I would love a few surprise quests like the bloated float.
Maybe with the new quest system they can make the circumstances that trigger such a quest, and the objective, a bit random.
Id like that.

Yes please, a few of these dotted around would be wonderful. Surely if a game surprises you, it's a fair bet it's doing a good job (jrpg random encounters excepted). This is one area where I almost agree with level scaling, if there is no way out, the challenge should not be ridiculously hard,

Sure a few, i enjoyed the boat quest, but i don't want to be forced on quests

Also thinking on it now im pretty sure that these already will be in the game in the sense that Todd has mentioned how theyve turned some dragons into completely random occurences....so to me in a sense thats a forced quest. Or if the dragon isnt attacking you specifically the choice now is there for you to help or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSHD1eaNwAs&feature=player_detailpage#t=55s

the ship quest thing was pretty neatly made imo... I'd like to see some of em... however it should be so that tehy are puzzle based based so we can do em at any level, we dont wanna be stuck.. and I dont want it totally level scaled

A few, as in two or maybe 3. If there are too many of them, they will just become annoying like random pokemon fights.

I don't want any forced quests where there's "no turning back" once initiated (i.e. The Bloated Float in OB), but I would expect a great deal of the game's Radiant Story quests to have some sort of time restraint on them. In the telltale example of the child being kidnapped by bandits, you wouldn't expect them to remain holed up in a cave somewhere for five months whilst they wait for your character to show up.

Such quests could have a time limit of several ingame days as they did in Arena or Daggerfall, or alternatively you shouldn't be able to just decline them and come back later. The NPC would reply in a dejected tone, "I'll just have to find somebody else, then" and carry on. Now that AI allows for increasingly living game worlds, I definitely want to make any effort possible to reduce the feeling that I'm the only person in Skyrim that people ever turn to for help. Plus, we could bring back every Daggerfall player's favorite line:

You're too late, I already gave the job to some Spellsword.

Yes, but only if I am currently pursuing the quest. For example, if a questgiver were to send me to some cave to retrieve an artifact or something, and upon entering the cave I was knocked out from behind and imprisoned by questgiver, that would be a cool quest. However, if I had just finished some other quest and were on my way to town to sell loot near full encumberance and I were attacked and dragged to some surprise quest, I would be pretty annoyed. So yeah, surprises during a quest are always welcome and fun, but random quests popping up out of nowhere while I'm busy doing other things are irritating.

Although I do think it would help add even more variety to the game, I don't think this would be a good system. It would be cool the first time, maybe, but it would quickly get cumbersome, when I'm on my way to do something, and I have my mind set on that, I'd rather not be rudely interrupted and forced to do something else. The only time I could see this working is in closed locations. For example, if I was just exploring a random cave and suddenly I stepped on a trap that caught me or knocked me unconscious somehow, and woke up to find that the cave was actually infested with goblins who had captured me and I had to find a way to escape, that would be pretty cool, since I was exploring and looking for something cool to do anyways. But if something like this happened when I was just riding (staying positive there, here's hoping Bethesda can implement horses) through a forest on the way to some quest objective, I'd rather not be forced to do some other quest instead.

:verymad:

I'd love a couple of them. After all, we play in a living world, we just can't wander around without any impact, that's unrealistic. Plus, aren't quests one of the big reasons we play this game? Forced quests takes away control, yes, but when are you always in control? I think it only adds to the immersion and variety of the game. Plus, it can add some spice to your travels/exploration and bring you to new places you've never been too. It can definitely add excitement to my first playthrough, as it can bring you to somewhere new from a different perspective.

It can happen in life. It's not because you start something that you are entitled to finish it uninterrupted. Well, you can't rage-quit in life...

I think forced quests are a mechanic that can help in certain situations. While I think that like 95% of the quests need to be open I wouldn't mind a few that aren't. So long as they let you know that your stuck until you finish it.

I think quests like this would be great as long as they are few and far-between.

Personally, I love stumbling across quests and getting thrown into situations like that, but the novelty starts to wear off when you put too many in, and it can get annoying depending on how it's are implemented.

That's their problem if they have tunnel vision and are only comfortable in tackling quests one at a time. However, don't ruin it for the rest of us just because of a vocal minority who wants everything shallow. These people would rather play a game with just a hand if they could.

