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Game News Oblivion mage quests (highly intricate stuff)

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
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Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

<a href=http://www.newgamingradio.com/>New Gaming Radio</a>'s <a href=http://www.newgamingradio.com/podcast/ngrcom_podcast_02_25_06_oblivion.mp3>mp3 thingy</a> has detailed descriptions of several mage quests, so take a look. Alternatively, you can read that whole thing in <a href=http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=245287>this post at TES forums</a>, if you can handle the "presentation":
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<blockquote>- To get to the Mages University in the Imperial City you have to get a referral from each mage guild in each city.
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- 1 Mage Guild Referall quest he did was in Bruma wherein a mage has disappared and the head mage was really worried. Bruma was described as a log cabin type town, when he got there there was a huge snowstorm, so visibility was downgraded, and most NPCS were inside their houses. The char investigated the situation, asking around. This really shady NPC Mage seemed to know, so the char persuaded him to tell more info about the disappearance. The NPC mage agreed, and npc told him to meet him later on tonight in the basement. SO the char rested awhile in the mages guild quarters in Bruma, and when nightfall came he visited the basement, and behold, the NPC mage was there. They conversed for awhile, and suddenly the NPC mage casted a spell and the Missing mage suddenly appeared. The situation wasn't as bad as it seemed to be, the Missing mage and the NPC mage were just playing a prank on the head mage because they disliked him, thus using an invisible spell to worry the head mage. After the quest, the head mage was relieved and the char. got a referral from teh mage guild in Bruma. This all took in about 20 minutes to complete. Note, that this quest was one of the first quest he took after getting out of the prologue dungeon, so i guess quest are scaled to your level? Are they? Anywayz, THe char then went on to the next city - Lagawiin all the way to the south.
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= The Mages guild in Legawiin was also in some deep [censored], and the head mage girl was going crazy. Legawiin is described as a woodsy type esque town, very pleasant. So it turns out, the reason the Head mage girl is going crazy and people think she is on crack is because she lost her dead fathers amulet and she was seeing visions of spirits and ghosts.
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She says, that her father died in a fort not to long ago, and this amulet was given to her, without it, she goes crazy and sees ghosts and spirits. She said to try and investigate the grave of her father in the Fort, and maybe you could find the amulet there. So the char. heads on to the fort, he is given a quest pointer in the map, which is very helpfull, since you could get lost so easily. You can't immmedietely fast travel to that quest location because it hasn't been discovered yet, but the quest pointer really makes it helpfull in getting there by foot/horse. So the char get to the fort after encountering several monsters and bandits on the way there. HE gets to the fort and it is garissoned by more bandits, so he plows his way all the way through the fort until he reaches the grave, and low and behold the amulet is inside the cask of the father!. (The fort was described as "very active" btw, and bustling with activity). But tehre was a surprise! On the way out of the the fort, this shady lone mage steps in your way and blocks your path! He seems to be a psycopath since he is obsessed about making the head mage girl crazy and depressed, so he doesen't want you to return the amulet to her. He says that you will die just like his father did in the fort!, so the char. (A mage too BTW), duels this mage outside the fort entrance and almost looses his life, but in teh end his destruction spells and summoning spells outst the mage. He doesen't want to take the trek back to Bruma and knows he is pressed for time, so he just fast travels back to Bruma and returns the amulet to the head mage, and she becomes normal again, also the char. gets a referral from the mage's guild of Bruma. So now the char has 2 mages guild referrals, 6 more to go.
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-There is 1 more referral quest that he did, before he had to go, and that was in the city of anvil. Describes as very medieval and active port city, with alot of blacksmiths where all teh good weapons are. To destroy the rumor of cities not being active, he litereally saw 20+ people in view, in the port section of the town!!. ANywayz the mage guild quest was that merchants were being killed around town frequently, and what their worried about is that the killer seems to be a mage since all the deaths of the victims were from ice spells. He asks you to go to the nearby tavern and inestigate. he also asks you to disguise as a merchant. You do so and you walk in, people are hustling, gambling, drinking, etc, very active. You ask the bartender if they knkow anything, the bartender seems reluctant to say anyting, but this nearby girl mage in the tavern too, whispers to you to go speak to her, you do so, and she seems very nervous, she tells you that she thinks the murderer is in this very tavern!, she tells you to get a room for the night and she will meet up with you up there when night comes. Now the guy really thought that this nervous girl was really the murderer and was prepared for anything that might happen, he really thought he was going to get ambushed in the room, but nevertheless he rented a room, when he entered the room, a mage was in the room, not the nervous girl mage, but an older mage, he was just sitting there, and greeted you then left, really shady. So you rested for the night, and when you woke up the nervous girl was there...she didn't attack you, but stayed true to her word and she told you that the mage that was waiting for you in teh room earlier was teh murderer :0 , she told you that to lure him, you had to go outside the tavern and walk this certain path. really exposing yourself to the murdeer (Note that this took place at night and most people where in their houses, and the guards were mostly stationed in the port area, far from this tavern). So the char. walks outside the tavern and walks the path, suddenly the murderer appears out of the tavern and runs to you and shouts that hes going to kill you and steal all your money! This mage was very powerfull and the player couldn't take him 1on1, the mage was casting summoning spells and ice spells that did major damage, but alas the nervous mage girl from the tavern rushed out and helped you out, she blasted and charred the mage to hell! and instantly killed him. Misssion acomplished! and you got your referral from the guild in Anvil!.....</blockquote>Discuss
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Seboss

