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Questing vs Grinding

MyRealityMyReality Member, Alpha Two
in General Discussion
Would you rather have the bulk of your Exp gained for leveling your character be from quests you complete or just from straight grinding?

I believe all types of content should contribute towards the progression of the Node you play in but at the same time it can get very repetitive simply grinding mobs. Currently there seems to be a big disparity between the Exp gain between just blitz grinding mobs over doing quests. Since we have the Hunting and Gathering quest boards to me I feel like they should carry more weight. The idea behind quests are meant at least "lore" wise to be done to help out your Node/Town. So you should want to actively gather a bunch of quests to contribute to your town.

I'd still want to keep the same pace to lvl 50 as it is now. I wouldn't want questing to be so strong that it makes it too easy to speed run to max level.

So regardless of whether you like to group up and grind or group up and quest, I just want it to be a viable option so you don't feel like you aren't getting anywhere with the amount of time you have to play.

Comments

  • nanfoodlenanfoodle Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited November 6
    A1 had a main quest line that took you all over the map and got you close to level 25. It was tested inside out. Current test has it removed and data is being collected. There is quest coming that also start at the commission board that points you to current side quests that will with enough people taking part. Will trigger world events. This is just where we are testing.
  • LudulluLudullu Member, Alpha Two
    My main issue with quest-based leveling (unless it's just a "kill these mobs" quests) is that they'd remove a ton of people from the open world. Especially if those quests take less time than grinding, which would make them the optimal way to level up.

    I guess smth like "this way of leveling can only provide 50% of your level xp" (or 33% if we include artisanry) could be fine, though I'd be interested in people's opinion on that. Hell, I'd probably even love that, cause that means that my suggestion of "gathering should be enough to remove corruption in good time" would work under that kind of design.
  • bloodprophetbloodprophet Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    50/50
    I like a good mix of both.
    Most people never listen. They are just waiting on you to quit making noise so they can.
  • mainedutchmainedutch Member, Alpha Two
    bloodprophet wrote: »
    50/50
    I like a good mix of both.

    +1

    Quests are good for a time, but there's also a lot of fun to be had grinding mobs and contesting spots. Think it should be a solid 50/50 requirement to meet max level with grinding and questing.
  • nanfoodlenanfoodle Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    My self questing I want is the commission board working. They are designed to get you doing side quest that trigger world events. When that's working, most likely what I will do to find groups.
  • AnvilAnvil Member, Alpha Two
    edited November 6
    Myself, I would prefer 75% of XP from Questing, 15% XP from Grinding, and 10% XP from Gathering/Artisan.
    Possibly 60%/20%/20% if the Questing is also from the Commission Board. Dungeons whether Open World or Instanced should Give Quite a bit of XP, would LOVE to see a Dungeon but My Character is not quite there yet. All of it should directly contribute to the Node Progression if you are in the Area around the Node. As for finding a Group, I have had No Problems as even just running solo I get random Invites when I'm doing a "Kill Badguy X or Kill Y amount of Badguys". Seems a fun way to Knock out Levels, but I hate Endlessly grinding Mobs, Prefer to Quest. Just my opinion.

    When you spend 12 years Fighting in Real life you get tired of the Battleground and just want to Quest. Also, Be Wary of an Old Man who survived what a LOT of Young men Haven't.
  • magical-hobomagical-hobo Member
    We should get a lot xp for pvp.
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  • TyranthraxusTyranthraxus Member, Alpha Two
    50/50 person, here. A2 very much makes it feel as though grinding is faster, as none of the quests I completed seem to give much exp.
  • VhaeyneVhaeyne Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I want them to remove all quests from the game.

    I know this is a radical opinion, but I would prefer content is generated by players.

    Player generated content is eternal.
    Dev generated content is has to be consistently added.

    Since they are dead set on having some quests. All I can ask for is the lowest percentage possible.
    TVMenSP.png
    This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
  • MardrikMardrik Member, Alpha Two
    I lean more to quests myself. I would caution against making assumptions as to what the game will be and have available in the end versus now though. Most of the content is not in the game at the moment. That's not what is being tested right now really. Something I hope to see though is some really long form quests with excellent rewards. Like what eq2 had. Heritage quests is that what they were called?
  • LodrigLodrig Member, Alpha Two
    edited November 12
    Ludullu wrote: »
    My main issue with quest-based leveling (unless it's just a "kill these mobs" quests) is that they'd remove a ton of people from the open world. Especially if those quests take less time than grinding, which would make them the optimal way to level up.

