There are multiple ways to finish a quest...

I don't think that they 'choose' not to do good and evil paths. I think that they 'choose' to spend more time developing the environments. You can see that by comparing BGS with Obsidian: in F:NV the quests and dialogue are more fully developed, but the environments aren't as good. Different developers have different priorities. DA:O has a great story, but the environments are tiny and 'shallow' in comparison. I doubt any developer releases a game and thinks: "That's just how I wanted it." I'm sure they all wish they could have improved the exact same elements that their fans criticize them for.

You best be trollin'

I agree to an extent.

Some quests really need to force a player to make a choice that may have consequences. It furthers on the moral dilemma's of a game etc yadda yadda, and to further the story on.

But it would be nice to see the inclusion of the grey choice, being able to play the game without being forced to be good or bad, which fall out new vegas did really well.

A lot of people like basing their characters on how they would react to a circumstance. Such as the nightingale armour dilemma (that i replied to a topic about earlier).

If i were in that circumstance i would nab the armour and leg it, i wouldn't like to live my afterlife as some wench's lackey, i'd rather live it up in sovngarde. I would go into more detail but SPOILER ALERT would go off

Ever since mass affect was release every game has been harking on about different options, different reactions etc, allowing the gamer to play the game he/she wants in a way they would, thats why fallout did so well.

Skyrim is an epic game that should allow for this, because it would make it more immersive instead of a few linear endings here and there.

True, it was a few situation where evilness paid off however that was mostly killing the npc and taking her unique weapon and not quest related.
However more option is nice, not on all quests but some of the key ones.

If SWTOR is anything like other Bioware games then no, Bioware are appalling at giving choices and making them utterly obvious as to whether they're good or not.

I will say that Beth at least do write some quests where it's hard to be sure of doing the right thing e.g. Skyrim's Saadia quest, The Pitt DLC for FO3. They just need to do more of those.

I'd also like to keep karma (at least, as a blatant rating) out of future games. Skyrim is at least a step forward in that you don't get told what's right and wrong but do something bad and assassins come after you - something else that needs expanding on.

Will agree that some quests do need more options though as to how they are resolved.

Agree with the OP, it was one of the reasons I enjoyed New Vegas so much CHOICE!

Yeah. . no.

Agreed that more quests with choice would be nice, also, less railroaded dialogue even when you have no choice - i.e. make it feel like the character had no choice, not the player.

If they focused more on unique interesting quests and left all the filler quests to the filler-quest generator (radiant story) they might be able to accomplish a great many quests and at the same time more interesting ones with multiple paths. The only obstacle there becomes, unfortunately again, the voiced dialogue - that's pretty much the reason radiant quests can't be more interesting, as you can't alter NPCs' dialogue dynamically. To get around this, make NPCs say something generic (annoying but it's the best compromise) then give players a detailed journal telling them what instructions the NPCs' gave them.

With pretty much all misc quests now radiant, rather than just a lot of them, you have plenty of time to focus on the quest arcs and major side quests (e.g. Wolf Queen, Alikr, Guilds)

I agree. Though, I don't have a problem in how dialogue and quests are implemented in Skyrim.

To be honest, any RPG game would benefit from more options, choices, and results.

I agree with the OP but only for sidequests, otherwise we'll have another Warp In The West situation.

The limitations of voice audible speech:

You: Greetings, Taverner how art thee today?

Bartender: "Hello adventurer, I`m not so good. I lost a gold Statuette. Say, can you go to the den of bandits where this statue is and get it back? I`ll pay you- THANKS!" he turns away ignoring you.

And you`re left standing there having agreed to a job you didn`t actually agree to...

Voice acting really does limit what you can do with NPC's due to limitations. Texted based has a lot less in limitations and doesn't take up as much memory.

like already said, not every quest need impact the world or be dramatic with multiple results, but, a much higher number obviously do need to be.
the choices need to be creative and have different impacts throughout the gameworld. if they are just the insanely boring and irrelevant choices and results from bioware and kotor1 then, heck no.

limiting voice acting to meaningful main quests and the like and adding back in text seems natural, to me.

The thing for me is, even with fewer lines, I get more connection and personality 99% of the time from the voice acted characters. Also for me, having voice acting only sometimes and not all or none seriously throws me out of the game.

ah, the "immersion" factor again,huh?

for me, limit voice acting, add in more text for more depth and leave more resources for adding in more meaningful content that adds, immersion.

Good point, i love doing skyrim quests and i found a lot of interesting ones (thieves guild, dark brotherhood, some sidequests when you find an explorer and help him save/find/understand something, or other when you are supposed to investigate a crime scene and choose to denounce or not a guy you think is guilt). But more choices is always better. But, i dont like the good/evil thinking, i like choices and different consequences, not being good or being evil.

Some of you people are so, so basic.

I have played rpg games with intensive text that`ve almost bought me to tears because they have fleshed out the personality of a character (heros, villains, npcs) in a manner that a single scripted voice with a few lines of words in a game just can`t do. think BG2, planescape Torment ) almost a well written novel), etc, etc...

I`m not saying I don`t like audible speech and that you can`t get emotion from audible speech (of course you can), but you need depth of words written to portray that depth and character. You need much more voice acting before it`ll match the amount conveyed by text.

I doubt those of you who apparently get more connection from a few spoken lines will get it though.

More options would be great in the next game. It needn't be a good or bad option either - sometimes (if you are rp'ing a stereotypical good character) one of the most fun things is trying to navigate the lesser of two evils, so to speak.

I agree with the OP. And by the way, since people mentioned the Alikir, who else sided with them? Or did you just wanted to hit that Redguard shawty?


*hands over handkerchief*
I think everyone will agree. In fact I think I'd gladly give away the speech just for more options and depth, something that made my actions have consequences. And for more than the 4 same freaking voice actors! Yesterday I finally met Motierre, the guy who gives you the big bad DB quest, and his voice was new, I don't think I ever heard any other character use it! Why have 30 NPCs use the same actor, but then keep this one voice to a single NPC who barely appears?

This was true with Oblivion. Not so sure about Skyrim however, I myself had at least 2-3 ways of answering every dialogue myself, one being interested in the topic, and one replying rudely that I'm not interested, and sometimes I had up to 4 or 5 answers too. Also, for most of the quests I had an option to help the quest giver or go a 2nd way and snitch the same, or whatever I would profit from more. I'm not sure what the heck are people expecting from a game that's so huge already.

Yes. More options, and make some of them based on skill checks like in New Vegas. For example, there's a quest in New Vegas and there's three different endings to it, and they're available based on your Medical, Science, and Charisma, if I remember correctly.

Kind of agree but Fallout: New Vegas proved to me full voice acting needn't limit the depth and emotion, it's all about the writing.

Several of the daedric quests give you a couple of choices with different outcomes. And there are also a few in Whiterun with options like the Gildergreen one.

Most quests though seem to be centred around action rather than character such as fetch item x from dungeon y, or kill monster/person z. The only choice is really if will you accept the quest or not.

yes well, skyrim is what happens when a dev tries to fit a PC game on an xbox disc...