How would you like a perfect quest to be like?

I know the MMO world is tired of simple fetch quests or kill so many XYZ.

Should a quest point you exactly where to go?
Should you have a higher level of lore to spot quest items easier?
Should it be intricate like collecting scraps of paper to make a map?
Do you like puzzles and switches in them?

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George_Black

Kill 300 mobs with tough hp. Can be in a group. Last hit doesnt matter.
Kill another 500 with tough hp. Same as above.
Kill 2-3 raid bosses with your guild or friends. Require 20 ppl to make sure nobody will kill you in pvp while you raid.
A bit of walk up and down various locations.
Reward: 2-3 top end gear designs (you may need 9 for a full set) to be used by a master crafter. No rng. You choose the designs.
Then you spend 1 month crafting that gear.

Another quest can be similar but it rewards you with entry to the location of an worldepichugeraidboss. Obviously other players can complete the quest and gain entry. PvP happens during the raid. No instances.

Low lv quests
Kill 50 mobs with or without group. Get a good sum of gold.

Mid tier quests. 300 mobs 1 rb get mid tiet designs.

All open world.

All can be done with friends.

Class quests.
Class change quests.
Redemption quests (lower your total PK count by 3)
Ship ticket quests. You got no boat but need to go to an island? Get the last ticket through a guest. The boat travels real time 4 times a day. No teleport, no instance, no solo. No pvp on boat.

Nashty

If you had to kill 300 mobs; 300 times wouldn't you get bored though?

George Black wrote: »

Kill 300 mobs with tough hp. Can be in a group. Last hit doesnt matter.
Kill another 500 with tough hp. Same as above.
Kill 2-3 raid bosses with your guild or friends. Require 20 ppl to make sure nobody will kill you in pvp while you raid.
A bit of walk up and down various locations.
Reward: 2-3 top end gear designs (you may need 9 for a full set) to be used by a master crafter. No rng. You choose the designs.
Then you spend 1 month crafting that gear.

Another quest can be similar but it rewards you with entry to the location of an worldepichugeraidboss. Obviously other players can complete the quest and gain entry. PvP happens during the raid. No instances.

Low lv quests
Kill 50 mobs with or without group. Get a good sum of gold.

Mid tier quests. 300 mobs 1 rb get mid tiet designs.

All open world.

All can be done with friends.

Class quests.
Class change quests.
Redemption quests (lower your total PK count by 3)
Ship ticket quests. You got no boat but need to go to an island? Get the last ticket through a guest. The boat travels real time 4 times a day. No teleport, no instance, no solo. No pvp on boat.

If you had to kill 300 mobs; 300 times wouldn't you get bored though?

Karthos

My "perfect" quest will include multiple methods of completing it. You need to retrieve a scroll from a guard. You can kill the guard, negotiate for it, buy it or steal it. One quest, 4 outcomes. The quest should also get you engaged in the world, and progress your knowledge of the lore in some way.

Vhaeyne

My "Perfect Quest System" is no quests at all. Ideally, players would be creative enough to set their own goals. I mean, you are playing an RPG for starters. You look at your level 1 character sheet and think: "Gee, I want to be more powerful than this...".
Wowzers you just gave yourself a quest to find out what you need to improve yourself.

My favorite part of any MMORPG in recent years is when I cap and can finally start making decisions for myself. Instead of doing what the game wants me to do. All of that shit could start at level one. I know Dungeons and Dragons Online has obnoxious P2W nonsense, but it doesn't really have quests. You just do whatever you want at level one. It's all instanced dungeons. When I make a new character, I think there's like 10-20 dungeons I can start running out the gate in any order I want. I wish every game had freedom like that. Technically, most MMORPG still "let" you do what you want, but they also make quests so attractive that you kind of have to do them, or you are shooting yourself in the foot. I just hate quests.

Tyranthraxus

Perfect quest? How otherwise should it go?

1) Talk with quest-start NPC
2) Learn a little about local lore from that NPC
3) Kill 30 kobolds, collect 30 kobold foreskins
4) return to quest-giving NPC for either a tangible or intangible reward.

How else is it supposed to go?

Voidwalkers

"Perfect" quest? Ummm ... an AI-driven system constantly churning out complicated, wild, not-so-obvious but lore related quests?

Well AIs can write news articles already, it's probably a matter of time before they can start writing quests \o/

btw

collect 30 kobold foreskins

eww

Vhaeyne

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

How else is it supposed to go?

NPCs could sell lore books, and you set your own goals to get them. Hell, if the hypothetical lore books reset periodically in each town, people would be traveling the world looking for lore for years to piece it all together. That sounds a hell of a lot more interesting than feeling bad for some farmer because some bores are getting into his corps...

Vhaeyne

Voidwalkers wrote: »

"Perfect" quest? Ummm ... an AI-driven system constantly churning out complicated, wild, not-so-obvious but lore related quests?

btw

collect 30 kobold foreskins

eww

It could be cool to see someone other than the two guys who worked on dwarf fortress do some cool stuff with generating lore.

