Story quests for each Archetype/Class

Asgerr

This is a thought I was having while playing FFXIV.

In that game, every basic class and then advanced class (called jobs) has a storyline that players play through. This fleshes out the lore behind the archetype and adds some interesting story content that might delve into lore details.

Maybe have it only up to level X, or when we unlock the secondary archetype?

Pros:
- More lore and fleshed out archetypes
- More rewarding way to acquire new skills than just clicking Yes on a window
- More content

Cons:
- More work on the devs' and writers' part
- Forced lore on an archetype might not function well with the secondary archetype augment system
- Could feel tedious depending on the storyline's quality


What are your thoughts on the matter? Any other pros or cons I haven't thought of?

Mowaby

Asgerr wrote: »

This is a thought I was having while playing FFXIV.

In that game, every basic class and then advanced class (called jobs) has a storyline that players play through. This fleshes out the lore behind the archetype and adds some interesting story content that might delve into lore details.

Maybe have it only up to level X, or when we unlock the secondary archetype?

Pros:
- More lore and fleshed out archetypes
- More rewarding way to acquire new skills than just clicking Yes on a window
- More content

Cons:
- More work on the devs' and writers' part
- Forced lore on an archetype might not function well with the secondary archetype augment system
- Could feel tedious depending on the storyline's quality


What are your thoughts on the matter? Any other pros or cons I haven't thought of?

There might be something like this. They said something at least for race quests. There are also religion quests and organization quests.

Kionashi

since you need to do a quest to change your secondary archetype, I don't see why those quest wouldn't be related to the class and of course Lore is always cool

SnowyPoupa

Well I always liked the class quests at FFXIV.
The more quests we have the better is for the game. As long as those quests bring quality over quantity.

Even World of Warcraft made some nice quests for each class but abandoned that idea after one expansion(sad).

Honshu

In principle, class quests are nice because they help delve into what it really means to be a member of a class. In reality, I don't think it will be necessary because Ashes of Creation is more of a player driven than a developer story driven experience. What you are or where you are from is less important than what you will do. The existing social hemispheres (Nodes, Guilds, Social Organizations [Thieves' Guild, Scholars' Academy, etc], Religions, Families) serve to bond you to other players in some fashion, whereas class quests focus more on fleshing out your experience as a member of a class. However, the different racial civilizations imply that then you'd have to break it further down to what it means to be [x] race and [y] class, because it's not like the ancient civilizations were some multicultural paradise, each parent race had its own civilization. Since classes are not race locked, this necessitates that you design something of a separate experience for each race and class combo. If you're Empyrean Paladin, their history would differ from that of a Vaelune Paladin, for example. Sure they're both called Paladin, but each one would have a different set of lore, because each one existed independent of the other.

It just starts to look like a lot of extra work for something that frankly doesn't matter that much (what you are vs what you do). Background lore can handle that sort of stuff better for less effort. If you really want to figure out what it means to be an Empyrean Paladin, go read their lore.

TLDR: I don't think its important enough to be worth attention. I'd rather have the quest team work on fleshing out questlines in the guild system, social organizations, the node system, and religions than devote attention to class quests.

Asgerr

@Honshu You've summed it all up very well. This is indeed the larger concern I have with whether this could be implemented into AoC.

If you had to try to cram it in there, without needing to create 64x8 quest classes, what could be a good option?

WhitneyHagasMatsumoto

I think that's a very interesting idea!

If I were to incorporate that idea, but not make the effort too big, I would use ......

I don't think this quest needs to be whittled down to the level of each class for each race, as Honshu-san suggests.

I believe that basic combat skills are a discipline that transcends culture.
The idea that you are not to be attacked by the enemy and you are to attack the enemy would be common to all cultures.

In that sense, the quest to learn the lost fighting skills of ancient times does not have to be terribly fragmented.

And it would be great if a similar quest could be included in crafting. lol