Request from Sigil/Dev's Regarding New Content (Quests)

[sypher001]

Request from Sigil/Dev's Regarding New Content (Quests)

Devs,

Although I applaud all the new content you are feeding into the game, i and a number of people i have come across are seriously concerned about new content quests that are implemented half completed. Specifically quests in an area that go onto the live servers but do not have any 'itemized' rewards.

For example:

** Dragons Backbone area - a few patches ago with the gnome engineer camp near isle of madness... there was about 3-5 quests...all monetary rewards... no items.

** Plains of Anguish - Haven Town - these series of quests (which are GREAT by the way) were implemented recently but did not see them in patch notes. All these quests are not itemized at all either.

** Lost Canyon - outpost - again, around 12-20 quests all not itemized.


What we are SERIOUSLY worried about and frustrated is that if we do these quests now, that we will miss out on really great rewards when you finally finish the quests and itemize them.

Can you provide some comment on this? Appreciate it.

[Siul]

Question is, are these new quest supposed to be itemized or the intent IS to only have monetary reward?

But I do understand your concern, what if they actually change the rewards and once you've done them you cannot anymore. I think that it has been the case of changes in quest lines and then those players who had done it were able to repeat it (or got the reward, not sure about that). It is also true that there are different areas where players start that wil have quest lines that others will never see. On the other hand if you make the quests now and then they are changed say when you are lvl 30, what it is the problem? 12-20 lvl quest rewards will probably not matter at higher lvl anymore.

Your point does illustrate the risk we are all taking by undertaking the task of playing a game in the very early stages. Even before i got it I new that things are not 100%, actually in these kinds of games they are never at 100%. So it's a matter of life and we have to be aware and accept it. Though we can always give a heads up and constructive criticism

[Ysharros]

Originally Posted by sypher001

What we are SERIOUSLY worried about and frustrated is that if we do these quests now, that we will miss out on really great rewards when you finally finish the quests and itemize them.

That's entirely possible but, as Siul said, it's a risk in the early days of a game. It can be a risk throughout a game's life, in fact -- I've seen quest rewards change in games 2 years down the line, if not more.

I'm not particularly item-centric, so I'll admit this doesn't bother me too much -- the way I figure it, especially for levels 1-20 or so, is that if they add something really neat in a few months I'll probably be past having a use for it anyway, no matter how great. Now, if it were a house-trophy or something I get all enthusiastic about, I'd be right there with you waving my placard.

Change, however, is a constant in games, and it's not just some disclaimer used on splash screens. An MMO is never finished -- thank god, since it's what keeps me and others (I suspect) coming back for more.

Note that if any quest ends up giving any item that *must* be obtained by a given class, you will never be stiffed by the devs. They'll find a way to let you redo the quest or give you the item, or do a similar quest. We saw that routinely in beta where it mostly had to do with "flags" rather than items, but the basic principle is the same.

[Vorrio]

The more higher-level quests the better. I completely understand why developers always ship with lots of lower-level content and not much high-level stuff, but it's frustrating when you start hitting the mid-20s and it feels like you have to grind and grind on normal mobs.

Anyway, if you're having trouble itemizing some higher level quests, why not save some time and have the quests reward crafting resources as a supplement to or alternative to money? Give recipients a choice between an item that you can sell to a merchant for an appropriate sum or some resources. Simple quests could drop common resources (10 silkbloom thread, or 5 pyrite or something), longer and more difficult quests could drop rares (e.g. 1 star iron).

That way, crafters would have an alternative to spending hours on monotonous harvesting. Adventurers who don't craft would have something to give crafters in return for gear (as a crafter, I prefer getting valuable resources to money).

Oh, and it would be really really nice if there were more higher-level crafting quests (particularly ones that give equipment/resources). I can't imagine how dull it must be to grind crafting xp on servers other than test with normal xp all the time.

- Vorrio

[sypher001]

I agree with your view point guys and respect it.

Maybe i was a little unclear. If you look at the history of MMO's yes 'changing rewards' are a constant in these games..

The point that really frustates me... is that these quests.. (usually around 12-40 new quests put in at a time in these locations), ALL have ZERO itemization besides money, and they have done this many time.... its fine for test server, but for live, it means the following will happen:

1. People will flood to do the new content.
2. People mostly will enjoy it but feel ultimately empty because lets be honest at lvl 40-50 getting a few silver doesnt matter to many people, we want reward for our hard work.
3. Once the devs patch in 'rewards' for those quests, all the people that did the new content are robbed of rewards.


Thats the part im talking about, I have played MMOs since the days of Ultima Online and even Meridian 59 (doubt many people remember that), and I dont remember many of them that would put in a bunch of new quests WITHOUT item rewards, then just patch the items in later... im sure im missing a few but its not the norm.

[kith]

well, that's the lack of content so many speak about. content is not just adding some quests with a handful of silver as reward. i want some quests with nice item rewards. lengthy quests, quests that need me to travel all over telon. and NOT grind 20k faction in one single chunk.

i don't know if it has been the intent for end-game to just farm dungeon after dungeon. i hope not. what about meaningful player housing? mounts? diplomacy?

i already have a house in a t5 area, i own a caravel to speed down the river qa, i could buy me a horse, if not my bard would be faster on foot. i still miss a flying mount. but what then? farm dungeons even more for a bigger house that serves the exact same purpose as my small house. or buy a galleon that's the same as my caravel just doubled in size? come on sigil, give us the stuff you promised, there's already enough lowbie to mid-level things to do. but beyond level 40 the air's getting extremely thin.

[Vorrio]

People who want lots of high-end content will always be disappointed in a game that's only been out for a couple months. I haven't been paying as much attention to MMORPGs recently, but my experience has been that it takes at least a year or two (and an expansion) for most MMORPGs to get anything like that.

[kith]

that's true. but most games i played had something to distract the players from lack of content. eq2 for example had the so called heritage quests. lengthy quests that rewarded items off the eq1 heritage. most of them were very nice compared to what dropped and what could be crafted back then. but the most important thing: they kept me playing that game. eq2 lacked high end content pretty much. just a couple of dungeons, next to no quests and those few raid mobs available had no loot table. but still i kept playing to get those heritage quests done.

to me it seems quite easy to add a couple of quests that require you to kill a handfull of named mobs spread all over telon, gather some rare samples and kill some more of some mobs and reward a nice little item like the manastone in the end. this would keep me and lots of other players busy till the "real" content is done.

those faction grind quests are uninspiring and boring.

[Vorrio]

I hear ya, and I agree that more is needed, but let's face it, that type of quest isn't going to keep anyone who's already 35+ and plays four-plus hours a night busy for long.

Anyone who plays enough to have blown past most of the adventuring content already and doesn't want to try alts/crafting/diplomacy should probably find another, older game to play for a while while VG's developers build up the high-end content here. I don't mean that as an insult. It just seems unlikely that there's going to be a lot of really in-depth high-level content coming online any time soon. VG can't compete with games that have been around for years when it comes to that sort of stuff.

It seems that having lots of diverse classes, crafting, harvesting, and diplomacy are VG's way of keeping people busy while the high-end adventuring comes online. That stuff's not for everyone, however.