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A real questing system?

ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
edited March 2018 in Ashes of Creation Design
Do any of you recall the original questing system in old school EQ prior to the dummying down trend?

There were no icons over NPCs heads as it should be. You had to engage an NPC to figure out who they were, what they had to offer, and sometimes were unsure if they had a purpose such as being part of a quest line.

In old school EQ conversations with NPCs were dependent on using keywords to continue dialogue and open up new dialogue. Players had to deduce what to say and to whom in order to continue the quest line and eventually solve it. Players had to use their intellect, game world knowledge, and reason; as it should be.

There were no dots on a mini map directing you where to go next as part of a quest line as it should be. Players need to figure that out on their own.

What will AoCs questing be? Will it simply involve an NPC spilling their guts immediately and completely followed by mindless task performing, or will it be deep like old school EQ and require that a player use their brains?

Comments

  • Ashes won't have icon's marking NPCs as having quests, you have to talk with the npc and go through branching dialogue to discover their quest (not all options lead to receiving the quest) - I don't know if quest locations will be marked on maps or not - Have a quote from the devs about questing

    "We’re going to be breaking up what is traditionally called ‘questing’ into three different categories: Narratives, Events, and Tasks. We want to avoid going down the path of trying to force narrative into gameplay where it doesn’t really fit (ie: filler stuff that doesn’t really relate to what’s happening in the world), so what you find in the Narratives category is where you’ll find most of what you might call traditional quests. Because we’re jettisoning filler, we’ll have the resources to craft a really excellent story, with gameplay that reflects the scope of that story. Events are where you’ll find your public quests, though these will be scaled to fit local, regional, and global needs. They’ll also have consequences locally, regionally, and globally, for good (if they’re taken care of successfully) or for ill (if a fail condition is reached). Tasks are hyper-local to individual Nodes, and will be centered around developing the Node that they belong to. If you want to go kill five wolves, this is where you’d do it. You can kill five wolves on your own, and that will count toward Node progression, but if a Task is offered to kill five wolves, then both the Node and your character will get bonus XP when that task is completed. Tasks will be numerous and varied, and will reflect the different gameplay styles that players can engage in within Ashes – there will be crafting, exploration, combat, and gathering oriented tasks (among many others)."
  • MMO’s we’re headed in one direction of more immersive, complete questing and not guiding players, a feeling a lot of players have been looking for but with WoW releasing when it did and the success it had, MMO’s almost split from the reality there was and went into a gear based progression where getting better and better loot is the soul driving gameplay element to the game.

    Almost how the world we live in could easily have turned into a steampunk world many fantasies imagine instead of one relying on oil. MMO’s took a similar turn and it’d be interesting to see how games would have shaped up had every game been going along this path and all the lessons we’d have learned on making better kinds of games like these.

    I’ve personally wanted to see games go this route. 
  • I was hopping they could do a questing system for traders and gatherers. For ex: If I was a cook I could put up a quest asking for 100 "meat" and offer say 35 <currency>. The person turning in the quest would not only get the currency I offered but would also get exp for doing the quest. As the node levels up more quest would be able to be put at say the cooking shop, blacksmithing shop.... Also the price for said quest could go up allowing the merchant to offer more currency for the items asked. With tradeskills I think people like Blacksmithing, leatherworking... could put up goods as quest and guild could buy them out say 5-20 items ranging in currency asked for. although we could still have the AH for people willing to spend less or more for the items.  I think trade questing would be a kind of more involvement for trading. However I belive the max quest per node for each merchant shop should be no more than 50 per day and can increase with node level increase.
     
    Any thoughts on this idea?
  • You mean people should be able to sell user defined services as well as products with player gold and game XP.
    Dont see a problem if they use a template form and generic quest types to pick from.
    Your basically doing the job for intrepid in a live organic way rather than pre ordained fashion that might lose its relevance.
  • I want to see failure to complete quests result in lost experience and the possibility of the node losing a tier. 

    IE dragon attack, failure of defeating awakened dragon results in a destroyed city and backward progress, players will rebuild and will eventually come to face said dragon again.

    Id like to see a game where the events are actually challenging and failing events can also be made fun.
  • I think player-generated quests are an awesome idea, if handled correctly.  One problem would be if someone creates a quest, another player finishes the quest, but the original player no longer plays the game.  I guess there would have to be a "quest dispatching" center, similar to an AH, where the quest-maker deposits stuff, so even if they're no longer around, the quest stands...interesting possibilities here
  • Also, consequences for failed quests is a good idea, with the possibility of going backwards sometimes instead of always forward, it would intensify the game.  Agree that wow is too loot-based, the loot is more important than the quest/storyline itself.  I sure hope AOC lives up to the hype....I still remember Rift a few years ago, meh
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