Posted Yesterday
I was this(*) close to quitting Daggerfall (Unity) again, today.
(*) pointing to my ass
Replaying the game reminded me of things I didn't like of Daggerfall (SetupEN version) years ago: it seems 90% of the gameplay happens in those darn dungeons. So far the game has consisted of me just "teleporting" (fast travel) between towns where I sell stuff and maybe get supplies and get quests, and the dungeons where the said quests take place.
There is this vast wilderness that is there for you to explore... but is there any reason to do so? Everything important seems to happen only in those towns (where you get quests etc.), and the dungeons which are mostly randomnly generated? I once went outside to just aimlessly start walking to some direction, sometimes changing direction, but it seems there is just nothing of importance there. Just more and more trees and whatever. I didn't even see any monsters or bandits ambushing me, or a lone hut where a wicked witch lives etc.
Isn't this the antithesis of what the later TES games are about? Aren't they all about exploration of the unknown, not just teleporting between towns and dungeons? I recall many years ago how someone explained how great Skyrim is because you can just go to some direction aimlessly, and you end up to some super-interesting location or encounter. I recall hearing similar stories also about e.g. The Witcher 3. They have worlds begging to be explored, while Daggerfall seems to have a vast world which is pointless to explore? Or am I wrong here, am I playing the game wrong? Do ANY quests take place e.g. in the wilderness, and not those darn dungeons?
Anyway, the real reason I was about to quit was this: I took a mage guild quest where I am supposed to find the whereabouts of some magical wand. The quest gave me two alternative places to try, one place where I could possibly find some letter about the wand, or alternatively I could go to another dungeon to talk with some person who is supposed to know more about the wand. The quest went something like this for me:
- I decide to take the first dungeon with that letter. I explore the vast dungeon for many many hours, killing enemies along the way. FINALLY, after several real-life days of exploring, constantly trying to track the map which parts of the dungeon I haven't explored yet, I finally find some room with a document on the floor that turns out to be that letter I was searching for. Great! Finally!
- Back to mage guild, the mage says nope, while that is indeed the document, it doesn't tell where the wand is. After that the mage becomes mute, not responding to anything. Did the quest fail or what? It is still active in my quest log though.
- I decide to try to second dungeon then, finding that one person. Again, I explore the dungeon, every nook and cranny, hoping to find that person. At many points I am "FFS, I have already explored every part! Is this a wrong dungeon?", but then closely inspecting the map, I may find some door or corridor that I haven't possibly explored yet, and try to find myself there to explore it.
- At some point I am 100% certain I have explored everywhere, and go back to mage guild, but the mage is still mute. Back to dungeon, after maybe 30 minutes of going through the vast dungeon map with a magnifying glass, I notice that there may be one spiral staircase I didn't remember to explore, and it isn't even that far from the start point of the dungeon. After 30 minutes I finally find my way to that staircase (it is very hard to navigate in the Daggerfall dungeons as they are so vast and complex 3D labyrinths), it leads to a corridor with four rooms, and sure enough, the person is in a cage there.
- He says sorry he doesn't know where the wand is either (WHAT?!? Days upon days of exploration of two dungeons and both lead to nothing?), but he gives me another quest to go buy some magical ingredients from a store in a certain town.
- So I find my way to the store, but they agree to give me only one of the ingredients because that person has too big a bill there already. I take that to the person in dungeon, he thanks me and says I should search another dungeon for a document about the wand, and offers to teleport me to that dungeon.
- I am like, waiddaminute, is he talking about the document I found already but which was useless, or what? So he teleports me back in the middle of that dungeon I had already explored fully and killed all the enemies there... and of course the dungeon is now fully populated with new enemies.
At that point I realized that if I am really going to have to search for yet another document in a VAST dungeon I had fully explored already... phuck it. Especially because as I had already explored the dungeon already, I had no way to track which parts I've re-explored and which not, like I could when exploring it for the first time. Meaning, the task of re-exploring every corridor and room would be pretty much impossible.
That was the point where I felt I just don't want to do this anymore. Before quitting though, I decided to take one more trip to the mage guild... and the mage basically said: "So you didn't manage to find the whereabouts of the wand? Awww, too bad, I guess I have to figure out some other way then. Thanks anyway, here are some coins for your trouble.".
And poof, the quest disappeared from the quest log. That apparently was the actual quest, you were supposed to visit both places and fail the task?
Ok, at least I did finally finish the quest, but damn it was time-consuming and what a letdown. On the flipside, I also received two new letters regarding the main quest and met Lady Whatshername who gave me some new pointers that I should visit the kings of three cities etc., and also some other princess also invited me to come talk with her about this and that.
So yeah, I guess I will still continue the game... but damn it is starting to irritate me again, even though the Unity version of Daggerfall is luckily much more playable and enjoyable than the original game.
I hope the latter TES games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim) will not irritate me similarly. They are not 90% dungeon exploration games, are they?
