NPC Following Quests - Overly complex don't we think?

[WindyGamer]

So at this point these NPC Following quests where NPCs follow us are getting silly don't we think? At first I guess using a Crystal or Mount would lose the NPC and we would have to go back? So all the chitty chatty black boxes and warnings seemed necessary, But that seems to be fixed. Now we can Crystal and Mount all over the place without losing our NPC friends. Cool.

So why all the glowy circles and chitty chatty black boxes. How about we simplify this whole thing. No circles, just sparkly destinations. Like all the other quests with NPCs in the game. But instead of them just showing up at the destinations, they follow you. And if along the way, at any time, you feel like chatting with them they have something interesting to say. No [...] , no blue circles. Just have what they are going to say change along the way if you like.

At this point, aren't all these targets and circle animations just kind of silly? Let's just go back to the old way of showing quest targets and sometimes have the NPCs follow us. I Agree that's endrearing and immersive, but it sure does take me out of the immersion when all the glowy circles and black chat boxes show up.

Oh, and one more thing. How about if I use a Teleporter in a city, the NPC appears slightly later than me so I see them appear. Wouldn't that be cool and immersive? Looks like now they appear before I do so they are already there. So wouldn't it be better if I appear and then Woosh, they appear just after me.

And maybe if I'm not in a city and I use a mount, the NPC just mounts up on their ChocoChick and rides after me. Now they are willing the Sprint after me, so I would think that mounting them up would be no problem.

Just My Humble Opinion

[Mirhd]

Personally, I like them, and prefer how they are now. That and a large blue circle is easier to spot when you're sprinting past something, even if you're only half paying attention, than a small sparkly thing. The circle stands out more on most backgrounds than tiny white sparkles, but maybe that's just my eyesight. /shrug

[Iscah]

The circles are your quest targets.

Also the game probably needs those defined talking-point circles to trigger the change in dialogue, and I certainly want them marked rather than to wander all over the map talking to my companions for the same dialogue over and over just to see if they say something different this time.

The one change I do want to see in the system is shifting the explanation to an active help window on the first instance instead of giving the same three boxes of system text every time someone joins you.

[RayneBoemir]

No if anything I want more of them in dungeons and npcs can voice their opinions of some detail in said dungeon would add a lot I think to npcs in dungeons.

[YukiB]

The circles are fine. What's wrong with an obvious visual indicator?

[Packetdancer]

I thought the NPC escort quest was kind of neat when I first got one.

By the end of Endwalker MSQ, I will admit that every time someone said we should go to a destination, I wanted to inwardly scream -- or breathe a sigh of relief if they then walked off on their own and faded away in the old manner.

Admittedly, this is because I was doing MSQ at launch, so anything -- accidentally ending up in water deep enough to swim, getting on a mount reflexively, using an aethernet shard, whatever -- would make you lose the NPC and have to go aaaaaaall the way back to the beginning and get them again. The changes make the system considerably less annoying.

(On the other hand, if when a certain grumpy NPC accompanies you to search for another NPC at a pivotal moment in the next-to-last zone, and specifically demands you not drag him through the water by a waterfall... his reaction if you do in fact cut across the water and then talk to him -- despite there being no glowy box there to trigger a different dialogue -- is priceless, and almost enough to justify all the annoyances of the system at launch.)

[Poporito_Popoto]

Don't you think your complaint about this is just silly?

[WindyGamer]

The circles are fine. What's wrong with an obvious visual indicator?

We already have NPC following quests. Have had for years. They jsut disappear between WPs. which are sparkly destionations.
So why all the nonsense now that sometimes they walk along with you? Totally uncessary complexity and eye candy. Breaks immersion.

[StriderShinryu]

I actually prefer the escort system because it's more of a choice. If you just want to get to the end you can just run straight there (or wrap straight there) and be done with them. If you want to actually spend time with the character and have that extra dialogue (and gpose chances) then you can do that do. The "sparkly bread trail" just means you have to stop at every single point regardless of whether you are or not.

I do feel the 6.0 MSQ did have a few too many escort quests (and some people found them buggy with poor pathfinding) but I took that as more of the developers delighting in having a new toy to play with rather than an ongoing design choice.

[WindyGamer]

Don't you think your complaint about this is just silly?

Sure. But so is the Devs wasteing time on the eye candy. The whole NPC follow thing is a Gimmmick. So cool Let's have the gimmick without the eyecandy.