How much effort is it to create 1 simple fetch Quest?

Honest question, how much development effort is it to create 1 simple fetch Quest?

The reason I'm asking is - we already have a content drought as of it is right now, and I thought, great, there is at least Seasonal Event Valentione. But then, *gasp* it is only exactly 1 Quest.

What's preventing SE from just having monthly simple events to alleviate some of the drought's frustration? How much effort is it to just create 8 simple quests, tied to a monthly event?

Story - I need just 1 hour for 1 quest's story and dialogue. Give me 8 hours, meaning 1 day's worth of work - I'll prepare 8 quests' stories and dialogues ready. Heck, can they just hire summer writing interns or volunteers? (Localization - just use google translate, it's OK).

Quest Design - Make it very simple. Fetch quests, or completing existing Fates. That's it. People will be happy enough. At least it's enough to fill the time. We're not asking for the moon here.

Animation - I'm thinking this is where the bulk of the effort will go. We don't need complicated animation. Just use the existing Emotes, or even, no need to animate at all. Just a couple NPCs standing together, spout out the lines from the writers, just copy paste, that's it.

Voice Acting - no need voice acting. There isn't any anyway for Seasonal quests.

Rewards - Maybe 1 designer to design 2-3 outfits as reward, probably will take them less than 1 week. If not, then just give out existing items and materials, and maybe a certificate or MGP or something. People will be happy.

Testing - Just 1 or 2 QAs to test, probably done in a 2 day's work.

What else? Please help me as I am just trying to figure out, and I will happily stand corrected if I really am missing a lot of the context here, of why they cannot just push out monthly events with 8 quests each, or even have a less lackluster Seasonal Event like Valentione with more than just 1 quest.

You forgot the extra zone that was created for the event, plus the after-quest wrap-up.

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Originally Posted by Poporito_Popoto

You forgot the extra zone that was created for the event, plus the after-quest wrap-up.

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That's literally 20 minutes of content total, and that's if you're slow on the event, else it's more like 10

Quests like the seasonal quests are usually done in the interim of working on other content, more important and are basically filler. But what you fail to account for in your estimation of effort is a critical thing - every step is easy for one person's work, but this isn't one person's work. Each of steps is worked on by different people in different departments. Now add all the time of stuff being shared back and forth over multiple days to coordinate, idea being settled and confirmed by leads, even smallest errors taking time to fix due to need to go back and forth yet again, etc etc. Ironically, when it comes to incredibly small things, corporate development team structure is a lot slower than solo indie devs at doing it, purely because of separation of duties and paper trails. So yeah, the amount of work going into it? Less than a week, definitely. The amount of time it takes between each step as things get coordinated? Definitely adds up to just as much if not more time.

"SE should create monthly sets of busywork quests to keep us busy during content droughts."

5 seconds after the implementation...

"OMG why is this content so meaningless? Why did they bother adding it at all when it's literally just busywork?"

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

That's literally 20 minutes of content total, and that's if you're slow on the event, else it's more like 10

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Yet it's more than just 1 fetch quest like the OP mentioned.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

"SE should create monthly sets of busywork quests to keep us busy during content droughts."

5 seconds after the implementation...

"OMG why is this content so meaningless? Why did they bother adding it at all when it's literally just busywork?"

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Which is why that's not what I'm asking. I want to discuss first how much effort does it take. If it takes away too much, then of course it's not worth it.

But if it doesn't take away too much, then I would say people would rather have content than not having content at all.

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Originally Posted by Poporito_Popoto

Yet it's more than just 1 fetch quest like the OP mentioned.

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I want to discuss even beyond Valentione event - that's done and dusted, can't go back.

So basically, how much effort do you think that took, and how about for future Seasonal events? Is it acceptable? How about monthly events with 8 quests each (not just seasonal), would that be feasible? Etc.

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Originally Posted by Hycinthus

I want to discuss even beyond Valentione event - that's done and dusted, can't go back.

So basically, how much effort do you think that took, and how about for future Seasonal events? Is it acceptable? How about monthly events with 8 quests each (not just seasonal), would that be feasible? Etc.

