Quest dialogs

elucve

It's really unpleasant when I have to spam E or F or R keys to progress the quest dialogs in some games. In wow you saw all the quest information on a single paper and hit Accept and that's it. So convenient if you want to read the story or not. Hope something like this will be implemented, what do you think?

Songcaller

I think the devs stated the quest text will be limited in Ashes. I think you would have to use the map alongside to work stuff out. Its about the only thing taken from WoW Vanilla.

elucve

That would be awesome

SongRune

I want NPC dialog, shared as dialog, in the sort of pacing dialog would have. I don't need it read out to me. "Slow-typing" is almost always annoying, but clicking through lines at my own pace feels natural. I don't care if there's a "skip" button for those who want it, as long as it's not easy to accidentally hit. I dislike the "NPC handed you a piece of paper with their story and request written on it" style of dialog and requests. It reduces my immersion, and nudges my brain to go "Oh! Next thing! Time to go!", not to mention that I'm not interacting with the quest-giver when I'm reading it. That's not really the experience I'm here for, and if it's the only (or main) one available, I'll be disappointed.

I don't mind if you want to provide a basic summary on an "accept quest" screen at the end, listing the objectives, though.

elucve

I think there are two separate methods here.

1) If the quest unveils like a dialog back and forth with the NPC you would feel like you have a connection with the NPC and the NPC is part of the storyline.

2) If you handed the piece of paper with the quest as you said, you would feel as if a Dungeon Master in D&D unveils a story and that's the kind of immersion you would get.

I feel these two methods have different purposes and depend purely on the quest type. Both methods can be implemented in a game!

Sengarden

Personally, I think a major component of quest-engagement is context and environmental storytelling. When I pull up to a new town and the local guard captain is putzing around in front of the inn before dropping half a dozen sentences about this gnoll encampment maybe a 5 minute jaunt away, it leaves me wondering why they aren't dealing with it themselves. They clearly aren't busy! But if I'm out in the woods foraging or something and I run into them and their guards fighting off a pack of them near the outskirts of the encampment, clearly in need of assistance, and they call out to me begging for help, then I get context primarily through environmental storytelling, sound effects, and some quick, well-delivered voice-lines (or even just succinct, noticeable speech bubbles). I'm excited to jump in and help the local defense with their task. Feels less like a chore and more like an opportunity to be a hero.

Maybe once the task is done, I later find them recovering back in the town, and then they can give me a few more detailed lines of dialogue about how the gnolls we killed were just a small division of a larger colony situated deeper in some nearby mountains, and how they have another unit of guards out there spying on them who could use the assistance of a fighter like myself. Because at that point, I'm already sucked in, and he's not telling me to "do this, do that", he's pulling me deeper into the already active story which I jumped into on my own.

If they can manage to weave their quests into the dynamic nature of the world from start to finish and utilize sensory storytelling to reduce the necessary word count of their quest dialogue, then I don't think hearing a few lines of succinct dialogue will matter to most people, and they'll already be engaged by the time they're asked to read or listen to it.

elucve

Yes, that would be really nice! I dropped a like!