Quest Log: Chaos Edition

[LotusEater]

So how many quests do you normally keep active at a time? Right now I have 35 open and active quests between questlines and misc stuff. My map is covered with quest markers to the point that my compass in next to useless, which is an added bonus. I've been just wandering around and hitting stuff as I go by, acquiring quests as I go and adding to the list.

 

[shadowkitty]

I usually have only one, unless two quests send me to the same place. I guess I like my map to look neat..lol

 

[Wildroses]

I normally have about 8-15 regular quests and 20 misc quests. This is because Skyrim keeps forcing quests I have no intention of completing into my journal, or quests I haven't even decided if I want to complete into my journal.

Dawnguard is a classic example. My current character is level 40, I haven't even decided if she's going to do Dawnguard yet, but it's been sitting in my journal since level 12 because even if you successfully evade Durak a guard will shove it in there eventually.

I decided to do the main quest on this character, but I don't want to do In my Time of Need, but you can't start one without the other. Even if you manage to run past the Alik'r after killing the first dragon, they stand there for days knowing eventually you'll want to leave Whiterun and then they can pounce. I tried it once.

Books are awful for bloating your quest journal as well. You haven't a choice about reading them if you pick them up. I usually avoid the one that starts Boethiah's Quest, but I'm always forgetting how many misc quests are in books and Lost Legend's starts the Galder Amulet quests that you need to start the College of Winterhold quests to finish.

Roleplaying can also put quests you don't plan to complete in your journal. You can't let your character take advantage of the knowledge what will happen you have, and have to react how they would react. So my current good hero decided to help Vigilant Tyrannus investigate the Abandoned House... She feels bad about killing him and decided to rescue the priest, but she has no plans of going anywhere near the Abandoned House ever again, so The House of Horrors will never leave her journal.

 

[Manmangler]

I have No Stone Unturned, Dark Brotherhood (You can't avoid getting that in Your Misc section). one fetch that book (WHich is bugged, I has already take that book, so no change complete that quest) Help Sorine, repairing White Phial (That courier find me, freaky), few dragonborn misc quest (werebear brother, Drink distribution, hidden stash), lost to the ages but that its.

Previously when I started first Dawngard, I have zillion quest. I just started doing those before going any mainquest, companions, civil war, thieves guild or mage college. I want clear journal before getting in any serious business. This is also one way avoid script problems, especially Civil War and hosu from windhelm.

 

[Chadonraz]

I usually keep my journal as clean as possible, although the misc mission list can get quite long.

My current character, however, has about fifteen active quests, plus four misc missions. One of the misc ones is most likely impossible to complete because I unintentionally caused it to bug out. The other three (Civil War and Companions) will be cleared - eventually.

I decided to do the main quest on this character, but I don't want to do In my Time of Need, but you can't start one without the other. Even if you manage to run past the Alik'r after killing the first dragon, they stand there for days knowing eventually you'll want to leave Whiterun and then they can pounce. I tried it once.

Roleplaying can also put quests you don't plan to complete in your journal. You can't let your character take advantage of the knowledge what will happen you have, and have to react how they would react. So my current good hero decided to help Vigilant Tyrannus investigate the Abandoned House... She feels bad about killing him and decided to rescue the priest, but she has no plans of going anywhere near the Abandoned House ever again, so The House of Horrors will never leave her journal.

You can avoid the Alik'r by going around them; go behind Warmaiden's, and follow the path the gate guard sometimes walks. It'll take you to the city gate, "behind" the Alik'r. The same trick should work when entering Whiterun. You may need to sprint, though.

My current character is in the exact same situation regarding "The House of Horrors".
Have to admit, I hadn't known you could refuse to help the Daedra without any repercussions... Kinda stupid that it makes no difference, though.

 

[Wildroses]

It just occurred to me by 'active' quests the thread starter might have meant: "How many to do you check in your quest journal" not "How many quests are in your journal". The former didn't occur to me as I never use that feature. I hate the arrows. They make it too easy and distract from the graphics. I get a new quests forced in my journal and I go : "Oh #$%* it's that arrow again. Get lost." *click* "Much better." It's good when you get a quest which has no arrow to start with because you can just activate that one then no arrows ever appear when Skyrim forces another quest into your journal.

Have to admit, I hadn't known you could refuse to help the Daedra without any repercussions... Kinda stupid that it makes no difference, though.