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honestly ive gotten so used with the lack of a huge net of grinds that I seriously dont want to have to prolong a quest event for the sake of adding a grind. If this is what you're ultimately wanting for the a seasonal event like in WoW when they do theirs.

Its most so that I can get my small fill, be content about it and not worry about the game and do other things. Is that so bad?

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Originally Posted by Hycinthus

Which is why that's not what I'm asking. I want to discuss first how much effort does it take. If it takes away too much, then of course it's not worth it.

But if it doesn't take away too much, then I would say people would rather have content than not having content at all.

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Any time spent creating a quest takes away time from devs making "actual" content.

The dialogue must be written and localized for all areas. The NPCs need to be coded and tested if they're in a new place and tested for conflicts if they exist already. If there are monsters to be killed for drops they need to be flagged to drop the loot or item for people on the quest and checked to see if this interferes with any other quests/skills/challenges. The rewards need to be calculated against other available rewards and the lore impact tested for conflicts with other storylines and narratives. There is probably a LOT I'm not even thinking about, but as I don't design games it doesn't come to mind easily.


Quite honestly, in my opinion I'd rather they spend this kind of time on making content releases deeper than distracting people with 3 minute busywork.

I don't think the important question is "how much effort to make a quest?" but "is there a worthwhile story to be told for this event?"

Unless they have an actual good story idea for the quest, then I would rather it be kept short and sweet. Too often they drag out seasonal quests with trite paint-by-numbers "emotional" stories where a simple one would do.

Also, on pure numbers for this specific Valentione 2023 event, it's not "just" the one quest because you also have the series of vignettes afterwards. They're still fairly short and it would be nice to get more of them, but it's still an example of the quest extending beyond the single quest.

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Originally Posted by Poporito_Popoto

You forgot the extra zone that was created for the event, plus the after-quest wrap-up.

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It's an old map from 2 years ago and they already used last year too. Nothing to develop there.

The function of having a task to fetch an item is obviously less effort than the story and items. It's the story, character development, cutscenes and item development that take a lot of the work and then have to be translated across several languages.

But it's not like they don't keep producing other types of quests which are gated by weeks, such as beast tribes, custom deliveries and other little side quests we've had recently to add lore to the MSQ.

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Originally Posted by Hycinthus

Honest question, how much development effort is it to create 1 simple fetch Quest?

The reason I'm asking is - we already have a content drought as of it is right now, and I thought, great, there is at least Seasonal Event Valentione. But then, *gasp* it is only exactly 1 Quest.

What's preventing SE from just having monthly simple events to alleviate some of the drought's frustration? How much effort is it to just create 8 simple quests, tied to a monthly event?

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For one thing, you're missing the localization step and probably several more items, but anyway...

Three words: Quality Over Quantity.

I'm so over hearing about this and that being lackluster. Why? Because it didn't fill some great space of time? XIV is a story game and that's exactly what they deliver Everything looks pretty well thought out. (It's unfortunate that the outfits weren't totally ready, but they made an adjustment.) There are even bonus interactions with NPCs you've met along the way. I wasn't terribly interested in the rewards, but I enjoyed the story nonetheless.

If you want more quests more often, the quality will surely suffer. They're not just going to give you simple fetch quests, they're going to tell a story. There's plenty of "busywork" to do without quests being tied in. Perhaps you would consider taking up fishing or crafting.

I've done seasonal events elsewhere and I'm glad this is just a one and done thing that doesn't interfere with the daily / weekly routine, though they do tend to have some optional repeatable. It's never diverting too many players away from whatever other content there is to do. You can run it on the first day or the last day and not miss a thing.

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Originally Posted by Krotoan

Any time spent creating a quest takes away time from devs making "actual" content.

The dialogue must be written and localized for all areas. The NPCs need to be coded and tested if they're in a new place and tested for conflicts if they exist already. If there are monsters to be killed for drops they need to be flagged to drop the loot or item for people on the quest and checked to see if this interferes with any other quests/skills/challenges. The rewards need to be calculated against other available rewards and the lore impact tested for conflicts with other storylines and narratives. There is probably a LOT I'm not even thinking about, but as I don't design games it doesn't come to mind easily.


