How to fix the sidequests...

[VeranRamaden]

Okay - if you kill ANYTHING you should get sp/xp. even if it is like 100/200 or even lower. I mean, if you get sp/xp from killing things why should a quest deem the killing un-skillable? I mean, I just want quests like FFXI. You have to bring something back or kill this or do that. but if you killed a mob you got sp/xp depending on your level as if you were grinding. That's really all there is to it. Give the quest mob (if it even has to be a quest mob, can use existing mobs or implement new mobs into the environment.) a level and wala - a challenge to kill for some and easy for others.

oh and of course FFXI-esque style quests. (cutscene of you and npc talking, camera moving around, wall of text, mood setting music or sounds to go with set npc movements/actions)

[Betelgeuzah]

Betelgeuzah: Your point is moot.

Quests that don't give exp/sp are pointless, you can simply do Leves to get the money to buy the gear they offer AND get SP/EXP. So can new players. Yet another bad decision by SE.

MMO Economy 101:

Simply getting money from Leves doesn't mean you can buy the equipment. It depends on the supply and demand. If there is a lot of demand for equipment, the price will go up. At that point, people can't afford the equipment anymore simply just with the money gained from the Leves. On top of the leveling process being as fast as it is, people simply won't bother.

I'd say that your point is moot here. New players will find quests that reward equipment worthwhile. Those with 10 million gil and rank 50 classes... not so much. The quests are designed for those people however.

But to simply say a person must choose between character advancement and flavor text?

The person must choose between getting equipment and getting money + exp. And in most cases that's not even true, as you can do 8 leves per 36 hours. You can easily do both.

XI does the same thing XIV is doing, and it turned off the EXP. You were either EXPing, or you were farming money, doing BCNM's and so on. You weren't going to get any EXP if it wasn't a rare exception. It was one or the other.

What? I'm not talking about what you can buy. My point was that a person starting on day one will come across an available quest "let's say a rank 5 quest for a rank 5 item." Now in the time it takes for that person to complete that quest, they could have completed 2 or 3 guildleves made it to rank 6 and with the gil acquired bought said item from the market wards.

Then he runs out of leves. Not to mention due to high demand 2-3 leves isn't enough at all. Have you seen how much gil you gain from a rank 1 leve? Not enough to buy anything. You can easily do both.

Yes, RPGs do have certain quests that do not actually give you anything, except they have an impact on your character

Equipment. Titles are coming.

Granted, like I said flavor text is not enough if they're not going to give XP or money. The quests need to be of better quality. Both in the story department and the content department.

At the same time, FFXIV is a year behind where it should be (assuming that Yoshi-P's plan is completed on the 1 year anniversary of the original CE launch. You could have one quest if you could convince everyone to play it over and over again.

Nobody cares if the 30k or so people playing currently need to play the same quest over and over again. SE should be building the content for the people they want to play, not the people currently playing. To people not playing it's the same whether the game is a year late or not. What matters is what's in the game when they start playing. For most people, that point only comes when SE starts advertising the game again and releases the PS3 version. That's where they should aim for, not the current playerbase.

[God]

Give SP/XP and quests will be fixed. As SE adds more quests they'll get better UNLESS they continue to NOT offer SP/XP.

/end thread.

[Suzaku]

There are lots of things quests could provide other than a flat XP/SP reward. Abilities, progression, useful items, fame, etc. "Fixing" quests just involves making them more varied, and having them give something useful.

SP, XP, and gil aren't the only useful things in this game, you know.

[MANTASTIC]

Reasons to do a quest:
1) Character progression(EXP/SP etc)
2) Loot (money/gear)
3) Interesting story

The current implementation of "side quests" lacks all but one of those. While the quests and gear rewards make a bit more sense from a new players' perspective, the lack of any sort of exp means very few will find them compelling enough to do. And if you found a couple dull paragraphs of text to be an interesting story, I'm sorry, but no. Just no.

I understand the current producer is in a rush to push out content, but the reality is the people playing the game now matter far less than those who aren't. They shouldn't be pushing out this level of crap to placate the few who hang around in hopes of it getting better soon, and should instead focus on developing content that will be enjoyable for years and whatever overhauls to combat/crafting/etc they have in store.

TL,DR: Quality over quantity.

[Seif]

What's really missing compared to XI quests:

CUTSCENES, interesting story and fame.

Completing XIV side-quests is as much fun as doing a leve without any sp.

[Naylia]

Boycotting quests until we are given normal sp/exp for the mobs we kill. Current system encourages you to switch to your highest ranked class - one shot all the bad guys and collect reward. If the system awarded normal sp/exp for kills, then participating in the quests at an appropriate rank would be rewarded and make low level quests great for both new players and advanced players leveling a new discipline.

[Eruantien]

I agree that the storylines are lackluster, and all it does is fleash out the world enough. But the point of saying all quests are pointless without exp/sp is stupid. If that was the case most people in XI would not have done any quests as most quests make you lose xp not gain it

[Anty]

why not create more questlines, with a good/very good story behind it, maybe with little cs (i rather wait then having the same as every mmo has). And a bigger, better reward in the end, like chosing a good item out of 3-4 to fit your job.

The idea of getting guildmarks is very good, perhaps one could even make guild mini-quests to achieve special actions/attacks/spells?

im not sure if:

battle guildleve = flavor text + kill X number mobs + receive xp/sp + receive currency and or item.

sidequest = flavor text + questgiver NPC +kill X mobs + receive item - xp/sp

will work out. Since that is what makes other mmos boring, so why shouldnt it with ffxiv?

Doin different things for progression is most rewarding (imo). XPing only bores ppl in general, questing only does as well.
Mixing the things keeps things fresh.

Doin something to get abilities (not leves for guildmarks) let the guilds each give special quests (not only the existing missions you see every few - days- weeks -depending on how much you play)

Giving people too many rewards for questing would make crafing far less important, looking at most other mmos it gets completely useless in the end. Keeping the balance there i think is hard.

Rewards have to be something unique, like special abilites (mentioned that already), spells, crafting items, key items etc.
So far all i got was craftable and often not high lvl so - since almost everyone can craft things - sold to npc.

I know its a bit late for that but the fact that you get all your abilites without doin something (but grinding all over again)
just from lvling took away a lot of possible questlines, battles /challenges to acutally GET those for future use.
You don't appreciate it. You're not that happy you finally got an ability (not to mention you dont have to use most of them since the current battle mechanics are flat as can be)... Perhaps there will still be possibilites to implement similar
quest-oriented rewards, for meriting spells, abilites or something like that. Perhaps doin quests to improve special abilites of yours, to customize your job the way you want it the most even.

Rather waiting a bit more (we already did wait pretty long for almost nothing so... )and get a better product in the end then half-done quests.

[Alicia_WM]

Quest targets should reward SP, XP and loot -only- to players who have the relevant quest active and objectives incomplete. This way, it cannot be exploited.