    I guess smth like "this way of leveling can only provide 50% of your level xp" (or 33% if we include artisanry) could be fine, though I'd be interested in people's opinion on that. Hell, I'd probably even love that, cause that means that my suggestion of "gathering should be enough to remove corruption in good time" would work under that kind of design.

    The best way to implement that might be to have the quest reward be a explicit halving of the XP needed for a level. Each quest reward can be for a specific level and in intended for a character of the prior level.

    For example a quest for level 9 characters which will make lvl 10 require half the XP. Or 5 quests which lower the XP needed by 10% each. Quests have a logical order but can be done individually or skipped.
  • Elder ScrollsElder Scrolls Member
    Vhaeyne wrote: »
    I want them to remove all quests from the game.

    I know this is a radical opinion, but I would prefer content is generated by players.

    Player generated content is eternal.
    Dev generated content is has to be consistently added.

    Since they are dead set on having some quests. All I can ask for is the lowest percentage possible.
    Awful radical take
  • VhaeyneVhaeyne Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Elder Scrolls wrote: »
    Awful radical take

    I think your take on my take is awful. :D
    TVMenSP.png
    This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
  • PeegerPeeger Member, Alpha Two
    I would like to see a bit of a bump for questing. It needs to feel like its worth it. Maybe when they get a bit farther and they have better quest rewards, and harder quests. I would guess thats the plan, the quests now seem pretty generic and basic, probably just for alpha.
  • PeegerPeeger Member, Alpha Two
    Elder Scrolls wrote: »
    Vhaeyne wrote: »
    I want them to remove all quests from the game.

    I know this is a radical opinion, but I would prefer content is generated by players.

    Player generated content is eternal.
    Dev generated content is has to be consistently added.

    Since they are dead set on having some quests. All I can ask for is the lowest percentage possible.
    Awful radical take

    In most games, you are correct. This game, they have REAL developers IN GAME and will be putting things, quests, special events, all kinds of stuff, on the spot. From what they have been saying, the quests will change with how the players are playing, thats awesome! Its really early, we are NOT seeing the quest system they have in mind, the node system isnt fully fleshed out, just very basic.
  • MyRealityMyReality Member, Alpha Two
    I like seeing all the different takes. I would like questing to hold some weight for leveling but even more so I think in this game, questing to progress a Node makes a lot of sense. Between the Hunting and Gathering quest boards the more you complete the more your Node progress'. Eventually you get special events, Mayor quests, or simply more complex quests as your node moves to higher tiers. As long as it's just not mindless grinding and can feed back into the economy I think it will be fun.
  • SathragoSathrago Member, Alpha Two
    edited November 12
    I believe that grinding, artisanship, and events should make up the majority of the experience you gain, while questing should be more focused on rewards like items, unlocks, titles, cosmetics, and other perks. Yes, I truly believe artisanship should represent a significant portion of the experience points. This way, players who want to focus on their artisan skills don’t feel like they’re falling massively behind.

    Currently, the experience rate is very low. For example, if it takes around two hours of grinding or events to go from level 10 to 11, it should take about three hours of gathering to achieve the same. Although the crafting side can level quickly when fed resources, a crafter still has to farm mobs for silver to fund their work, so it would be fine to reduce the experience gained per craft slightly.

    Processing should follow a similar pacing to gathering under the current system, but with adjustments. The amount of goods that can be processed simultaneously should be increased, and the need to select rarity should be removed. This change would allow players to process items of all rarities together, eliminating the need to micromanage or stockpile materials before beginning the process.
    8vf24h7y7lio.jpg
    Commissioned at https://fiverr.com/ravenjuu
  • Flashfirez23Flashfirez23 Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited November 12
    Ideally, you should get to max level solely by questing, mob grinding, crafting, dungeons, raids, exploration, PvP, or do doing a mix of a few or all of them. And all of these leveling methods would be comparable in the exp you end up getting from each of them. I think choice is important if it’s going to take a while to hit level cap.
  • caldrincaldrin Member, Alpha Two
    Having both as a viable option would be good.
  • AnvilAnvil Member, Alpha Two
    My Opinion: Questing 75% of Exp. Gained, Grinding 25% of Exp. Gained, with a SMALL Peppering of Crafting, Harvesting, (UGH) PvPeening gain..... (As I said MY Opinion)... Grinding for Hours on end farming Mobs should NEVER be the "Be All End All" Exp. Gain...
    When you spend 12 years Fighting in Real life you get tired of the Battleground and just want to Quest. Also, Be Wary of an Old Man who survived what a LOT of Young men Haven't.
  • sciffer2014sciffer2014 Member, Alpha Two
    My opinion : Questing should be created to help you travel around the world in an organic way. The amount of exp you get from it, is not that meaningful to me as long as the reward itself is interesting when everything is combine (exp, loot, cash, material, etc.). Reward from said quest - whether it is xp or loot - should be enjoy like receiving a boost drop from some other player, meaning it needs to feel helpful but also you don't want to have quest system carry the player through the game.
  • NoaaniNoaani Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
    edited December 25
    Vhaeyne wrote: »
    Dev generated content is has to be consistently added.

