There was a bug in the earlier releases that made it so the Gates popped up even if you did not meet Jauffre. I remember this irking me as I wanted to ignore the MQ as long as possible the first time through. I kept getting reminded of it.

Both Morrowind and Oblivion's main quests had their issues for sure. For me now, Morrowind failed in giving me a reason to care. The novalty of possibly being the reincarnation of a long dead hero wore off pretty quickly, its been done before. Being the reincarnation of a bad guy would have been more intresting. But at any rate, it wasn't perfect.

Oblivion gave the feeling of urgency, but it was almost overwelming. There really wasn't any point in taking the time to do other Gates, because if you stuck with the main quest there really wasn't a break in the action to allot the time to do that. Some different ways of wording could easy off the presure between quests, allowing for a more open feel.

Placing Jaufre in the boonies, having only those at Weinon Priory know where he is, only telling the player that Jaufre is an old blade and only old blades know where he would be, and have a rumor about a possible Blades meeting with even the retired blades going on over at the Priory after 2 ingame weeks would allow for the beginning to feel open to the player. Kavatch could probably also gain some extra merrit if at least some releaf effort was seen after the town was obliterated...

And at parts such as right before the portal to Paradice opened, having Martin say that he'll be completely ready after a while and the player should go and do other things and that he'd send a mesanger when he is ready would allow for openness. Martin would just keep going about is business, and after two or three ingame days the ability to continue the quest would open up but Martin would only look as if he were just about to send a messanger to find the player once he shows up to check out whats up.

Writing like that, which is time sensative, can allow for a linear story with urgentness to have nice clean unjarring gaps in it and still give that sense of danger and a need to hurry without that need being constant or falsly implied.

What i found weird about Oblivion, was the fact that you see Deadric Creatures and Demons, yet you Never touched the Main Quest, since i assumed they would Only appear once you start the Main Quest and Oblivion Gates start popping up.

I do hope that we can start the Game and when i reach the point where the Game tells me Start Main Quest, i can ignore it.That was Stupid, did Bethesda really expected me to start the Main Quest after escaping the Prison like the Weakling i am.

I think Todd Howard said that after you get released, you will gradually go out into the world and Explore, without having been told that I saw you in a Dream, take this whatever and go to that Person.

Thats what i want in Skyrim, release me and let me discover by myself who i am and how is it i can speak Dragon tongue, then the Game can tell me if i want to start the Main Quest or not.

There are still conjurers/daedra worshipers that are not connected to the main quest. There are ways for the lesser daedra to enter Nirn without a gate. Just like how in Morrowind there were daedra but no gates that I can remember.

There's a midway point where the main quest could urge you to become more talented, to find legendary artifacts and learn new dragon-shouts so you have a fighting chance in the final battle.
Except instead of some preparation based quest sequence, you are thrown out into the big bad world like in Morrowind and told to do what everyone loves most about TES without a hint nor guide as to where to start, then voluntary come back near the level cap with a character that's seen some of the worst the world can throw at him so the ending makes sense.

Morrowind and Oblivion had their issues with the MQ, both offered no incentives beyond advancing the story. where morrowind has an excuse due to the time it was made, oblivion I don't feel did.

infact in morrowind the wait could have very been indefinite Dagoth ur was a patience individual and if Ghost gate was still functional, even if it was bleeding through a bit Vivec and almalexia could have taken him down maybe one last time before the blight overran Morrowind.


In Oblivion however there was no urgency...just annoyances, the gates did not hinder you from going about your daily life, you could have left them standing and nothing like Kvatch occured, it would have been a nice touch if the cities were accosted by Deadric assaults, then you'd have a reason to take them. but everyone waited on the player to get things done.

if the player had the amulet the attacks could have not been initiated since kvatch was a test and a method to remove the heir, it only made sense to go all out after Mankar "killed" the Heir and got the amulet. if the player hung on to that then that could have been a MQ delay, it would have been more interesting if pre-release conceptions of Oblivion were Cyrodiil would get worse and worse as the player ignored the MQ, alas this wasnt the case.



Now we Have Dragons and the -true- apocalypse of existence coming, if at any moment the ball gets rolling and im able to relax with NO explanation as to why I can go about my business despite the threat being "imminent" then i will :facepalm: and make a mod that spams Dragon strikes over the land after that period of time, and a giant wall of fire as done in Oblivion for some mods that will scream across the lands as described by the nords about alduins coming.

What i'd like is that certain phases of the MQ in Skyrim have a level requirement. As in, you can't start this part until you're 5, can't start here 'til you're 10, etc. It'd make you go out and explore the world, which would be good.

I don't think a concrete level requirement is necessary. But it would be nice if there were a few points where you were tested in some way, and if you weren't high enough level, you would be advised to go do something else. Urgency is fine as you become more drawn into the main quest, but early on I much prefer mystery, a few vague leads to follow up on, a whole world to meet, greet and fight. To feel like a small fish in a big ocean, not The Ultimate Sargeant Hero Epic Destiny Guy.

I think Morrowind did that very well... Caius Cossadus warned you that the quests ahead could be difficult, and advised you to build a life for yourself, join a Great House, whatever. Return when ready. I don't think he actually scanned your level (?), but it was well-written enough that it felt like he was 'eyeing you up' and finding you a bit lacking.

