I don't understand why anyone would want your character to be unusable after you decide to finish the main plotline in a friggin SANDBOX rpg. Dragon Age and Mass Effect I understand. They may have towns, a bunch of miner quests, but it's the huge story that drives you to want more. After that quest is over, there's literally nothing to do (at least in Dragon Age 1, and if you have yet to complete the expansions) because the game's areas and quests expire or change depending on where you are in the story.

In tes games you can do what you want when you want. There are no (at least thats what they've been going for) limitations in what you can do. It's a sandbox game. If the main quest kills or disables you from playing your main character then I'll simply reload my last save file and intentionally not do the last quest. Seriously, what is the point?


Yea, they have that in every game. It's called starting a new game when you're tired of playing with your current one. Optional restrictions are redundant.

Ya, but there's a difference between a cinamatic ending where you watch you're avatar go down in flames along with the ending scene to say the world is saved and just jumping in the lava after the big fight is over just to pretend you're dead.

Permanent ends get a lot of bad rep, personally, I think they're great (most of the time), since it makes the game more meaningful, and allows for more options in divergent storylines like New Vegas. I'm sure there would have been an equal amount of complaints about "Omg, the misfits supposed to be dead but they're there in camp golf bawwww" as there were "omg game ends u guyz suk", so honestly, I'll go with the more meaningful conclusion any day.


I'm one of those people who don't keep playing after the "Big baddie" is dealt with though, outside of merciless village slaughter. Without some kind of looming threat, there isn't all that much left in the way of incentive. Sure, you can explore, but why? Find a new ultimate weapon and use it against what? A scrib?

No. However, it would be neat if that fancy-pants Radiant Story could adapt quests (faction and side-quests) so that at least some of them are slightly different depending on the choices you made during the Main Quest.

Otherwise, none of the factions and quests feel integrated with each other and with the world. In TESIV, I would do amazing faction quests but not even my fellow faction members reacted to what I did. You could do the Thieves' Guild questline to the end, and no-one in the Mages Guild would mention anything about Hromir's staff. Even if you are the "Champion of Cyrodiil", the Fighter's Guild has you start your career killing rats - as if you hadn't braved the Jaws of Oblivion, killed countless lesser Daedra, and even took a few pot shots at Dagon himself.

I don't want a permanent end - it assumes there is nothing left to do. TES is not linear, so maybe I do the MQ first, but want to go and explore more, or do some faction quests.

The world needs to keep on going, but also reflect the changes wrought by major faction, side, and main quests. In TESIV, the world was pretty much the same before, during, and after the main quest. A few NPCs missing here and there, a new line of dialog "All hail the champion... of Cyrodiil!), and that's it. Months later, and Ocato is still sitting in an empty council chamber, the nobles stick to their unchanging Schedule packages, and nothing has changed, the MQ's ended with Martin. And all throughout, the only reaction the Oblivion Crisis - which was depicted as an imminent threat - was "the roads aren't safe anymore!" Oh, yes, a few scripted events here and there, like the Legion forays into the gates, but those were part of quests and were not in as infinite supply as the OB gates.

but....you could just delete it? why even have an option

There's a difference between a cinamatic ending where you watch you're avatar go down in flames along with an ending scene to say the world is saved and just jumping in the lava after the big fight is over just to pretend you're dead.

well your life doesnt end after you retire does it? why should it now. also this is a ROLEplaying game so it shouldnt end because that would end the roleplay. why would you want to feel like the hero and be praised by people, if it fits your roleplay? if you want it to end dont force people to end it, why not just stop playing that character?

Role-playing game. Make it up, give your character their own story and epic death. No need to ruin the entire game for that. Thing I have always loved about TES is, you can play as long as you want, finish as many quests as you want,explore as much as you want, and the game will never "end"

exactly if you dont like pretending then why play a rpg in which you pretend to be someone, the whole basis of the game is to pretend

You could just pretend that happened. What? Does it have a pop-up message appear just as you finish the boss fight (breaking the immersion) saying "Do you want to have a cinamatic ending where you watch you're avatar go down in flames along with an ending scene to say the world is saved or just continue playing?"?

A thousand times no.....

An absolute end is a part of a Linear game....

Which is why I was severely disappointed with Fallout 3, prior to addons.

I had no problem with the fact that Fallout 3 ended. I had a problem with the fact that it ended poorly.


But, again... TES =/= Fallout. TES games don't end like that.

Because Oblivion would totally be ruined if there was a dialoge option with Martin in the Temple of the One telling him that you're going back out to hold off Dagon for as long as you can till he's ready. He'd say it would be certon death, you say you'll go anyway, you leave, go fight the big epic fight, and die just as a golden dragon bursts out of the temple. Totally ruins the ending. Sorry for even sugesting such a thing.




You didn't really take much time to think up a way to fit it in, probably because you think my idea's stupid. At any rate, there are better ways to implement such a feature. Use you're imagination, just like you're telling me. Like I all ready said, sure I could just pretend I gave my life slowing Dagon down. You could also just use you're imagination and start a new character pretending that all your stats got erased due to the epic final fight and now you have to start over. Or even better we could implement an option for both sides to make everyone happy.



You guys don't have to pretend to continue after the main quest, I don't see why I should have to pretend to end after it.

