Disappointed with main quest?

poiseh · Post by **poiseh** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 11:20 am

I was loving the game at first, I couldn't believe how huge and detailed everything was, I had never seen anything like this before, complete freedom in a game, lots of factions, npc's, caves, forests, mountains, deserts, etc...

I was also enjoying the main quest a lot, until the house persuading part... I just couldn't finish it, it's like the game lost all the originality it had before, now I was just moving from one town to another trying to find the right npc's to talk to, which most of the times were at huge distances from each other, and if I missed a slight clue I would be completely lost and not know who I should talk to next. And finding a single npc that you have no idea where to find in such a huge land is just asking too much. So sadly I ended up getting bored and disappointed by a game that was so much fun and had so much potential.

The thing that's bothering me is that I never see anyone complaining about this part of the game, and I see so many people replaying the whole game, so I'm wondering if I'm the only one that felt this way, or maybe I was doing something wrong? I just couldn't bring myself to keep going, it felt pointless since the game wasn't fun anymore, it just became a chore and I lost interest in even trying the expansions.

I keep hearing how oblivion isn't as good as morrowind, but I guess i'll give it a try, hoping they didn't do the same thing in the main quest this time around.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:42 pm

I can see how you might find that part of the main quest a bit boring, it does tend to hit a lull around that point.
But, once you get beyond the persuasion parts (and IMO, getting the Ashlanders on side is actually the more enjoyable half of that section).. it actually picks up again.
I know that that the entire point of gaming is to have fun, so if it became a chore, maybe you did the right thing by quitting.. but I'd actually recommend slogging through it if you have the stamina.
You'd probably also enjoy Tribunal and Bloodmoon, the main quest lines in both are pretty tight and well crafted.

As to Oblivion's main quest...
If you like a lot of tedium and you enjoy entering all kinds of zones that are nearly identical to one another.. well maybe you won't mind it.
Personally, I found Oblivion's main quest to be one of its weakest parts... I'd highly recommend the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood though.
Er.... but I'll stop there, since this is the Morrowind forum

vio · Post by **vio** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 9:29 am

I'll second what's been said, while that part of the main quest is a bit tedious, once you're past it you get back into the fun parts again. and don't forget you can break the tedium a little with sidequests

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:43 am

The Hortator quests are a tad tedious, with too much of the Fedex type quests. The first time I played the Hlaalu one really got me annoyed, as I also missed a clue so didn't know who I was looking for. I think I might have cheated and looked up the answer in the construction set in the end! So I certainly can understand getting frustrated at that point.

Give the game a rest for a while, as the other two have said, it does, in my opinion, get back on track once that part's finished.

Sykar · Post by **Sykar** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:16 am

If you are disappointed by the Morowind main story, which I liked a lot actually, then you will be even more disappointed by the Oblivion story line probably.

I know I am not representing anyonbe but myself but onsider this: Morrowind is on my HDD since release.

Oblivion didnt survive one weekend on my computer.

vio · Post by **vio** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 8:16 am

Sykar wrote:If you are disappointed by the Morowind main story, which I liked a lot actually, then you will be even more disappointed by the Oblivion story line probably.

I know I am not representing anyonbe but myself but onsider this: Morrowind is on my HDD since release.

Oblivion didnt survive one weekend on my computer.

can't argue with that. Oblivion looked prettier and had a few fun moments, but ultimately it's the same thing over and over and over. and if it's not bad enough that just following the main quest forces you to enter about fifty identical 'dungeons' (oblivion portals. and ok, there's minor differences between them. very, very minor) you also find hundreds more if you try to explore anywhere
and keep in mind this was a game that every Morrowind fan had been dying to play for years and which Bethesda had very heavily hyped as being even better (though of course nobody really expected them to say "it's kind of dumbed down and we got lazy and copy/pasted the same bits over and over but the graphics look really good and... um... buy it please")
had it not been for the fact that console gamers had been pretty starved for even half-decent RPGs (especially of the sandbox variety) I honestly doubt the game would've been even half as successful as it was

Enwah · Post by **Enwah** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 6:11 pm

I also like Morrowind better but Oblivion got a few things right. The mini-games for lock pick and persuasion are better than Morrowinds method. The Alchemy system seems better, that more effects are revealed as the players Alchemy stat goes up. Riding horses is a plus.
Fast travel to anywhere previously visited is a minus, Mark & Recall was better. Clothes or Armor but not clothes under Armor was a let down. No levitation was a big let down.
To the thread starter; let the main quest wait. Once you complete it, your everybodys friend so interactions are not as fun. Play thru some guilds, join a great house. Soul Trap some Golden Saints and take some exquisite rings to an enchanter. Make a ring with Levitate +3 constant effect and find the Boots of Blinding Speed. Make a ring or amulet with constant effect Night Eye to counteract the Boots dark side. Make a ring with water breathing and swift swim, constant effect. Make a ring with Invisibility, constant effect to avoid those pesky Cliff Racers while your flying. These three rings and the boots will help you explore the world and avoid the tedium of constant critter fights.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 5:39 am

The mini-games for lock pick and persuasion are better than Morrowinds method

.

totally disagree with that, those are two of the things that help to make Oblivion bad in comparison. The ability to pick locks in an RPG should depend on the character's skill in lock picking things, not the players 'twitching' ability. As for the abomination that is the persuasion mini game, that is about the worst thing I've ever encountered in a so called RPG, shoot, you don;t even need to able to 'twitch', any four year old could succeed!

