Quests & Roleplay

[Wulfic]

Very often I see in crpgs a bad thing. Mainly in the dialogues. For example :

 

* Hey stranger ! Could you help me out here ? I'm in real trouble ! I'm an Exile and shouldn't be here at all ! And now this fancy looking guardsman from the city is looking for me. Someone told him I'm living here despite my punishment ! Please stranger I need your help. Force him to go away.

( now you have 2 or 3 dialogue options in which u actually have two options, either force the guardsman to go away or you are not interesred and the quest stays unfinished. The 3rd dialogue option is normally a question what we will get from him if we do the task )

 

1. I will help you dont you worry

2. What's in it for me, huh?

3. I don't have time for this...

 

I dont say this situation happens in all games but sadly it does happen in many. It is not an important quest for the main plot, it is actually a silly,easy not interesting quest. But why not making this more interesting ?

 

You come to the village and either you discover a man hiding behind a cottage or you find yourself in the tavern talking to a fancy looking guardsman. This is one and the same quest which starts different based on your first move. You talk to the guardsman the Guardsman says he looks for a man who shouldnt be here and his breaking the law and if we have any information there's a price for his discovery. If you didnt talk to the Exile then the options should look like this

 

1. Sorry... didn't saw anyone matching your description

2. I'll try to find this man.

 

If you talked to the Exile earlier the Dialogue should look like this

 

 

1. Sorry... didn't saw anyone matching your description(lie)

2. I'll try to find this man.(lie)

3. He's hiding behind the shack

 

Now if you however meet the Exile first he asks for your help. Now what bothers me alot in modern crpgs is the lack of choice. I can either help him or not. In my opinion there should be more choices and decisions. Something like this

 

 

* Hey stranger ! Could you help me out here ? I'm in real trouble ! I'm an Exile and shouldn't be here at all ! And now this fancy looking guardsman from the city is looking for me. Someone told him I'm living here despite my punishment ! Please stranger I need your help. Force him to go away.

( now you have 2 or 3 dialogue options in which u actually have two options, either force the guardsman to go away or you are not interesred and the quest stays unfinished. The 3rd dialogue option is normally a question what we will get from him if we do the task )

 

1.I think I can try

2. Whats in it for me ?

3 Why dont you try... ( and now 2,3 or more options open to you. U need persuasion aswell )

-...talk to him ? Maybe he will let it go. Where your crimes really that big ?

-...go somewhere else ?

( If he accepts one of these the task is done and you should become some XP but no reward it would make no sense )

4. Give me all your money or I go tell the guardsman where your hiding at ( Intimidation )

5. I dont have time for this

6. I really dont know how I could help, sorry ( this is for ppl who like to play the good guys but in this case they cant help him out or the dont want to. In most games there is only one refusal option which is normally mean and it bothers ppl who want to have believable characters )

 

If you want to help him there should be new options in the dialogue with the guardman

 

 

1. Sorry... didn't saw anyone matching your description(lie)

2. I'll try to find this man.(lie)

3. He's hiding behind the shack

4. Just let it go ( bribe )

5. I saw him running north maybe to (village name ) ? ( lie )

6. He doesnt look like a criminal to me. Maybe you should just let it go ? He wont do harm to no one here. ( Persuasion )

 

If the u fail in lying/bribing/persuading he should threaten you with arrest and either you have to tell him or kill him or accept the jail option or try to talk out of it.

 

Some of the dialogues dont make a difference but they really improve the roleplaying feeling to my character. It would be cool if even the smallest quest had options that would show that my character is good even if he just refused to help.

 

Sorry for my bad English I really tried to write a good thread here, so please no hate and Im waiting for your opinion on that Topic.

[Hellfell]

Funny thing is that a LOT of quests in BG series were like this.

 

 

[Wulfic]

Were like the first or the second type ? Because I thought quests in BG had very few options and choices but somehow it didnt bother me alot. It bothers me more in the modern crpgs like DA:O or Mass effect where I cant play as someone I want to be. I have to play as someone they want me to be like in ME. Renegade or paragon or just the passive neutral guy. ITS BORING and some things are shown as evil but maybe in my opinion it was a neccesary evil so why punish me with a renegade point, it's just stupid. I want more options and choices. That would improve the gameplay alot.