Quite honestly, in my opinion I'd rather they spend this kind of time on making content releases deeper than distracting people with 3 minute busywork.

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Thanks for sharing. Basicaly what you’re saying here is that 8 fetch quests will probably consume quite considerable amount of time that it will take away from making other patches or future expansions. This is noted and if that’s the case I agree. That’s why I want to hear other perspective.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

"SE should create monthly sets of busywork quests to keep us busy during content droughts."

5 seconds after the implementation...

"OMG why is this content so meaningless? Why did they bother adding it at all when it's literally just busywork?"

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The last thing XIV needs is more boring quests. Tribes have cornered that market years ago. Go get all relics if you're that terminally bored.

Everything they add to the game is so contrived or convaluted that I actually find something like a 1 and done quest for Valentine's Day to be refreshing and welcome.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but every time they add anything that on paper sounds simple enough gets bogged down by random inserts of busy work.

It's like the Island Sanctuary. I got into it rather late and didn't look anything up. It is way more convaluted than it would ever need to be. You grow crops, collect materials, raise animals and etc. But they, for whatever reason it needed just absolutely terrible xp rates and babys first Excel spreadsheet/ stock market simulator.

It's kinda why I take anything they add outside of the normal gameplay loop with a grain of salt. And I'm happy that all of it is optional.

It's like Eureka or Bozja. I hate both of them for their own reasons. Guess what? I never have to do them ever. That's what I want. More of that, please.

You should watch the Live Letters sometime. They've had sections before where they will do something like "What are the steps to this questline" or such and there are things people mentioned here but a lot more. It's not as simple as just go code something for 20 minutes and stick it in when you have something like an ongoing MMO.

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Originally Posted by Heroman3003

But what you fail to account for in your estimation of effort is a critical thing - every step is easy for one person's work, but this isn't one person's work. Each of steps is worked on by different people in different departments.

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Can't emphasize this enough. While I don't work for SE, I can't imagine development is that different from the bigger picture.

There's the "story and lore" department. How does this fit into Eorzea? Do they tie in pre-existing characters? Do we need to make a new character? What are they like?

There's the art department - new items, new characters, new zone(?), new decorations, even the new thumbnails of the items. New emotes?

Then there's actually translating the lore, art (and other stuff I left out) into the actual code executed both server side and client side.

I'm also leaving out all the infrastructure that it took to even make all of that happen. While they did have to write their own engine for much of how this is done (and that work is already done), whatever that infrastructure is dictates how the half dozen departments probably have to work together to get a "simple 10 minute quest" live in the game.

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Originally Posted by Ardeth

Everything they add to the game is so contrived or convaluted that I actually find something like a 1 and done quest for Valentine's Day to be refreshing and welcome.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but every time they add anything that on paper sounds simple enough gets bogged down by random inserts of busy work.

It's like the Island Sanctuary. I got into it rather late and didn't look anything up. It is way more convaluted than it would ever need to be. You grow crops, collect materials, raise animals and etc. But they, for whatever reason it needed just absolutely terrible xp rates and babys first Excel spreadsheet/ stock market simulator.

It's kinda why I take anything they add outside of the normal gameplay loop with a grain of salt. And I'm happy that all of it is optional.

It's like Eureka or Bozja. I hate both of them for their own reasons. Guess what? I never have to do them ever. That's what I want. More of that, please.

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What dont you like from Bozja?

How the main scenario is made (but it's not going to be much different for sidequests

What Yoshi-P's job involves (talks a lot about patch cycles and its contents, a lot of which is quests).

On Apr 5, 2019, 3 months before the release of Shadowbringers, from https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post4941071

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Q: I’m very excited for the story in Shadowbringers. How much of the story has been written so far?
A: While I can't go into the details of the upcoming story, in terms of progress, we’re about 80-90% complete with the main scenario. Things that remain are things such as the sidequests and checking over the completed sections.

