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A few concerns due to the bonus dev discussion

George_BlackGeorge_Black Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
edited September 2021 in General Discussion
The point of playing simultaneously with thousands of people, the point of being able to give or sell items to one another, the ability to attack a player or save a player from being killed by mobs is that you, as a person that created an adventurer, interact with other people in addition to the game world.

I am a bit concerned about the recent Dev discussion regarding avenues or leveling up. Especially due to a specific sentance from the discord 'News' post announcing this topic: "... or spend your time enjoying a nice quest chain?"

Comments

  • George_BlackGeorge_Black Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
    edited September 2021
    Are we losing sight of what the game tries to achieve? Bring back the massive multiplayer from mmorpg?

    I have never seen a challenging quest chain in Tera, AA, BDO, Eso, ff14.
    They are all super easy and the focus isnt gameplay, it's narrative.

    The story is there to set the scenery of the game. Players in older mmos come in contact with the lore every time they speak to an npc, but the latest mmos have players coming in contact ONLY with npcs and story, and players can only be found on Group Finder.

    If you take a group of people that are friends, but also have their own free will instead of following the loudest voice in the discord and its no. 2 and you will see that they can play together if they start following quest lines.
    They will walk alone, following their favourite NPC given scenarios and the whole group play goes out the window, and since one is weaker than a few, the content becomes weaker and everybody reaches lv cap and high end gear.

    Why should quests award xp? We have:
    Classes
    Weapons
    Secondary classes
    All of which have their own skill trees. Why not have quests that players can do solo, which unlock this part of the character progress?
    Why not have solo quests related to one specific, strong skill of Knight, nevcromancer, minstel?

    We have node type occupations, craft/gathering/processing occupations.
    Why not have quests related to that?

    I can keep going on an on about things that could be tied to themes, stories, lore that can be quest related.
    Why does it have to be xp? Why does it have to be gold? Why does it have to be items?
    Want materials? Go gather. Want gold? Kill, pick up the certificates, sell to vendors, get involved with the player economy.
    So much creative writting can be tied to character progress rewards, like the ones mentioned above.
    How much writting can you do where the story ends with this line: "Here, take this. For your trouble." and oooh shit, it's xp gold and an item.
  • George_BlackGeorge_Black Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
    edited September 2021
    Steven has said "there will be something for everyone", "solo players will be able to enjoy the game", but isnt it time that we respected that player made gameplay should be superior to interactions with npcs?

    What difference are we talking about between, let's say grinding, instanced pve and questing solo?

    Are classes and weapons just flavours, since everything can be overcomed following a quest chain, or do we make the decisions to fill our role for our group of adventurers because we are playing an mmo, not a singleplayer rpg.

    In every mmo except for one, I managed to reach the peak of my character solo, as if I was playing a singleplayer game.

    I hope this is not what people will do again in AoC.
  • NoaaniNoaani Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
    Just because you have not seen a challenging quest in games that were focused on narrative (ESO, FFXIV) and PvP (the rest), that doesnt mean they dont exist.

    When you look at the focus of those five games you listed, and take in to consideration that there are games out there that are specifically catering to actual contwnt and gameplay elements, are you surprised that those five listed games do not have challenging quests?

    Honestly, that is a bit like complaining about open PvP, and using WoW as your example - of course those games are not going to expose you to challenging quests.
  • McShaveMcShave Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I'm not concerned that this game will be overly filled with solo questing content. In Jahlon's most recent video, he pointed out that there will be quests that you have to do as a group, like the goblin village in A1.

    I didn't play A1, so i can't speak for the type of quests that exist, but from the fundamental game design being player driven content, I don't see how Intrepid can make questing the only way to level (only as in very optimal). There cannot be a linear set of quests that you follow that strings you along from level to level.

    I imagine there will be quests that everyone will want to do because they are already doing some of the content related to it. Like starting quests, a quest chain that ends in a dungeon run, or a quest to clear out a goblin camp (like, you were going to grind out some XP anyways, might as well get a bit of gold for it). I'm sure there will be other quests, like profession, religion, class, etc. type quests that help you out in a way that isnt just character XP.

    I'm mostly interested in what stories Intrepid can tell through questing. The Dev's are mostly from the old school EQ days, so I'm not concerned just yet that they've forgotten about simple and interesting quests.
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