» Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:46 am Oblivion had some wonderfully written quests. The problem was they really weren't RPG quests but more suited to action adventure. There was no flexibility or branching in them, you had to follow a linear path and at the end you could (usually) choose between three dialogue options. Now i'm sure there are exceptions to this just as FONV had a few utterly linear quests but this was the general approach to quests in OB and (marginally less so in) FO3 and seems at odds with the open world freedom of choice game.
It felt to me like the designers were so in love with the mini stories that had been created for the quests they didn't want to allow deviation. It also felt like, and this goes for the whole game, they weren't willing to deny you anything so choices were nearly all removed and consequence was almost non-existent. "This player has a high speechcraft skill but if we allow him to use that to solve the quest then he doesn't get to fight all those goblins or find out the twist in the quest when he finds out the goblins were the quest givers cousins turned by blah, blah, blah..."
What I really dug about NV was they weren't at all precious about the content they created. I tended to go on wikia and read up on the quests i just completed and i was consistently impressed by the swathes of conversation, fighting, places, rewards etc. that i missed out on based on my chosen style of play. For example there was a fantastic convo i had with a nightkin and his brahmin skull (hilarious writing and explained everything about what had happened at Repconn) but i stepped on a landmine afterwards and reloaded. This time I killed more nightkin on my way to the chamber and the nightkin attacked rather than starting speech and the whole dialogue was bypassed. Choice and consequence even when you don't realise it.
It felt to me like the designers were so in love with the mini stories that had been created for the quests they didn't want to allow deviation. It also felt like, and this goes for the whole game, they weren't willing to deny you anything so choices were nearly all removed and consequence was almost non-existent. "This player has a high speechcraft skill but if we allow him to use that to solve the quest then he doesn't get to fight all those goblins or find out the twist in the quest when he finds out the goblins were the quest givers cousins turned by blah, blah, blah..."
What I really dug about NV was they weren't at all precious about the content they created. I tended to go on wikia and read up on the quests i just completed and i was consistently impressed by the swathes of conversation, fighting, places, rewards etc. that i missed out on based on my chosen style of play. For example there was a fantastic convo i had with a nightkin and his brahmin skull (hilarious writing and explained everything about what had happened at Repconn) but i stepped on a landmine afterwards and reloaded. This time I killed more nightkin on my way to the chamber and the nightkin attacked rather than starting speech and the whole dialogue was bypassed. Choice and consequence even when you don't realise it.
I completely agree!
In addition to the multiple endings with consequences for future quests, one of the things that seemed to enhance each of the quests in FNV was the often hilarious little bits of backstory that you would only uncover by reading every computer terminal. You could blow through any quest without learning all of the story.
The equivalent in a fantasy setting I suppose would be more journals and fragments of maps or letters found on dead adventurers, or even new books that relate directly to specific quests, perhaps quests involving the author of some ancient tome.
I also agree that having the precise map marker makes some of the quests a bit too easy. It would be great if it were possible to turn off the compass map marker as an option, for those of us who want a bit more of a challenging, immersive experience, as might be the case when attempting to follow directions involving a description of landmarks, etc.
EDIT: Upon reflection, I suppose there is not any major gameplay change needed to get rid of the quest markers. All we would need to do is simply de-activate the active quest to remove the green quest marker. I wonder why I didn't consider doing this before when playing Oblivion.
