This is something they began doing in Oblivion (Glarthir and the "Paranoia" quest, ect). I wish they would stop it. I think forced-greet quests are a terrible idea.
I just ignore these things. The way I see it, my character has no knowledge of the journal. A quest can stay in the journal forever and my character will be none the wiser. We just go about our business.
I join you in disliking forced quests. My inclination is also to enjoy a 'clean and tidy' quest log. . . but not to the point of letting it affect my game or avoid talking to NPCs. No, I'm afraid TES games have thoroughly trained to to 'embrace the mess' that is my quest log. I've honestly gotten to the point where I just don't care if it has 80 quests in it that my character will never touch. My regret is that, with some minor player control over the quest log like the ability to edit it in game or move quests to an 'ignore' category, this potential tool loses so much of its potential to 'help'.
the "ignore" folder is a great idea!
(Or I might call it the "maybe someday if I get real bored staying in character" folder...)
David,
There are always a few quests in my log that will never get done . I play ps3 so no mods.
I'm happy with that and ignore them ..
I hate the forced quests.. Which one was it?
David,
to avoid Brynjolf do this:
-Get in front gate of Riften
-Turn right around and go back out immediately.
-Go around stables to water
-Jump in and swim to docks
-Climb up and walk in back door of Riften at the docks
-Immediately arrow over to smithing station.
-Use smithing station so it looks like your character is smithing.
-Brynjolf will walk over and say his thing three times..-keep smithing- Even if you are doing nothing but looking at what you can smith.. your tune is doing the smith animation.
-Brynjolf will walk away after three times.. You will hear him trying to sell his potion.
-You can stop smithing now.. he will leave you alone and no quest..
There was a mod in Oblivion that added an "ignore" category you could move things in and out of. I would love that for Skyrim for I to am rather anol about such things. I get so many quests it a chore to sort through the ones I want and don't want.
I agree, David, and I can not recall ever finishing with a character and they had a clean "Quest Log." I think in most major holds, there is at least one "Have a quest on us!" situations
[EDIT]
And I thought I was the only one who titled their threads with exasperation
David, don't worry about it..
Next tune you roll you will know what to do .
I don't think force-greet in itself is as bad as not being able to tell them to piss off, and also not getting anything in your journal in the process. In my opinion, the best thing they could do in the next TES game is to give us a blank journal that we have to/can write on our own. But that's not likely to happen.
I could live with this. A dialogue option to say, "No, thanks," combined with a way to remove quests would make this a lot less irritating.
At the very least, I think they should let us remove quests from our journals.
there's another way. . . kind of. you can draw your bow. then force greet will force loose an arrow. with enough damage on an immortal, they'll take a knee. on a mortal, of course, you end that quest line and post it on tifu or fml.
Quick tip - if you decide to take care of these miscellaneous quests in an effort to clear your log, make sure you've got the quest selected when you do it. Otherwise, it may not get removed from your log when you finish it! I don't mind the miscellaneous quest getting added (I pretend these are vague ideas on the back burner to which my PC will get around some day) but when you do the work but don't get the credit, that svcks!