Radiant Quests

[Mybrokenenglish]

RAWLS EDIT: Stating here began a conversation in the NEWS/MEDIA THREAD. Several posts moved here to discuss radiant/procedually generated quests and their merit or lack there of for Cyberpunk 2077.

the hell is a radiant quest?

 

[Draconifors]

the hell is a radiant quest?

Example of a typical radiant quest: [quest giver] asks you to go to [target location] to fetch/kill [target]

There's a long list of potential quest givers, target locations, and targets. The game picks one of each every time you start the quest, which results in a never-ending chain of quests that are basically the same thing over and over and over again.

Just as boring as it sounds, IMO. Fun at first but gets old really fast.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

Example of a typical radiant quest: [quest giver] asks you to go to [target location] to fetch/kill[target]

There's a long list of potential quest givers, target locations, and targets. The game picks one of each every time you start the quest, which results in a never-ending chain of quests that are basically the same thing over and over and over again.

Just as boring as it sounds, IMO. Fun at first but gets old really fast.

Ah, ok, I simply called them "fetch quests". one of the things I hate the most. Thanks.

 

[imitenotbecrazy]

Radiant quests are the worst kind of fluff. Collectibles at least sometimes can be interesting.

What's an interesting collectible you've found that was worth the gameplay for it? Most interesting I've found was Spider-Mans back pack things and the only reason I got them was for the upgrade points. There were a couple chuckles but weren't worth the trouble besides getting upgrade points.

Radiants at least provide an xp/money reward for those that want to grind for the high high gear

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

Radiant quests are the worst kind of fluff.

This is true. However, for some reason I can’t exactly put my finger on, I’m much less antagonistic towards them than collectibles.

Go figure.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

yeah, collectables are not better than radiant quests. The very moment a dev thinks his game needs futile stuff just to make it longer, I think he's already on a very wrong path.

 

[Draconifors]

I like collectables. They can be rather infuriating at times, though; it all depends on how they are implemented, IMO.

 

[Snowflakez]

People look at radiants in the wrong way. It's not about providing meaningful content.

It's about providing easy (in terms of development), varied, repeatable content that doesn't need much dev time. It's about letting players roleplay whatever fantasies they can come up with. And, seriously, fetch quests? If you guys are going to be disengenuous about it, I have no interest in continuing this conversation. I expected better from mods and long-time forum members here. They are far more than "go here, get that," there's a lot more variety.

Spoiler: OT

I don't expect to see it in 2077, but I reject the notion that it's a bad idea in general. Perhaps you don't care about roleplaying, perhaps you don't care about immersing yourself in a role you've created for yourself (Without a linear story guiding you), perhaps you don't care about exploring a virtual world in said role, at your own pace and in your own way...

See, I can do that too.

I would never ask for radiant quests at the cost of actual CDPR quest quality or quantity. I would ask for it in place of meaningless, copy-paste nonsense like horse (sorry, car) racing, fist fighting (sorry, boxing), and the shooting range (how is that even a minigame?). Presumably, like The Witcher 3, once you've finished the questlines for each of those activities, they're done -- you can't do them anymore, period, end of story.

That's where radiant stuff comes in. It gives you a way to continue hanging out in a world and living out your character's life. It obviously won't happen, though.

And anyway, we're way off topic. None of this is related to media or previews or news.

 

[imitenotbecrazy]

All of that was said much better than I could have put it into words. But yes, I groan at collectibles and would prefer relevant radiant quests over them.

 

[BluPixel]

I like collectables. They can be rather infuriating at times, though; it all depends on how they are implemented, IMO.

Like Dragon Age Inquisition... *vomits*

 

[Shavod]

What's an interesting collectible you've found that was worth the gameplay for it? Most interesting I've found was Spider-Mans back pack things and the only reason I got them was for the upgrade points. There were a couple chuckles but weren't worth the trouble besides getting upgrade points.

Radiants at least provide an xp/money reward for those that want to grind for the high high gear

yeah, collectables are not better than radiant quests. The very moment a dev thinks his game needs futile stuff just to make it longer, I think he's already on a very wrong path.

Again, collectibles can come in a different forms (and even then, we don't know what devs exactly meant by those and I didn't read the interview myself, so I can't even vouch if the translation is correct). Things like collectibles in Assassin's Creed games are collectibles done wrong, but for example soundtrack CD's (of all Final Fantasy games) that you pick up in Final Fantasy XV, which you can play in your car's radio afterwards I consider collectibles done right. For a collectible to be worth a damn I think, it should give player something immediately beneficial (not just for collecting everything).

They are far more than "go here, get that," there's a lot more variety.

Yes, there is also "go here, kill that". Let's not forget that.

That's where radiant stuff comes in. It gives you a way to continue hanging out in a world and living out your character's life.

That something I would consider "a desperate means", alongside clearing out all smuggler's caches at Skellige in order to continue playing Witcher 3 (and even I, despite my immense love for the franchise, didn't go this far, but I know people who did).

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

soundtrack CD's (of all Final Fantasy games) that you pick up in Final Fantasy XV, which you can play in your car's radio afterwards I consider collectibles done right.

I didn't like those either.

AC2 feathers: terrible (and I couldn't care less of making the little brother happy, cutscene included)
Fallout bobbleheads: terrible idea to get skill points from them (same for places of power in TW3)

If we want to consider books in TW3 as collectibles, than I liked those: some lore/brief stories and no benefits or achievement for them. A nice (totally optional) addition.

Even better for DE: HR notes/emails, but probably those are too much to be considered mere collectibles.