The Alchemy system seems better, that more effects are revealed as the players Alchemy stat goes up.

Whilst I agree with the first part in general, the second was also true in Morrowind. The problem in Oblivion is potions only have the effect you can see, which is idiotic.

Riding horses is a plus

Riding horses is (IMO) a complete waste of time, you can run almost as fast, and you don't have to keep stopping dismounting, fight/pick herbs, remount all the time. Apart from initial experimenting, and again the only time I've run through the DB quest line I've never wasted my time on a horse. I recently made the mistake of clicking on assistance in dialogue and wound up with the annoying 'Your horse is in the stable' (or whatever it is) message all the time, in the end I killed the horse just to stop it.

No levitation was a big let down.

Agreed, but unfortunately if levitation was available everyone would see how ugly the graphics can be! Try flying over the wall of any city (use the console command TCL) and you'll see what I mean. You'll also discover just how small the game world really is!

The easiest solution to Cliff Racers is to simply open the construction set and set their 'Fight' to zero; personally I only do that for healthy Racers, diseased ones have a right to be insane!

vio · Post by **vio** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 8:15 am

galraen wrote:.

totally disagree with that, those are two of the things that help to make Oblivion bad in comparison. The ability to pick locks in an RPG should depend on the character's skill in lock picking things, not the players 'twitching' ability. As for the abomination that is the persuasion mini game, that is about the worst thing I've ever encountered in a so called RPG, shoot, you don;t even need to able to 'twitch', any four year old could succeed!

completely agree. the lockpicking I could live with, but I preferred Morrowind's version. as for persuasion? not only was it a pathetically dull mini-game it made absolutely no sense at all. if you walk up to somebody and proceed to threaten them, flirt with them and insult them they're NOT going to be more cooperative with you, you're very likely to end up getting dragged off to a loony bin or given a black eye
Morrowind wasn't perfect, but everything in it made sense from a gameplay or story perspective, almost always both. Oblivion, you're lucky if it makes sense from just one perspective

Enwah · Post by **Enwah** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 7:15 pm

galraen, I can understand your point of view somewhat but I still feel the mini-games were nice. They required me to interact. I felt like I was trying to pick a lock. I felt like I was trying to guess the right thing to say. To me, IMHO, it was more immersive than just clicking and opening a 100 lock with an Apprentice pick because of my high Security stat. I guess we'll agree to disagree.
What do you think poiseh should do to better enjoy Morrowind ?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 8:34 pm

Enwah wrote:galraen, I can understand your point of view somewhat but I still feel the mini-games were nice. They required me to interact. I felt like I was trying to pick a lock. I felt like I was trying to guess the right thing to say. To me, IMHO, it was more immersive than just clicking and opening a 100 lock with an Apprentice pick because of my high Security stat. I guess we'll agree to disagree.
What do you think poiseh should do to better enjoy Morrowind ?

I can understand your position in relation to lock picking, and with that you don't have to witch and can actually use the character's skills by selecting auto, so I'll definitely concede that point.

The persuasion one though I'll go to my grave believing was terrible, there's no interaction there, just raandom chance. The point vio made

if you walk up to somebody and proceed to threaten them, flirt with them and insult them they're NOT going to be more cooperative with you, you're very likely to end up getting dragged off to a loony bin or given a black eye

says it all really.

As for the last para; are you trying to get me to stay on topic? Even Fable couldn't manage that when he was modding here!:laugh:

I think the truth is that poiseh wasn't actually seeking advice on how to enjoy the game, he's already given up I believe. It seemed to me he was just ranting, which is fair enough, he didn't like the main quest once it got too fedex like, and I can understand that completely, so did I at that point, as I think I mentioned.

All we could do was try to persuade him that things got better once you get over that hump, and we did that. As he hasn't posted again we have no way of knowing if he was heartened by the advice and gave it a go or not. It would be nice to know though.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:24 pm

galraen wrote:The Hortator quests are a tad tedious, with too much of the Fedex type quests. The first time I played the Hlaalu one really got me annoyed, as I also missed a clue so didn't know who I was looking for. I think I might have cheated and looked up the answer in the construction set in the end! So I certainly can understand getting frustrated at that point.

Give the game a rest for a while, as the other two have said, it does, in my opinion, get back on track once that part's finished.

You can skip both Horator and the Ashlanders parts by having reputation of 20.

oblivirim · Post by **oblivirim** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 4:15 pm

im going back as far as daggerfall with the lockpicking, i hated it. you didnt even have to use a lockpick, and it was hard to level it, i always went around the big cities at n ight and tried to pick all the locks and only get 1 or 2, and this was horrible for me at first because i tried to join the dark brotherhood right away and could poison the wine because the guards were always yelling "HALT!". i liked morrowinds lockpicking best of all of them, exept skyrims i cant judge it yet because i havent played it yet.