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Implying sidequests weren't complete, if even done at all, that close to the expansion release.

This doesn't provide a lot of detail on how quests are made, but has some comments on making the MSQ by the writers

Comments on localization which include how much work an expansion MSQ is.

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Originally Posted by Hycinthus

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Purely on a technical standpoint? Depends on how the workflow is handled. My personal guess based on my own history of game development is from initial conception to finished product, a quest in 14 will likely take about 2-3 weeks of dev time. That being said, this isn't 2-3 weeks for everything, certain aspects will take much longer than others.

Script - This is likely where the most development time as far as the actual quest goes. Scripts for quests not only have to be written, but then thoroughly reviewed by the writing lead &/or game director, mistakes corrected, potential lore contradictions/issues addressed, checking if the dialogue fits the character's personality & experiences, etc. Scripts aren't a simple 'write it out and you're done'. They get passed around many people and most scripts have to go through many re-writes. Then once an absolute finalized script is finished, it gets passed onto translations teams, each of which then has to spend time not only translating the script, but also changing the wording/dialogue to better fit the region (Like how certain references in JP dialogue wouldn't translate well to EN, so they get altered) through localization. After every language team approves their final script, that's when it gets truly finalized.

Actual gameplay loop of a given quest - Even assuming the quest is absolute bare-bones 'go to point A, talk to someone, repeat 4-6 times', You would have to create, design and program the following:
-A list of event flags associated with the quest, making sure that the flags unlock in order to prevent the quest from breaking and going out of order
-Cutscene crafting, where not only would you have to plan which cutscenes occur where in the quest, but then also plan all the camera movements, jumps, pans, etc for each interaction, syncing up emotes/animations to key moments in each cutscene, and with FF14 in specific, program in the target all the characters in the scene should be looking at on any given text box.
-If the NPCs associated with the event are brand new, there will be a not-zero amount of time spent crafting the NPC in the character creator, giving them a lore-appropriate name, crafting their personality, backstory, etc. If they're wearing a unique set of armor, then you also have to wait for the 3D modeling team to finish their work first. (see next)
-Plan the placement of NPCs associated with the quest at key locations they need to be in the questline, while also having to factor the positions of any other NPC in that zone(whether their sidequest was active or not) to make sure that no 2 NPCs ever overlap from being placed in the same spot.

To put it in perspective, I worked on a sidequest in Assasin's Creed 2 that was a glorified short fetch quest, and that quest took us about 3 weeks of development till it was fully completed & thoroughly tested. Keep in mind though, the team I worked with was like, 20 people large purely between the programmers, quest designers and QA. I can't make any comments regarding the team sizes that Square uses for their quest designers.

Rewards - This is where there's a lot of ? as I am unaware of the given workload their 3D modeling team is under at any given point. Yoshi-P has mentioned that from first inception to its implementation, a gearset takes roughly 6months to develop, but I think this is an exaggeration. However, 3D modeling a full set with all the variations for various races like the unique body types of Roegadyn & lalafell, along with male & female variants and all the texture work involved in under a week is a massive stretch. I would likely put any set developed at around 1-2 months, given the 3D modeling team likely has to make an insane amount of environmental 3D assets for the given dungeon & trial every patch, along with any additional assets for extra content like exploratory stuff/deep dungeons/raids/etc that might be coming that patch. That is all without factoring that any work they make would have to go through approvals from higher ups, and not everything will be done on the first go around and will require multiple revisions.

This would likely be the choke point for trying to do any sort of monthly mini quest thing. The 3D modeling team has to make hundreds of assets from gear to environmental stuff for each major patch in just 4 months, their workload is likely crammed enough as it is. it's likely the reason that when multiple events are in close proximity, some of them tend to suffer in terms of rewards, since they may not have time to give every event a 'big' reward. Or why you see them implementing some stuff into the game files nearly half a year in advance (the Heavensturn items were in the game since 6.2, as an example) since that's when they have the spare time to work on something.

