn’t say I expected one, given that this game seems about 60% developed. (A good 60% though). My guess is they will eventually start doing this type of thing during weekly updates.

  • It's called placeholder dialogue.

    Game programmers usually put it in there temporarily, and it gets replaced when the team gets around to finishing the game.

  • Been there done that several times made post and stinks about it. Nothing came from searching

  • It does give a sense that there was content removed.

  • Come back in 5 levels and I'll tell you where the key is.

  • It's temporary text placed there under testing when they made the chat functionality in the game. They haven't removed it yet since the game is still an alpha/beta.

  • It just gives the NPC some personality. It's like the tavern owner who says she can keep a secret and then immediately blabs that some pirate buried their treasure on that very outpost.

    No treasure is probably buried there, it's just a bit of a joke. The Order of Souls lady who would really rather be a pirate, the weaponsmith who hates your guts, the shipwright who's had multiple injuries but always sees the silver lining...

    It's just some amusing dialog for those who take the time to talk to all the shop people.

  • @v**a-hombre said in What exactly is the point of dialogue like this?:

    It just gives the NPC some personality. It's like the tavern owner who says she can keep a secret and then immediately blabs that some pirate buried their treasure on that very outpost.

    No treasure is probably buried there, it's just a bit of a joke. The Order of Souls lady who would really rather be a pirate, the weaponsmith who hates your guts, the shipwright who's had multiple injuries but always sees the silver lining...

    It's just some amusing dialog for those who take the time to talk to all the shop people.

    Yeah it's just superficial, meaningless, random stuff. Fits right in!

  • @d-cadovius

    Oh, you're just delightful.

  • So, this is a hint at things within the game. All will become clear when you reach legendary. Hint: it's about the things he sells, one of the items he is talking about is just over his left shoulder.

  • @lord-sphinktus This has nothing to do with the Pirate Hideout entrance, not sure where you're even getting this from. Unless you can prove that the instrument somehow opens a secret door near Wanderer's Refuge, which it doesn't.

  • @v**a-hombre said in What exactly is the point of dialogue like this?:

    @d-cadovius

    Oh, you're just delightful.

    Haha :)

    In all seriousness though, I remember clearly when I first encountered the dialogue system.
    From my first step inside the tavern I noticed all the little details in there; the warm fire, the cozy atmosphere twisted by the eager anticipation of coming adventures and dangers out on the sea.

    A mate comes in and we fool around, highly aware that we do not rush anything, and rather take it all in, sucking up the atmosphere.

    Then before we step out in the hot sand, I turn to the barmaid, and from reading I get that clear impression that this is some placeholder text that someone made.
    Such impression just rips you right out of your immersion by yelling at you "it's just a game, dude!"

    I believe that the developers has plans for the dialogue system, as they stated at some point, but how it is done right now really has that immersion-breaking effect to me.

  • @mad-mordechai alt text i too have been burnt, it really helps to take away the soul of it all.

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