Whether the majority of today's gamers appreciate being told "you're weak, get stronger and come back" at any point in the game is another issue. BUTTON = AWESOME...

Edit: I can't type.

Very good point. I know exactly what you mean but I couldn't have put it better. There was no time to do anything in between and have it seem believable.

Roleplay-wise I had to help myself a bit by pretending the whole incident in the prison/sewers/emperor/etc. happened later, after my character ... errm... just one day happened to take a stroll in front of Vilverin and had been through a few other adventures from there.

Not a very elegant solution at all, I admit, but at least it never bothered me too much.

I agree with the OP, I would like to explore the world, journey on my own and have fun little adventures in between my glorious slowly unfolding quest.

I hope the mq starts by you being saved from prision, then the dude who saved your butt is all like "Hey, you should come to this place, when your ready. Right now your pretty green you should get some experience if you want to help me..." Then you don't feel pressured to go do it, but after you get started it should be fairly urgent, i mean the dragon god of time is getting ready to chow down and all

Do you really mean that ?
At my first playthrough after closing the Oblivion gate outside Kvatch,I started side-questing.
After 5 months of side-questing I realised that I forgot completely the main quest all that time.
But there where like 40+ unfinished quests at my logbook and I didn't remembered which mission was part of the main quest,and I had to bring my game disc to a friend's console so he can show me which quest to follow.

For me it was the exact opposite of your situation.

I first played Oblivion, and started the main quest, when I realised, I had 10000 oblivion gates all over the map. And I really don't like them. So I had to finish the main quest to make them disappear. Never even started the MQ again. I enjoy exploring the world, roleplaying, and doing what I want.
In Morrowind, I never even started the main quest. Still, I explored Morrowind so much.

Or his opinion is different then yours? Sheesh grow up, someone thinks a little to much about themselves. And I agree.

No. His opinion was asanine, just like your post. "Thats because the main quest in Morrowind was one dimensional and boring. Run here, talk to this person...rinse....repeat.".

I did not tell him to concede that they were equal because I'm asserting that's a fact, nor that it's my opinion. Simply that under his criteria for determining that Morrowind's quest was one dimensional he would have to label Oblivion as one dimensional unless he could provide some decent reasons. Which he couldn't.

Honestly, who's self important? You are, given that you've clearly, completely misunderstood what I typed and yet decided to quote me and give your two cents like anybody cares. Go back and read it a few more times Billybob.

He means that even though you can run around doing sidequests at any point in the game, it doesn't make that much sense in the scheme of the story.

"You must get the Amulet to Jauffre. Take no chances, but proceed to Weynon Priory immediately. Got it?" - Baurus

"Um, I want to become Champion of the Arena first. Think the gates will wait to open for meh?" - Me

"Yeah of course. While you're at it, finish the Mages Guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines too. Don't forget to raise your Sneak, Hand to Hand, Blunt, and Blade all to level 100!" - Baurus

Obviously he didn't say that last part but he might as well. Because I did...

This is surprising I never felt any pressure to do or finish the main quest in Oblivion until I got to the Great Gate or Level 17 and even then I could still wait after getting the Great Sigil Stone.

He said HE thought it was one dimensional and boring, you said it wasn't. How is that asanine? He sumed it up the way HE thought it was, understand? You didn't agree with him and made fun of him by repeating him and changing some words. Like I said before, grow up, people have different opinions and not everyone is ready to argue theres as eagerly as you Billybob. He found morrowind's MQ boring, you got offended, just like you did when I told you to grow up. Such hostility, calm down.

I made fun of him by repeating his words?



Yes and contrary to popular thought, opinion can be wrong. Someone can be of the opinion the moon is made of cheese, that someone is wrong. The tone of his post was inflammatory and he should have known it and his criteria made his point asanine, he was arguing against every computer game ever created, I will not repeat this again.


I am in awe with this last bit. Read it over a few times and then bathe in the incredible hypocrisy. Enough, I'm done with the subject.

Ahh thanks, I didn't know that. I purchased the original release for the 360 almost as soon as it came out and went far into the MQ before getting sidetracked, however much later on I purchased the GOTY edition for PC and found that bypassing Jauffre kept the gates from popping up.

:goodjob:

10000000% agree though a few attacking dragons here and there won't ruin the game

I think having the main quest be pressing an exciting past a certain point when your deep into it will be a good thing. To have a more epic feeling. But yes I agree in an open ended game like this where much of the appeal is meant to be free roaming an doing your own thing. It doesn't make sense to immediately thrust the player into some epic task where the fate of the world is upon his shoulders. Even the extremely linear Japanese RPG's usually don't reveal your saving the world until half way through the game lol.

So yeah they really should try to pace it somehow. But that's the thing if our character is THE dragonborn then I don't know how they can do that. Since your essentially setting up the player to be the only person that can stand up to the dragons an thus leading any other kind of life seems selfish from a role playing perspective.

I agree, with first poster, but I feel this was another problem of the evil leveling thing in oblivion

I seem to recall that Todd Howard said it would.