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I would like to know more about how the devs intend to handle quests

Hi all!

I found out about this game recently and I'm interested to see how it develops! I'm already impressed by the innovative approach to world building and I'm certainly a fan of how the lore is shaping up, but something that always piques my interest (then inevitably dissapoints me) is the quest system.

There has been a nice top level overview of what we can expect from Quests on a surface level and how it interplays with the node system and have effects on the world as a whole, but I would like to know if and how the game will deliver story through quests. I have been bored with the "kill 10 rats" approach to quests ever since WoW, and while games like that have improved their approach over the years, I will always hold games like Runescape to a high esteem when it comes to the quest system.

Ever since I read <a href="http://www.mmogames.com/gamearticles/mmo-quests-get-wrong/" target="_blank">this article on MMO games</a> about how the modern MMO industry constantly misses the mark on quests due to the game's inherent design, I wonder if an MMO that has quests in the true sense of the world will ever come back. I would love utilising AoC's vast world to be at the core of the questing experience, pushing the player to uncover secrets, interact with different cultures and solve puzzles to complete long spanning quest lines, how about the rest of you?

Cheers! I look forward to lapping up every piece of information that this dev team gives out :D

Comments

  • Welcome to the Hype train fellow passenger! i hope you enjoy your journey :)

    we dont know much if anything about how the quest systems will work atm :( other than that they will be tied to the node system check out this post here it mentions that quest's will change depending on the node's progression/deveopment
    <a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/a-reactive-world-nodes/" target="_blank">https://www.ashesofcreation.com/a-reactive-world-nodes/</a>


    If your looking for some answers to some questions you may have regarding the game be sure to look in the links on this thread here
    <a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/helpful-links/#post-2186If" target="_blank">https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/helpful-links/#post-2186If</a>

    If there's any there are any further questions, concerns or suggestions you’d like to make or you just want an active community to speak with,
    make sure to visit the Official Discord available for the public:

    <a href="http://discord.gg/ashesofcreation" target="_blank">http://discord.gg/ashesofcreation</a>


    [img]http://i.imgur.com/J4DpYXZ.jpg[/img]
  • <img src="https://media.giphy.com/media/2kYHyTHCJbFXq/giphy.gif" alt="" />

    ---

    Welcome o/
    Your question might also be a topic that could be open for discussion either on the Discord or on the Forum.

    Great suggestions. I am also very much looking forward to a 'living/interactive" world!

    Elated waiting!

    ~ Zention
  • Welcome to the community @Makinde .

    I never liked the endless quest grind either. In many MMOs, quests is really the only thing you can do to earn progression, which got tedious for me. There should be less focus on quests, and more focus on rewarding a player for exploring. ESO did this "alright". Still too many quests hubs, but you still got rewarded for exploration. Just too bad ESO wasn't a sandbox game.

    Quests should still be a thing. And I understand that in cities, you'll see more quests due to its population. But it should never be the only way to progress. I would rather do a quest, if I stumble over one in the middle of f.... nowhere. Quests I would never discover, if I wasn't exploring the world. But killing mobs, exploration, crafting, etc, should all give some sort of xp progression, so it doesn't feel meaningless and forces you to do quests in order to gain progression with your character.

    But ya, the "kill x pixie" quests, has to stop. Unless you're doing it for a guy, that needs certain number of hides/skin to create something. Quests should have meaning.

    #MakeQuestsGreatAgian !
  • Thanks for the warm welcome, all!

    @Thorik I agree completely with your thoughts on ESO. Out of the modern MMOs, ESO along with The Secret World have come the closest to fulfilling my dreams, but I would say that perhaps the key to removing the grind from quests is divorcing it from the leveling/progression flow entirely. The fact that quests were used as a way to level up meant that it always came with that grind mentality, while games like Runescape made quests things you had to level up in order to do. Whenever I did quests in RS I was never thinking "I hope this gives me enough XP to level up, " rather I did quests like the lost city because it gave access to a whole new zone and the ability to use one of the best weapons at the time.

    Hopefully Ashes can do something like that, maybe even working it so intricately into the node system that certain quests can only be undertaken during particular seasons or when a node has made enough progress in a particular direction!
  • I don't mind the kill 10 rats as a filler quests but there should be long intertwined quests to keep occupied and quests that carry on long after you hit max level as most mmos the game starts once you hit max levels so again killing 10 rats while leveling here and there is fine killing 10 rats at max level not so fine the way I see it.
  • I suppose, but I don't really subscribe to idea of waiting until max level before things become fun and engaging. There is something to be said about the occasional kill 10 rats quest being ok for the grind, but I would hesitate to actually call it a "quest" per se, and the promise of things getting better when you hit the level cap can really drive players away in my experience
  • I'm so used to it by now that I kind of don't mind going from one killquest to another. What I do mind is the mindnumbing backtracking. Going back to turn in the quest, just to get a new quest for the exact same spot, just a different named mob, or go to the 2nd part of the enemie camp and kill those slightly stronger ones. I don't need two quests for that and an additional returnway in between.
    It can't be that hard to use the quest completion trigger to "unlock" the 2nd part of the quest telling you to kill those other enemies too if you want for an increased completion reward.
    Aside from that I would welcome any change to that if we get more interactive play like exploring and similar themes.
  • @Grisu

    Yeah, I would like a quest chain! Let's say one NPC that gives all the quests necessary..

