BioWare has implemented a lot of changes over Dragon Age 2 or Mass Effect 3

Feb 27, 2014 08:31 GMT  ·  By

BioWare's David Gaider, the lead writer for the studio's upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition medieval fantasy role-playing game, has talked a bit more about its dialog wheel and how the whole conversation system will work.

Most BioWare titles have featured dynamic dialog systems, allowing players to choose what their heroes say when talking to other non-playable characters, and in most recent games, this system used a dialog wheel mechanic.

In Dragon Age: Inquisition, said dialog wheel makes a return, but there are some key changes made to the recipe seen in Dragon Age 2, according to lead writer David Gaider.

In a post on the BioWare Social Network, he says that Inquisition will no longer feature a dominant tone to the voice of the player character. You can select a tone each time you use the dialog wheel, but it won't transition into further statements of that character or in cut scenes where automatic dialog is added by the game.

Speaking of auto dialog, Gaider believes that there's the same amount of it like in Dragon Age 2, and it's always neutral-toned. These automatic statements are mostly used in situations where the player character says something innocuous that doesn't require a dialog prompt, like "Go on" or "What is that?"

Certain situations will also see the arrival of a reaction wheel, in which players can choose how their characters will react to a situation, not just say something about it. Standard options such as Stoic, Sad, Confused, Enraged, or Surprised are present in these situations.

While the dialog wheels will once again display a short paraphrasing of the actual statement that is uttered by the character, if you hover on some of them, these will get detailed. The full statement, however, won't be displayed in any case.

In Inquisition, there are three major tones to the responses offered by players, in the form of Noble, Clever, and Direct. These replace the tones from Dragon Age 2, which were Diplomatic, Humorous, and Aggressive, largely because they didn't exactly convey what the player was going to say in a situation, according to Gaider.

In many situations, the dialog wheel will once again "break out" into a new set of choices when players pick the Investigate option. These will include various conditional things and elements that require a certain race, gender, or back story to be chosen by players at the beginning of the game.

Dragon Age: Inquisition will boast quite a few different improvements over the previous titles, so expect to hear more about it as we get closer to its launch this fall for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.