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Starfield Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

ropetight

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Best sense of urgency to the MQ was done no better than in Fallout 1 imo. It had the perfect balance of fucking about just enough to get around, but staying focused on the main quest.
A good RPG should bob and weave MQ and sidequests, so u get to experience alot of the game and have variety, but keep the sense of urgency and engangement to the MQ throughout
When sidequests are needed for better alternative resolutions to main quest or other side quests - best way to weave them to narrative.
Despite of time slipping away in Fallout 1, I never had the feeling that you should skip any resources or help - world looked very dangerous (random encounters are often deadly in the beginning), you were seriously ill-prepared and knew very little about outside world.
ATOM RPG uses this same technique, combination of mystery and danger to keep you on path.

Bethesda never builds that feel of urgency and I always get lost in the side quests completely losing track of MQ.
Never finished Skyrim, but I traversed quite a lot of breathtaking scenery and got lots of different pants.
Fallout 4 is the probably worst offender - the world is your oyster, you get fucking power armor after an hour of gameplay, and everything is watering down from there.
I never got invested into main quest, side quests felt like separate entities that are more fun than the ...
 

deuxhero

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Morrowind was the best implementation of main quest vs. side quest in an open world game. A horrible fate for the world is clearly looming, but in a manner of years. More importantly you're a spy and told to build a cover identity as a freelancer.
 
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^And they explicitly tell you to fuck off and do some side quests before coming back to the main quest on several occasions over the course of the story.
 
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Zed Duke of Banville

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Morrowind was the best implementation of main quest vs. side quest in an open world game. A horrible fate for the world is clearly looming, but in a manner of years. More importantly you're a spy and told to build a cover identity as a freelancer.
The player is even provided with a document detailing Dagoth Ur's long-term plans and explaining how the Sixth House has gradually expanded over decades:

...
Phase 1:
Secure Red Mountain against Tribunal intruders. Deny Tribunal access to the Heart, weakening the Temple while securing Red Mountain for the creation of Akulakhan. Keep the construction of Second Numidium a secret.

Phase 2:
Create passive servants in ever-widening circles around Red Mountain by broadcasting compulsions couched in dream imagery to susceptible subjects in their sleep. Establish a major operational base at Kogoruhn for further operations in the ash wastes. Establish smaller bases near small port villages and in lower-class waterfront districts in Vivec. Infiltrate and subvert smuggling syndicates. Recruit willing followers from disaffected populations, including the underworld, the poor, and rabid anti-Imperial activists.

Phase 3:
Expand from smaller bases to other towns and villages, and recruit and indoctrinate subjects made susceptible by dream sendings. Occupy abandoned towers and ruins, and train corrupted cultists as raiders and irregular troops. Identify, discredit, and decimate possible sources of political resistance.

Phase 4:
Use assassination and terror to weaken, distract, and disrupt the Legions and the Imperial bureaucracy, along with their Hlaalu sympathizers. Inspire popular uprisings of the native poor against the foreign rich and powerful. Summon Sleepers and Dreamers to Dagoth Ur to work on Second Numidium.

Dagoth Ur thinks on a large time scale -- for the most part, in the outside-of-time scale of the divine consciousness. He thinks that only obstacles of mythic scale are worth consideration. He believes he is fated to rule Morrowind, to free Morrowind of the Empire, and to become the new hard-loving Father of Morrowind. Given that perspective, the only opposing forces Dagoth Ur worries about are the Tribunal, the Daedra, the Emperor, and the Incarnate.
...
3E 400: Kogoruhn reoccupied by Dagoth Uthol and fortified as an advance base for Sixth House operations. Blight storms more frequent and widespread. Soul sickness spreads in regions close to Red Mountain.

3E 410: Sixth House bases founded near Gnaar Mok and in waterfront areas of Vivec. Sixth House operatives exploit smuggler organizations and communications to spread their influence among victims unbalanced by Dagoth Ur's dream sendings.

3E 415: Small cells of Sixth House cultists in every town in Vvardenfell. Larger Sixth House operations are concealed in remote dungeons where creatures are bred and cultists are trained for the coming struggle.

