Starfield's New Conversation System Will Draw From Oblivion

thegamer.com:

Starfield is still many months away, but Bethesda is pretty good about making sure their upcoming space adventure RPG doesn't get entirely drowned out in all the Elden Ring coverage. Today's video brings four Bethesda designers together to discuss bits and pieces of Starfield's development and what players can expect from the coming role-playing game.

One of the unexpected announcements from this four-way conversation came from lead quest designer Will Shen, who compared Starfield's new conversation/dialogue system with "the old Oblivion system."

Related: What The Hell Are We Even Supposed To Play After Elden Ring?

"We didn't start with 'let's do an evolution of the old Oblivion system,' but there are a couple of beats there. You have to think about, 'what's my risk here? Which one do I choose?'" Shen said. "We didn't want it to be a system where there was definitely a right thing to say."

For those who didn't play Oblivion, players could engage in conversation with NPCs as represented by a conversation wheel. The objective is to convince or persuade NPCs of something by selecting the right options from the rotating wheel. Select the right ones in the right order and you'll max your rapport with that NPC, which could result in new dialogue options.

We don't know how much of Oblivion's conversation wheel will be in Starfield, but Bethesda CEO Todd Howard described it as a new system that feels far more natural than Oblivion's wheel.

“It feels like you're having a conversation where you're actually trying to persuade somebody of something,” said Howard. “As far as new systems in dialogue, I think it's definitely one of the most successful ones we've had.”

Elsewhere in the video, we learned that the player could