» Sun May 31, 2015 2:11 pm One thing that bothered me about skyrim was that you were the chosen one for literally every major questline [sp]The leader of the companions sees you in a prophetic dream, if you read his journal, so I'm counting that too[/sp]
Now, The title isn't perfect. I had to work within character limit. I don't mean that there should be absolutely no completely written missions, Just that the game would benefit were those to be kept few, and preferably with some flexibility.
Yes, the elder scrolls series has been about prophesized heros so far. But could they not also write about 'times of great change' or something like that. Maybe all the burried cities of elsewyre become uncovered, perhaps all the trees in argonia wake up. Maybe a change in daedric princes ocurs. Perhaps akavir invades again. Maybe the player singlehandedly destroys a city, breaks a dam, changes the law, kills the supposed chosen one, leads faction X over faction Y to victory, uncovers a revolutionary spell that changes magic. All the high elves reach another plane of existence,The real Alduin eats the world and everything starts again. These are all things that you could find in the scrolls, that the player doesn't neccessarily have to do a grand questline for. They could even be periphery things that you don't even get to control, they just happen during gameplay.
So, for the bulk of the game, we could instead just have complex creations of quests, and characters that develop to the player's actions (think shadow of mordor's nemesis system, only instead of angry uruk fighting we get stuff like a bartender upset that you didn't pay the tab/you had a fight/something was stolen/the rum is always gone/the tavern is in dire financial straits/you're the wrong type of customer for this establishment. All stuff you can influence.
Think of a dark brotherhood Morag Tong quest for the moment.
-The game decides it wants you to kill a ship captain. #
-The questgiver also gives you an additional bit of info, maybe the ship is an argument of inheritance. You can't damage the ship and you can't make the death look like an assassination. Perhaps, as an extra bit of information, you should or shouldn't also kill select crewmembers.
- The game decides on a type of ship, a name for the ship, and gives you some information on where/when it should be docking. Maybe the questgiver gives you all the information. Maybe you might need more of it by searching the port's journal. Maybe you could hire someone (like a beggar) to inform you of when the ship moves in. perhaps you could ask sailors if they've seen the ship on it's travels.
- when you're in the same town as the ship, you could check the manifest to see what goods they're bringing aboard (and thus smuggle yourself into the ship in a crate or barrel) ask around (or guess, based on the ship's wealth) what tavern the crew will be visiting. or send glorious beggar spies.
- You've of course got the ability to personalise this captain. Maybe he's an ex-pirate, perhaps he keeps a company of elite warriors,Maybe he's a huge fan of reading, maybe a huge fan of drinking. Perhaps he really enjoys pit fights. Maybe he's very capable, maybe totaly incompetent. Maybe he's afraid of magic, maybe he keeps shrines of the blackest magic around his ship,keeps a circle of wizards, and sacrifices tortured virgins to sheogorath in order to power his fiddle's magic amplifier.
Then, you've got a variety of ways to kill the man. Find out what he's drinking and poison it. To do that without great stealth you could perhaps into the kitchens you could perhaps impersonate or even get hired as a tavern wench. You could also kick him from a high place and then throw beer onto his body so it apears to be a drunk death. Charm or fear him into doing something stupid. Remove his valuables and trousers after you've stabbed him so it just seems like a falling out with a prosttute over matters of pay. Perhaps if there was a different reason for targeting this man and you didn't have concerns over his ship you could instead burn his ship, punch holes in the bottom, bewitch the helmsman to run it aground, lead another ship into naval combat. Organise a mutiny.
This system would essentialy mean that we'd have several thousand lines of generic dialogue. But, isn't that what we want in order to create a vibrant world? Rather than listen to the wonderful, presumably expensive voice of patrick stewart for five minutes of the game, would it not be more satisfying to have NPCS generate dialogue based on surrounding events that the player can use? For example
"I heard that *fort name* has been reclaimed by *enemy name*. *road name* won't be safe, and this means a decrease in trade from *town name* and we need their *Goods that town provides the majority of*. Curse these *enemy name*. (Has tags such as 'robbers' and 'trade', leading to a response that fits the person. The example below would be a trader's response)
-"well, I should then stock up on *goods*. Hopefuly the *current military power* will sort the *enemy name* problem out. I just hope the *other resource* caravans doesn't get raided too. If we loose the trade on the *road* from *city* then this town will be *line describing the state of wealth that the town would be at*
But a character less interested in the economy might talk about how things were better when *other military power* was in charge, or that the village should hire the fighters guild. Or maybe if the player's famous enough and known to be in the town, hiring the player. a character interested in neither fighting nor economy might complain about the vile deeds of *enemy name*.
So long as it isn't all serious issues, (get some conversations about farming,fishing,mining, a husband's affair, a person's manners, how things used to be, alcoholism, horror stories, legends) then you've got the perfect system. Just don't make one topic so heavy handed that it becomes immersion breaking *CoughHumanRevolutionCough*
You could put yourself on some genuinely funny unmarked quests with this. Maybe you're in possesion of an alchemical ingredient that causes hallucinations/intense feelings of lust/Hyper-rage and want to see how the topic of alcoholism changes in town when you spike all the kegs.
