Ryder is definitely less stupid than Shepard

It's less about the intelligence of Ryder and more about his personality. I just love his witty, impulsive behavior with the constant quips. Shepard was just stale more often than not. He had the occasional funny moment (mostly in the Citadel DLC), but Ryder is just more laid back and really enjoys what he's doing. I can just relate to Ryder more, so he's a more fleshed out character in my eyes.

Ryder is also more badass than Shepard given that he\she didn't give 2 shits about his father dying and goes straight to cracking jokes while fighting very bad Kett.

No nervous system whatsoever, real space-psycho!

Thanks for the info. Not that I have any idea what ties this stupid stuff to your conversation choice, in-world.

I wonder, though: do your choices often influence autodialogue? Like in DA2?

Ryder's personality never changed, and the dialogue was pretty much four different ways to say the same thing.

You were forced to accept a large degree of disrespect in this game without a means to for example tell Tann or Addison STFU, I've proven myself, show me some respect.

Or when your crew walks out on you during a meeting and you're sitting there looking all pitiful saying I didn't say the meeting was over. Where was the option to say get back here I was not done talking, I'm the Pathfinder, you're on my ship.

Then if your crew wanted to say respect is earned not given, or you didn't earn being Pathfinder, it was given to you. Fine, would have made a better game, because Ryder's carefree attitude seemed to rub off on the crew as well.

They needed more interrupts or conflicting responses (didn't have to be paragon/renegade), not just one response said four different ways. It's always black and white with Bioware. If something didn't work to a lot of players they get rid of it completely rather than trying to fix it.

Edit: And most of the time it wasn't even four options, it was two.

I like the new dialogue system. I liked the old system for those games, but I'm glad they changed it for the new character. I love this game. I think Ryder is a great protagonist that can have a variety of personality types depending on the situation. I don't ever feel like I'm going to be punished for going against my "typical" personality type of the character which is in line with real life as well.  People who are typically sarcastic and don't take things seriously aren't like that at all times.  People who like to joke can still be serious and act professionally.  Obviously we all know the Renegade/Paragon system and how you could be punished for choosing back and forth by the game's end. I never feel that based on the situation I'm going to be hurt for choosing a particular option.

I'm not sure if autodialogue changes based on your preferred personality... I have read that it does but I can't confirm it. I usually go with casual/emotional because I like having a sarcastic and young protagonist in the vein of John Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis or Nathan Drake in Uncharted. Scott typically utilizes these same types of lines in autodialogue too that would sound very out of place for a professional and logical playthrough.

Also you can have your character express interest in science, which is great. Shepard was pretty much a soldier first and never really involved or interested in the sciences. Ryder can actively express that he is interested in science. I was on Voeld and an Angara female was speaking about me and a block of ice they had extracted from the ground and I was able to tell her that I was, in fact, interested in science and she was surprised and said something like "I hadn't heard that about you" which was a cool addition. Despite being a jokester, he does favor science and the first cryo pod I unlocked was for mining and the outposts on the worlds have a scientific edge. It's what the initiative is about in a large part, in my mind.

Overall I like the new dialogue options. I think it adds a fun new flavor that's different from what we've had before. Different is good. If we were playing as Shepard, I would want the old system back and I would be very disconcerted if this new system was in place for him. It would be.... weird and feel wrong for the character. This feels right for Ryder, in my opinion.

I'm totally fine with Ryder.

I was also totally fine with Shepard.

I do also love Shepard. They are completely different types of character. Shepard is military through and through. He's seen so much and been through a hell a lot of crap before the first game (orphaned and in the streets, Akuze etc).

Ryder has seen a few things before the start, nothing compared to Shepard. He's a sarcastic little shit.

Shepard doesn't waste time with quips, he's there to get a job done (I do love the Citadel DLC where they took the mickey out of him).

My Ryder was scientist, my Shepard was an N7.
I am a scientist, my brother is a marine.

Me/Ryder can analyze and pontificate, Shep/my bro can whoop ass.

There is no way in hell I would dare call my brother or Shep stupid, when they can get shit done.

I am a little biased, obviously. I do think Ryder has some clever lines and some interesting moments. I just had more fun playing Shep because...well..because I play scientist all friggen day long (and that includes using diplomacy with a bunch of strong personalities to get anything done). In a game, I just want to pretend to be a gutsy badass for once.

My only problem with Ryder was the lack of conversation choices. I so many times wanted to hear more. In the style of ME 1.
As a person, Ryder was quite loveable.

Nothing wrong with whooping ass. Not the style I prefer, but that alone doesn't make you stupid. I wouldn't have called Shepard stupid if it hadn't come at a cost in simple, everyday intelligence in scenes where I couldn't avoid it showing, and even where Shepard should know better, namely in military matters. Shepard was a soldier, but an N7 special ops commander, not a stupid grunt. He shouldn't have acted like a stupid grunt, and even less without my approval.

Ryder's scenes mostly don't have that high tension that was more or less standard in ME2 and ME3, even in talks with team members, and I can see why people might miss that. It should be possible to have the best of both worlds, but if I must choose, I'd rather have someone like Ryder.