It would have a negative effect because it took you away from wandering around taking in the world? I dont that walking into a trap/being captured or whatever you like and in turn being forced to escape or fight your way out would feel scripted, what other options would you want to have, wait for them to kill you?

You compare being thrown into a quest with monsters being placed throughout the world that annoy you when they attack you, would you rather have an empty landscape with no posibility or risk of anything happening?

ALTHOUGH i do agree with you in that it would work well if it happened maybe once throughout the entire playthrough, possibly not happening at all in the second playthrough.

Not at all.

I just don't want to hear battle music every minute or so when anything I walk past attacks me. Not only is it annoying - it's bad AI.

It sounds like they've changed that in Skyrim for the better. Bethesda have said that the world overall will feel a little less hostile than in Oblivion, with certain creatures only attacking you if you become a threat to them. This is a dramatic improvement in my opinion.

Anyway, i'm not completely against the idea of random events or 'forced' quests, as long as they're infrequent and feel completely unique and unscripted. I guess it's because games like GTAIV and RDR did such a poor job with "random encounters" in my opinion that I just have little faith in them being done right in a game like Skyrim.

I honestly can't believe how many people are answering "no" to this. I would love a few quests like this. People are citing the Dreamworld quest, the Troll Painting quest, and Caught in the Hunt as examples of these, but they aren't at all. The only example of this in Oblivion was the Bloated Float quest, as all of the other quests started before you became trapped in whatever surprise you received. I honestly feel like it's a fun challenge and experience to be simply minding your business and suddenly getting involved in an escape quest or a "forced" quest with no prior knowledge whatsoever of the quest.

Surprise is a part of life and a part of everything. If you say you want to have the most "control" over decisions, well, sometimes things happen (even in games) that force us to do something or make a choice we didn't think we would have to make.

It's all part of the fun and experience of the game. If there were no surprises in the game, it wouldn't be fun.

Edit: Indeed, quests like this seem scripted and would rather lose their point in a second playthrough, but this is why there should only be a few of them, as some before me have said. If you don't want to play the quests with any subsequent characters, do your best to avoid them.

I think there are 2 main arguments against random, imperative quests.

1. "I am a completionist who absolutely HAS to pass every quest I encounter. I will not ignore a quest because it is inconvenient, I do not feel like doing it, or the quest clashes with the personality of the character I am role-playing."
2. "I am a completionist who absolutely HAS to pick up and sell every caliper I find in my journeys. Not being able to control the flow of loot at ALL times will mean I miss out on a few gold."

Both cases are both a tad bit irrational and the attitudes behind them lead to boring games. I do not mind having random quests that I might feel the need to do immediately because of the of the following:

1. Random events lead to adventure that is exciting because it is unpredictable and possible dangerous. What good is a game when you have complete control of EVERY aspect of the game world.
2. If you were really into exploring and role-playing you would expect to find locations where there is more loot than you can carry, or you will have to forfeit one task to complete another.

These are RANDOM non-essential quests. They are not integral steps in the main or any other quest chain. Completely optional quests are exactly that.... OPTIONAL. If players can get over their completionist OCD tendencies the spirit of adventure would be apparent in such random tasks. That is just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt.

This

Alright i gocha....then i agree with you completely except im farrr more open to the idea id love to see some forced quests like this....also, maybe you could turn your music off and the fight sound wouldnt bother?

depends; you could either have a really fun time or a bad time. sounds like a good idea but the problem with forced quest is that it presumes your prepared. you likely wont be happy if you run into a forced quest if your out of potions; your weapons are broke, and your out of hammers, or something like that.

And miss out on the rest of the awesome soundtrack? Nah. Chameleon is a better solution. :happy:

Not really, I liked having the choice whether to do them right away or not, it really added to the immersion. In realy life, someone isn't going to get a "quest" and drop everything right away to go do that.

As many others have said, I have no problem with a few quests that just figuratively grab me by the scruff of the neck and drag me along with them. Some things just sort of work out that way, and having a few of those things in the game would, in my opinion, add to it. Too many though, and particularly poorly designed ones - quests that really have no business being that imperative and just are because of some imposed element - would be frustrating. When appropriate (like the Bloated Float), I think it's great.