(*) pointing to my ass
Replaying the game reminded me of things I didn't like of Daggerfall (SetupEN version) years ago: it seems 90% of the gameplay happens in those darn dungeons. So far the game has consisted of me just "teleporting" (fast travel) between towns where I sell stuff and maybe get supplies and get quests, and the dungeons where the said quests take place.
There is this vast wilderness that is there for you to explore... but is there any reason to do so? Everything important seems to happen only in those towns (where you get quests etc.), and the dungeons which are mostly randomnly generated? I once went outside to just aimlessly start walking to some direction, sometimes changing direction, but it seems there is just nothing of importance there. Just more and more trees and whatever. I didn't even see any monsters or bandits ambushing me, or a lone hut where a wicked witch lives etc.
Isn't this the antithesis of what the later TES games are about? Aren't they all about exploration of the unknown, not just teleporting between towns and dungeons? I recall many years ago how someone explained how great Skyrim is because you can just go to some direction aimlessly, and you end up to some super-interesting location or encounter. I recall hearing similar stories also about e.g. The Witcher 3. They have worlds begging to be explored, while Daggerfall seems to have a vast world which is pointless to explore? Or am I wrong here, am I playing the game wrong? Do ANY quests take place e.g. in the wilderness, and not those darn dungeons?
Anyway, the real reason I was about to quit was this: I took a mage guild quest where I am supposed to find the whereabouts of some magical wand. The quest gave me two alternative places to try, one place where I could possibly find some letter about the wand, or alternatively I could go to another dungeon to talk with some person who is supposed to know more about the wand. The quest went something like this for me:
- I decide to take the first dungeon with that letter. I explore the vast dungeon for many many hours, killing enemies along the way. FINALLY, after several real-life days of exploring, constantly trying to track the map which parts of the dungeon I haven't explored yet, I finally find some room with a document on the floor that turns out to be that letter I was searching for. Great! Finally!
- Back to mage guild, the mage says nope, while that is indeed the document, it doesn't tell where the wand is. After that the mage becomes mute, not responding to anything. Did the quest fail or what? It is still active in my quest log though.
- I decide to try to second dungeon then, finding that one person. Again, I explore the dungeon, every nook and cranny, hoping to find that person. At many points I am "FFS, I have already explored every part! Is this a wrong dungeon?", but then closely inspecting the map, I may find some door or corridor that I haven't possibly explored yet, and try to find myself there to explore it.
- At some point I am 100% certain I have explored everywhere, and go back to mage guild, but the mage is still mute. Back to dungeon, after maybe 30 minutes of going through the vast dungeon map with a magnifying glass, I notice that there may be one spiral staircase I didn't remember to explore, and it isn't even that far from the start point of the dungeon. After 30 minutes I finally find my way to that staircase (it is very hard to navigate in the Daggerfall dungeons as they are so vast and complex 3D labyrinths), it leads to a corridor with four rooms, and sure enough, the person is in a cage there.
- He says sorry he doesn't know where the wand is either (WHAT?!? Days upon days of exploration of two dungeons and both lead to nothing?), but he gives me another quest to go buy some magical ingredients from a store in a certain town.
- So I find my way to the store, but they agree to give me only one of the ingredients because that person has too big a bill there already. I take that to the person in dungeon, he thanks me and says I should search another dungeon for a document about the wand, and offers to teleport me to that dungeon.
- I am like, waiddaminute, is he talking about the document I found already but which was useless, or what? So he teleports me back in the middle of that dungeon I had already explored fully and killed all the enemies there... and of course the dungeon is now fully populated with new enemies.
At that point I realized that if I am really going to have to search for yet another document in a VAST dungeon I had fully explored already... phuck it. Especially because as I had already explored the dungeon already, I had no way to track which parts I've re-explored and which not, like I could when exploring it for the first time. Meaning, the task of re-exploring every corridor and room would be pretty much impossible.
That was the point where I felt I just don't want to do this anymore. Before quitting though, I decided to take one more trip to the mage guild... and the mage basically said: "So you didn't manage to find the whereabouts of the wand? Awww, too bad, I guess I have to figure out some other way then. Thanks anyway, here are some coins for your trouble.".
And poof, the quest disappeared from the quest log. That apparently was the actual quest, you were supposed to visit both places and fail the task?
Ok, at least I did finally finish the quest, but damn it was time-consuming and what a letdown. On the flipside, I also received two new letters regarding the main quest and met Lady Whatshername who gave me some new pointers that I should visit the kings of three cities etc., and also some other princess also invited me to come talk with her about this and that.
So yeah, I guess I will still continue the game... but damn it is starting to irritate me again, even though the Unity version of Daggerfall is luckily much more playable and enjoyable than the original game.
I hope the latter TES games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim) will not irritate me similarly. They are not 90% dungeon exploration games, are they?
Post edited Yesterday by timppu
