Help or no help? Guide line to your quest.

ArchivedUser

Until I get back into AoC, I have tried a couple other MMOs. One has a ton of options to help you find your quest, and the other gives you a quest, but not guide lines.

In the first one you get a choice of what type of guide you want to help you find your way, and also adds an auto navigate. This can get cool to a point, that's until it runs you into a group of monsters, or your running into the side of a wall.

The second one gives you a quest, but you have no help to find it. You have to read every line of the quest giver, and figure out the area they are talking about. True it can be a pain, but it's the pay attention to details when locating your quest area. Sometimes it's plan as day, and other it took a little work, but you still can find it.

So............In AoC, what type of system would you like? One that helps you every step of the way, or one where you need to figure it out without all those helping hands?

Your thoughts please.

ArchivedUser

I don't see this "babying", but i don't want lets say what WoW does hey i have a quest over here. Walks over talks to quest giver here you Champion btw its here in this area oh btw the guy u also have to kill we will direct on what floor hes on! Good luck! Nope not that silly nanny crap. 

I dont want to spend more time going hey do u have a problem nope, do u?, do u?, in a Metro god thats going to take even longer.

ArchivedUser

I think quest boards and Inns could alleviate some of that time crunch looking for adventures. I would be down with an NPC waving me down when I walk by, just not a big yellow flashy thing over their head.

As for quest markers on maps and arrows to follow on the ground, I don't find those necessary.

ArchivedUser

I would like it to be an option that defaults to Off, so that you can turn it on when you feel frustrated by a particular quest. But if it's not an option just leave it off and make me want to read the quests by making them interesting not just because I need to know where to go and who to talk to.

ArchivedUser

I'd rather have help to find my quest than be left wondering where to go. It does not have to be excessive help though.

ArchivedUser

I think we should be left to our own devices as long as it's properly explained during dialogue and maybe in our quest log, but I don't want anything that will show me where to go and how to do it.

ArchivedUser

I just don't like this "You don't need to use your brain" system. I don't even read the quests anymore, just accept them - run to your point - run back to return it. Or even worst: use auto walk and  go afk until you reach your destination.

No thanks. 

ArchivedUser

I like figuring quests out for myself. But. I've done quests that are impossible to do without a guide. Or items/places that are impossible to find. 

Haven't we all done quests that make us want to throw out computer out the window because we couldn't figure it out? I'll "cheat", read a how-to, and I can only think that the person who did the guide has to be married to one of the developers. 

While waiting for AoC, I play Secret World Legends. It has the best game storyline/lore ever, but some of those quests are impossible without a guide. One quest, I swear, requires you to be a computer programmer to understand the clue lol 

The point being that nothing will frustrate a player more than a quest that they simply can't find a solution for. And without a solution, we'll eventually just stop playing.   

ArchivedUser

Like Santy said. The devil is in the detail after all, directions can be wrongly interpreted so having a "failsafe" that guides you a little bit more directly would be a good idea when everything else fails.

ArchivedUser

I'm hoping the devs implement these quests creatively enough that they don't need to have a magical path displayed for the player to follow. If the quest states "protect the caravan on the South end of the city", the player should be able to head South and find the caravan.

"Quests on rails" need to have these paths and areas marked on maps because there is likely only a 1 acre area to find "Goblin Mages". If the quest is "Gather 100 logs", players should be able to find trees to cut down wherever they decide to go. If the quest is "Kill 20 enemies attacking the Town", the player should be able to go find mobs attacking the town.

Hopefully quests in AoC won't be so trivial that we need to be in a specific place killing a specific mob to complete them.  

ArchivedUser

I say no lines, it's an rpg, if you read the text properly it copying should tell you, if it didn't tell you where to go then the quest makers need to step up their game.
By the really big tree south West of the village area goblins, we need them dead, thanks bye.
It's as easy as that.

ArchivedUser

I enjoyed getting lost in Morrowind back in the day. I didn't have the guide and I didn't care enough to go hunting online for one. I got lost, found something new/different/better/worse explored that, went back and found my goal.

For players that need to maximize their playtime, this would suck, I get that. Especially with a sub and people that only clock about 32 hours a month (that's me).
Imo, optional is not a decent way to go since some will just turn it on and leave it. That's my opinion, by no means a "this will end the game" of "IS has to do this," just my opinion.

ArchivedUser

The waving the hand idea i like that a lot!

ArchivedUser

I absolute hate the auto run feature or having the trail marker guiding me where to go. For me it takes out any actual playing of the game. That said I would say that general quest should very easy to understand and locate. With that said I think there is a case for making some quest a bit of a riddle so that it isn't something that every player will just be able to find. Things like that build a sense of accomplishment.

ArchivedUser

DwarvenGamesmith said:

I absolute hate the auto run feature or having the trail marker guiding me where to go. For me it takes out any actual playing of the game. That said I would say that general quest should very easy to understand and locate. With that said I think there is a case for making some quest a bit of a riddle so that it isn't something that every player will just be able to find. Things like that build a sense of accomplishment.

There should probably be a little bit of both kinds of quests.

The daily "grind out some work for your node" quests should be pretty routine and easy to figure out. Once players climb the learning curve of where to go to harvest wood, or kill orcs, the quests should be on farm mode. Definitely not auto-run your character there, but very simple logistics that allows the player with 30 minutes to play that night accomplish real (albeit small) progress for his character and node.

The more epic "complete these 3 objectives to unlock access to the cave under the volcano" type of quests should be "a bit of a riddle" as you suggest. Obviously by the 2nd week there will be guides on the fansites for all these quests, but they shouldn't be mindless farming like the dailies.

ArchivedUser

nscheffel said:

Obviously by the 2nd week there will be guides on the fansites for all these quests, but they shouldn't be mindless farming like the dailies.

Yeah that is one of the problems with the internet age that steals some of the impact and wonder that old RPG's had. Best you could get back in the day was word of mouth rumors about locations and secrets but you still had to hunt it down yourself. I don't expect it for AoC but the only way I could see getting around this would be with an implemented AI which could generate quest on the fly or at least alter quest by generating unique locations each time the quest is given.