Which solution to the most dreaded task in any video game ever would you prefer in Skyrim?
I'd almost prefer they not include any, but with the right approach they could potentially not svck horribly.

I have a strong aversion to escort quests of any kind.

Don't include any. I hate those quests.

I hate escort quests. Or 'Follow me' quests.

In Morrowind, when you escort people they're stuck on level 30 speed or whatever, and you just have to watch them plod after you as they screech 'Hey, where are you going?'. You've also got the problem of them not being able to drop off anything higher than a bump because of their acrobatics, then they run around trying to find a place down. They also attack anything and everything, and get themselves killed.

I can't remember remember Oblivion ones, but the fast travel made it a lot easier. I remember there being a quest in the Fighters Guild where you had to follow someone for like 10 minutes. It was death.

If they're in Skyrim, whoever is following you should have Speed set to 250.

... I never got to be a knight of the thorn... :cryvaultboy:

:sadvaultboy:

Make them WAY stronger and make them stay out of our way. I always end up hitting them, 'cause they get in the way.

As far as I'm concerned there is no inherent problem with the idea of escorting someone. The problems actually arise when the person or people you're supposed to escort have no sense of self-preservation and rush towards the enemies, getting in your way and drawing more foes, getting themselves killed and often bringing you along with them. Alternatively, they may also also run like headless chickens at the sight of enemies, and hopefully get stuck somewhere in a corner, supposing they didn't find a different group of enemies to draw over to you. If they simply followed behind you, attacking only when enemies got really close them, and even then only fought defensively and attempted to avoid placing themselves between the player and his enemies, I wouldn't mind escorts.

I quite like those nice, relaxing quests. Away from the HACK, SLASH of almost every other quest in-game. Don't like the quest, don't do it.

They have to come up with something more interesting, surely. Even fetch quests can be given a twist or two, but no one wants to keep psychotic morons with a death wish alive.

I walk around them as far as i can get, to avoid them, then do that oblivion gate on my own. Then when it closes they all pop out safe and sound on the other side.

Good point. At the very minimum the npcs should not fight along side of me, especially if they are only going to use their fists... and especially if I'm swinging my sword like a mad man. All characters aside from maybe certain main quest npcs should be able to die. To help the player, the npcs need to be smarter and no rush in to their death.

As long as the new AI prevents their death wish, sure. If there's a huge dragon they should just gtfo.

As long as they are stronger and can arm themselves I wouldnt mind

if they die, you fail and have to reload.

if they don't die and you get to the end of the quest, they die immediately afterward.

Give the oppurtunity to give them a weapon / armour / some potions. You can demand to get the armour or weapon back at the end of the quest.

And have a dialogue option (or something like FNV's companion wheel) that toggles them between 'attack anything', 'defend yourself', 'defend yourself and me' and 'flee'. Some NPCs are aware of how much they svck, and therefore cannot be ordered to 'attack anything'.

As long as their walking speed is level scalled to be greater than your own...In Morrowind that Naked Nord took forever to catch up to me and that witch.

i wont mind it if the npcs dont jump right in front of me as im halfway through my attack and then they die and i go to jail

Never know a RPG game with escort quests that don't cause frustration.

I want to put the NPC in my pocket/inventory, and carry him there.

I suppose those quests are all right as some time away from hacking and slashing. Only problem is: there is always fighting involved anyway, and that is when the NPC followers become a *starfish* nuisance! :banghead:

I've never been a fan of escort quests, and doing the Cheydinhal Oblivion gate quest in Oblivion reminded me of exactly why, because it seems that when games have escort quests, the NPC you need to escort is almost always both incompetent and an idiot. Now, I guess it makes sense that the person you're supposed to protect for the escort quest would not be a skilled fighter, because why would someone who can take care of himself in a fight need an escort? The problem is that it's usually accompanied by stupid AI, you often get the impression that the character you're supposed to escort is TRYING to make you fail, by rushing right into large groups of enemies, and to compound the annoyance, enemies seem to psychically know that it would cause you to fail the quest if they killed the character you're escorting, and thus go out of their way to attack him, even when it would make more sense for them to be focusing on the one who poses the greatest threat, usually meaning you.

In short, Bethesda either needs to make the AI for NPCs involved in escort quests smarter, less suicidal, or give players the option to tell NPCs you're escorting to stay back while you clear out dangerous areas, if Bethesda is worried that players will exploit this to make escort quests not challenging at all, they can always make it so that if you stray too far from the person you're escorting, some random enemy might find that person, after all, if you go too far from the person you're escorting, it sort of defeats the purpose of escorting someone anyway, but it seems to me like common sense that if some defenseless person needed an escort, he or she would stay back and let the escort handle any threats, instead of rush right in to uselessly flail at the enemies with his fists. If Bethesda can't do these things, they should just not include escort quests at all, honestly, I don't see why so many games insist on habving them anyway, since they're usually just annoying rather than fun, and no one plays games to be annoyed, so you'd think that developers should realize that if they can't make something fun, they shouldn't include it at all.

Either make the Escort Essential or don't include any of those type of quests. Goodness all this talk of Escort quests reminds me of the Escort Quests from Sacred 2 Fallen Angel. At least in that game some of the followers didn't die although other times they did but you could heal them much easier.

I think one solution is when you heal yourself, the NPC that your escorting also gets healed.

Escort missions are a pain in the a$$. I would just rather not have any unless the person cannot die or is actually smart enough to hide behind something and not run into my weapons and magic.

I rather like escorts.... :hubbahubba:

Unless it's like this, leave those annoying jobs. I voted for the first three options. Actually I'd like best if they could lend a hand if there must be some of this kind of quests.

One of most annoying escort job in Oblivion was Knights of Thorn. The toughest part was to prevent them from jumping into lava when their target falls off the bridge. I think improving AI with better path-finding and some conservative combat behaviors would do the trick.