Random quests cannot be a bad thing if they are an addition to normal ones - in Oblivion and Morrowind it was quite possible to run out of quests (though it would admittedly be an achievement to do so) in Skyrim it is not, so the world seems very slightly more real when people continue to have problems even after you've done all the main stuff, and you can never solve everyone's problems.

Now admittedly they could be a bit more interesting - some of Daggerfall's random quests managed to be quite intricate.

And to suggest that previous games which had no random quests had less generic quests is quite laughable; most of Morrowind's quests were painfully generic (not all of them, but you tend to only remember the good ones)

You weren;t asking for anything, you were saying goodbye. Goodbye.

Many of the missions (or most, depending on your playstyle) from Arena and Daggerfall were randomly generated. Some people liked that "endless" aspect of the games, so it was never possible to do everything. I like that they added some of this back in into Skyrim. I hope for the next installment of TES, they look back at their first 3 titles for inspiration, as they all had good aspects (even though there were flaws as well).

Will they ever get it quite 'right' as in perfect? Who knows. Maybe it's for the best, because I'd probably disappear into Tamriel and never be heard from again.

Pretty much my OP as well. The idea of random quests isn't bad, its just how they are being implemented and how finite the options are. Almost zero as far as imaginative, the sameness is stultifying. Once had Jarl Skald ask me to kill giants 3 times in a row.....(Not once did he ever say why they needed elimination, or how they were creating mayhem or destruction. Didn't look like it when I got there......) I doubt it would take much memory create random NPC NAMED characters that lead bandit gangs, vampire clans, or witch covens as applicable. Go Kill "Durty Bugher" or "Urda the Bodacious" at Druadach Redoubt just sounds so much better than "the leader". Nor would it take significant space to say, go join XXX ( random named NPC) and help them clear up a trouble spot , or find YYY and they will give you the task. Things are just too generic as they are. Throw in names, and occasionally secondary companions and the dynamic would change quickly.

It should also be possible to add an underlying "bonus" perk or award incentive which kind of links it all together better. For instance, an old tale within the Rift is that a master thief of the third age hid a unique and legendary blade "ToadStabber" in an uncertain location within the mark. Knowing this uberweapon could randomly generate in a chest only during one of the Jarls "random" bounty type quests ( anywhere between 4 -14 quests) in the realm would help spice things up a bit... Multiply this concept by seven marks / regions, and you get the picture.

I enjoy the radiant quests, but I don't expect them to be anything more than a thinly veiled reason for me to go exploring. Sometimes that's all I really want to do anyway.

But I love being able to go into a tavern, ask about work and then have a chance to bust heads. Fun!

Not a fan of the random quests. They remind me too much of MMOs, and even then, MMOs find at least some way of making them seem to have some sort of story at times.

Weren't the original elder scrolls games mostly random generated? I'm pretty sure Daggerfall was almost completly RNG.
Then again, most people only started playing with morrowind (as show with a poll on this forum) so are used to have one single completely hand crafted world.

All I have to say on the matter is that it gives a bit more longevity to the game, but more variation would be welcome.

Daggerfall's quest system is very similar to the Radiant Quests in Skyrim. However, I feel Skyrim doesn't quite have the same spirit behind them. I think it's because there's so few of them. Daggerfall had over 200 quests with random target objects/locations, and there was less restrictions on who could give which quests. They also had nice mini-stories on them. Someone is being threatened by %enemy% who were coming that night and you had to hang around and protect them... you randomly get accused of stealing something you didn't and were lead on a merry chase around the region to clear your name (all the while you were pursued by guards)... someone was on the lamb and you needed to escort them someplace while ducking the guards... and plenty more like this.

In Skyrim on the other-hand, there's relatively few quests that work like this. And of those few, they're restricted to specific quest givers. There's not much variation with the radiant quests Aela gives, for example, and there's very little story to them. There's almost no involvement with the quest giver themself, from what I've seen, and its as basic as a kill/fetch quest can be. A beast invaded someone's home, go kill it*... the Jarl's men came by and left this letter, go kill the bandits/dragon/giant... there's a dispute, we don't care about the details, just go beat someone up... there's very little reason given for a character to care about any of this.

Not that the system itself in Skyrim is bad, but there's strong disparity between these few, ultra-generic radiant quests and the various "pre-written" quest lines, which makes them stand out as drab. I'd actually be interested in seeing a number of http://uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Quests redone in Skyrim's Radiant Quest system (particularly the vampire quests and merchant/innkeeper quests, as they're sorely lacking in Skyrim). There is great potential, but un-modded Skyrim really doesn't take advantage of it.

