Responsive Dialogue System

**The Responsive Dialogue System** (RDS for short) was a dialogue system that was going to be present in For Honor to let the game feel more alive and responsive. This system was first introduced during the beta test of Marching Fire, but was discontinued due to negative feedback.

## Overview

In For Honor, the Heroes fight, seldomly speaking outside performing actions, such as feats and special moves, or when they are being helped (specifically, when they are revived).

The Responsive Dialogue System, however, would introduce a much more fleshed out dialogue system for the Heroes. The following were planned for the RDS:

* More spoken lines, especially when it comes to idle talk while facing an opponent.
* Spoken lines would be specially tailored to each faction. For example, a Samurai would address a Knight differently than they would a Viking. There would also be lines for specific Hero to another specific Hero, such as fellow Lawbringers addressing each other as "brothers" or the Conqueror calling Shugoki "fat."
* Heroes would react to passing by allies with a greeting or even a compliment.
* When in combat, Heroes will taunt their enemies, especially if they block or parry an attack. Heroes in general would also grunt more, giving more emphasis to each swing of their weapon.
* At the start of a duel, Heroes would acknowledge each other with an introductory line. Each Hero would have a varied number of lines, some general, others uniquely tailored to specific opponents.

The RDS would essentially make the game feel more alive as warriors and their combat banter would make them responsive with intriguing lines.

## Reception

The RDS was met with praise for its conception, as it would bring the possibility of enlivening the game. However, it was panned for its execution. The following is a list of the criticism that players overall held towards the RDS:

* Some voice actors or actresses had to be recasted, as certain original voice talents were not available. Some Heroes did not change as much, but others had more drastic differences in tone.
	+ For example, the new voice for the male Warden featured a higher pitch voice (some even stating to be scrawnier) that was not as deep and full as the original voice by Liam O'Brien.
* In some instances, certain Heroes had a shift in personality with their new voiceovers. As decisive as this change is, it was still met with criticism in the new directions they were taken.
	+ While Highlander's new voiceover was liked by some, others found the heavier original voice was more impactful than the more light-hearted new voice.
* In combination with the above, some Heroes had shifts to their personality that either made them too whimsical, overly dramatic or even bland.
	+ Male Conqueror was a case of the last point, as his duel-entrance line was simply him stating the opponent's class, followed by "raww" (ie. "Lawbringer? Raww!").
* The voiceovers for the Knights and Samurai were given an extra filter that slightly muffled their voice, emulating the idea of them wearing a helmet or mask respectively. However, players found that the muffled voices were more akin to a lower quality recording of the voices.
* Some Heroes featured stereotypes that showed a lack of effort in the voice lines' creation. For example, some Samurai Heroes featured a stereotypical fake Japanese accent when speaking English.

To note, not everyone was against the inclusion of the RDS, as perception of how good/bad the execution of it varied. However, it was a general consensus that many found the RDS to be underpar in the iteration that it appeared in on the Marching Fire Beta Test and would need a re-recording to address the above points of criticism.

## Future of RDS

The Responsive Dialogue System never reached live gameplay, as it was not included in the Marching Fire update. Furthermore, during a devstream in early 2019, the Dev team officially announced that the entire RDS project was scrapped.

Currently, Heroes from the Zhanhu on (Warmonger and Gryphon included) have been given a dialogue system that simulates elements of the RDS system:

* Zhanhu and Warmonger both feature unique lines when they encounter enemies and idle for too long.
* Gryphon will speak different languages based on the target when he is parrying an attack, guardbreak throwing the opponent, being revived by an ally or performs a chain finisher on them. He will even speak specific lines to the Warmonger Hero class when performing a chain finisher on one.

Some of the Samurai Heroes have dialogue that are responsive even prior to the conception of the RDS, particularly when they are guardbroken. Heroes such as Kensei (and Shugoki before his was removed) also has quotes for when they block or parry incoming attacks. However, these are not as fleshed out as the RDS, nor were they originally a part of it.

The four base Wu Lin Heroes (Tiandi, Nuxia, Jiang Jun, Shaolin) also have remnants of the RDS, as the RDS was intended to offer voicelines fully in the language of the player's choosing. While this is present in some Heroes' non-combat lines, the Wu Lin Heroes also had this in their Feats lines, being spoken not in the Heroes' native language (in this case, Chinese) but in the player's language of choice. For example, if a player plays the game in the French language, Shaolin when revived speaks in French, not Chinese.

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