Hermaeus Mora is a particularly WTF LOL example of this in Discerning the Transmundane. The first time you talk to him if you say: "I'll never serve you, vile demon" after he tells you you're going to be his new flunky once Septimus is rendered obsolete he says: "Be warned. Many have thought as you do. I have broken them all. You cannot evade me forever." Actually Hermy, I can. All I have to do is never return to the Outpost and there isn't a thing you can do about it. Mehrunes Dagon suffers from this as well. "What? How dare you betray me by letting that guy live! There will be repercussions! I'm sending two Daedra with lootable hearts and the key to my shrine full of riches to you. That'll teach you to mess with me!"

 

[Chadonraz]

Have to admit, I hadn't known you could refuse to help the Daedra without any repercussions... Kinda stupid that it makes no difference, though.

To clear up: by "Daedra" I refer to just Molag Bal. I've defied all of the others that can be defied, so I really don't know why I thought he'd be any different...

 

[HappyFaceClown]

Just 1 active at a time for me, 2 or more way points and i can never find the destination, the mehrunes razor quest is hard as plops to me for this specific reason.

 

[LotusEater]

It just occurred to me by 'active' quests the thread starter might have meant: "How many to do you check in your quest journal" not "How many quests are in your journal". The former didn't occur to me as I never use that feature. I hate the arrows. They make it too easy and distract from the graphics. I get a new quests forced in my journal and I go : "Oh #$%* it's that arrow again. Get lost." *click* "Much better." It's good when you get a quest which has no arrow to start with because you can just activate that one then no arrows ever appear when Skyrim forces another quest into your journal.

Ya. I just happen to keep mine all checked. I gotta say I've never had the arrows distract from the graphics. I'm not really sure what you mean by that. In fact, since I don't fast-travel, the more arrows the better. The compass is gonna be there regardless and when you have 20+ arrows crowding it, you tend to stop looking at it. Nowadays I just look at it to get my bearings, like I would a pocket compass. Now when I use my map, I don't head towards an arrow on the map, I head towards the Hold with the most arrows. I used to keep my quest log immaculate and handle minimal quests at a time but that became too much like work.


It's funny that Mehrune's Razor was mentioned because I just finished that quest last night. Took a loooooong time before I was able to be in the areas I needed to be in order to complete that quest. Between the no fast-travel and all the other quest stuff I was handling on the way, it took literally weeks before I was able to finally make it to the shrine. I've never been so excited to walk up a virtual flight of steps...

Agent of Mara took forever and a day too but now I wear that MR like a huge badge of pride.

 

[Remington721]

As I go up in lvl my quest log always gets smaller . I try to keep it small , and remenber to keep it up dated to avoid glitches.

 

[Rimfaxe96]

Thanks to buggyness I have about 6 quests stuck in my journal forever. I usually don't work on more than one quest at a time; everything needs to have his order. Plus I get confused easily.

 

[Wildroses]

I didn't mean the arrows on the compass, I meant the arrows outside the compass. They're just so bossy and attention demanding. Talk to this person! Take this thing! Walk out this door! I hate them. Most of the time I get a new quest I'm indoors, so the nearest door instantly gets an arrow.

 

[HappyFaceClown]

I didn't mean the arrows on the compass, I meant the arrows outside the compass. They're just so bossy and attention demanding. Talk to this person! Take this thing! Walk out this door! I hate them. Most of the time I get a new quest I'm indoors, so the nearest door instantly gets an arrow.

I'm pretty sure you can turn those off in the options menu, why not just do that?

 

[LotusEater]

I didn't mean the arrows on the compass, I meant the arrows outside the compass. They're just so bossy and attention demanding. Talk to this person! Take this thing! Walk out this door! I hate them. Most of the time I get a new quest I'm indoors, so the nearest door instantly gets an arrow.

I must have kinder, gentler arrows because they don't bother me at all.

 

[Wildroses]

I hadn't realised that was possible. My technique of activating a quest with no arrow has the same effect though, so I don't think I have to bother figuring out how.

 

[Patches]

I ended up being an all-around sort of person by joining every faction just to clear up quest log. Yes, it's that bad.

 

[HappyFaceClown]

I hadn't realised that was possible. My technique of activating a quest with no arrow has the same effect though, so I don't think I have to bother figuring out how.

Just use the way point u activate yourself, its far less "in your face"

 

[LotusEater]

I ended up being an all-around sort of person by joining every faction just to clear up quest log. Yes, it's that bad.

