Tragic / Dark Questlines & Areas

Hello everyone!

I was always intrigued about darker questlines that gave you an "oh shoot" moment or fueled theories because they were left open ended. I was wondering if there is any info about quest areas like these?

I think there should be a contrast to the quest area too. For example, you have this beautiful and peaceful forest / river area and then you pursuit a questline that gets darker the deeper you go and revealing some really tragic outcome in an otherwise peaceful area, rather than confining the dark moments to dark areas and already making it obvious. Same goes for happy stories in dark areas.

On top of that, i think they should have some things exist in the game for the sake of existing. maybe referencing their existence in a totally different area and questline kinda like Elden ring story telling in the item description or the kids of elwyn forest in world of warcraft.

would you appreciate that type of content?

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Dygz

Steven says there is a Twisted path players can pursue.

Hinotori

Dygz wrote: »

Steven says there is a Twisted path players can pursue.

The twisted route is playing a tulnar which leads to a tragic ending, for the tulnar.

arkileo

Twists and emotional impact are what makes quests memorable and worth reading.

I really don't care about reading the quest text when the dude just wants 20 bear arses because he's hungry.

WoW makes a mostly forgettable quests, but the Darrowshire and Legend of Stalvan quests stand out as particularly memorable ones, and both happen to be pretty tragic.

Hopefully there's room for punchy quests in Ashes. Games that focus on events over quests, I'm thinking of GW2, don't do themselves many favors when it comes to interesting storytelling in the world.

TheDarkSorcerer

There was this one quest in ESO, i forgot the name. Just a random non-important quest near this little house in the middle of nowhere. This older lady said her husband left her for another woman while she was sick and dying. She asked me to help her find ingredients for a cure to help her in her sickness. Random scattered quests like that feels so wholesome to me. Like the world is not just so focused on your save-the-world mission, but that NPC's have their own struggles and side stories.

CROW3

arkileo wrote: »

Twists and emotional impact are what makes quests memorable and worth reading.

I really don't care about reading the quest text when the dude just wants 20 bear arses because he's hungry.

WoW makes a mostly forgettable quests, but the Darrowshire and Legend of Stalvan quests stand out as particularly memorable ones, and both happen to be pretty tragic.

Hopefully there's room for punchy quests in Ashes. Games that focus on events over quests, I'm thinking of GW2, don't do themselves many favors when it comes to interesting storytelling in the world.

The hidden quests in WoW are pretty dark as well - for instance the backstory to Scholomance.

Aszkalon

Limit404 wrote: »

Tragic / Dark Questlines & Areas

Prepare to Cry : Lord Carphin the corrupted.

Prepare to Cry : King Atrax the betrayed.

And so on - and so on. Yes what i just wrote and named are just Examples of how sad and tragic Storylines could be portrayed in for Example a Series of Videos on YouTube,

the " Prepare to Cry "-Series was started from the many, sad Fates of Characters from the DarkSouls Franchises. But sometimes, Prepare to Cry-Videos find their Way into other Fantasy Universes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK-cmDQenfk

Very often, these Storylines can be very simple in Nature - but are often very brilliantly executed in Storytelling. It makes the Lifes and Fates of fictional Characters in a digital Fantasy Universe so much more moving and heavy.

If Intrepid does this right - this will be definitely a good Addition to Ashes of Creation.

" It is not always a happy Ending ... ... " - King Gaiseric, Skull Knight of Berserk.

It makes fighting ingame for the Fate of our Nodes so much more worth fighting for. And even if Intrepid did not say it has such Plans for the Future,

imagine World Events which get completed either successfully, or in Failure -> on different Servers.

And depending on how it ended - whole World Regions might be different on different Servers. But maybe this is asking a bit to much.

Limit404

thanks for the inputs. at least im a bit at ease. as some people mentioned, the story should not be just about progressing the feeling of "oh thats why we have to save the world" but more like FF 14, where there is a difference between MSQ and important side quest that tell all kinds of different stories.

Dark, happy, weird, twist ending.... small town stories showing they live a life of their own outside of the pending doom. Own struggles and desires. love it already!

auremfern

Morally grey is my favorite color, not everyone wants to be the knight and shining armor. Some of us want to struggle with conflict.

