Alpha First Look: Video 5 - Quests and Combat

[Hestern_Nestern]

How are you forced to read the quest dialog? You don't have to read a word of it. You can choose to read it, just as you can in WoW, or LoTRO or Rift or any other MMO based on that template over the last 8 years. But by no means are you "forced" to, nor is it even necessary. ARR is doing nothing different or better than any of those. It's an exact carbon copy of them.

Oh awesome! This is the first time I've had a mildly derisive retort directed at me on this forum! I'm excited! Okay here goes my response back! (This is me being passive-aggressive [this is me not minding that I am being passive-aggresive ((and this is me explaining myself too much))])

My idea of "force" in this instance (and this instance alone) is that you receive the dialogue after accepting the quest as opposed to prior to receiving the dialogue - the latter can be overlooked fairly easily by clicking the shiny "accept" button at the button of the tab but the former requires you to cycle through the dialogue. While yes, you don't have to read it (forgive my overuse of the italics), you are forced to interact with it (what I should have said in the first place, I agree) on some level. It is always up to the player whether or not they want to ignore dialogue given but considering you and others here on this forum (I presume) actually want to play and enjoy this game to its fullest, wouldn't it be somewhat odd for you and others here (I presume) to be skipping the dialogue?

In closing, yes, the capability is there, you are right. Your definition of the word is closer to the usual application of said word - so I understand if you felt the need to clarify this difference. I also understand that I don't always say it right the first time but now I have and that's okay.

Signing off!

~H.N.~

[Alhanelem]

I mean, I like the game. It looks pretty and I think I'll enjoy it. But the hand-holding preypacer is talking about.. I also find incredibly irritating. It's something that plagues a lot of MMO's in recent years.

Would you prefer quests aimed at helping you level up to be cryptic and hard to figure out without reading a guide on the internet? No new player wants to have to research quests on a wiki when they first start out. They just want to kill stuff. Once theyve learned their class and gotten used to the game, THEN you can take some of the handholding away and make things more complicated (edit: sorry, forgot to finish my sentence LOL)

I can tell you I personally did not like the quests in XI where you had no idea what the hell you were supposed to do next because the NPCs were so vague and unclear about the next goal. If you pretty much HAVE to look up an online walkthrough written by somebody who actually took the time wandering around aimlessly until they happened across the next objective, then that kinda kills the fun for me.

[Reika]

Theres 3 paths an mmo can take for combat level progression: Quests, Monster grind, or combination. You cant jump up and down in one spot to gain EXP. Just drop the cookie-cutter junk and let it go.

[Psykotsu]

This is how you make level progression, repetitive, mindless and boring if you have no imagination and have decided instead to just copy almost every other MMO for the past 8 years with the same repetitive "kill x of y" crap.

Talk about uninspired and derivative.

And why even have the quest dialog in there at all? Hell even the person in the video isn't taking the time to read it. And why bother? They have *3* different indicators showing you exactly where to go for the kill quest, and 2 showing you where to go for the "moist depression".

"Well, we have all this dialog but, you probably won't read it anyway. But, in case you do, you're probably too dumb to figure out where we're directing you to. So, we'll show you on the mini-map. And because you're probably too dumb to realize the circle on the mini-map indicates where you should be, we'll put markers for the mobs on the mini map too. Now don't panic... We know you're too dumb to figure it out even then. We've accounted for that by also putting large markers over the mobs' heads in-game too. You don't even have to know what the mobs are called or what they look like. Just look for the big, intrusive golden markers walking around."

For the other quest.. "go to the clearly marked, pulsating markers on your mini-map and look for the moist depression. Okay, you're too dumb to figure out the purple hazy looking spots that just happen to be exactly in the same spot as the mini-map markers are likely them, and you're probably too much of a mouth-breather to figure out that targeting those spots will tell you what they are. So, don't worry. We'll make sure to have the words "moist depression" hovering over them as well. Hopefully it's not too presumptuous of us to assume you can read big words like "depression".

"See? We have your time in mind! We know you don't want to be bogged down with boring stuff like interesting content that actually requires your participation, attention and, you know... usage of your brain (I mean, pfft.. who wants to use that?). We realize what you're really interested in is getting all this boring gameplay stuff out of the way so you can get back to serious stuff... like jumping up and down on tents."

Give me a freaking break already with this patronizing, hand-holding "we will show you exactly where everything is so you don't even have to try" crap already. Seriously. Gamers are far smarter than this nonsense.

What a cop-out.

Why are you saying this like MMOs are ever difficult in the first place? Omg, please relax. "Hand-holding" or not, it would only make a 1 to 2 second difference to figure out what to do.

If you want a got damn mystery and problem solving, I believe you can play Prof. Laten? Is that the name or some Pheonix Wright.

[IloveYouPumpkin]

Would you prefer quests aimed at helping you level up to be cryptic and hard to figure out without reading a guide on the internet? No new player wants to have to research quests on a wiki when they first start out. They just want to kill stuff. Once theyve learned their class and gotten used to the game, THEN you can take some of the handholding away and make things more complicated (edit: sorry, forgot to finish my sentence LOL)

I can tell you I personally did not like the quests in XI where you had no idea what the hell you were supposed to do next because the NPCs were so vague and unclear about the next goal. If you pretty much HAVE to look up an online walkthrough written by somebody who actually took the time wandering around aimlessly until they happened across the next objective, then that kinda kills the fun for me.

It's not too far from having an arrow like in BioShock 2 pointing at where you need to go though, know what I mean?

There's a line.

[Hulan]

I can tell you I personally did not like the quests in XI where you had no idea what the hell you were supposed to do next because the NPCs were so vague and unclear about the next goal. If you pretty much HAVE to look up an online walkthrough written by somebody who actually took the time wandering around aimlessly until they happened across the next objective, then that kinda kills the fun for me.

This never gets old.

[Talshara_Blade]

I can tell you I personally did not like the quests in XI where you had no idea what the hell you were supposed to do next because the NPCs were so vague and unclear about the next goal. If you pretty much HAVE to look up an online walkthrough written by somebody who actually took the time wandering around aimlessly until they happened across the next objective, then that kinda kills the fun for me.

omg i so agree. I don't know how anyone ever figured out how to do anything in FFXI without looking at wiki or something. Vague is an understatement lol. "Did this guy just give me a quest? what the what?! what the hell does that mean???"

[Reika]

This never gets old.

I especially hated this from EQ. No quest journal, no real direction, and god forbid you forget to write it down.

FFXI...... same way.

[Keisuna]

Ohnoes! A couple of level 15-ish quests in an alpha build of a game don't require a masters degree in rocket science! This is a tragedy!

[Tobalito]

I know people get tired of hearing this, and its not much of excuse for many situations( although for this situation i think its fine) THIS IS ONLY ALPHA!

F.A.T.E system has not been implemented, you are in the shroud, and for god sakes its levels 1-20. I'm sure playing through the game will be a blast, combat looks active and fun as hell. If you want something like FFXI that exists! go play it. If you want F2P like GW2 it too does exist, go play it!

Can't wait till this game finally comes out!