As long as I've been playing rpgs and questing, there's always been a few things I've been wishing for. Radient Beginnings, Evolvoing quests, and Moral Ends.

To be honest I'm all ready a happy camper, because radient story will be used in Skyrim. Parts of quests that are tailored closer to your character specificly, instead of being the same every time. I'm really looking forward to seeing how its used in Skyrim, and I can't wait to see it in action. To push it though, I'd like to see the beginnings of quests especially make use of this tool. I know we shouldn't have high as the stars expecations, because then we'll just be let down when realism hits us but at any rate I'd like to see the beginnings of quests often be given by people we know. Like if we're friends with npc's in town, a high disposition and all that jaz. The quest template would see that, also see that the family has a son, and then a quest pops up that the son wishes to learn how to us a sword. Training a random kid isn't as cool as training a friends kid, and stuff like that is what I hope to see a lot of for side quests. Here's hoping.

The next thing I'd like to see is evolving quests. Quests, mainly side quests, should be built in a time sensitive fasion. Not a little timer on the side of the screen for every single quest you start, good lordy no. What I mean is that quests should change after a few ingame days or weeks, depending on the nature of the quest. For instance, a caravan merchant has a bum leg and asks you to deliver some food up to a town high in the Skyrim mountains, after two ingame weeks the status you find the town in should change. It would react to your inaction, but not necessaraly fail mind you. If you went their straight away, and say one ingame day passed in getting there, the townspeople would be hungry and thankful that you arrived with the food. After the two ingame weeks pass, if you show up at the town, maybe you'll find people leaving or a few people fighting in line to get the food you have.

Basically, quests should react to inaction as well as action. Failing to finish the quest in the large amount of time alloted doesn't meen failure either, just the cercomstances would change. The passage of time should be included in order for a quest to feel real, instead of being staged.

And finally I'd like to see branching options which lead to different endings based on your actions and choices. Quests felt to linear to me in Morrowind and Oblivion. They didn't change, depending on if you were good or evil, a mage or a warrior. The only thing that would change would be the things you had your player do. There were quests for bad guys, and quests for good guys, but no real quests for the middle road. Quests should allow for different shades gray along with the black and white. Taking into account my food for the mountain town as an example, there could be people willing to pay you extra for food, and poor people asking for food for their kids who can't pay as much. Giving the food to the people with money may lead the poor people to leave town or die, while giving the food to the poor people may lead the richer to attack you, or you could try to give the food out to everyone evenly and people would walk away with the poor groaning for food and the rich grumbling about how stingy you were. Stuff like that.

So the quest system, I call it the REM system, would add uniqueness to the beginning, middle, and end of quests. Replayability would be high all around because side quests, a huge part of the TES worlds, would be different from character to character. The writing/voice acting would have to be more open, in order to accomidate for all the choices possible. I think it could be done, but probably not in this TES. Maybe to some degree, but not completely. Still, I'm hoping for the REM system or something close to it. Quests that start differently and involve different people make it so not every quest feels the same. Any npc could give you a quest, and it adds to the feeling that this is a real world with real people. Evolving quests allow for there to be a sense of time passing in the world, without pushing the player to do something when they don't want to. And some different endings to side quests based on morality could help each character feel like they really are evil, good, or somewhere in between.

These three things would make my questing experience a very unique and happy one. Anyone else hope to get something close to the REM system?

But isn't this how Radiant Story is described as working in Skyrim? Whether or not it will actually live up to the promises is another story, of course, but I'm pretty sure this is exactly the sort of thing they claim it will do.

Flaws with this Idea:
Look back to Morrowind and Oblivion, how many quests were there? Lots, making all those quests dynamic = [censored] ton of time = money.
More attention on Gameplay = less attention on graphics = less "common" gamer's who would play because of bad graphics (a true rpg fan would play a good rpg no matter the graphics level, ex. Baldurs Gate, Arcanum, etc. etc.) which in turn would decrease the amount of purchases of the game.

Pros with this Idea:
Replayability =
Increased interest holder = Publicity = Money
People telling others of their character doing a certain quest =
A breakthrough in RPG's =


Theoretically then this would even out, and it is entirely possible. Will it happen, probably not, there is more publicity on breakthrough graphics than breakthrough quest lines. Do you ever really see in advertising "Breakthrough Dynamic Questlines?"

So, those Ideas aside, I think this is a great idea. I am a true RPG fan, I to this day play Baldurs gate, Morrowind, IcewindDale, and Arcanum because of their amazing quests, the dynamics, and the sheer availability of options. If Bethesda wants to make a game that will go down in the annuls of history, they should not create a game with amazing graphics, because graphics will always become better and better, they should put as much work into the actual game as possible IMO.

Todd mentioned a quest like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXGXFM5yrCs&t=60. A guy who likes you and has a son, the son is kidnapped and put into a nearby dungeon you haven't been to, and he asks you for help. They also mentioned another quest, like if you're an assassin, instead of being told to kill some random dude, you're hired to kill someone who likes you.

That's how I understand it's going to work as well, so I'm pretty happy as it is. Hopefully it will lead to a lot of unique cercomstances from character to character.



I remember hearing about that, and I'm really happy quests are starting like that. To build on that though, after taking the quest to save the kid, if an ingame week passes before you go to the cave the boy should be moved. Like he would be sold into slavery or something like that. Once you do go into the cave, if you go before the week you can save the kid from the bandits, but if you don't get around to it till after the week you'll go to the cave only to find a note of sale stating where the kid was sold to. Once you go there, you may have more guards whom are stronger than the bandits to contend with. You could also just pay for the boy's freedom if you don't want to fight.

But if you wait half an ingame week after the quest log updates from the note of sale, the quest will change again. Once you go to find where the kid is, it turns out he has a made friends with a girl and he won't leave without her. You could kill the girl in secret to get the boy to go, pay for both of their freedom, sneek them both out, or hack through all the guards and set them free with force.

The quest would evolve with time, and depending on when to go to complete it the cercomstances may be different. Replayability goes up, and there are moral choices to make even when you're saving a kid. Radient story is a big bonus for quests, but adding the other two parts of the REM system to quests would add much more to them.

What's with the topic description?
R E M system?
Rapid eye movement system? Are we talking about dreams here?
Just kidding..
I voted yes for each one. I am so glad they implemented this.

I found it strange how it ended up as REM too. It has always been a dream of mine though. At any rate, I really hope they implement evolving quests and moral branches to quests. I'd be very happy to see the quest system get such an upgrade. If even just a few side quests made use of REM, the quests would set quite a high standard for open world rpgs. With unique characters and an open world writing style, the world we are placed in could feel like a real world that reacts to us in a believable manner.

Bump. Its not like anyone has to, but I am curious as to a few people aren't looking forward to radient story. Does anyone want to elaberate on why they don't like it? I'm looking forward to quests that envolve people my character has met. Not all the quests should be from random people, people who know the character should ask for quests, or have something to do with them.