    That is literally why we pay a subscription.

    We shouldn't be asking developers to stop adding content, we should be demanding they add new content at least every month.
  • NoaaniNoaani Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
    Ludullu wrote: »
    My main issue with quest-based leveling (unless it's just a "kill these mobs" quests) is that they'd remove a ton of people from the open world.

    I don't understand why this would be the case.

    There are two ways to remove players from the open world in Ashes.

    The first is that they enter in to an instance - quests don't need instances.

    The second is that they log out of the game - offering players the choice of quests or a grind to level up won't see people logging out.
  • LudulluLudullu Member, Alpha Two
    edited 10:45PM
    Noaani wrote: »
    I don't understand why this would be the case.
    I know my definition of "people in the open world" here is real narrow, but, to me, a person that just runs from an npc to an npc is not participating in the open world. Yes, they exist in it, but they're not really a part of it. Even exploration quests are kinda similar, unless the exploration takes that person to the pvp areas.

    Like, there's a part of the Slivers of the Past quest where you just need to come to an npc, talk to him, run to 4 parts of a dungeon and the quest will give you 17k xp (iirc). To me, that is not participation in the open world.

    I know that this is not a factual definition of what an "open world mmo" is, but if there's no inter-player interaction in players' actions - that's not an open world mmo imo.
  • VhaeyneVhaeyne Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Noaani wrote: »
    That is literally why we pay a subscription.

    We shouldn't be asking developers to stop adding content, we should be demanding they add new content at least every month.

    Content is not limited to quests alone.

    In my opinion, quests are the least engaging form of content that MMORPGs have to offer.
    TVMenSP.png
    This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
  • PercimesPercimes Member
    Ideally, everything should be a quest, even grinding...

    By that I mean that there should always be an in world / lore reason for doing things. I blame my table top rpg background for this, but if not for the storytelling part, a rpg is a soulless numbers going up thing. It's meta gaming, looking at it from the outside only, no need for immersion, no need for dressing the world. Not saying it can't be fun that way, but why bother with lore if it's irrelevant?

    Now, I'm not really concerned with what is the most efficient way to level, so the % of XPs for quest vs pure grinding is not high on my list. So if there are reasons to go farm any types of mobs beyond phat l00t I'm ok. Node advancements; pest control tied to world events; personal rewards in the form of bounty (much like Crushbone belts in EQ*) whether XPs, faction perks, temporary buffs, or whatever; etc. The NPC interested in you going maniac on one type of enemies don't need to be easy to find, but it should be there, somewhere on Verra. And for those who want to participate in the great race, they'll do the most efficient thing anyway, boring or not (which is grinding for some and questing for others, so...)

    * Crushbone Belts: For those unfamiliar with this, in EverQuest, the Crushbone Orcs (low level mobs) could drop a particular belt. There was a NPC in a town a few zones away that would give an XPs reward for those belts. At low level it was such a good reward that players on an alt would often buy as much of those belts they could at a really good price. A great deal for the poor low level and for the rich twink.
    Be bold. Be brave. Roll a Tulnar !
  • SlayvenSlayven Member, Alpha Two
    I personally enjoy the grind and think they have hit it on the nose with events.
    Making them worth while and not making them an afk experience.
    May be a solo grind spot or two when friends not around to help or you can’t find a cleric as a tank. But I would not cater to soloist.
    More and better events that spawn are in my opinion easy to make and do the job.
    Questing is a slog and a solo experience and can’t even really be shared with friends I hope they don’t make this to question heavy.
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