Ok, lets talk Quests for Kojan - Shang Village

[notroh]

Quest Types:
1. Fetch or Kill this and bring it to me quests (These should be missives or task not quests, unless they leads to a story arc or to Crafting or Diplomacy.)
2. Deliver this for me quests (The same as above)
3. Story or Lore Quests (the best kind).
4. Class only quests (are ok, but if not that class I can not do them, which bugs me alot).
5. Unexpected quests (you find an item and it gives you a quest, best if it leads to a story arc or into Diplomacy or Crafting.).
6. Crafting, Harvesting, and Diplomacy quests (these should tie into Adventuring.)
7. Heroic or Epic Quests (long quest with good story line - both for solo and group.)
8. See the world or region type of Quest (kind of like a tour guide quest - 6 or 12 of the best quests to complete both solo and group - think Hercules or Jason and the Argonauts.)

I like them all, because I am a quest junkie.

Quest Giver: Master Rahlsu
Q1. Soldier Morale
Q2. Shang Treasure
Q3. Lead by Example
Q4. Report to Officer Yu

I complete these all with out any trouble. I found none broken. Very few spelling or grammar errors. They did fix it so that you can find the Treasure Chests faster. Q3-Lead by Example - saw villagers and soldier either not fighting or fighting invisible opponents. Most of the time I was not attacked even when I attacked a villager.

Quest Giver: Imperial Officer Yu
Q1. The Monks of Shang Village
Q2. Master Fhungusu
The Monks in Q1 would fight back if attacked, which was much better.
Q2. Very nice supprise.

Quest Giver: Imperial Lieutenant Xi
Q1. Pathetic Soldiers
This quest giver is not tied to any of the others, which bugs me to no end (laughs). I hate to miss a quest that I can do. And I do love a story driven quest. Thus, if I had not explored some I would have missed him. It is still possible that I missed a quest here.
There were no names above their heads so I had to run around to find them. I only found two. Though the soldiers were just standing there doing nothing was a clue to target them and if the red ! had not shown up on the cursor as I targeted each soldier it would have taken me much longer.

Quest Giver: Master Fhungusu
He does not really give a quest, but does send you on your way to many more. This was a great ending to the story line.

Now some would not wish to complete the story arc and indeed you do not need to do any of the quests found in Shang Village. You can simply leave and swim to Dallerjuba Village or to Tanvu, which is on the next Island over.

The Villagers of Shang Village had no dialog when you hailed them, but they did say things in your chat window. The soldiers, at least had some dialog, but usually an elementry question, which you could not respond other than click the complete button. I know from other quests that they are capable of putting in a response that you could choose.

Now someone went thru some trouble to write this story arc - I liked it very much and it is one of my favorite introductions to the game - but they hurried to fast to complete it thus leaving some loose ends.

One of my biggest concerns is the Quest Journal:
1. It is just down right ugly. Go back to beta journal, but plain, no frills. Even if this mean breaking up the jounal into three parts.
2. Not enough room to display all the text.
3. Number one thing to fix. No way to go back and see the quests that you have completed so you can tell your friends about them, if they turn out to be good ones.
4. It still does not say how big of a group you need if it is marked group.
5. Need to have room for more than 20 quest (I fill up my book so fast)

What I like about it:
1. It gives me lore if it is a story arc (best kind of quest).
2. It now tells me the Quest Level and if it is for Solo or Group.
3. It tells me what the objectives are and puts in markers I can use, if I need to use them.
4. It will sometimes give hints about other things that might be accomplished as well regarding the area.
5. I can track my quests, as well as share them or delete them.

Please excuse the spelling and the grammer. More to come.

[SwordMage]

I don't have as much problem with single quest quest givers, especially when they add to the story line of the area. Xi's quest helps build the sense of who you have become as a officer in the emperor's service.

As far as the journal is concerned, as much as I would like more text space, I would not like to see the quest journal window become any larger. It is one of those windows I keep up sometimes while moving around.

I would love to have a quest history log. From my point of view, I would be happy if the entries looked exactly like the live quest entries looked right before turn-in (all the items checked). One of the things I most disliked about the EQ2 finished quest log was that all the detail about what you went through disappeared (replaced by a simple statement). I could even live with the log entry tracking the current quest criteria if they change (to avoid storing lots of stuff).

[Ysharros]

Quick tangential note: if you want a larger quest window, check out Laceris' Quest Window over at VGSOH Interface, or even take a look at one of the complete UIs, many of which (like Drox's) offer similar Journal window changes.

If you keep any window open a lot, smaller is better. If, like me, you refer to it now and then and hate scrolling, bigger is better. Ain't it nice that we gots choices!

[notroh]

First: Ysarros, I thank you for the kind suggestion and I did take it and got Doux Journal. It is nice, but a bit frilly, but I am indeed using it as it is very readable.

Second: SwordMage, I thank you for your kind reply and I agree with you about the size. I also agree that we should have a completed quest log. The information is already there just allow us to recall it. It could be a list marked completed and when you choose to review one just click on the quest name and the information is recalled.

Quest Giver: Celinal
Q1. Redemption

Nothing wrong with this one at all

Quest Giver: Old Mank Kanjaro
Q1. A New Master
Q2. A Humble New Beginning
Q3. Oki

Q3 has only one problem Oki is a she and not a he. Thus making the dialog somewhat humorius, when you final find her.