* Funny enough, there was a quest similar to this in Daggerfall. But it was given with much less frequency, and it's not exactly a shining example of Daggerfall's quests.

I like the random quests. I'll never run out of quests to do now.

The major flaw of randomly generated quests (or rather, tasks) is the meaningless loot, which lies in the root of so many other problems in this game. Yeah, I can make up my own story. So what? I can make up a story for every mundane action in the game, even wandering aimlessly in the mountains or chopping wood. The point is, random quests are not a stable enough backbone for fleshing out your own story. And besides, Skyrim is pretty restrictive as far as roleplaying activities go, so a virtual LARP it is not.

Please do not post in blue. It is hard to read.

Random missions are only as good as the variety they offer. A good random quest generator randomizes the starting and ending places of quests, it randomizes the quest givers, it randomizes the items that are involved, it randomizes the tasks that need to be done, it randomizes the number of steps in these tasks and it randomizes the rewards. A good random quest generator also avoids repetitiveness.

Every randomness can be detected once it has run through all of its combinations, however. Random generated quests allow for like 2-3 times more overall quests than hand-crafted quests. It does not allow for infinite quests and one should not expect to get an infinite fun out of it.

For all I know could half the quests I did be random generated and change the next time I start a new character. I am still on my first one, though.

So it's not enough to have something to do in Skyrim

But that something has to be written by a human as part of an overarching story?

That never ends?

you can choose to not do random quests... simple as that
tip: any line that says "I'm looking for work, got any leads?" triggers a random quest

So just keeping mum and not voicing your displeasure is a better way to get people to notice it has fallen on its face and needs improvement?
No.
The OP has a point.
Radiant quests are exactly like in Daggerfall and I personally had expected something more involved, something better.

I dont see how stating your opinion on an open forum about a failed Radiant Story system in Skyrim is trolling.

I have no problem with them at all. I'll bet you're the same tye of person that would complain about lack of content if they were removed. [removed]

its all fun being able to go off and just chill on a random quest when the main quests get to much and you need a brake from slaying dragons or assassinating people.

I agree. Sometimes i just feel like adventuring, then i go to the tavern and get some random work to do.

I've changed my mind. I think I like them as a springboard for adventure.

Like those Letters from a Friend which tell you where you might find a word of power. I just did two of those and each dungeon I visited had its own separate, much more detailed quest as well.

Those radiant quests are mostly optional. So you can just choose to ignore them, like don't bother asking the innkeepers about work if you don't want them to suggest a dungeon to clear or the minor guild ones.

It's nice in theory but in it's execution the feature is terribly shallow. I do like going to different places instead of the same place but I think the game would've been better off with going to the same place. It didn't help that the writing for the quests was absolutely atrocious, felt like I was playing fetch with the dog. That's not bad but I don't want the whole game being abould Fetch the dog.

I think skyrim has a lot of good writen quests (i said "good", not "awesome, omg i dont believe this ***** could happen, never imaginated that...."). I know people disagrees but i like guild quests, some companions quests, daedras, investigations, etc. I dont think radiant quests should do everything in Skyrim, and they dont do, its just a good new thing imo. I agree with you that if they could make a random generated quest be more deep it would be amazing! But we are too far away from this kind of technology, arent we?

OP fail. There are no levels to complete, stages to advance to or end the the adventure of Skyrim.

Go play Tetris.

I just dislike the part how several radiant quests can send me to the same dungeon.

While doing one quest, I might loot something and find out later that the item was a quest item, and having it will possibly make it impossible to complete the later quest. Also, since it's a quest item, I'm stuck with it, and the broken quest remains in the log. I also don't want to have to return to a dungeon later, as a lv 50 character, and all of the bandits are lv 10, because that's what level I was when I originally cleared the dungeon for an earlier quest. At that point, I could kill everything in one hit just by throwing rocks at them.

True, but I'm sure you can understand how annoying it can be when complainers feel that their opinions or complaints are so important and factual that they have to let Bethesda and the entire community know that they are leaving the game or never playing again.

If complainers would state their piece and give good reasons then I doubt you would see as many posters who turn against them, but when you always have complainers taking things overboard and claiming "This is the worst game ever" or "I'm so outraged that I'm leaving the game, I hope Bethesda is happy that they've lost a customer they will never get back"

I mean come on...

Why would you mind them? It's not like you have to take the quest. I honestly think it adds to immersion; it's quite realistic that a medieval town has some bandit troubles, and the leader of the town needs a mercenary to clear 'em out. It makes the world more real and more alive.