I do think the MQ should start a couple days after you've created your character.

Let the player get comfortable in the world, then HO-[censored] DRAGONS BE ATTACKING!!!

or something to that extent

I really like the concept, and I've found that in alot of my oblivion games I will often gain fame/infamy in some other way before beginning the main quest. However a year is a long time. A more practical implementation would probably be to have your prisoner be released from prison inorder to forward someones political agenda while establishing a reputation of their own. Then after a series of branching quests the dragons appear and then everything you have worked to create will be tested.

Well if events happens not only after quest steps, i would say that the sense of urgency (i will miss it! i must run! or..... i have 2 days to kill all orcs here before the tournament starts in the near city, so i must hurry but i need to sleep too...) will be very strong.

:thumbsdown:

'Nuff said.

Just do the main quest like Oblivion. Nothing is changed until you start the first quest. IE: Oblivion Gates don't pop up until you start the main quest. I liked that because it gave you the chance to explore without running into a gate ever 2 miles.

Well in both Morrowind and Oblvion you can pretty much ignore the main quest, and if you ignore it from the very beginning it's like it isn't even there. In Morrowind, after having beat the MQ twice, nearly all my new characters dropped their package and directions in the water under the dock, they carried on like nothing was going on. Same for Oblivion, the only reminder was the amulet in my inventory.
So I would not be in favor of having to play a year in game to start the MQ, and for those who don't want to start it right away they can ignore it for a day, a week, a decade. I'm sure if you ignore it from the beginning it'll be like it isn't there.

I think you're missing the point of TES games.

That, I prefer to ignore the MQ for ages (took me 7 real-time years to get around to doing it in Morrowind), but not everyone has the luxury of time that I have for just pottering around in games and prefer to get stuck straight in so that they get to the meat of the storytelling.

Doing the main quest at all should be optional, so that if I want to be a hunter or alchemist etc. or concentrate on a faction/guild type questline instead I can, but my style of play should not be forced upon others, if someone else wants to start it right away that should also be possible.

Now that would be fun. Someone make that happen... oh wait, we'll have mods.

Awesome (albeit unrealistic) idea from the OP.
I think a cool way of doing it would be to give the player a set of very non urgent instructions.
Maybe after being released from prison they say 'when you are ready go here to finish off the release process, but don't rush - the queues are usually pretty big'.
Then you go there and get told to sleep the night or something.
Then dragons attack in the night and BAM, there is your main quest.

Person gets game.

5 minutes later

"What am I supposed to do? Where is the storyline???"

Wanders around for 2 in game days trying to find something to do. Finds a guild but still doesn't think there is much focus in the game.

"Screw this, I'm playing Uncharted."

That a bit like how morrowind does it....the MQ doesnt start until you want it to, once you finish the character creation, you deliever a letter and are just told to go out and join some guilds and come back later when your ready.


I like how that is.


You coudlnt really ignore it in Oblivion as you are told ot 'save the world' fromthe get go, and Kvatch has already been destroyed.....a break before forcing the MQ on the player would be good, it allows for a more open RPing development.

It should stay the way it is more or less. With the MQ being optional. It doesn't develop unless you choose to pursue it's quest-line.

Besides that: I think it would bore the vast majority of gamers who are more casual or who have less available time on hand if they'd have to wait too long in-game. Those folks will want to get into the MQ action asap.

IMO it would take too long for it to start.

A game year is way, way too long. The average player won't even play that long.

But some kind of delay or not having immediate urgency to save the world in some way would be nice.

I think that it would be a nice OPTION and rather easy to implement. Just have the MQ triggered by a date. You could divide the start options between Normal and Prologue. If you want the MQ to start normally then choose normal. I usually roamed Cyrodill before I started the MQ anyway.