Aszkalon

auremfern wrote: »

Morally grey is my favorite color, not everyone wants to be the knight and shining armor. Some of us want to struggle with conflict.

This reminds me, that sometimes in the Game Witcher III : The wild Hunt - you had to "act morally grey", if you truly wanted the best Outcome in the end. For Ciri as well.

You kinda fxxx up a few things - and i mean fxxx things up HARD - if you act like a heroic Character. x'D

auremfern

Aszkalon wrote: »

auremfern wrote: »

Morally grey is my favorite color, not everyone wants to be the knight and shining armor. Some of us want to struggle with conflict.

This reminds me, that sometimes in the Game Witcher III : The wild Hunt - you had to "act morally grey", if you truly wanted the best Outcome in the end. For Ciri as well.

You kinda fxxx up a few things - and i mean fxxx things up HARD - if you act like a heroic Character. x'D

ahahah that's awesome!

CROW3

Aszkalon wrote: »

auremfern wrote: »

Morally grey is my favorite color, not everyone wants to be the knight and shining armor. Some of us want to struggle with conflict.

This reminds me, that sometimes in the Game Witcher III : The wild Hunt - you had to "act morally grey", if you truly wanted the best Outcome in the end. For Ciri as well.

You kinda fxxx up a few things - and i mean fxxx things up HARD - if you act like a heroic Character. x'D

Funny - that’s the exact game that came to mind when I read their post. 👍

JamesSunderland

Lineage 2 world is so full of gloom and doom that it's hard to pick a single quest and a single area.

For quest, i would probably pick one the dark elves only quests, Testimony of Fate, it's crazy to watch this once extremely virtuous and faithful human priest completely fall into dispair and vengeful hatred towards his clergyman peers and the higher ups who conspired for the execution and excommunication of his little sister to stop his ascension in the church, making him go as far as getting involved with the masters of the dark arts the dark elfs in order to acquire the remains of his sister who was prohibited from being buried in sacred grounds and get some of the nastiest poisons to end his and his past "friends" lifes. In the end your main objective isn't even to "help the guy" but just take advantage of a historic resource and information he has in order to advance the knowledge and power of your own race.

For Area, i would certainly pick Hellbound Island, imagine having a peaceful life on this island far from the main continents wars and struggles, just for in a bright sunny day have this extremely powerful and evil wizard from the main continent make your lair his new kingdom of suffering by making a pact with the Goddess of darkness and the worst demons in hell to open a portal right in front of your backyard while becoming and watching your family and community become his eternal slaves and having your children taken away to be used on the most horrible of evil experiments.

Q: Would you appreciate that type of content?

A: Yes, certainly.

Limit404

JamesSunderland wrote: »

Lineage 2 world is so full of gloom and doom that it's hard to pick a single quest and a single area.

For quest, i would probably pick one the dark elves only quests, Testimony of Fate, it's crazy to watch this once extremely virtuous and faithful human priest completely fall into dispair and vengeful hatred towards his clergyman peers and the higher ups who conspired for the execution and excommunication of his little sister to stop his ascension in the church, making him go as far as getting involved with the masters of the dark arts the dark elfs in order to acquire the remains of his sister who was prohibited from being buried in sacred grounds and get some of the nastiest poisons to end his and his past "friends" lifes. In the end your main objective isn't even to "help the guy" but just take advantage of a historic resource and information he has in order to advance the knowledge and power of your own race.

For Area, i would certainly pick Hellbound Island, imagine having a peaceful life on this island far from the main continents wars and struggles, just for in a bright sunny day have this extremely powerful and evil wizard from the main continent make your lair his new kingdom of suffering by making a pact with the Goddess of darkness and the worst demons in hell to open a portal right in front of your backyard while becoming and watching your family and community become his eternal slaves and having your children taken away to be used on the most horrible of evil experiments.

Q: Would you appreciate that type of content?

A: Yes, certainly.

that quest sounds awesome! going from one extreme to the other spectrum in a well told, long-ish questline to get invested is exactly what there should be more off. im a fan of mental breakdowns if its well told because its something we can all relate too in one form or another.

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