All my builds end up being all-around by the time I retire them. They all start off with strict RP guidelines until they get to be about lv 40ish and then it becomes a free for all. Quests are fun and I can only avoid my favorites for so long.

 

[Dawn]

I ended up being an all-around sort of person by joining every faction just to clear up quest log. Yes, it's that bad.

All my builds end up being all-around by the time I retire them. They all start off with strict RP guidelines until they get to be about lv 40ish and then it becomes a free for all. Quests are fun and I can only avoid my favorites for so long.

To some extent, leveling a character much past 30 or 40 almost requires doing all the factions. Not to mention being able to visit all the areas that are quest locked to factions.

As for active quests, I try to keep them to a minimum, though mid game I'm usually struggling with all the auto added quests I'll never complete stuffing up my journal.

Oh and my pet peeve. They removed all the details about quests that existed in previous games such that completing many quests without prior knowledge or use of the stupid map arrows would be nearly impossible.

 

[LotusEater]

I ended up being an all-around sort of person by joining every faction just to clear up quest log. Yes, it's that bad.

All my builds end up being all-around by the time I retire them. They all start off with strict RP guidelines until they get to be about lv 40ish and then it becomes a free for all. Quests are fun and I can only avoid my favorites for so long.

To some extent, leveling a character much past 30 or 40 almost requires doing all the factions. Not to mention being able to visit all the areas that are quest locked to factions.

Not true at all. I gain more experience walking to my quest targets than the quests themselves. Hell, I get more experience hunting. Now if all you do is fast-travel, then yea, you may have a point.

Go hunt deer in the Rift with Runes and see what your Destruction skill does.

 

[Dawn]

All my builds end up being all-around by the time I retire them. They all start off with strict RP guidelines until they get to be about lv 40ish and then it becomes a free for all. Quests are fun and I can only avoid my favorites for so long.

To some extent, leveling a character much past 30 or 40 almost requires doing all the factions. Not to mention being able to visit all the areas that are quest locked to factions.

Not true at all. I gain more experience walking to my quest targets than the quests themselves. Hell, I get more experience hunting. Now if all you do is fast-travel, then yea, you may have a point.

Go hunt deer in the Rift with Runes and see what your Destruction skill does.

Seeing as all experience comes from skill usage, and none comes from actual quests, it is possible to level without ever doing a single quest.

So I guess my comment was more tied to trying to level a well defined (e.g. uses only a handful of specific skills) and non-exploiting (e.g. not spamming muffle to level Illusion) character.

My level 50ish character has completed Dawnguard, Dragonborn, Civil War, and the main quest line along with miscellaneous side quests for various holds.

Even so, without resetting a skill to legendary it is very hard to level, no matter how many deer or vampires or dragur are killed.

Mostly this is because my primary combat skill is already 100 and things like speech and lockpicking level very slowly.

Without leveling skills I never use and which are not part of my character, like magic schools, I'm left to level very slowly.

Thus for me I either start doing the various factions simple to break up the monotony, or I shelve the character and start all over.

At this rate, I'm not sure I'll ever see the Ebony Warrior without making some generic character that uses every single ability just to gain levels.

 

[LotusEater]

To some extent, leveling a character much past 30 or 40 almost requires doing all the factions. Not to mention being able to visit all the areas that are quest locked to factions.

Not true at all. I gain more experience walking to my quest targets than the quests themselves. Hell, I get more experience hunting. Now if all you do is fast-travel, then yea, you may have a point.

Go hunt deer in the Rift with Runes and see what your Destruction skill does.

Seeing as all experience comes from skill usage, and none comes from actual quests, it is possible to level without ever doing a single quest.

So I guess my comment was more tied to trying to level a well defined (e.g. uses only a handful of specific skills) and non-exploiting (e.g. not spamming muffle to level Illusion) character.

My level 50ish character has completed Dawnguard, Dragonborn, Civil War, and the main quest line along with miscellaneous side quests for various holds.

Even so, without resetting a skill to legendary it is very hard to level, no matter how many deer or vampires or dragur are killed.

Mostly this is because my primary combat skill is already 100 and things like speech and lockpicking level very slowly.

Without leveling skills I never use and which are not part of my character, like magic schools, I'm left to level very slowly.

Thus for me I either start doing the various factions simple to break up the monotony, or I shelve the character and start all over.

At this rate, I'm not sure I'll ever see the Ebony Warrior without making some generic character that uses every single ability just to gain levels.

They gave you the option to continue leveling without diversifying. Why not take advantage? Start shifting skills into Legendary status.