I came up with this idea on another thread, for quests to get started only if you fail another quest:


I could of completed any one of those quests, but the quest i did finish was like the... consolation quest (which would usually give you the worst reward).


Do you think we will have something like this in Skyrim? there's no way of knowing but I hope so. It would make questing feel much more real IMO.

I don't know why anyone would be against it, and it doesn't seem too hard for Bethesda to implement

I wish this thread better luck than mine. Evolving quests are the way of the future!

That example sounds like just a basic questline progression.

The difference being that if you failed a quest in Oblivion, it was over, other quests weren't born of your failing.

Edit: i COULD have saved Jenna from even being abducted, or i could of saved her from the hideout, but i failed at both, and still had a quest i could finish.

Alternatively: You fail to stop Alduin. Mundus, Nirn, the whole dang kalpa is gobbled up. No real worries, though. You somehow survive and Lorkhan or some other high-up spirit teaches you the ultimate dragon shout, the one that remakes the world.

I kind of like this idea.... But at the same time I dislike the feeling that there can be no failure in the game, no sense of fear for losing something like a nice quest reward.

Also, I don't remember failing quests that often in Oblivion (other than the occasional axe swing into a follower) , so I can't relate with it so much.

No, it's not really a new quest. It's the same events. It's just a branch from the original quest because you did it wrong.

It sounds like what Radiant Story is doing to an extent, but more advanced. For instance, with Radiant Story, you may be able to kill a questgiver, but someone else like a family member will offer it in their place. Slightly different of course, due to the fact that you killed their dear friend/relative.

I really like that idea.

I also really like the last option on the poll because I feel that way about a lot of polls/threads on this section of the forums.

This thread is full of things I like.

Yeah... I noticed that to. I hope Skyrim has more challenging quests. Notice my Example above is actually a timed quest.

okay :rolls eyes: i guess it's all how you look at it. you get the idea though.

If that's the case then I could definitely get on board for questing like this. If it was timed and you were unprepared then at least you'd get to continue the questline and still feel like you've failed to an extent.

Yes, and the reward you receive for finishing the quest the different ways would be different.

I have been wanting a game that did this well for as long as I can remember. Your only options without this are allow yourself to have failed the quest or reload a save, neither very satisfying...

I really hope something like this is in Skyrim and if not I hope modders take note.

This sounds like what happens if you kill a shopkeeper in Skyrim, but better.

Sorry to be a jerk and disagree with everyone. But, someone has to, and I don't really like timed pressure to complete a quest instead of doing what I want.

Also this is how I see you quest going more often than not:

Example:
I just agreed to help Jenna protect her farm from bandits tonight. QUEST ACCEPTED

oh darn it,
I forgot to help protect Jenna's farm from the Bandits last night. Her farm got sacked and she got abducted. QUEST FAILED.

But wait!
Jenna is being held capti- Or I could reload!

I just agreed to help Jenna protect her farm from bandits tonight. QUEST ACCEPTED



Which i personally think is kind of lame. Although, then you will say that you dont have to reload if you don't want to (is that right?). But then I feel left out if and disadvantaged by not reloading. But if they don't do it too much it would be cool.

I think it will be as much of an "issue" as fast traveling in Oblivion. It's entirely the players fault if (s)he decides to use/exploit it and is only hurting his/her experience.

Well, i guess you could do that, but some of the items would be better for you if you finish the quest the secondary or tertiary way. No matter what you'll be missing out on something.

Radiant Story = Maybe...

If the player is going to reload after failing a quest if this system is in place, then that player will definitely do the same thing if this system wasn't implemented.

I agree with the OP. I encountered a strange failure in my game I could never recover from, and it all made no sense at all.

I was playing Nehrim and came to a village to speak to some important Lord regarding something I was supposed to do. I was on limited time during my real lunchbreak, and franticly searching for the guy in the village, when a rather rude foolish person approached me and began rambling at me out of the blue. I hurried through the man's foolish questions which apparently had nothing to do with my quest, and went on. After a long search, I never found the Lord. I had already come home, did some other adventures, and got frustrated I never solved that quest, so I went back to the village to find that Lord. I had already saved my game a dozen times since meeting the irritating man. Then I decided to talk to that irritating man again. But this time, he was very huffy and said "You obviously don't want to talk to me, and I don't want to further waste your important time."

There was nothing I could do, but this man turned out to be the lead I had been looking for and nothing in his dialogue had told me so, so I quickly rushed past him. Then I could never get this man to talk to me to complete the quest. It eats at me every day. It sounded very interesting, but I was in too much of a hurry, and I failed the quest. There was no alternative. I feel it was a bit unfair to have this failure sitting there with no option to continue.

Crap, that just gave me an idea... I forgot to try to bribe the man .... maybe I had one option left? I'm going to go investigate that ! ... (CATCHYA LATER!)

Didn't Todd mention that there were lots of stuff they wanted to do in Oblivion quest wise, which couldn't be done due to limitations in the (game) engine? And that radiant story is part of the solution to rectify this? So I think it's safe to assume that the quest dynamics will be broadened considerably for Skyrim. It's not something I plan on worry about anyways

I'm all for this kind of quest branching. Reminds me a bit of Majora's Mask, actually. So, yes please!

Can I save her, then kill her and show her amulet to the family and get the dagger?

Maybe build in to the game that a failure of a quest also affects your save game so that no reloading is possible to re-accept.

I had a thread similar to this whereby I stated that Save Game Files should be resticted to only the death of the character - any failed quest remains as failed even with a reload.

The only difficult part would be to somehow not incorpirate this into the main quests - moreso the randomly generated quests