3E 417: Almalexia and Sotha Sil lose the artifacts Keening and Sunder to Dagoth Odros and Vemyn. Vivec rescues Almalexia and Sotha Sil, but failing to recover Keening and Sunder, the Tribunal retreat from Red Mountain in disorder. Surviving Buoyant Armiger companions know the Tribunal was forced to retreat, but do not know how serious a reversal the Tribunal has suffered. The Three Tribunes return to their respective capitals and continue to perform their ritual functions. The Tribunes continue to grow weaker without access to the Heart, and because of resources required to support the Ghostfence. The inner circle of the Temple priesthood has begun to suspect the Tribunes have suffered seriously from wounds and demoralization in the wake of reverses at Red Mountain, but do not recognize the scale of the problem.

3E 426-427: Campaign of Sixth House assassinations of prominent Imperial citizens and Hlaalu Imperial sympathizers. Sudden increase in number and seriousness of attacks by cultists and victims deranged by soul sickness.
...
 

racofer

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HarveyBirdman

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It did? I didn't care about her at all. Story-wise there is no difference between "looking for Ciri" (while doing everything but that) and delaying "urgent" mission in any other game. Including Bethesda ones.

If anything, in Skyrim you were constantly reminded/alluded about certain matters. I liked it, because it helped maintaining that illusion of the alive world, but contrary to what you are trying to say it served as reinforcement of the urgency of the matter. Oblivion is even worse offender when it comes to urgency-versus-reality issue, because it starts with a big bang and never manages to deliver (on all levels) that built up "omph" you expect after the beginning.
Skyrim: Occasional dragon fights, guards question the existence of dragons, sometimes you see Alduin necromatize a dragon. In the end, you mash attack with three friends you meet exactly one time. Afterwards, the world is physically unchanged.

Oblivion: By midgame, the wilderness is taken over by Oblivion gates, the sky is always red, and you can't go anywhere without getting attacked by a daedra. In the end, you hold off Mehrunes Dagon in single combat, which you are literally incapable of winning, until Martin Septim transforms into the avatar of an Aedra to do Kaiju battle. Afterwards, the Oblivion gates remain visible as ruins, the kaiju are forever preserved in stone, and a statue dedicated to your heroism is erected (based upon the armor you wore).

Both main quests are kind of bad, but I know which one was executed better in terms of reminding you the main quest is affecting the world.
 
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Codex Year of the Donut
in oblivion you're not even the main character which is incredibly rare in a video game let alone major ones where doing such is a risk
 

HarveyBirdman

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Morrowind was the best implementation of main quest vs. side quest in an open world game. A horrible fate for the world is clearly looming, but in a manner of years. More importantly you're a spy and told to build a cover identity as a freelancer.
It's in the top tier. Wouldn't say it's "the best" and not sure any game deserves that title. Others that do it well (and without timers):

PST -- you are the plot, so of course it moves at your pace.
New Vegas -- NCR and Legion are in a stalemate until you decide to tip the scales
Here's a list of Traits shown so far :

Dream Home, Kid Stuff, and one of the factions seems obvious. Money is always trivial in any game.
 
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Codex Year of the Donut
Didn't notice it before, but it's interesting they're including religions when most sci-fi material tends to either ridicule or ignore the topic. Despite it being a very important topic in its own right due to the setting.
Based Todd does it again!
 

tentanz

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Codex Year of the Donut
Skyrim: Occasional dragon fights, guards question the existence of dragons, sometimes you see Alduin necromatize a dragon. In the end, you mash attack with three friends you meet exactly one time. Afterwards, the world is physically unchanged.

Oblivion: By midgame, the wilderness is taken over by Oblivion gates, the sky is always red, and you can't go anywhere without getting attacked by a daedra. In the end, you hold off Mehrunes Dagon in single combat, which you are literally incapable of winning, until Martin Septim transforms into the avatar of an Aedra to do Kaiju battle. Afterwards, the Oblivion gates remain visible as ruins, the kaiju are forever preserved in stone, and a statue dedicated to your heroism is erected (based upon the armor you wore).

Both main quests are kind of bad, but I know which one was executed better in terms of reminding you the main quest is affecting the world.
Skyrim has two main quests.
 

Utgard-Loki

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Dec 29, 2011
Messages
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it's a "lore dump" only for retards that didn't pay attention playing the game. besides akulakhan you find out about every single one of these points just reading mainquest dialogue and reading books you find in the mainquest recommended by npcs.
 

Hace El Oso

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it's a "lore dump" only for retards that didn't pay attention playing the game. besides akulakhan you find out about every single one of these points just reading mainquest dialogue and reading books you find in the mainquest recommended by npcs.

Interesting, the illiterate dumbasses who refuse to read and are outraged when people around them expect otherwise are just transposing their everyday behavior into the games.
 

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