Ludicrous game mechanics are ludicrous

There was no one person to figure everything out, everyone helped figuring it out. One person got the quest, told someone else about it. That person tried, but noticed they couldn't get it. And that's how you realized there was some requirement for it. Did the other person have higher rank? Higher level? Or what? And after time, these things figured themselves out.

And no one needs to have this done the second it comes out. There's nothing from with everyone figuring it out after a month, and then being able to do the quest.

Still, why anyone finds that desireable is beyond me. I don't like handholding any more than anyone else here. But there is a point where things become too cryptic. It should be *reasonably possible* to solve any quest without having to look up a guide or shout at passerby until someone who knows spurts the answer. This doesn't mean you shouldn't have to think, or look around, but there have been several quests in XI's history where no clues or hints whatsoever existed. clues and hints not in plain sight is not handholding and is perfectly acceptable. This is a massively multiplayer game. For me, the multiplayer part is grouping up to do battle, not shouting questions about a quest you can't figure out til someone tells you the answer- basically anything that doesn't actually need other people and could just as easily be solved by looking up a guide.

Of course, and I don't disagree that quests should be less cryptic themselves. But, for example, fame and people not mentioning quests until you're recognizable and known to the people of the city to a certain degree is perfectly fine. The Mithra example mentioned before was horrible and stuff like that shouldn't exist. But "I lost an item in that dungeon to an Orc, please retrieve it" without mentioning any specifics is perfectly fine, because searching for it is part of the quest. As long as a player has the general idea what they should do and where they should head it's reasonable and doesn't need adjusting.

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Originally Posted by Arcon

Of course, and I don't disagree that quests should be less cryptic themselves. But, for example, fame and people not mentioning quests until you're recognizable and known to the people of the city to a certain degree is perfectly fine. The Mithra example mentioned before was horrible and stuff like that shouldn't exist. But "I lost an item in that dungeon to an Orc, please retrieve it" without mentioning any specifics is perfectly fine, because searching for it is part of the quest. As long as a player has the general idea what they should do and where they should head it's reasonable and doesn't need adjusting.

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100% agree!



I don't want npcs to have question or exclamation marks above their heads and a window opens on the left side of the screen with hundred lines of text; you just have to scroll down, click 'accept' and follow the arrow on your map that tells you where to go and a questlog that reads X/50 monster Y.
This pattern is used in all other MMORPGs I played beside FFXI.

Jesus Christ... you all should try to do Chains of Promathia 5-3 Missions w/o any hint at all.

Without wikia or bgwikia I can see a player spending 2 years to get access to all events... mainly old "lol"events.

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Originally Posted by Rezeak

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Can anyone, from SE or outside, seriously tell me, with a straight face this is how it should be and that, in the absence of (...) third-party efforts like the Wiki, the quest system in this game is at all playable?

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By asking other people in your linkshell.

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Your linkshell is a "third party."

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Originally Posted by Ethalio

I don't want npcs to have question or exclamation marks above their heads

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Why not? It breaks the immersion of having NPCs stand there doing nothing all day, being little more than pieces of furniture?

It stands to reason that NPCs with a task that needs completing would do something to actively seek an adventurer to do it, and take some sort of measure to initiate contact. If not that particular mechanic, then at least something like a jobs board.

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follow the arrow on your map that tells you where to go

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If you have a map, and the NPC knows exactly where on the map you need to go (which is often the case), why not let them mark your map for you? The mechanic is already present in the game (or have all forgotten how our Adventurer Coupons worked), just woefully underused.

I don't really care that NPCs don't tell you everything, or that you have to spend time repeating a task. It's just the mundane, banal tone of the tasks that bother me.

I remember standing in line as a low level in 2004 to do Bubbly Bernie for Bastok fame and gil. In LINE . . . for BUBBLY BERNIE. One of the people in front of me started to run back to Bastok and said "wtf, why am I standing in line so I can trade a fish to a bush to fight a crab? This game sucks!"

But then I just kept repeating garbage like that. Like most of this game, the only thing that made that tolerable was a network of other players in the same boat bitching and joking about it.

It's not that different than the rest of the game though - using sheep and frogs as BST pets and fighting household pets endlessly to gain levels. I don't know if it's a Japanese Pokemon obsession or what, but it's the dumbest thing about the FFXI world to me. I had to play 6 months before I finally fought something I thought looked epic.

I for one enjoy the Pokemans aspect of the game, BST rules. Needs a Butterfly jug, then I'll be happy with it forever.

Rep grinding is still as boring today as it was years ago, except now it's no big deal to drop some gil on a bunch of stacks of silk threads or hare meat or whatever. It's an aging system that serves no real purpose anymore other than to slow us down for a bit, and is at best just a temporary timesink. If gaining reputation weren't such a boring task by default I think players would be less apt to trade corn to some random dude instead of becoming the bogeyman/bad news bear. I just did the required quests to finish up Windy rank missions, it was the most annoying 2 days of running in circles and trading pointless items I've ever experienced with this game. I should have just traded corn to that guy.

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"I lost an item in that dungeon to an Orc, please retrieve it"

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"That dungeon" is fine, but too many quests in the early parts of the game were more like "I lost an item go get it." If they said "I lost an item in <place>, go find it," that's fine because you have at least a vague idea of its whereabouts without a big flashing arrow sending you straight to it.