Main Quest Fixes

[jayhova]

I was really saying it would be nice if things were a bit more complicated. I have to assume that nobles have advisors and these advisors will advise. Beyond guild reputation, there is your reputation as an adventurer: monsters you've defeated, tasks you've accomplished, etc. Slaughtering monsters is going to get you noticed just from the trail of bodies. Hell one of these nobles might just hire an assassin to go after you just to see how tough you are. They might even give you a false mission to see what happens.

[nicksta1310]

I'm sorry: the more I play the vanilla main quest, the more I dislike it.

Spoiler!

Why was Elysana placed near the entrance to the main chamber while Helseth was placed in the rear chamber? That decision all but guarantees that the player will talk to Elysana first, which defeats the purpose of having branching quests about their power struggle. The only safeguard is level-gating Elysana's quest to level 6, which is ineffective unless players go out of their way to complete the main quest as quickly as possible.

Another quest that is known as Barenziah's Book is a complete waste of time. The chapter that she's trying to suppress is already available in the shops and public libraries (along with every other chapter) before the quest begins. It's not even a new chapter: it's part six of ten!

What's the point of the Castle Daggerfall guard telling me not to stray from the audience chamber without permission when there's no way to gain permission and I have to stray from the audience chamber at least three times for the main quest? I had no idea that Mynisera was in the building, because I wasn't stupid enough to enter private quarters with half a dozen armed guards in the vicinity!

Overall, I feel that the limitations of the game's quest system and rushed development cycle in the 90s crippled the implementation of the main story, which had much more potential than the formulaic contrivances in Arena.

Combining this with some of the dungeons in the main quest has drained my enthusiasm for attempting a playthrough: I nearly rage quit in Scourg Barrow when I noticed that one corner of it was literally recycling Privateer's Hold and the key to the quest target was a handwheel on the floor of a cave (WTF?!) that I didn't see because of my ambient light settings.

Maybe I should just play the JayH version instead.

[nicksta1310]

On the bright side, I finally got around to completing The Missing Prince quest. There's room for improvement, but it's much better than others and Lhotun was helpful enough to clarify Mynisera's location afterwards.

Spoiler!

My only criticism is that the letter from the Underking's agent was extremely convenient. It also makes me wonder why they didn't contact Lhotun before.