Liturgist
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Jan 27, 2006
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My eyes began to bleed after first paragraph. But, hey thanks anyway.
 

Nutcracker

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So the char. heads on to the fort, he is given a quest pointer in the map, which is very helpfull, since you could get lost so easily.

'Nuff said, really.
 

Proweler

Scholar
Joined
Jun 30, 2005
Messages
203
I dunno, just one qeust per town seems a little short for a whole guild.
 

Vault Dweller

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Hmm, looks like the fact that the quests are idiotic has managed to escape you guys completely.
 

Drakron

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I dont think they are idiotic per say ... just more of "this look familiar" since they are pretty much "quest templates" ridden with cliché.
 

Andyman Messiah

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Vault Dweller said:
Hmm, looks like the fact that the quests are idiotic has managed to escape you guys completely.
Well, you can hope.

Well, they're not THAT bad, in my ever so humble opinion. Sure, they're simple and they could've easily been made up by any one person's seven year old nephew (at least that first one, about the prank gone wrong whatever), but at least they're not (entirely) "get that item"-quests. They're "talk to that person"-quests. It shows progress. Go Bethesda. Yay!

Edit: Well, I like starting every sentence with "Well,". It calms me.

Edit2:
He doesen't want to take the trek back to Bruma and knows he is pressed for time, so he just fast travels back to Bruma
Damn, if the dudes in Lord of the Rings had known all about fast travelling like the peeps at Bethesda do, maybe Tolkien wouldn't have written such a long book? Roleplaying at its finest, by the way.
 

Vault Dweller

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Ok, maybe I'm being overly critical here, but here are my thoughts.

Quest 1: The guildmaster is worried about a missing mage, who's walking around being invisible, because he's a prankster. The guildmaster can't detect him and, obviously, has never heard of the invisibility spell. If that's not the stupidest thing you've ever heard of, I don't know what is. At least, a fedex quest is simple, but not stupid.

Quest 2: Same, but slightly tweaked idiotic design. The guidmaster lost the amulet and seeing ghosts. Obviously, she's never heard of conjuring. How these stupid people become guildmasters, I'd never understand.

Quest 3: "...suddenly the murderer appears out of the tavern and runs to you and shouts that hes going to kill you and steal all your money!" I hope he shouts "I'm going to kill you. With death!" or something equally dramatic and fitting the moment.
"...the nervous mage girl (who was so afraid of teh murderar!) from the tavern rushed out and helped you out, she blasted and charred the mage to hell! and instantly killed him". :shock:

None of that crap makes sense, if you think about it.
 

Drakron

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Locue said:
Damn, if the dudes in Lord of the Rings had known all about fast travelling like the peeps at Bethesda do, maybe Tolkien wouldn't have written such a long book? Roleplaying at its finest, by the way.

Remenber ... they can only fast travel to places they have been.
 

Proweler

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Jun 30, 2005
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Mmh, the original audio commentary didn't say anything about instant death. It was a long drawn out battle that had to be reloaded a few times.

Anyway, it was a quest where you could use use your personal wits. At the start you were told that the mage used frost magic, bringing protection against such magic would have a clever thing to do.

Naturally the previewer didn't so he got killed a few times over.
 

Kraszu

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They conversed for awhile, and suddenly the NPC mage casted a spell and the Missing mage suddenly appeared. The situation wasn't as bad as it seemed to be, the Missing mage and the NPC mage were just playing a prank on the head mage because they disliked him, thus using an invisible spell to worry the head mage.

