So I'm reading over some scans of the PCG article, and one thing caught my eye: it says that assassination targets might be chosen based on how much time you've spent with the NPC. In other words, people you're most familiar with might be picked, to make your decision to accept the contract more interesting. I'm adopting a wait-and-see attitude towards the whole Radiant Story thing, but that sounds pretty awesome. I wonder if it would be possible for a frequent companion to be chosen as the victim.

So can this radiant story work as a random quest generator sort of thing?

Because I totally missed that in Morrowind and Oblivion..

Which would be entertaining and interesting. Maybe you will meet two people, one you like, and one you don't. You spend time with both, but eventually the one you like asks you to kill the one you don't like. Do you do it? What if the roles were reversed and the person you didn't like wanted you to kill your friend? I look forward to this.

i like how that particular quote took up likw 1/3 of the page, like they went WE GOTTA PAD THIS OUT WITH SOMETHING WHAT CAN WE BLOW UP.

but yeah this is an interesting approach. i remember having to deal with similar assassination contracts while playing STALKER and sometimes i actually found it kind of hard to bring myself to kill them. i guess it all depends on how well Skyrim's NPCs are personified.



basically it's like QUEST TEMPLATES, so the game can throw an NPC at you that's like HEY I LOST MY [ITEM] IN [NEARBY DUNGEON], DO YOU THINK YOU COULD YOU FETCH IT FOR ME? or HEY I DON'T LIKE [CHARACTER YOU KNOW] AND I THINK YOU SHOULD KILL THEM.

this frees up Bethesda to work on actual interesting, INVOLVING quests more like the stuff that was in Fallout 3 while leaving the game to generate the filler fetch quests that some people like to do.

That does sound very interesting. Like a personal test to see if you’re prepared to kill those closest to you, to test your loyalty and conviction to said faction.

That was my first thought. Test your allegiances/morality; even if you claim to be an all-out baddie/bad faction follower: would you kill those you like?

Yes.

So we want you to kill this person because we magically and because we are programed to know every relationship you had and which person you are closest to.

Writing 101: Everything Happens Because the Writer Wills It.

Daggerfall reborn! :goodjob:

Hm... sounds good except...

What if we keep accepting the random asassinations and there's no non-quest related NPCs in the game? Would be pretty lonely. I hope to God this doesn't mean generic NPCs to fill the gap. I like my people to have an identity.

I laughed.

I'm interested to see how this is handled as well. I really want to see it in action. Random mage duels in the middle of towns sounds really cool as well. Just so long as that one spell that missed its mark and hit little billy doesn't bring the guards running, people should know to get out of the way.

TES games are traditionally supposed to model huge environments.. larger than a game could actually represent. It would only make sense to have random NPCs..

that sounds epic

We didn't have them before. I feel like that would make the world lose immersion because it doesn't feel like a unique community anymore, just a random world where the people have no personal schedules, homes, whatever. Anyway, this isn't for the discussion of that. It'll get too off topic.

Interesting info I'd only commit the assassination if the person has something valuable that I want to steal but couldn't because the NPC was alive.

then its not really assassination, its just a violent mugging
depending on my character i would probably... aww who am i kidding ill probably assassinate them all good or bad char mwahaha :gun:

This will only work if there is a enough dialouge/interaction to actually get to know someone and "like" them.


I dont think the moral dilemma would be so great when someone asks you to kill Bob, townbuilder #3 who just says "Greetings, Breton!" every time you pass by.

I think the idea of the radiant story working like this is not to make you "kill someone you like" but rather "interact with someone you've already met".

Think of Daggerfall with its million or so NPCs.. what if, after doing a quest that involves 2 of them, they got more likely to be involved in future quests? That would actually give some of them a sort of story.. a randomized one but still a story.

And then what if each story assigned some kind of flag to the NPC, like: Parinoid, Ruthless, Kind, Inquisitive, Amoral. So perhaps the random NPC that wants you to kill someone will have Ruthless attached to them after that quest, and be more likely to be involved in quests that have a Ruthless role in the future?

I haven't seen the article so I don't know the full context, but couldn't this mean the opposite? Couldn't it mean that it won't pick someone you are close to? I hope not because the idea in the OP is much better. Is it possible to get the quote?

I'd only like to see this if they did it properly. If someone asks me to kill someone that would be considered a friend/acquaintance, I should also be able to talk to that person (or a guard) and tell them someone is trying to kill them. That should result in the contractor being arrested and removed from the game.

Hmmm...so far this "radiant story" has been awesome...

Skyrim is going to be awesome

I'm not one of those people who love quests with moral dilemmas, but at the same time I don't mind them. But quests that have such moral dilemmas must leave very few things to be generated IMO. The quest can't be just a random "weird man I don't know comes and asks me to kill my friend" for random reward. That makes no sense. There's got to be a story behind it. And also, there's no dilemma if there's no choice. So you should be able to do the opposite of what the quest giver wants. I'm pretty positive the latter will happen since in Elder scrolls you can kill anyone, but it would be nice if they took it further and both choices opened up a chain of quests. So eg let's say the dilemma is part of the dark brotherhood chain of quests. In that case killing your friend opens up more quests that allow you to rise further in the organization, while deciding to protect your friend opens up quests against it in order to protect your friend and yourself (since you are now a traitor). That sort of stuff.

PS Also it shouldn't happen too many times. The "shock value" is quickly diminished if it happens every second quest or something.

They're making the game much more replayable now, and giving the players something to do that won't get too boring if you're in the mood for rewards.
I think they're doing a bang-out job!