TL DR: That one quest is likely about 2-3 weeks of professional work, being done by one of the quest teams once they finished their work for 6.3.

But this is all my $0.02 based on my own experiences in the industry. I have no detailed idea of how Square's internal dev environment works.

This has information about story and quest design https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/003029.html

Then they have to come up with characters, so see this https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/003359.html

Then they need translating
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/003334.html
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/003339.html

For rewards, I remember the models take something like 6-8 months because it starts with an vague idea, then the concept art team have to try to draw it and find the best one that they came up with, then it has to be made, animated, have an icon designed, tooltips written, then translated and tested. Just for a simple reward that some people might discard afterwards. There is more information about how long it takes to make items here https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/003401.html

My other links were to events that took place after live letters, but these are from the blogs.

somebody didnt watch that one LL livestream where they explain how they make a sidequest. it literally takes days or even weeks just to create 1 sidequest because everyone is busy with msq and other type of quest like tribal quest, job/role quest, etc at the same time

CBU3 is always working on something and they're doing more despite also making XVI. The proof is out there, but people want to ignore it and act like victims. :p

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

CBU3 is always working on something and they're doing more despite also making XVI. The proof is out there, but people want to ignore it and act like victims. :p

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I wouldnt really say that, its just the simple fact that anyone who hasnt worked in the game development business wouldnt know how its actually all done. So people assume as if everything is all simple and clean.

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

I wouldnt really say that, its just the simple fact that anyone who hasnt worked in the game development business wouldnt know how its actually all done. So people assume as if everything is all simple and clean.

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Or people would assume based off of how easy indie devs can add features every week i ntheir small-scale projects and do not recognize that some things are sacrificed to corporate production pipeline in order to make big projects like MMOs possible, and one of them is ability to casually just add a thing real quick over an evening of one man's coding.

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Originally Posted by Hycinthus

What dont you like from Bozja?

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I don't like any arbitrary systems where I have to level up. It's ironic because it's everything I wanted from Eureka, and yet it's not enough. Eureka was terrible. The fate system of spawning nms was terrible. The xp was terrible. The grind was terrible. So the change to Bozja at first was great, but I don't know. I didn't like it. I don't like running from fate to fate. I don't like the dungeons inside of them. I don't like the fates that turn into boss fights. I don't like it.

But again, it's optional. I like that part.

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Originally Posted by Heroman3003

Or people would assume based off of how easy indie devs can add features every week i ntheir small-scale projects and do not recognize that some things are sacrificed to corporate production pipeline in order to make big projects like MMOs possible, and one of them is ability to casually just add a thing real quick over an evening of one man's coding.

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You just answered your own question. You cant compare a single player experience small scale project to an MMO. Its like comparing apples and oranges. Way to go to make yourself look so ignorant.

I feel like the future of MMOs is gonna have quests auto-generated by AI. It's actually possible to generate content faster than players can complete it now, even the art assets, music and battle design by AI. It shouldn't replace human-designed creative works but there's a place for that automated stuff as supplemental content within certain parameters.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

I feel like the future of MMOs is gonna have quests auto-generated by AI. It's actually possible to generate content faster than players can complete it now, even the art assets, music and battle design by AI. It shouldn't replace human-designed creative works but there's a place for that automated stuff as supplemental content within certain parameters.

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That sounds a.b.s.o.l.u.t.e.l.y. horrible. lol

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

CBU3 is always working on something and they're doing more despite also making XVI. The proof is out there, but people want to ignore it and act like victims. :p

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Agreed. What we have now is what we’re supposed to have. FFXIV was never intended to be someone’s “main game”. This isn’t WoW. It’s not supposed to keep you entertained year-round. You play the story, do the raids, and then unsub to go play something else. Many of us like playing other games. The less time we have to spend in FFXIV, the more we have to play other games and actually be happy instead of doing chores in a PS3 game.

Besides, FFXVI is coming out soon. Can’t we be happy with that? And if you need to play FFXIV in the off-season (for whatever godawful reason), then that’s why we have modders. They make the drought content that you’re looking for. It may not be gameplay, but who comes here for that?