So it has come to my attention that in some quests, the choices you make alter your reward outcome. That in itself is all well and good. And naturally, your choices also alter the localized storyline. I've been debating whether or not the different reward outcomes is appropriate, however. Without spoiling it, I'll use the example I was told about without giving exactly which quest it is - in case it's a bug that hasn't been addressed.

There is a quest with a 'good guy' ending and a 'bad guy' ending. One choice leads to a nice piece of loot which you may or may not use, depending on your character's build. The other choice leads to 2 skill points.

I think the issue is obvious.

What do you people think? On the one hand, I like that choices have consequences. On the other hand... ouch.

I don't care about the reward, I will choose what I feel it's right regardless of the reward.

Wow! If that exists, and stays in game, then I believe we have a problem. That's 2 skillpoints that you would otherwise not obtain if you do not know about this. Obtaining gear from quests is pointless to me in lower levels, because I'm going to outgrow it quickly. Skill points/potions/soul gems/consumables etc. are much better rewards at lower levels IMO.

These are the kind of choices I like. Please keep them, and add more!

The question is, is the item equivalent to two skill points? Then again, maybe the game wants to punish the bad person choice (the real world does do that from time to time) and give them the lesser reward. I can handle different rewards based on quest outcome choice, and I can accept that one reward will not be as nice as the other, if the quest was not completed in a manner that is at odds with the quest giver.

The choices are great, no one is really debating that but it's the rewards that the player may or may not be aware of that is the problem - if such a quest actually exists. There aren't too many dialogue choices in this game at the moment at least in the content I've played through, I'd like to see more choices even if they are just along the lines of a different NPC response and nothing more; the dialogue especially from the player can at times be absolutely horrendous.

Yeah not gonna lie, Id pick the reward with the skill points.

Quest choice is great! Replacing irreplaceable skill points with no-matter-how-good-it-is loot is 100% unacceptable.

Agreed!

I purposefully didn't mention which choice gave which reward. And the quest dialog doesn't exactly tip you off.

I have to wonder, over the course of questing through 50++ (and new content), how much of a difference the same character can wind up just based on quest choices.

While i do support choices, and they should matter i rly dont think getting 2 skillpoints or a potentialy usefull nice part of equipment is rly anywhere close to similar in value, simply because there is a limited number of skillpoints avilable in the game while better gear comes in steady with higher lvls(as drops or as crafted gear). So unless those gear drops in such quests are fully unique(meaning you cant get them anywhere else in the game), they come nowehere near the value of a single skillpoint.

In my opinion such choices should impact your story, npc responces toward you and stuff like that. But the actual reward for each of the choices should be similar in value.

And btw fell free to share which quest you are reffering to because i am sure many people are interested in knowing that just incase this actualy stays same in final release.

Before this debate gets out of hand, can someone confirm this?

If this system is there I bet there are more skillpoints available to obtain than the skillpoint limit.

Does the quest actually "reward" skill points? Or does it simply lead you directly to an opportunity to acquire those skill points sooner than would have been picked up eventually down the line?

I think the rewards are fine personally. I think games are having a problem with the whole choice and consequence thing because there's no consequence to anything. I'm currently developing a game that is solely based on choices of this nature. If you've missed something or if you make the "wrong" choice, too bad but that's how things work. I just wish games would go outside the comfort zone and have real choices, the rewards don't need to be equal in my opinion, because why would they be? It's not really a noble concept, Fallout did it all the time, and in that game the narrative didn't even warn you of the consequence, you would ultimately found out in the later stages of the game, but that's totally fine.

I also find it interesting (not in a bad way, just genuinely interesting) that people complain that their choices don't matter because the outcome is the same but when they are presented with real choices with varying outcomes they get all upset that the choice they picked didn't fully accomodate to their character. And to top it off, this quest here is a relatively small choice compared to the stuff seen in say Fallout.

For that reason I like the quest in the example, I know a lot of people will disagree with me but that's how I feel about it. I want to feel the sting of a wrongly made choice or the feeling of having made a good choice for my character.

There is one big difference though and that is that you are refering to a singleplayer game with a save option, and sure any kind of consequence for your choice is k there cuz lets be honest you can always change it by reloading anyway:)

I like it. But don't worry, as soon as there are guides online to every quest in this game the Min/Maxers will only chose the best rewards. Its whateva.

If this would be true, it seems pretty stupid. Of course I would pick the choice giving the two skill points. (assuming no other negative effects for future quest chain or similar)

While that is true it doesn't change that your choice have meaning. Perhaps even more so due to the fact that your choices are permament in an MMO. Am I weird for actually liking when my games run me over because I made the wrong choice?

EDIT Also, 666th post

You've gotta make a choice and by doing so sacrificing the gear/2 skill points.

That's how i ever played TES games, doing what i judge needs doing(not right or wrong, just what i feel should be done).

Only problem would be if the gear is ridiculously useless or something like that.

Well i guess each has their own preferences, my opinion simply being that in an mmo setting such choice reward consequences should be limited to story/npc interaction and stuff similar to that..

I'll confirm the quest exists. It's the end of a major quest line and they kinda hint as to what the reward might be for one of the options as a book with incredible insight, but they don't tell you what the other option has as a reward.

If you pick the book you get 2 skill points, if you pick the other option you get a level 41 blue staff that is useless for non-staff users and becomes useless to staff users in a matter of a few levels.

The 2 skill points are a permanent upgrade to your character. I am a big fan of choices in the quests and I have come across several quests where the decision I need to make has been kind of agonising - for one quest I took a couple of minutes break from the game to think it through (and I'm not usually one who does that kind of thing). The problem is that by tying 2 skill points to this quest they are removing the choice for a large number of us. Once the reward is known a lot of people are going to just take the 2 points without a second thought.

Who know, maybe it will change at launch (I know the issue has been feedbacked) or maybe it won't. If it isn't and you care about 2 skill points then just remember to take the book

I get what you're saying, and I think it is okay to an extent to have poor rewards for decisions that are bad or have a big chance of going [censored]-up. However, there is a margin of difference between what should be acceptable as a punishing reward for an MMO compared to even a game like Fallout because of the time a person will put it and the competitive nature at end game. Granted this case may not be that big of a deal because you're not going to be using the majority of abilities on either weapon load out at a given time at end game; there are going to be a massive amount of skill points that the player can accumulate. If this situation was instead applied to a game like WoW with their old system where you had a limited amount of talent points and where you spent them would determine if you were playing optimally and for some bengine reason because of a quest decision you made at level 30, months ago and now you had a few talent points less than what you should have at end game then people would be ballistic.

Again, looking at this situation again, maybe it's not that big of a deal because of the abundance of skill points you can aquire and the fact that most active abilities you've spent points into won't be used in the grand majority of the time.

Thank you for the clarification. My concern was that within the quest dialog, it may not be obvious that a book with incredible insight gives skill points, starts up another questline, gives the questgiver's organization some visible perk, or what. There's lots of ways for a book to provide insight.

So for some people, this might not be a thing. For others, it's a bothersome issue. There's also a moral element in the choice... if you're playing good guy or bad guy, you're going to want to pick a particular option and find yourself potentially 'punished' for it.