So, it seems from my reading, there's this wicked sick thing called Radiant Story. This can personalise quests, like putting certain enemies in a certain dungeon you haven't yet explored. It sounds like a brilliantly deft feature that'll make a huge difference, but hows about we put it to the test?

I know it's very odd to think about, but there will come a point, one day, when you will have svcked Skyrim dry (eww). I know, I know, but seriosuly. Main Quest will be gone in a flash, you'll have spent days grinding down the side questions, and all that remains are a few dungoens you haven't explored (and have no real reason to), and the obligitory 'find all the wine bottles' mission you have no intention of doing. Ever. All you're doing now is aimlessly kicking about the world, waiting for DLC to land. Or are you?

See, what would be cool is if we could use Radient Story to possibly 'fix' this. It'd be simple, really; a pool of characters will supply you with seemingly never-ending supply of quests. This are randomly generated from a little pool of options Radiant Story has to play about with. For instance, an NPC could tell you to go and assassinate someone; Radiant Story would choose who, and where, based on where you've been (or, indeed, have yet to visit), who you are, what you've done, and so on. There could be a pool of options, like assassination, fighting, stealing, finding something in a dungeon, and maybe even teaming up with AI to take on even more AI, to turn it into a big battle rather than a one-man thing. It's important to get variation in this, so come up with the most kooky things you can imagine that'd really keep you interested.

PRO
There'd always be something interesting to do in Skyrim. It'd be a great timewaster, and Radiant Story would make sure it's always tailored to who you are, and unique in that sense. It could also throw up some really neat surprises.

CON
There's only so much dialouge/choice in the world. Eventually, these quest-givers would repeat themselves, and give pretty much the same quests, but in a slightly different place. It would very slowly kill the atmoshpere and immersion, and artifically elongate the game, which is depressing to those who feel there should be peace and calm once you've finished the quests.

P.S.: Please no 'we can just mod afterwards'. Remember the console guys.

it could work. Borderlands had some quests that could work similarly in the Elder Scrolls. In Borderlands, they had quests where you had to find multiple parts for a certain sniper, and after you found all the parts you would bring them back to the quest giver, and the quest giver would make that sniper for you. I could see something like that being incorporated in the future.

This isn't a mmo, you should finish whatever side quests and or random exploration there is before finishing the main quest

No. Considering that the time it takes to complete the main quest, factions, and all side quests is probably around 100 hours or so, I'd say that's more than enough. If you want to play more, either be one of those people who gets all of their stats maxed and collects every item, or start over and roleplay from a different perspective, make different choices, explore different paths. I still play Oblivion today, a good 700+ hours or so of total gameplay time.

As you said, quests would get repetitive and completely shatter immersion. You would recognize it for the video game that it is and it would just be boring.

I'll just second this...less typing and I was gonna say pretty much the same thing.

Well said, I completely agree.

No... but the hallmark of TES is the ability to explore, continue/finish up any side quests after the MQ.

Very true indeed.

Frankly I'd just be happy with quests that tie up any loose ends. I was rather dissapointed in oblivion that the imperial city perpetually looked like a war zone after the main quest was complete and that the blades just sat around picking their noses if the Blade Master died in the final battle.

For an example to the above, I would have loved to have seen/done a quest the reconstruction of the imperial city's temple district or attended the burial of the Blade Master. A prime example of this is the Kvatch Rebuilt plugin.

I think there are many quests already in Skyrim. No need to make more and more just so that we have a quest to do. Quality > quantity concerning quests.

Also... the thing is, a huge part of what TES is about is just to explore. The freedom to explore. It doesn't have to be related to quests. Just explore

Finally, there will be lots of replayability thanks to Radiant Story when we start a new game.

I'm all for it. I see the danger of immersion-breaking, but once I've finished all the "regular" quests, I usually don't spend too much more time on that character. Several of these Radiant quests would be just the thing to mix it up while I'm finishing up enjoying that character between whatever other activities I'm doing.

Usually once I'm done with the main quests and any side ones I did along the way ill get more into exploring the areas I haven't come across, but it would be nice to have at least a small selection of repeatable or daily quests to do.

Aslong as the radiant story quests are common like "Oh I need your help!" then another citizen go "I need you help aswell!" If radiant story quests don't fill all the side-quests then it would be better, but if there is radiant story quests and alot of side-quests aswell after the MQ, I would be one happy chappy indeed.

Not sure about afterwards but inbetween quests, they might have some repeatable assasination/bounty/collect quest to give you. Should give you a reason to explore the surrounding area and fill time.

Or try not to complete every quest with one character and try to just do a few and start another character and join another guild.

I plan to make a characters that will join only 1 guild and if they decide to switch they leave the other guild. The max will be 2 guilds if I feel like I need somethin from it.

I want this,When I finished Oblivion I really wanted to play more but I would visit towns and be totally put off by that ''been here done that vibe'' It really killed the feeling.

^ This.
I remember after completing every quest in OB, I would check the Wikipedia to see if there was any quests to finish, but I had finished them all and starting over on a new game felt really repetitive, it completely ruined the feel of the "Explore and Discover" feeling.. I'm all in for Unlimited Quests.

Oblivion had around 200 quests 14 factions that had quests(cities 9 guilds 5)


Morrowind had 17 29 Factions that offer quests, not counting cities and a shix load of quests and side quests of which you could NOT do them all in one play through and I didn't even count Blood moon,Tribunal, any of a daedric shrines, various quests you stumble on in the wilderness.....


and the Morag tong alone, has 25 quests.....25.....mmk.

Bump for shamelessness

This again?

If you think Radiant Story is "randomly generated quests" then you misunderstand what it is.
http://twitter.com/DCDeacon/status/23821788408446977

I wouldn't be surprised if us modders found a way to combine scripts, SKSE (Skyrim Script Extender, obviously, ), and the radiant quest system to make some pretty crazy dynamic recurring stuff, as well as just further hand crafted quest lines to follow.

This is what I like about the radiant story thing (if it works, which I cannot really trust until the game actually ships, given Oblivions "Radiant" AI)


I hope for more random encounters and events continue orever.... I even hope there will be some dragons around to fight after the main quest ends.

Plus, there could be some generic quest types to keep doing, although I hope they dont get overused.