Well how would they make it make sense if you said no? what would happen then?





thats because you are the major minority. bethesda will most likely take the path to please more people, being the ones who dont want to end it

What do you mean say no?

Martin: Without you we never would have made it this far. The Empire owes a debt of gratitude to you. Well, goodye.
Player: Wait, where are you going? What are you planning?
Martin: I plan to use the Amulet, but not as intended. With the power of Akatosh, I'll remove Dagon from this plane and seal it away so something like this can never happen again. Make sure to take good care of what I could not. Goodbye my friend!

1- Good luck, friend. Go with the gods!
2- Then I'll go hold off Dagon till you're ready. I'll give you the time you need to finish this!

1- Continue's on as everyone else saw the main quest go.
2- Martin: You can't! You'll surely die if you go back out there. Please don't go.
Player: Don't worry about me, just do you're duty, and I'll do mine.
Martin: Our duty? Yes...I'll see you soon, friend. Best of luck!




I fail to see how caturing to my minority would hurt the majority in any way. If anything it just gives you another option. And it would be a tiny little fix that it wouldn't take any time at all to add either. I love the fact that TES can continue after the main quest, just like everyone else. However I'd like the option for some of my character types to choose a different path that one may not return from.

:fallout: Need I say more, Fallout 3 tried it and failed badly.

Just thought I'd let you know that it's for this reason I find Mass Effect's endings the most memorable. Options are fine, but forcefully killing off your character in a sandbox game actually diminishes gameplay. If I have all of these quests to finish and areas to explore and things to do then why the hell would I finish the main quest? It's not a feature to be included in tes games.

I agree. Epic endings are epic. But leave it optional at best.

well if you didnt need to go back to hold them off and die why would you? does really make sense but i guess if you'd like to be unrealistic its your choice

besides bethesda surely wont make an option to end it im sure, they'll probably be busy working out other things, and polishing everything which is more important to them than making a few more people happy

I'm not sure how if it would be a tiny little fix, but I see your point-- so long as it's optional either way. Of course, I would never do it, but there are surely many things I would never/have never done in TES games that thousands of others have. Thanks for responding-- I was genuinely curious! (And Boone-- classic! lol)

Its the dlc Broken Steal that messed it up. The build up right before going in the chamber was that if you went in you'd die. You had a moral choice, send someone else in for them to die so you could live (the cowards/umprepared way), send in someone else who could survive the radiation but not do it yourself (the logical choice), or go in yourself and be the hero...finishing your parents work and in doing so creating fresh water for the people.

Fallout 3 first failed in that everyone's game ended. Obviously wasn't going to go over to well, but at least the story was left open for you to make up in your head what happened. The DLC made things worce in that now everyone lives. Now I have to quick turn off my system in order to go "na-na-na can't hear you" so I can at least pretend my character died. Totally throws the moral delema out the window when the ending no matter what you choose ends with everyone living.


But that's exactly what I'm saying. Have it an option. I love the fact that you can continue just like everyone else, but it would be a fitting end to quite a few of my characters.


You may know what happens and there is no need but the character you're playing as doesn't. For the character this is all happening right now. Sure Martin may not really need time to get ready, but it wouldn't be hard to believe maybe he does if you choose one dialoge path. Maybe he uses the time to make sure he's ready to die, and when Martin just rushes out to meet Dagon he doesn't get the time to really think over things.

Who knows what he uses that extra time for. The fact is that the character you're playing as gets the choice and the game bends a little to accomidate for that.

As for if they add such a thing, I know very well they probably won't. People also keep asking for spears, knowing full well they're not in. :shrug: I know its not going to happen, but I still am going to ask for it.



Well, tiny in comparison. It would only be a few more lines of dialog and having the ending cut scene know to start after the player dies instead of it just reloading to the last save.

I've actually played as a lot of character's who have a lot in common with Boone. They have their own feel, something I enjoy from time to time when I get sick of the happy go lucky theif or the crazy killer or the holy knight. Just used Boone as an example because I figure more people will recognize that name isntead of my Osul character from Oblivion.

Anyway, its not like I wan't everyone to have to stop playing after the main quest along with me. I just don't want to have to continue on after the main quest along with everyone else. Options are always a good thing in a sandbox rpg.

Definately not. Of all things, I oppose this the most. I didn't even like John Marston dying in RDR, even though you could still play. That ruined it for me.

the bethesada solution....if you want it and the game doesnt have it, mod it in. if you play on the console get over it.

I'd rather it didn't end.

http://www.g4tv.com/deathmatch/best-franchises-2011/battle/86/starcraft-vs-the-elder-scrolls/

Depends on the story and the game.
I prefer my Fallout to have a solid ending.(excluding FO3)

TES has always been about keep going from what I've played. I just hope post-main quest we see a few drastic changes in main characters and key places involved in the main quest.

Wouldn't that, then, force characters who play offensively into killing themselves? If the character doesn't know that he can stay in and live, why would a heroic, take-charge kinda guy not take the option to run out and help give Martin the time he thinks they need? Or if they know they don't need the extra time, why would anyone willingly run back out?

I've yet to see how such an option can be done that doesn't either A) force certain character types into being killed (ala DA:O), or B) make it obvious that they're just commiting suicide and their death serves no purpose.