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

[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?

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.

[Poporito_Popoto]

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

[Stormpeaks]

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

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

[Heroman3003]

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.

[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?"

[Poporito_Popoto]

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

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

[Hycinthus]

"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?"

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.

[Hycinthus]

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

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.

[Atelier-Bagur]

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.

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?

[Krotoan]

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.

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.