Members of mage guild have mentality of the 12 year old kids? :shock:
And where is the end of the fucking quest, they didn't like put his hand in the hot water when he was slipping or someting
 

Drakron

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Vault Dweller said:
Ok, maybe I'm being overly critical here, but here are my thoughts.

Lets see then ...

Quest 1: The guildmaster is worried about a missing mage, who's walking around being invisible, because he's a prankster. The guildmaster can't detect him and, obviously, has never heard of the invisibility spell. If that's not the stupidest thing you've ever heard of, I don't know what is. At least, a fedex quest is simple, but not stupid.

True, its not a very cleaver quest that fails when someone start to think about it ... I know apologists can come up with "he never tought of that!" but its just excuses for a rather weak quest.

Quest 2: Same, but slightly tweaked idiotic design. The guidmaster lost the amulet and seeing ghosts. Obviously, she's never heard of conjuring. How these stupid people become guildmasters, I'd never understand.

Unfortunatly this is a example of FedEx quest with the "you are attacked" twist, the quest makes more sense that the above except the whole setup would been improved and expanded.

In essence it the step up from "talking to someone" to "fetch me something".

Quest 3: "...suddenly the murderer appears out of the tavern and runs to you and shouts that hes going to kill you and steal all your money!" I hope he shouts "I'm going to kill you. With death!" or something equally dramatic and fitting the moment.
"...the nervous mage girl (who was so afraid of teh murderar!) from the tavern rushed out and helped you out, she blasted and charred the mage to hell! and instantly killed him". :shock:

None of that crap makes sense, if you think about it.

That is the worst of the quests because the setup becames rather ... simple with no twists and the whole "runs to you and shouts" is down silly FOR A MAGE SERIAL KILLER.

Of course the funny thing is these quests lines are to be able to enter the "Mages University" (rather bland name coming more from Earth 20th Century North America that anything else) that makes absolute no sense, if these quests were to test the potencial candidates abilities they sould been about mage skills and not rather generic quests.

That is the prespective you sould be looking then from, those are in essence quests in order to join the Mage University that end up being about either testing the ability to open your mouth (quest 1), able to see and touch a object (quest 2) and able to kill someone (quest 3).
 

rob

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The quests seem indeed quite idiotic,
it pisses me off if you are supposed to find a serial killer and the solution is first go there and then walk over there.
a fedex it is at least more honest in its definition, convolute and on rail at the same time is almost trying to cheat.
bha, annoying.
 

Zomg

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At least all these previews point towards an imminent release, and thus the end of our collective nightmare.
 

Claw

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Proweler said:
Anyway, it was a quest where you could use use your personal wits. At the start you were told that the mage used frost magic, bringing protection against such magic would have a clever thing to do.
Allright, Bethesda gets an extra point for trying, Prowler.

I do however agree with VD that the quests are idiotic. While the premise is promising, the execution is ridiculous.

For instance, why is the bloody murderer waiting in my room and greeting me before leaving quietly?
How does the girl know he's the murderer, and more importantly, how does it matter? The plan relies on baiting the murderer, I could've done that without knowing who to expect (other than a rouge wizard relying heavily on ice magic).

What would have made sense is if she'd been in liege with the murderer. He could've been in the tavern, maybe you could have gotten a chance to see her talking to him when you came in, she could've been in the mage's guild when you got the quest even, all to raise suspicion against her.
Also, there should've been an attempt on your life while you sleep if you actually sleep in your room instead of finding another place to rest.
There're lots of thing which could've turned the quest into something worthwhile, but the way it's presented it sounds idiotic, and it's really the same for all three quests.


PS:
And of course everyone and their neighbour replied while I wasn't paying attention.
 

Vault Dweller

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Drakron said:
Unfortunatly this is a example of FedEx quest with the "you are attacked" twist, the quest makes more sense that the above except the whole setup would been improved and expanded.
I'm talking about logic of this quest here, not design.

... that makes absolute no sense, if these quests were to test the potencial candidates abilities they sould been about mage skills and not rather generic quests.
Agree. The requirement to enter should have been a certain rank, not recommendations, especially earned by such lame quests.

That is the prespective you sould be looking then from, those are in essence quests in order to join the Mage University that end up being about either testing the ability to open your mouth (quest 1), able to see and touch a object (quest 2) and able to kill someone (quest 3).
I realize that quests are merely opportunities to test some skills or kill something as that's what quests do, but I'm looking at them from the perspective of HOW they do it. If "how" isn't important, they might as simplify it to something like:

PC: Quest!
NPC1: Skillcheck - passed! Reward: new rank and an item!