 

[imitenotbecrazy]

If a collectible has no benefit to gameplay at all, I consider it useless. That's including music. I don't play games with any music playing in vehicles but for those that do, it would be a shame to gate new music behind trivial treasure hunts.

I'd always thought collectibles existed mainly to satisfy the achievement hunters out there as I've yet to see them done right, in my opinion

 

[MauricioMM]

My sentiments for collectibles and radiant quests aren’t too strong, they’re usually not quite my cup of tea but I wouldn't mind having them in the game. I'd probably just skip them most of the time, unless I were too bored or if they were interesting and worthy enough. Two examples I’d give of collectibles, one done right and one done badly, are:

• I digged the witcher gear quests in The Witcher 3. They weren’t always the most exciting quests in the game but the rewards were great and they encouraged the exploration of different corners of the map
• I didn’t dig too much the (previously mentioned) feathers in Assassin's Creed II, they’re a great example of bad collectibles actually. The only thing that made them worth the hassle was
  Spoiler

  helping Ezio's mom recover (mostly) from her depression
  but, other than that, they were a waste of time. (The flags in AC 1 were waaay worse, though. They were so pointless )

 

[imitenotbecrazy]

My sentiments for collectibles and radiant quests aren’t too strong, they’re usually not quite my cup of tea but I wouldn't mind having them in the game. I'd probably just skip them most of the time, unless I were too bored or if they were interesting and worthy enough. Two examples I’d give of collectibles, one done right and one done badly, are:

• I digged the witcher gear quests in The Witcher 3. They weren’t always the most exciting quests in the game but the rewards were great and they encouraged the exploration of different corners of the map
• I didn’t dig too much the (previously mentioned) feathers in Assassin's Creed II, they’re a great example of bad collectibles actually. The only thing that made them worth the hassle was
  Spoiler

  helping Ezio's mom recover (mostly) from her depression
  but, other than that, they were a waste of time. (The flags in AC 1 were waaay worse, though. They were so pointless )

What was the witcher stuff? I didn't play the any of them. Was it actual usable gear?

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

I digged the witcher gear quests in The Witcher 3. They weren’t always the most exciting quests in the game but the rewards were great and they encouraged the exploration of different corners of the map

I wouldn't consider the witcher gear diagrams as collectibles for 3 reasons:
1) those were actually marked as quests, meaning you actually simply had to follow the yellow dots to find them
3) crafting is a big thing in TW3
2) the game is completely overcrowded with diagrams, you get dozens of them every single hour of normal gaming

What was the witcher stuff? I didn't play the any of them. Was it actual usable gear?

the best armors/swords in the game, by far. you had to buy maps from vendors, follow the yellow dot, pick the diagram and craft them. https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/The_Witcher_3_witcher_gear
nice pieces of lore/brief stories came with them, which I appreciate A LOT (I still consider that kind of narrative as the best thing in TW3, just replaying the game in these days and it's the only thing which hasn't grown old in 4 years).

Can't wait to see the demo AT LAST, need to see all those things the press has been talking about for 2 months. 30 days left.

 

[Metropolice]

Radiant quests aren't that bad, I favor decent ones over NPCs or factions eventually running out of quests completely.

Then again it depends on how you make or consider them. You could have them detached from a lot and they seem random or unaffiliated with other events or you could tie them into dynamic faction (turf) wars where they are given or worded based on dynamic events and suddenly they look way more thrilling opposed to static repeatable content machines.

The only thing mildly surprising me is lack of jail. While I don't expect immersive or decent post-crime jail content each time, at the same time the implication is that once police or "corpolice" becomes active against you, they kill. The GTA problem. While you could still be arrested or taken down non-lethal and pay money or "wake up" at the station (not jail in that sense) the implication is there that most hostile interactions are lethal.

I get adding more approaches to this is always tied to more work and they have enough on their plate, but personally I hope there will be non lethal approaches. You have them as players, NPCs (not all by design but some also by design) should have them on you, too. At least in certain circumstances.

"Arrest mechanics" (not necessarily with played out jail game play) and all of that would also aid certain police related modding.

Hey, gotta advertise my lobby.

The rest time will tell, I guess. I just hope you don't always get gunned down for "minor things", enough to provoke a gang or police response, but not high enough to call everyone or Max-Tac, figuratively.

 

[Sild]

They are far more than "go here, get that," there's a lot more variety.

I agree, at their core, they're about roleplay, about giving the player the opportunity to further participate in the chosen activity according to his choices and belonging (faction, guild, job etc.). Perhaps the few games that implemented radiant quest have done it in a somewhat lacklustre way, but even so, it serves its purpose of creating the illusion of an active world, in which things don't just grind to a halt because devs couldn't or didn't have enough time/money/drive/reasons to create more quests for a particular faction. It's also one of the reasons i found Skyrim to be more a roleplaying experience than most classic Role-playing games.

 

[Rawls]

Depends upon the collectible, how many there are, whether it is fun or tedious to get them, and how dependent finding them is on a minimap / compass. If it's just follow the map to location __x__, point and click on thingamabob __y__ ... that is incredibly boring quest design and would be better served as not being a "quest". I actually quite like collectibles so long as they aren't following that design. For instance, I LOVED collecting books and random stuff for my houses in Skyrim. It's frankly more rewarding finding things you can use through exploration rather than following a marker.

 

[Draconifors]

For instance, I LOVED collecting books and random stuff for my houses in Skyrim.

Oh, I lovelovelove collecting books in Skyrim.

But this also highlights one thing I don't like about collectibles: they sometimes require stealing or other less than lawful methods of acquiring, which can be super annoying if roleplaying as a law-abiding character.

Or, they can be in locations that can only be accessed when certain criteria are met, and those criteria might be something not every character wants to do.