    <strong>For instance:</strong>
    [Lena's unrest]

    - Find Lena and talk about why she is feeling restless lately
    - Ask her father about the cave
    - Explore the cave
    - Ah,<strong> rats</strong>. The cave is being inhabited by rats. A lot of these rats
    - Now, we could either exterminate these rats or we could go back and tell her about the rats

    So, my suggestion would be that Lena could either thank as for killing these rats henceforth reward us with something or not.

    <em>Why wouldn't she reward us?</em>

    One of the rats we've killed was her pet. Killing her rat pet could then give us negative contribution points inside the quest area. After all, we're the rat killer. Now after completing the quest, fewer quests are available for us to take.
    Another idea would be that her reaction towards killing or 'saving' her pet rat could be randomized, leading to another chain of events respectively.

    ---

    Ah, I just thought of something! Additionally to the 'traditional' approach, what do you guys think of an <strong>Adventurer's House</strong>?

    Quests could be listed there by NPCs. Each quest is ranked in difficulty and states certain requirements.
    So, let's say one of the quests says you should gather 100 wolf bones.

    Player A isn't really a fan of doing quests in general but more so likes roaming the world. After a couple of hours of killing wolves, he goes back to the adventurer house to either sell his loot or trade it for the quest rewards. Depending on what might be more beneficial.

    ~ Zention
  • [quote quote=4347]
    Player A isn’t really a fan of doing quests in general but more so likes roaming the world. After a couple of hours of killing wolves, he goes back to the adventurer house to either sell his loot or trade it for the quest rewards. Depending on what might be more beneficial.
    [/quote]
    Isnt there a game like this where you can "overdo" a quest? That seems like a nice system, even though the quest giver only wanted 10 wolfs killed, 20 death didnt hurt either :)

    Regarding the questing topic, <a href="http://www.mmogames.com/gamearticles/interview-ashes-of-creation-wants-bring-virtual-world-life/">this interview covers the basics.</a>
  • [quote quote=4433]<blockquote>
    <div class="d4p-bbt-quote-title"><a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/i-would-like-to-know-more-about-how-the-devs-intend-to-handle-quests/#post-4347" rel="nofollow">Zention wrote:</a></div>
    Player A isn’t really a fan of doing quests in general but more so likes roaming the world. After a couple of hours of killing wolves, he goes back to the adventurer house to either sell his loot or trade it for the quest rewards. Depending on what might be more beneficial.

    </blockquote>
    Isnt there a game like this where you can “overdo” a quest? That seems like a nice system, even though the quest giver only wanted 10 wolfs killed, 20 death didnt hurt either <img alt="?" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/svg/1f642.svg" />

    Regarding the questing topic, <a href="http://www.mmogames.com/gamearticles/interview-ashes-of-creation-wants-bring-virtual-world-life/" rel="nofollow">this interview covers the basics.</a>

    [/quote]

    I think the game you're referring to is Wildstar. They have lots of "Kill 10 of y" type quests and can offer additional xp/gold rewards proportional to how many more than 10 you kill.

    Also, thanks for sharing that interview! Really insightful :)
  • <strong>My view on what main questing should be like</strong> - I want questing to help the player understand the world and it's lore. What you do in a quest should make sense in terms of how the developers want the story to progress. It's meaningless to make a player go kill x amount of wolves if there's no context behind it. I always loved WoW for it's lore. Most of their questlines comes to some sort of conclusion and most of the quests have that context behind them.

    <strong>Filler quests/daily quests</strong> - If "filler" quests are going to be a thing, they should be optional side quests that you can do repetetively, but they shouldn't be something the player is forced to do, meaning that no OP items should be given out as rewards.

    <strong>Quest UI and presentation</strong>- Now one thing that was hard to get through when questing through WoW, was the fact that it always felt somewhat boring to read through the quest text, and when doing them on an alt, you would usually never read it again. In Ashes I would love to see a interesting take on the wait the quest text is being played out.

    <strong>Shouldn't be the only way of progressing through the world</strong> - Questing should be an option for those who wanna know something about the world we are placed in, those interested in lore. Crafting, pvp and grinding should be an option as well that are up to par with questing, none of the options should be more viable than the other and I believe Steven has already confirmed that questing will not be the only way of leveling within Ashes.
  • If the world is built in a way that you "classify" as an adventurer, in terms that NPCs are farmers, guards, merchants and so on, yes I totally love the idea of an adventurer house/guild where you can get your quests. Since the content is bound to the node anyway it would fit in quite nicely to have a dedicated building in it for the region around.
    It makes so much more sense for someone to go to a place where people can make requests to help them out compared to stumbling around the world going from exclamation mark to exclamation mark picking up quests from strangers for no apparent ingame reason.

    "How d'ya know I'dn need help?" "Well that big yellow thing floats over your head." "THE GODS HAVE CHOSEN MEEEEEEE"
  • sorry new to the forums. Hello all. I would like to see a player made content to keep zones fresh and changing. such as quests dungeons and whatever we can create. Give (us) the player base a chance to create our own quest lines , tweaks to existing dungeons. I'm a long time MMO player and the problem I see is the player base runs through the developed content and the game gets stale. Other games have promised to do this but have all ways fell short of expectations. Give us editing tools to develop scenarios or whatever you want to call it. And be able to publish in game. I think this would keep the game fresh and keep the player base invested into the game. And as Always ty for reading the ramblings of an old Orc..
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