PC: Quest!
NPC2: Danger! Prepare for battle! *generates 3 bandits* ...
 

Andyman Messiah

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Drakron said:
Locue said:
Damn, if the dudes in Lord of the Rings had known all about fast travelling like the peeps at Bethesda do, maybe Tolkien wouldn't have written such a long book? Roleplaying at its finest, by the way.

Remenber ... they can only fast travel to places they have been.
So? They travel to the Elf Land and take Agent Smith along because he's been to Doomsday Mountain. Pop the ring in the lava, be home 'til Wrestlemania.
 

Drakron

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Vault Dweller said:
I'm talking about logic of this quest here, not design.

Well I dont think mages in TES can just conjure anything, Mark and Recall show teleportation is not as easy with Mage Guilds always having a dedicated "teleporter" room (or area).

I would like to know more, starting why the mage guildmaster is able to "see dead people" and why the amulet negates that ability.

Agree. The requirement to enter should have been a certain rank, not recommendations, especially earned by such lame quests.

Well depends,I dont think "Mage Uni" sould not be a rank thing since acomplished members of the Guild sould not need to enrole and just check the university library ... why it needs to be tied to rank is beyond me as why sould it be part of the Mage Guild (considering none of the previous TES had any problem with allowing people reach very high ranks without it) beyond a alternative to a "in the field" guild quest line (seperating the people that want the challange of research over working in the field for the guild).

I realize that quests are merely opportunities to test some skills or kill something as that's what quests do, but I'm looking at them from the perspective of HOW they do it. If "how" isn't important, they might as simplify it to something like:

PC: Quest!
NPC1: Skillcheck - passed! Reward: new rank and an item!

PC: Quest!
NPC2: Danger! Prepare for battle! *generates 3 bandits* ...

But that is wrong, the Mage Guild is about Magik and all that Jazz ... you could put those quests and make then generic quest lines without attachmant to a organization and they would still be exactly the same.

That is my issue.

Morrowind did had in-house playing with people using you to get to others to even the point there was a un-official war going with the Thief Guild and the Fighters Guild (and a dispute inside the Fighters Guild) that made then more alive ... problem was the Wiki system and writting simply failed to proper show then to the player.

So we moved from that design to generic quests and that is progress?
 

DarkUnderlord

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Mages Guild Quests said:
To get to the Mages University in the Imperial City you have to get a referral from each mage guild in each city.
I think every city is a bit much. I would've thought some (big, complicated, involved) quests would get you the referral which would hold you in good stead in and of themselves but the concept's a good one.

Mages Guild Quests said:
The NPC mage agreed, and npc told him to meet him later on tonight in the basement.
There seems to be a bit of that happening in Oblivion. "Psst.. Meet me behind the church / in the basement / behind the smithy at midnight".

Mages Guild Quests said:
After the quest, the head mage was relieved and the char. got a referral from teh mage guild in Bruma.
Yeah, getting a referral for that I think is a bit weak. My overall impression is that each mage guild only has one "referral" quest and they're all equally lame. I think a better approach would be to work your way up within each guild to a certain level before you get a referral from that guild, rather than the first quest you do. But I don't know enough about the Mage "University" or Magic in Oblivion (or magic in Morrowind for that matter, never used the stuff) to really understand what's happening.

Mages Guild Quests said:
The Mages guild in Legawiin was also in some deep [censored], and the head mage girl was going crazy. Legawiin is described as a woodsy type esque town, very pleasant. So it turns out, the reason the Head mage girl is going crazy and people think she is on crack is because she lost her dead fathers amulet and she was seeing visions of spirits and ghosts.
As someone else said, why does an amulet stop her seeing visions of Ghosts, what's that about? I'm guessing there's a lot more info behind the quest that we simply aren't being told. Information which would make the quest seem more "plausible".

Mages Guild Quests said:
She says, that her father died in a fort not to long ago, and this amulet was given to her, without it, she goes crazy and sees ghosts and spirits. She said to try and investigate the grave of her father in the Fort, and maybe you could find the amulet there.
I don't get it though. Her father gave her the amulet before he died, so how did it end up in the fort? Guess it's part of the mystery though and again, is something which would be explained.