George_Black

@Nashty No. Because while you try to kill those 300 mobs, which should be tough for high lv content, there will be other players and possibly enemy guilds around. That would lead to PvP moments.

Also, staying in an area for a couple hours with friends and guildies, achieving a goal, is good social gameplay, as opposed to mind numbing solo quest line after solo quest line, or repetitions of instanced, sterilized, pve dungeons.

And I have done these kind of quests many times in an mmo. Never once did it feel boring. Even if it was a class progression quest for somebody else.

With open world pvp in the background, nothing gets boring. Never.

daveywavey

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

Perfect quest? How otherwise should it go?

1) Talk with quest-start NPC
2) Learn a little about local lore from that NPC
3) Kill 30 kobolds, collect 30 kobold foreskins
4) return to quest-giving NPC for either a tangible or intangible reward.

How else is it supposed to go?

Your "perfect quest" is to collect foreskins...?! Duuuuuude......

RahlSingh

I think a Perfect "Quest" would be:
1. Talk to the npc.
2. Be told that there is a "problem" but the nPC does not know what the problem is, or what is causing it. Lost something precious? Could be a theif or kobolds or neighbor npc or an orphan or it can be in the nPC's house or garden. The theif can change player to player, but is same for a group, and if someone already completeted the quest then its definitely not what they did, and they cannot see the item, only the one who has the quest can see, they can just help.
3. Then you get to find out and fix the problem as you see fit, and based on how you solve the problem you get "influence" with the NPC and town both independant. For Example if its a theif and you kill him the town might look at it badly, and that influence then effects how you helpful/unhelpful the NPC/Town are, do they give look for you when there is a theiving or only when there is a murder?
4. The Rewards can be access to town armory/mines, even monetary reward, even option of taking "loans" from the town to build your lavish house.

Ehrgeiz

No daylies.

Sathrago

This is my personal favorite.

https://youtu.be/VvF1o1ObPr0

Ryfaen

I agree with Tyranthraxus. Being able to complete quests in multiple ways is the way to go. "Retrieve x from this place". Having to figure out where "this place" is for one, maybe there are more than one place and each one can be accomplished in a different way. Or the place changes! Can mow through the mobs to get there or sneak around the mobs and grab it. Or figure out some secret way to get there. (I hate step by step walk through postings! Play the game!) Having to go around and talk to NPCs to gather clues. Buy a round of drinks in a bar to get some NPCs talking to get clues... tons of more interesting ways to get things done!

Sunboy

A engaging story is enough. If well written, killing 1 boar can be iconic. Simple isn't bad, but hard.

I also loved the travel quests, when they just said go to town X. And you didnt have the flightpath...

Much love

Mrhubbard

Anything that makes me explore

chaoticwaffles

honestly i feel like quest shouldnt be a way to gather exp but a way to gather money or other resources as a reward. So picking up quest imo should be optional and are more like things "people/npc" need done. Whether its someone needing a certain material or needing an escort etc.

Gandalfthegrape

The best quest would be something story driven, relevant to aspects of my character I chose like class or location that is ideally a chain that gets more developed over my time leveling, that is expanded upon each expansion for rewards that aren't the best or game breaking but good and important for some things.

World or large scale pvp quests, what do you get for doing more for your team in castle sieges?
kill quests, kill one or many npcs, dungeons
clue/discovery/mystery quest, you are given map location or room clues and need to solve a puzzle
game quests, mini games. chess, parkour, duckhunt, ticktacktoe etc
guild quests
gather quests

goemoe

Any quest with a little story, some exploring, some killing and some loot will do. As long as it does not state: kill x fetch y. ESO does this pretty well, you have to kill your share too, be it to reach a point or travel through infested areas, but they seldom tell you explizit to kill a number. We do like to hit this'n that while moving around in any given MMO, but it should feel natural not mandatory.

I did like those quests in EQ2 where you had multiple stations soloable, others with groupparts in it and epic loot at the end. It has felt special, we met in numbers only to do them. Felt much MMO to me.

Ironhope

(In no particular order of importance)

1. What the questgiver says is interesting and relevant for the way you're going to complete the quest. Paying attention possibly resulting in much better outcomes with much better rewards and even quest progression paths. Dialogue options are also interestind and relevant.

2. The areas you need to go to are interesting and interractive. For example, the quest requires you to search 2 rooms but you can let your curiosity lose and search 2 more and the basement where you can find something which can lead the quest-chains on a totally different path with a totally different outcome and rewards.

3. The quest is actually challenging and encourages you to team up with others and rewards people who prepare with potions and buffs and stuff like that.

4. The quest puts your mind to work requiring you to find your own path based on vague descriptions, to solve interesting puzzles, etc. The travel time is appropriate for the scale of the quest and its purposes. If its a major quest and requires a long travel time througj a world worth seeing and hearing yes, let it be very long, good.

5. The story is actually good.

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