Better locations for quest-givers

Communard

Not sure if this has been asked before, but a lot of the quests in the game are gained by picking the lock on someone's house, who then instead of calling the guard on the people who broke into his home, decides to give them a job! It always struck me as strange and completely unneccessary. Personally I would relocate them all to taverns because even if a house is unlocked it's generally considered rude to wander in while heavily armed...

Tanthalas

Maybe the locked door is a test of skill? >_>;

nulspace

Is that true during the day and during the night? I seem to recall doors being locked at night, but any relevant doors being open during the day...

smeagolheart

Is that true during the day and during the night? I seem to recall doors being locked at night, but any relevant doors being open during the day...

THat sounds like an Elder Scrolls or Ultima type of thing with the NPCs who keep schedules. In BG if a door is locked, it ain't ever unlocked unless someone picks it or a key or quest (like the golem in BG2 who unlocks all the doors in chateau irenicus.

Drugar

I only recall this happening for the lady in Beregost, eastern part. Unlocking her door from the start should fix that.

I'm strongly against clumping all NPC's in the inn for quest. That way lies the way of exclamation marks over their head and quest compasses. Leave them in their original places, it keeps some quests a nice surprise and doesn't make every inn feel simply like a questhub.

Communard

I only recall this happening for the lady in Beregost, eastern part. Unlocking her door from the start should fix that.

I'm strongly against clumping all NPC's in the inn for quest. That way lies the way of exclamation marks over their head and quest compasses. Leave them in their original places, it keeps some quests a nice surprise and doesn't make every inn feel simply like a questhub.

Well, they should at least stand outside. I have literally no motivation to go into random houses and they have no reason to trust someone who just barged into their home. I generally avoid those quests altogether because it is so immersion-breaking for me.

It also happens a couple more times, for example the miner's grieving widow in Nashkel, and several quests in Baldur's Gate city. And that's just the locked ones, there are lots that are just in random houses.

Tanthalas

@Communard
The opening locked doors thing is immersion-breaking, but I also like that players are rewarded with quests for exploring.

nulspace

@Communard
The opening locked doors is immersion-breaking, but I also like that players are rewarded with quests for exploring.

Beat me to it by just a few seconds! I was going to say the same thing - I think that when the quest-givers are inside their own homes, there's incentive to explore and investigate each one. That's one thing I loved about Baldur's Gate (the city) - so many buildings had something interesting going on inside them that wouldn't have become apparent if you hadn't explored.

Communard

I like that interesting things are happening (one of my favourite moments was interupting those two burglars in the South-East district), but the things that are happening shouldn't be random people greeting you warmly and giving you a quest when you just wandered into their house...