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I finally got around to installing the free Daggerfall game I'd downloaded from Bethesda's site a few years ago. This is the older one that has to be manually unzipped and installed, not the newer one that's designed to automatically install from the Bethesda launcher-- which I had installed on my laptop last year, but never started playing.

I'm definitely of two minds so far. On one hand, I'm absolutely loving it. But on the other hand, the dungeons seem really long and complex, making most of them challenging to navigate and explore, and it seems rather difficult to find some of the quest objectives.

For instance, I chose to overwrote my first character because he couldn't find a lost child inside a dungeon after exploring almost every nook and cranny, and the only unexplored area was a large pool of water with a switch at the bottom that he couldn't reach because of two dreugh guarding it-- and since I'd saved over my game from before I'd accepted that quest, I finally opted to just abandon that character.

My second character got stymied by a different dungeon, and once again I accidentally overwrote my before-quest save and eventually decided to give up on that character-- but this time I kept his last save, in case I ever want to go back to him and try to resume.

My third character is going much better, mainly because I've been very careful not to overwrite my before-quest saves in case I decide to abandon a quest without losing reputation points. However, so far I've been able to finish all of the quests I've accepted, although some of them have been challenging to say the least. I'm holding off on the main quest for now, and focusing on side quests from guilds or jobs from various NPCs, trying to get better gear and work on some of my skills.

I have mixed feelings about the dungeons. Some of them are really large, which is frustrating at first, although it also makes them seem much more epic than dungeons in other Elder Scrolls games. But all of the switches in some of the dungeons are the worst part, especially switches that seem to be off by themselves such that flipping them has no discernible effect and you can't tell what they control. The ones that are next to elevators are obvious to figure out, and I managed to figure out another switch when I noticed that it made part of a bridge slide into place far overhead. But other switches have been a total mystery.

My current (third) character is a Bard-- not by choice, but as decided randomly with a spinning wheel picker app-- and I'm not thrilled about not being able to wear anything better than chain mail, especially since I haven't found any magical items that improve his Armor Rating yet. But so far I'm enjoying the game as I get used to navigating dungeons and very, very slowly exploring the map. Right now I'm sticking in the town immediately south of the starter dungeon, fast traveling to my quest locations but then returning back "home" until I feel like I've exhausted its options and am ready to move on elsewhere.

Very glad you have finally experienced this gem!

Always good advice for Daggerfall players is to use multiple save slots. I have a "Main" and "Quest" slot for each character. In the early says, this was very important because sometimes quests would bug out in unrecoverable ways, so it was wise to keep a save from before accepting each quest. Nowadays, it's just good practice.

but I also would advice not fretting much about failing a quest. Sure, you didn't find that lost child, but you did get lots of good skill practice and loot. As they say: the real treasure is the literal treasure you found along the way Failing a quest only costs you 2 rep anyhow, so that's not very painful when a successful quest earns you 5.

After you have a better feel for the game, try for a custom class. (and enjoy my faq on GameFAQs haha)

And welcome to the fold, as you are now "Daggerfriend"

Oh. Also: DFUnity. Check it out.

Modern controls. More save slots. MODS! there is even a quest-compass mod (Clairevoyance spell) that helps a lot.

Thank you for the welcome! I've been yo-yoing between absolutely loving the game and absolutely hating it.

Some dungeons seem to be so long that they could easily be called "epic," taking anywhere from several hours to several days to thoroughly explore. That could be seen as a strength or a weakness. So far I've spent a good bit of time in most of the dungeons I've been sent to, because I like to fully explore things if possible. After a while even convoluted dungeons start to become easy to navigate, and it should help that most dungeons are constructed from sections that get reused in other dungeons. It's when there are a lot of switches and magical portals complicating things that it can become very frustrating just trying to find my quest objective.

I want to hold off on switching to Daggerfall Unity until after I've experienced the original game. For one thing, I'm a bit of a purist; I don't use any fixes or mods or add-ons that aren't from Bethesda or ZOS, the only exception being the "officially endorsed" ones that can be purchased for Skyrim in the Creation Club. But I've watched many different streamers playing Daggerfall Unity on Twitch, and some of the mods and add-ons do look pretty amazing, such as one that apparently adds waving foliage that was seemingly taken from Oblivion, and another that apparently adds paintings taken from ESO.

Hello,

I recently started to play Daggerfall as well. It is a great game. There are so many things to do and so many places to explore. The freedom and endless exploration in this game is amazing.

I installed Daggerfall Unity and modded it with the most popular mods on nexusmods website. So far I had a great time with Daggerfall Unity and fan made mods.

I highly recommend smaller dungeons tweak. There is a one minute thirty three seconds long video guide on youtube about it. You can easily find it with these search keywords: daggerfall smaller dungeons.

For builds and gameplay mechanics please check Zaric Zhakaron's videos on youtube. He has some quality character build videos.

Have fun.

I'm actually enjoying the long dungeons in the original game, and often I find the quest objective without having to explore the whole dungeon. It's the times when I can't find the objective even after exploring everywhere which drive me nuts, and I'm starting to think I might have messed up the quests in those instances. In one or two cases I spoke to the quest giver a second time before leaving to do the quest he'd just given me, and that might have caused him to fail my quest. In another case I left the dungeon to travel to a town and sell my loot, then went back to the dungeon, and that might have caused the quest objective to despawn or something. But if those things are safe to do, then more likely I just missed some hidden part of the dungeon that could only be reached by using a magical portal or something.

I am new to the game but, as far as I know, leaving a dungeon resets it.

Other than levers opening secret doors or gateways I think various objects inside dungeons can teleport you to locations or open doors. I see people clicking on torches, skulls on sticks, lamps and they do it for a reason I think. So far I did not come across such a feature but in my opinion there is a secret game mechanic that allows you to teleport to hidden/secret places.

Sometimes the quest objective fella can be in a room that is hard to reach and that makes it harder to find.

Have fun.

Yeah, the quest objective NPCs are sometimes in very easy-to-find spots not too far from the dungeon's entrance, but they can also be in very obscure places which are deep inside the dungeon.

Last night I was doing a temple quest to find the guy who likes to get drunk and go missing, and he ended up being inside an underwater tunnel in a cavernous area! I guess he was using a very long-lasting Water Breathing spell.

But another time he was in the large open room with a ramp that's just next to the entrance in some dungeons. Funny thing was, I had been exploring everywhere else first, looking for a corridor that goes to that room, but couldn't find one, so I decided to just jump down there from the ledge, and there he was! Then I climbed back up to the ledge to leave.

Last night I had a similar thing happen with a spriggan quest-- the spriggan was down by the big ramp. I had just happened to jump down there before trying to explore everywhere, and there it was.

Kidnapped victims seem to be the most difficult to find, which makes sense.