Quest Giver: Kallar
Q1. One Hand Clapping

Q1 does not say how many you need to silence in order to complete the quest – minor.
No other problems completing the quest. Mobs showing a bulb of health left.

Quest Giver: Faron Daor
Q1. Rival Fisherman

Quest Giver: Seht
Q1. Crabs for Fish

Quest Giver: Aranji
Q1. Turtle Soup

Quest Giver: Dalani Ferong
Q1. Meat for Tanvu

I had no problems with any of these.
Helping any three of the above will complete the Humble New Beginning quest.
With any of the above quests – killing the mobs still left them with a bubble of life showing.

Quest Giver: Arisa
Q1. A Lost Memento

Could have been expanded to maybe going to that island and searching for her family as a second quest. Would have like to see this one expanded.

Quest Giver: Shaoflen’s Corpse
Q1. Avenging Oki

Nothing wrong here, except that I think you should have been sent back to Old Man Kanjaro and gotten the quest from him. This is just my opinion.

Quest Giver: Oki
Q1. Oki’s Jewels
Q2. Kojuko Gluttons
Q3. Lost Fishing Supplies
Q4. Juu

Here again quest mob still retained 1 bulb of health when dead. And Oki is a she and not a he. Also the order in which you complete the quests determines when you get the “you are finished with me message.” You can still complete the remaining quest with no problems.

Quest Giver: Juu
Q1. Kojuko Manhunters
Q2. The Unforgotten I
Q3. The Unforgotten II

Again mobs still showed health remain upon death. Other than having a slow computer made the climbing somewhat of a challenge. I hope they will be able to put in more climbing and jumping quests.

[notroh]

Quest Giver: Master Tallon Darkfist
Q1. Manifestation of Jin
Q2. A Jin Divided
Q3. Ghost Wind Academy

Here he sends you to Disciple Hirro indicating that she is a he in the dialog. By the way this guy walks away while you are reading the quest. Make him stand still for a couple of minuites, please.

Quest Giver: Disciple Hirro
Q1. Choosing Your Path
Q2. Walking with Lao’Jin

In Q1, if you do not kill the spawned mob yourself, then the quest breaks here and you cannot continue on until you do the following:
1. Delete the quest from your quest list.
2. Go back and get the note from the corpse on the roof.
3. Go back and talk to Disciple Hirro
4. Complete the quest.

Here in one of the dialogs Hirro refers to Master Tallon as a she.

Quest Giver: Disciple Akomi
Q1. Test of Agility

On this one you need to climb up a rock and lean over to the next rock and pick the mushroom. You should have had to climb up one and jump to all the others including the one that had the mushroom. Plus if there had been a choice you could have just refused to go get the mushroom. Because that is basically what she says when you complete the request. Still an interesting quest.

Quest Giver: Disciple Perrol
Q1. Test of Wisdom

It should have been called the Test of Patience as you have to catch the bird which is not really to difficult, except I had the bird die on me while I leashed it. And just my luck I had to try three times since I was attacked while trying to leash it. Was interesting quest.


Quest Giver: Lao’Jin Refugee
Q1. Supplies for Master Yaol

No problems with this one at all.

Quest Giver: Lao’Jin Master Yaol
Q1. Ra’Jin Assault
Q2. Komodo Skin
Q3. Eye of the Beholder

Nothing wrong with these, other than the mobs after being killed still showed remaing bubble of life.

I defenately cannot kill a yellow/even 3 dot mob, but can stay alive for a bit. I had read on some boards that we can do this. I tried this on the Spellcaster that roams the area between Tallon/Ghost Wind and Tanvu. At my current level I cannot do this, but light, dark blue and even I can and depending on the mob I can do a yellow 2 dot. Must work on weapons and armor - maybe that is the problem or gain 2 or 3 levels (laughs).

On the whole this group of quests contuned the story line. Outside of a few problems and grammer/spelling error. I found this group of quests quite doable. But it does indicate that they need to slow down and check their work - but I also understand the pressure they are under.

Gets up on soapbox (very nervious)

I also wish that they would scale the group quests and dungeons to single people - this a great group of people and have the knowhow to do this - and if other games can do this I know that they can also - this would also open up more game content for all levels of the player base.

I know in the days of muds that you grouped to do boss mobs and did your grind solo at least in the muds I played in. I also was in guilds as well and again you did the level grinding solo, but grouped to do mob bosses and if you were the same level as the boss and you defeated it solo you got the same reward and experience as if you had been grouped.

Gets down off of soapbox (laughing).

More to come I hope - looks like maybe group quests will be out of my range, but will give them all a try anyways - maybe those that can be duoed I can do at a higher level that is equivelent to that group and still get experience and loot.

Please forgive the spelling and the grammer.

[SwordMage]

Two comments:

• The bubble of life left is a current bug on live and, apparently, test, not something related to the quests.
• That yellow 3 dot is a healer and as such can be very hard for certain classes to kill (low DPS classes); the good news is that he and his big 4-dot brother are not part of the early quest cycle.

As far as the soap box is concerned, the developers have always touted this as a game aimed at group play with some solo and raid content. Thus, I am not surprised by the emphasis on group content; I just feel happy when I discover enough solo content to keep me going when I have an urge to beat up the crafting stations and decide to take it out on the wildlife instead.