"Radiant" activites?

[BoboTheMighty]

"Radiant" activites?

So what do you guys think about this? Before we dismiss this as "another settlement needs your help!" content, it could be a fun diversion if done well.

To do it well:

- Activity itself would have to be fun and addictive...say, a well designed flying car race, fast and chaotic, with allowed shooting sections, well designed obstacles, etc.

- There should be significant pay off for the player( but some restrictions to avoid exploits)...unique crafting component or implant, etc

 

[iCake]

I'm not a big fan of radiant activities. The only game that came close to having them to my liking was RDR, but even then it got stale rather quickly. If talking about Skyrim, FO4 radiant stuff... well, never really got the purpose of those there rather than giving you something to occupy yourself with. Also what they did with the thieves' guild... would have been fine if it wasn't random until you have restored the guild to its former glory at least. Also always felt like there was some wasted potential there. Why not code the radiant quests to keep you going to places you haven't explored yet? There would have been some point to all that at least.

Anyway, I think radiant activities can be something to consider, but it's hard to do them "right". I mean make them look more than some filler content. I'd say have many different "sets" of them. As you progress through the story, have old ones disappear, new ones imerge, but make these appearance/disappearance organic, something that'd make sense.

A sidenote: I think we can think of gwent as a radiant activity done right Although, it's a mini-game technically, but something you can do anytime you want. The thing is it's the only radiant activity in the game, to my knowledge at least. Way easier to get it right if you're not branching.

 

[Claylex]

Like you said Bobo, lets hope the radiance quests aren't repetitive as hell.

Granted these types of quests should be random but it shouldn't repeat itself over and over again.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

I'm not a fan of grind-activities. There could be some that's tied to the PC's abilities and alignments, but nothing excessive thanks. Handcrafted content is far better.

 

[lord_blex]

if they can randomize elements of "proper" quests and have it feel right I'm all for it. or if they are something that makes sense to be generated, the race was a good example.
I don't care much for the reward, or even what the activity is, the most important is that I don't really realize that I'm playing randomly generated content. in FO4 radiant quests stick out way too much. when an npc really wants you to do something and can't even tell you all the details about it, just "here, I'll mark it on your map", you know something is wrong there..

edit: thinking about it a bit more, it actually may not be the best idea, even if it's well integrated. a quest endlessly repeating doesn't make sense in most cases, or even if it does, you'll just get bored of it, no matter the reward. and if it's not infinite, why not hand-craft every detail to make sure it's all perfect?
my initial reaction was "why not, if they can make it work?", but after thinking about it for 5 more minutes I'm asking "why?"

 

[Rawls]

I would be opposed to radiant quests.

There is nothing wrong with having a large open world game with a definitive end. You don't have to be able to play it forever for it to be a good game. A good story has an ending.

Based on that position, radiant quests add little value to a game for me. The real benefit of radiant quests is that they allow the game to continue in perpetuity. Since I don't need that, I think they offer little. Add to that the resources they take away from the hand crafted quests will are likely to be somewhat substantial, and I would just as soon not have them at all. If the quest isn't hand crafted, it probably wont be of the highest quality. A radiant quest's very nature takes away from good story telling IMO.

 

[blank_redge]

I'm personally a fan of radiant quests, but they shouldn't be the meat-and-bones of a game's content. I see them as pleasant "extras" you can do, when you're not following the central story arc of a given title.