There are times that I think TES could benefit from being a little closed off at times. I'm not asking for the world to be made smaller or linear (heavens no) but maybe at times you'd be stuck doing on quest and have to see it through.

Remember Hackdirt? The quest was pretty neat, but I think it suffered because of how open it was. You ran into the town, climbed through a trap door, and ran away with Dar-Ma. It ended very quickly, and if you had to do some events in a more linear fashion the quest could've been longer and creepier.

That's just one example. So my question is this, should some quests be more linear? I'd still want 95% of my quests to be completely open.

Oh, hell no! Linearity = The Ultimate Evil. Keep it out of my TES, there are literally countless games for those who need the path spelled out for them.

I think the openness of the quests act as a way for stealth characters, magic characters and the brutes to accomplish things in ways that play to their strengths. And not force mages to accomplish quests in ways that seem more suited to warriors.

Wasn't that solved by the magic red triangle?

Open is good. In fact, it's great.

~ Dani ~

One word. No.

I can understand and appreciate what you mean, but no. Having it be so open-ended makes it a lot more fun for players with imagination. Instead of making it so this-specific-thing happens, it makes it so ANYTHING could happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ

Scott says it best.

No.

The openess is one of the most beautiful things about the series.

This.
I do understand what you mean but I would rather it remain open.

Lol, I guess I shouldn't have expected a positive response :tongue:. Maybe I'm not explaining this right. I probably misused the word "linear". During the quest you'd still be able to take multiple routes to get to where you're going, but you'd have to accomplish some more events to finish it, instead of walking into a basemant, walking out of basemant, walk back to town. That's sort of what I mean by "open". That's probably the wrong word for describing this too...........

I never did it that way.

The first time through, I talked to everyone, investigated everything, waited until nightfall and talked to the guy, snuck in to the inn, snuck in to the caverns..... That was just the way the quest played out.

Now that I've done it and know what to expect, most of my characters still do it that way. Again, that's just the way the quest seems to play out. I have very few characters who would just say, "Look! A trap door! I'm climbing down there right now because I'm sure that's where Dar-ma is!"

I find, most often, that the people who just rush through quests and don't get the full effect are the ones who don't actually roleplay - instead they metagame. They see a trap door and they know that that means you're going to end up going through it, so they just go through it right off the bat. And yeah - that sort of spoils the fun, which is why I don't do it.

Now - there is a question of whether or not Beth should make some parts of quests more linear - require certain actions or such specifically in order to force the people who would otherwise just rush headlong through a quest and miss all the subtleties to take their time. I can see an argument for that, but I'd prefer that Beth not do anything to make quests more linear. Honestly, bluntly, I think that the people who metagame and rush headlong through the game and end up not enjoying it as much as they would otherwise are solely responsible for their own lack of enjoyment. I don't believe that it's Beth's responsibility to cripple the openness of the game just because some people don't take the time to appreciate it.

There are ways to make quests longer without making them linear.

Well now that you've clarified things a bit...



...my response remains "Oh, hell no!"

Corrected! I think I get what the thread creator meant...
and because you used Hackdirt (could'a been way more creepy if a (tiny) little more linear) you get my vote! Yes! but only in very few quests which could only benefit from some storyline and detective work before you enter the trap door and save the lizard...

This.

Well at midnight all these crazy people go underground for something, and a young girl who was just here has dissappeared. It's very easy to connect crazy people and dissappearances. And besides, (I did talk to the guy at the start) if you do that, it prolongs the quest by five minutes. I do roleplay, but I don't roleplay as a character who's incapable of doing some investigations and putting two and two together.

i wouldnt mind deeper quests but having them more open ended allows you to play them different ways. i would love to see a couple of quests where you stuck in a dream realm or use a teleporter to get to some remote ruin. it could be broken on the other side preventing you from getting back until you finish the quest but most of the quests should just be open.

i disagree with every word you wrote in that post. sorry.
linearity is the ultimate evil.

I agree at times. Having a little bit of linearity (or w/e) from time to time would be nice. Quests sometimes feel a little goofy or mis-handled when they are completely open. There are already examples of this in game. Characters not showing up until you talk to a certain person for example makes it slightly more linear. I guess I just mean a few scripted events during certain quests wouldnt hurt.

One thing I would like at some RARE occasions for QUESTS, would be:

- You're told that you're going to some dungeon, and that you should prepare yourself.
- When you finally arrive and enter the dungeon, the entrance is closed behind you (could be rocks falling over the entrance or something), and you have to continue.

I think that could be nice for some very very rare occasions. Like for a quest. Would feel kinda creepy to be trapped and only have to venture further into the dungeon, which hopefully also would be creepy.

Other than that, keep TES open I think. Pretty much all the time.

No. I prefer, especially with the availability of quest mods added by the community, to be able to go off and do my own thing for a while before starting the main quest. I believe I was at the 68, or, 70 hour mark on my last play-thru before I started the main quest. There are plenty of other games out there that provide more of a focused, narrowly defined game path if you want one. Good ones too. But, for the love of (name your personal god here), let TES be TES!

So...you want people to agree? no one thinks less of you for your opinion, they are giving their opinion as well.

No

Why?

Because then everytime I come across that quest I am forced to play it the exact same way all the time knowing full well whats next.

It being Open allows players with different playstyles to address ths situation differently as many times as possible. simple as that

I don't think a few timed quests would bother me: having to escape a collapsing dungeon or kill someone before they leave an area.

I think what would be better is time specific events, say you get an assassination quest and you're informed that the target will be [here] at [this time] on [this day]. Killing your target with that information would yield you the most benefits of completing the quest, but say you miss the time/day, your quest giver will be disappointed. You could still track down and kill the target later on, but resulting with less reward/benefit.

It'd be a hard system to develop and I don't expect them to do it at all, but at the same time I don't think it fits with the TES world/gameplay we're so in love with. But I sure loved following Baurus' Mythic Dawn tail into the basemant to ambush him.

Well aren't some quests more linear?

TES needs to be as open as possible, it's simply just why it's always rocked...