Mages Guild Quests said:
So the char. heads on to the fort, he is given a quest pointer in the map, which is very helpfull, since you could get lost so easily.
Annoying becuase I actually like to use my brains to try and find these places. You know, follow the street signs. Ask the locals abd be told to "Take the windy road just past the tavern" type stuff. But eh. I guess it's the new wave of "role-playing".

Mages Guild Quests said:
But tehre was a surprise! On the way out of the the fort, this shady lone mage steps in your way and blocks your path! He seems to be a psycopath since he is obsessed about making the head mage girl crazy and depressed, so he doesen't want you to return the amulet to her.
So quest 1 was about making the mage guild head "worried" by guys playing a prank and quest 2 is also about making the head of the mages guild worried by playing some kind of trick... Right.

Mages Guild Quests said:
There is 1 more referral quest that he did, before he had to go, and that was in the city of anvil. Describes as very medieval and active port city, with alot of blacksmiths where all teh good weapons are.
So it's a town with lots of blacksmiths and "good weapons" and it's called... Anvil. Woe to originality.

Mages Guild Quests said:
To destroy the rumor of cities not being active, he litereally saw 20+ people in view, in the port section of the town!!
That's good but Doom 2 (back in the day) could show about 100+ monsters on screen without any slow-downs. Fallout could also have many, many people on-screen at once. So while 20 is a lot better than I expected, it's not exactly "bustling" and is probably an indicator about the kind of loading times and performance you're going to get out of Oblivion.

Mages Guild Quests said:
Okay, now that one just doesn't make any sense. The "nervous girl" has to bait the mage by making the PC walk a path but the mage was in the room before already (Any chance of killing him there and then? What does that do to the quest I wonder?)... Then she runs out and kills him for you after you bait him but she knows who he is anyway.

Mages Guild Quests said:
suddenly the murderer appears out of the tavern and runs to you and shouts that hes going to kill you and steal all your money!
Yes, because that's what serial killers do...

Anyway, seems like the same low standard of quests they had in Morrowind. Can't say I'm surprised. More and more Oblivion is turning out to be exactly the game I suspected it was all along. That is, not much more than Morrowind. Still fun and some-what enjoyable but dead-pan non-sensical quests you're probably forced to do in certain ways with no other real alternatives.
 

Llyranor

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Joined
Jun 13, 2004
Messages
348
The situation wasn't as bad as it seemed to be, the Missing mage and the NPC mage were just playing a prank on the head mage because they disliked him, thus using an invisible spell to worry the head mage. After the quest, the head mage was relieved and the char. got a referral from teh mage guild in Bruma.
ROFLTUNASANDWICH

She says, that her father died in a fort not to long ago, and this amulet was given to her, without it, she goes crazy and sees ghosts and spirits. She said to try and investigate the grave of her father in the Fort, and maybe you could find the amulet there. So the char. heads on to the fort, he is given a quest pointer in the map, which is very helpfull, since you could get lost so easily.
R00FLES!

On the way out of the the fort, this shady lone mage steps in your way and blocks your path! He seems to be a psycopath since he is obsessed about making the head mage girl crazy and depressed, so he doesen't want you to return the amulet to her. He says that you will die just like his father did in the fort!
LOLOLOLLIPOP

this nearby girl mage in the tavern too, whispers to you to go speak to her, you do so, and she seems very nervous, she tells you that she thinks the murderer is in this very tavern!, she tells you to get a room for the night and she will meet up with you up there when night comes. Now the guy really thought that this nervous girl was really the murderer and was prepared for anything that might happen, he really thought he was going to get ambushed in the room, but nevertheless he rented a room, when he entered the room, a mage was in the room, not the nervous girl mage, but an older mage, he was just sitting there, and greeted you then left, really shady. So you rested for the night, and when you woke up the nervous girl was there...she didn't attack you, but stayed true to her word and she told you that the mage that was waiting for you in teh room earlier was teh murderer
....



"Great podcast imo!"

"these were just the coolest highlights in the cool quests youy could find in the game."

"Wow, this is a great post! I am defiantly going to join the mages guild!"

"yea sounds like a whole game just to get into the mages guild...lots of gameplay here folks!"

"If the Mage guild quests are this in deph and complex! imagine how the other guilds will be like!!!"

"Mystic i have a question, in the quest, where the really epic and complex as you described tehm to be? Were you surprised and amazed of how well designed they were?"

ROFLASKYGSAKYGSAKJTALKSRHKASHGKASGHSAGSAHASHANADSREEA
 

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