Skyrim Is Radiant Story revolutionary for RPGs?

[Deleted User]

I really think it is.

For the most part, I haven't been able to tell the difference between what is Radiant Story and what is hand-crafted, so they succeeded in that regard. The only way I can somewhat tell what quests are Radiant Story, are if they send me to areas I've cleared already. And believe it or not, this is the first RPG that I've ever played, where I actually revisited some of those dungeons and cleared them out a second time. I couldn't believe I actually did that, but I did, and it's actually fun. That speaks volumes for how good of a game I think Skyrim is, if I can replay it's dungeons no problem.

Radiant Story combined with respawning dungeons can essentially create infinite content. At least that's how I understand it. I'm not sure if eventually these Radiant Story jobs will dry up or not, or if they'll start getting too repetitive. But they have provided me enough of a distraction so far, and I will continue to take them. I always come back from them with loot to sell, rings to enchant and weapons and armor to smith. So it's been fun.

Your thoughts on Radiant Story? Is it or isn't it a big deal?

 

[zahratustra]

It is a big deal for its potential and not a big deal in its current state. All of radiant quests I picked up so far are of "go fetch" and "go kill" variety which (even if created by humans) were always a turn-off for me. Still, if developed further, it can become a great feature of future TES games.

 

[Drithius]

Nothing all that groundbreaking about randomly selecting a fedex quest from a list.

Now, if choice and consequence played a part, and there were story arcs that branched out based on whether or not you successfully completed a "radiant" quest in time, it would be a living world. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

 

[joxer]

If it's a revolution, it's a bad revolution for my tastes.
I seriously despise unstoppable respawns in RPGs, prolly that's why I never liked Diablo 2 nor will ever play Diablo 3.
Respawns that end when you do something needed for them to stop, like in Drakensang or TW2, now that's another story.

But back to Skyrim... Ok, let those goddamned dungeons respawn for all I care, I won't visit them (unless noninfinite and so called radiant quest sends me back) but at least they could or can stop endless respawning of dragons in the same area (in my case, dragons just luuuuuuuv to appear in winterhold and new dark brotherhood base).

 

[Asdraguuhl]

Radiant Story combined with respawning dungeons can essentially create infinite content.

Infinite content would asymptotically converge to zero quality.

I rather prefer a few well designed quests than a lot of quests with little to no depth. For me, this is the biggest flaw in Skyrim, and a very big one IMO.

 

[Jack]

:lol:
Arena had that shit back in 1994, so it isn't particularly revolutionary. It doesn't stand a chance against any quests of purely human design.

 

[zahratustra]

I rather prefer a few well designed quests than a lot of quests with little to no depth. For me, this is the biggest flaw in Skyrim, and a very big one IMO.

Can't argue with the first sentence but disagree with "a very big one" in second. After a while radiant quests become easily recognizable and, since Skyrim has enough content beside radiant quests, they are not necessary for for progression and can be skipped.
I wish game offered an option to remove quests from your journal though.

 

[Asdraguuhl]

Can't argue with the first sentence but disagree with "a very big one" in second. After a while radiant quests become easily recognizable and, since Skyrim has enough content beside radiant quests, they are not necessary for for progression and can be skipped.
I wish game offered an option to remove quests from your journal though.

The way I see it, all this amount of smaller filler quests of little quality have such a large presence that they overshadow the relatively better ones and pull my average experience down. And I say "relatively" because frankly I am not impressed by any of the quests. Many quests start with an interesting prospect but they almost always end up going to cave/dungeon/fort and kill X without any interesting progression.

Example: Yesterday I entered Markath and I was confronted with some local problems. I though it was an interesting topic and had high expectation of the "conspiracy" quest. But the quest progression was so badly done and felt my intelligence being insulted, especially during the conversations with the NPCs.

I have played for 70+ hours and I really enjoy the exploration part as I think the environment and dungeons are very well designed although it is a shame about the low res textures. But I have come to a point where finding caves and receiving quests are starting to get annoying as it is just too repetitive. But the compulsive completionist in me forces me to enter the damned dungeon wasting another hour of my life .

Once I finished "sight seeing" the map, I'll probably just finish the main quest and get it over with.

 

[KapitanUnterhosen]

I don't see how a feature that's been around for well over a decade is revolutionary.

Skyrim has enough content beside radiant quests, they are not necessary for for progression and can be skipped.
I wish game offered an option to remove quests from your journal though.

