Impossible to stay away from main quests! : V - Skyrim

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:50 pm

No, no, see, you're trying to use logic here. That won't do. :wink:

That's the way it ought to work. But that's not how it actually works, and that's one of the problems. If you do the civil war quests before the main quest the Jarl suddenly and inexplicably knows all about the events at Helgen.

And the whole business gets even more ridiculous. The Jarl not only knows about Helgen before he's been officially informed of the events but your dialog informing him about the events is right there in your dialog options. So we have an incredible screw-up: after the Jarl tells you he won't accept the axe until you deal with his Dragon problem you can then choose the dialog telling him for the first time about the Dragon.

This is a bug, pure and simple.

If the player does the main quest first the Jarl learns of the Dragon attack for the first time from the player. So it would make sense that if the player never informs the Jarl of the attack the Jarl would have no way of knowing about it, right? But, no. If the player does the civil war first the Jarl suddenly develops

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTyhzwirESAmcuqpo7RHgi1HFDIZPcWZ4_rK366JE8PNeZXbrxw4A

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 1:11 pm

Note the Main Quest requires you to join two of the four guilds of Skyrim, another of those things you can't avoid. Even if you're a magic-hating Redguard warrior.

You can avoid the Thieves Guild, but I don't think you can avoid joining the Mage's Guild. In all honesty, it's not that big of a deal.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 7:48 am

The point in avoiding the Jarl is to avoid reaching the point in the main quest where dragons appear. Sure, you can avoid going to see the Greybeards, but by then the dragons have been unleashed on the world.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:38 am

What I have been doing is just not looting the Dragonstone off of the "guy that drops it" in "that location they tell you to go." If you accidentally pick it up, reload, as you cannot drop it. Granted, you'll still go through the spiel with Balgruff and his poorly voiced wizard, but without returning the stone you will never become Dragonborn, dragons will not spawn, and you can go about your business in Whiterun and Dragonsreach without further interruption.

What I do not know is how this may or may not affect other quests.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:19 pm

In skyrim sometimes some quests are inaccessible unless you have completed a certain part of the main quest, you will also find that on one character you may find different quests ti another character this is because some quests are based upon different skill levels.

Adds to the replay value I suppose...

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 2:48 am

lol i agree the first part isn't avoidable because a lot of other events interconnect with that first part however afterwards you can do whatever you want without worrying. problem solved.

Except, only prior to that, you can explore the world without being bothered by dragons killing all the quest givers. This is a problem that increases the more you play a single character. They don't even stop coming after the main quest.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:53 am

From the time u get that dragon stone, they random spawn.

If you get the dragon stone from Bleak Falls Barrow during the Golden Claw quest and BEFORE you speak to anyone in Dragons Reach it will not trigger any dragons. I'm level 23, the stone's been in my inventory since level 6 and I've not seen one dragon yet.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:38 pm

Note the Main Quest requires you to join two of the four guilds of Skyrim, another of those things you can't avoid. Even if you're a magic-hating Redguard warrior.

false.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:29 pm

With my character, I didn't even talk to the girl in Riverwood. Walked straight past it and took a cart to Windhelm. And the Civil War questline is godawful anyway, the most flimsy of all the major groups in Skyrim.

Lamer than the Mage-guild line? Damn!
I thought that the Winterhold college line was REALLY poor, 3 dungeon dives and your the arch-mage?

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 7:18 am

You don;t have to ever start the main quest.

In your Skyrim.ini file, in the [General] section, add SStartingCell=AbandonedPrison01 (or whatever cell name you like) and you'll bypass the entire start screen and intro.

Then start the game and in the console, type these two lines:

player.removeallitems
showracemenu

Voila! Naked with empty inventory at level one. :-)

I like starting in the abandoned prison because there is lots of stuff lying around for you to pick up and use. Mobs are further down so you don't have to fight right away.

You can even go back to Helgen and see it before the dragon showed up.

You can then remove the line from Skyrim.ini to show the start menu again. Save your character first!

Easy peasy.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:23 am

If you get the dragon stone from Bleak Falls Barrow during the Golden Claw quest and BEFORE you speak to anyone in Dragons Reach it will not trigger any dragons. I'm level 23, the stone's been in my inventory since level 6 and I've not seen one dragon yet.

Same here. I even delivered the stone and was ordered to handle the dragon problem. But I never did go there with my new character, and I haven't seen any dragons yet. Not sure how that blends with the war questline though. But the game is our game master, not us, and I don't object to the game forcing us to make some decisions we may not like. Isn't this part of cause and effect that we all desire?

Besides, we don't become dragonborn - it's our inheritance and we're born with that gift (or curse, depending how you look at it I guess). Even if we don't know it yet when the game starts. Your character isn't supposed to know any of that stuff until it is revealed to him. This is the prime reason I want some more randomness wrt what quests are given throughout the main quest, and how things intermingle. Daggerfall was decent (not great), but from then on main quest execution (story content excluded from the equation - it's how that story progresses through player choices and random factors that determine much of the quality of a main quest - imho of course) has gone down the drain.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:12 pm

Besides, we don't become dragonborn - it's our inheritance and we're born with that gift (or curse, depending how you look at it I guess). Even if we don't know it yet when the game starts. Your character isn't supposed to know any of that stuff until it is revealed to him. This is the prime reason I want some more randomness wrt what quests are given throughout the main quest, and how things intermingle. Daggerfall was decent (not great), but from then on main quest execution (story content excluded from the equation - it's how that story progresses through player choices and random factors that determine much of the quality of a main quest - imho of course) has gone down the drain.

True.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:20 pm

These are the kinds of complaints that I call baseless. You have to do some of the quest to get the whole thing going. It's like an hours worth of play in 200 hours of playing.

FACT: I still have the part of the main quest that wants me to go up to the Greybeards. I have yet to do that and I'm about 50 hours in.

Seriously, some of the parents of these complainers really spoiled them.

Wrong, in my last playtrough I have a lvl 50 assassin that did all thieves guild and DB quests, and just did my thing without ever killing a dragon, the only reason Op can't do Stormcloack or empire side quests is because the first dragon kill is scripted with you fighting with irleth or whatever that dark elf name is, basically devs forgot to have this event happen on a stormcloack whiterun, infact all civil war text is writen for a dragonborn only, altough its barelly noticeable.

Op is not spoiled for wanting to play the game the way he wants to, and not on rails questing.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:02 pm

Thanks guys! :foodndrink:

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:42 pm

In case you didn't notice, the Civil war and the Dragon issue is tied together from the moment you start the game. You want to role play? So then will your character develop selective amnesia to deal with, oh I don't know, say a giant bloody dragon raining fire and death on everyone as the Imperials are about to execute you along with the rest of the Stormcloak leaders? Kind of hard to forget an event like that I think. That's why you must at least kill the first dragon before the reigns are handed over to you. You're suppose to live in a world where dragons roam the sky and people forget their hatred for each other just long enough to unite against a bigger threat.