[Kai]

Were like the first or the second type ? Because I thought quests in BG had very few options and choices but somehow it didnt bother me alot. It bothers me more in the modern crpgs like DA:O or Mass effect where I cant play as someone I want to be. I have to play as someone they want me to be like in ME. Renegade or paragon or just the passive neutral guy. ITS BORING and some things are shown as evil but maybe in my opinion it was a neccesary evil so why punish me with a renegade point, it's just stupid. I want more options and choices. That would improve the gameplay alot.

 

Mass Effect 2 was especially terrible in this regard, it was almost impossible to play neutral throughout the game if you wanted to maintain the loyalty both miranda/jack and tali/legion. Or, when I wanted to play a char who started out as a nice guy then slowly regressed to a renegade but still cared about his crew, it was possible but I had to powergame the dialogues completely. Thankfully they fixed it for ME3 where you didn't have to be Mr. Nice Guy or Badass to get the most out of the game.

 

Oh, and I agree with the OP, I like those kinds of quests too, and also be able to speak with both men a second time to hear both versions of the story. Lets say I speak with the prisoner first, hear his version of the story, talk to the guard, hear his version of the story and they don't add up. So I go back to the prisoner and in this example he breaks up with a persuation and admits that he sugar coated his story, at which point I can either convince him to turn himself in or any of the other options.

[Wulfic]

Were like the first or the second type ? Because I thought quests in BG had very few options and choices but somehow it didnt bother me alot. It bothers me more in the modern crpgs like DA:O or Mass effect where I cant play as someone I want to be. I have to play as someone they want me to be like in ME. Renegade or paragon or just the passive neutral guy. ITS BORING and some things are shown as evil but maybe in my opinion it was a neccesary evil so why punish me with a renegade point, it's just stupid. I want more options and choices. That would improve the gameplay alot.

 

Mass Effect 2 was especially terrible in this regard, it was almost impossible to play neutral throughout the game if you wanted to maintain the loyalty both miranda/jack and tali/legion. Or, when I wanted to play a char who started out as a nice guy then slowly regressed to a renegade but still cared about his crew, it was possible but I had to powergame the dialogues completely. Thankfully they fixed it for ME3 where you didn't have to be Mr. Nice Guy or Badass to get the most out of the game.

 

Oh, and I agree with the OP, I like those kinds of quests too, and also be able to speak with both men a second time to hear both versions of the story. Lets say I speak with the prisoner first, hear his version of the story, talk to the guard, hear his version of the story and they don't add up. So I go back to the prisoner and in this example he breaks up with a persuation and admits that he sugar coated his story, at which point I can either convince him to turn himself in or any of the other options.

 

Exactly. But as I mentioned earlier I would loooove to see some dialogue options which clicking would cause actually the same. What I mean is for example

 

"Sir, could you spare me a moment ?"

 

-Get out of my way ( the bad one )

-Sorry I really am in hurry ( the good one )

- I do not have time for this ( the Neutral one )

 

This 3 options would cause the same thing : Ignoring the plea of the man. So why even add it ? Because in most games it feels so stupid to just say : I dont have time for this I dont want to sound rude or passive. I dont want to be my char someone who doesnt give a ****. So every choice should have a few dialogue options. So If you accept the task you have 3 lines to answer him and if you refuse you can do the same this would be awesome and it doesnt really need that much effort just a bit of imagination . atleast in my opinion.

[jivex5k]

^^^^^

Couldn't agree more with the post above me.

[Hassat Hunter]

Much better time spend than low-int dialogue, and that's in...

 

Vote up from me

[Rostere]

Well, the reason I'm interested in Obsidian is that they avoid these bad examples you mention. I haven't played through an entire Bioware game since BG2, but I'm sure these newer games you talk of are horrible.

[Jymm]

I also agree with the OP. There are a few good examples of games that do this right, but plenty of examples where people get lazy. Now with Bioware games of late a lot of this has to be driven by voice acting concerns. You have to write all the dialog early and get is all prepped and recorded with significant expense and logistics concerns. So while I don't love it, I accept it for the moment as part of the cost of what I find to be immersive, top-notch voiceover. With what Obsidian is doing here with PE, they will remove the voiceover restrictions. That means as long as they can spare enough basic writing and scripting time to implement 6 response options then its no problem. At some point there will be a trade-off between how flowery they can make these simple side-quests vs. the total number and content of the quests. I will cast my vote with you that 25% fewer quests that are all 50% better written would be a win.