The benefit to having ~1yr in game with your character is that it can make a stronger role playing experience. In that time you make your PC a part of the world. Your PC, by having no MQ, gets to take up a guild or two and make an identity. In this way, your PC is no longer an individual joining a guild to play catchup on skills for the challenges of the MQ, but an individual who is working with the skills gained from a chosen path in life. Morrowind's casual pacing provided much the same thing, but you did so under the guise of building a cover. In this case, it is just what you wanted to do in your [PC's] life and then the events of the MQ come and effects you like it does all your fellow citizens. It would aid in building a connection with Skyrim the way uniting the Great Houses and Ashlanders aided the player's connection to Vvardenfell.

Near-impossible to then have the mainquest change according to the changes you've made tot he world prior to it starting. Besides, some casual gamers only play through the mainquest and then consider the game finished. THese people would feel put off by this

I totally agree with this one. The only problem I had when role-playing through Oblivion without the MQ was that I was constantly thinking about how urgent it was for me to go to the Priory.

@OP: Someone's been playing Fable.

There is way too much content in that idea and 365 days in-game is a lot of time.

I don't want to marry, I dont' want a family, I don't want to make friends. I don't want a Fable ripoff. I want a TES game.

This is not about fable,
this is about living in the world and care for it BEFORE the world starts to burn.
This is about world events not occurring only after a certain quest step.
This is about complexity, exploding possibilities and consequences they bring.
This would give a great interest in re-play the game more and more.

A year is too much in my mind, maybe seven days or so?

Or, I wish that we could delay the main quest as long as we like.

Really? All it would require is a trigger on day 365 to enable all the MQ stuff.


I don't think it's an entirely unmeritorious idea, but I don't see it happening. "I don't want to have to WAIT a YEAR to start the main quest!" etc.

Considering that many players might never play the game for as long as one in game year, I'd say it would not be a good idea to have the main quest only start after that time, unless this was something like Fallout 3's beginning where many years pass but only key events are covered, which would kind of seem to defeat the purpose. Besides, it would get rather annoying when you just want to experience the main story to need to invest a lot of time into the game to even start it.

I'd say the main quest should be handled like Morrowind, the trigger that allows you to start the main quest comes at the very beginning, but its done in such a way that does not imply a false sense of urgency and allows you to ignore the main quest without feeling like you're neglecting your duty while the world falls apart around you. Because while you could safely ignore the main quest of Oblivion for as long as you like, it could be hard to justify putting it off from a role-playing standpoint where people were constantly telling you to hurry or waste no time or whatever.

I didn't expect that so many people play TES games for the MQ. I mean I understand that they do the Main Quest with there first character, maybe even as the first thing they do in the game, but it seems that many play the game only for the Main Quest... :stare:

I don't think I ever finished the main quest in Oblivion, and I have played it for hundreds of hours, same for Morrowind, I don't think I ever came far with it's Main Quest but I'm still playing it to this day.

When Skyrim is released it will probably take a real year before the Main Quest starts in my case, especially if the player is Dovahkiin (similar to the Morrowind Main Quest) and there is a dragon invasion (similar to the daedra invasion in Oblivion's Main Quest). If the Main Quests focusses on the civil war mentioned in the teaser trailer, and you have multiple sides to choose from, different paths and different endings (similar to Daggerfalls Main Quest) than it would be worth doing it from the start.
I don't want to be an epic dragon slaying, immortal, reincarnated, last hope of mankind like you are in Morrowind and Oblivion for 99% of the characters I play.

As long as the Main Quest is optional I don't really care if it is delayed or not. Though I hope you won't have things like Kvatch, if I choose not to play the Main Quest I don't want whole cities to be destroyed as part of the Main Quest. Besides, as stated in the OP it is far more effective for the Main Quest as well. Who did care about the destruction of Kvatch? You had never been there. You might have thought it would have been a nice city, but nothing more than that. If you have the chance to visit the place that's destroyed, met some NPC's there, did some quests and admired it's beauty before it went to hell it's destruction has a much bigger impact.