There's actually quite a bit of randomly generated quests you have to do in order to access some handwritten ones(companions and thieves guild for instance). I'm more annoyed by the fact I keep getting sent back to the dungeons I had already cleared before. A lot of these dungeons could just as well have been randomly generated.

 

[Maylander]

It's just a set of random kill or fetch quests, meant to motivate people into exploring dungeons. It most certainly works, but I don't see it as revolutionary.

 

[DArtagnan]

I'm not sure what parts of the game are affected by "Radiant Story" and what parts are not.

If we're talking about the random fetch/kill quests - then there's absolutely nothing revolutionary about them.

AFAIK, they did something new in terms of quest objectives and locations, by supposedly dynamically adjusting them based on what you'd already done or where you've been.

I didn't actually detect any "machinations" during any of the unique quests, so I'd say it must have been a success. That said, it's not exactly a very complex thing to implement. It's pretty trivial, and I have to wonder why they're not trying to do more with the whole "Radiant" concept.

Then I remember that the game is developed primarily for consoles, and what kind of resources they have to play with in terms of unused CPU power.

 

[BlackHarmo]

AFAIK, they did something new in terms of quest objectives and locations, by supposedly dynamically adjusting them based on what you'd already done or where you've been.

If memory serves me well, I read somewhere, a few months before the game hit the stores, that its purpose was also to avoid secondary quests from being lost to the player even before he initiated them, like if he killed or let some nasties murder (more probably, I'd say) a NPC supposed to give him/her the quest in the first place. If that's confirmed, then it seems like a good addition I'd say

 

[crpgnut]

Not revolutionary, but appreciated. It gives a completist like me fits though I can't finish this game, it's impossible! Still, I've revisited several dungeons and they're always fun. I make sure not to stay in any one area too long, because I don't want the dungeons to get too repetitive. I try to do a dwemer ruin, then a cave, then an outdoor area, then a bandit fort, etc. to keep it all pretty fresh. I also try to keep my miscellaneous quest down to two pages, so it doesn't get too cluttered.

 

[Harlequin]

I don't see how a feature that's been around for well over a decade is revolutionary.

There's actually quite a bit of randomly generated quests you have to do in order to access some handwritten ones(companions and thieves guild for instance). I'm more annoyed by the fact I keep getting sent back to the dungeons I had already cleared before. A lot of these dungeons could just as well have been randomly generated.

I do not understand the logic of people who say this. I find it quite realistic when I clear out a ruin or dungeon and a week or two later game time its filled back up with bandits or the like. It only makes sense, if I was a group of bandits and we came across a empty ruined keep I'd use it for a base as well. *shrugs* Perhaps that's just me.

 

[zahratustra]

Not just you. I don't have a problem with slow re-spawn either. More realistic (IMO) than place staying empty for ever.

 

[Bostur]

I'm impressed at how well it is executed in Skyrim but I think it would fit better into an MMO. Skyrim is already packed with hand-made quests so it just adds bloat in this case.

But I can imagine it working well in a slow leveling, multiplayer sandbox environment.

 

[BillSeurer]

I'm impressed at how well it is executed in Skyrim but I think it would fit better into an MMO. Skyrim is already packed with hand-made quests so it just adds bloat in this case.

The problem you get if it doesn't repopulate is like the Gothics; you eventually depopulate the world leaving it a barren wasteland of rotting corpses. Or you would if they left the corpses around. The numbers of things you kill in these games is insane.

 

[darklord]

The Gothics actually do respawn a certain amount of enemies, usually when you hit a new act. The enemies will often be tougher than previously to.

Daniel.

 

[DArtagnan]

Respawning is appropraite for Skyrim, I feel. Also, it's easily modded out.

Naturally, if you're a superhuman able to complete all unique content in 80 hours - then I can see respawning as more of a problem. It would feel "off" in such a short timespan.

But for a human player, I think repopulated dungeons is an appropriately rare sight - that serves as a meaningful underpinning to having a living breathing world that doesn't end when you're still having fun.

Of course, it's not perfect. I'm sure there are cases of revisiting a dungeon that has some kind of story-content that would not be a good match for repopulation.

But, given the nature of the game - and the scope of the game - it's pretty unrealistic to expect the perfect balance to suit every player in the world.

 

[Thrasher]

The one thing I don't like about how it respawns is that it can happen right in front you out of midair in come cases. There is a fort of necromancers west of Morthal. If you "clear" it out, and then come back they all respawn. All are in front, walking towards the compound. You get creamed by them because of their numbers all in one place, rather than being spread out throughout the dungeon.