Quest Chaining!? <NO THANKS>

[Rokien]

The story in SWTOR was shit because it was done by Bioware, not because of quest chaining.

Quest chaining can actually be done to where you can have an ongoing story, similar to how missions in XI worked.

That's not quest chaining though. FFXI had none of that.

This is quest chaining. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sye_hFl5IkI

[Kiote]

The story in SWTOR was shit because it was done by Bioware, not because of quest chaining.

Quest chaining can actually be done to where you can have an ongoing story, similar to how missions in XI worked.

There has never been an MMO with a good Quest based leveling system. Its pretty obvious why. People do not want to read while they level.

Quest XP should only serve to supplement leveling. Quests should Focus on storyline and unlocking features. The second you start making leveling dependant on quests, you start flooding the game with:

"Blah blah blah blah blah Dodos. Please go thin out their numbers." Kill Dodos 0/10

Then you get a friggin hundred of those, you stop reading them, you stop reading everything else, and you grind away on crappy please kill 10 quests instead of Killing things with a group of friends.

[Andrien]

Because Quest Progressing in most MMOs are horrendously done. Period lol. People were lapping up SWTOR's quest progression like a 20$ hooker, however they then realized how lazy they got with it after the initial quest lines. The main problem with it is not because it hands you xp...it's because in pretty much every MMO that utilize it, it's essentially what we have now in terms of Guildleves.

The story is mediocre or non-existent or poorly presented that you're better off just skipping it and only in it for the exp. (Means to an end.)

The other thing is, a lot of people said SE would do Side-Quests differently from other MMOs since SE tend to focus on story. Yeah the side-quests were more interesting than any other MMOs, however the problem is the game's mechanics didn't allow you to fully enjoy it, as in they were introduced far too late for many people or completely skipped due to powerleveling. (excluding ones that give you decent items like free food now that it has a use)

You said quest progressing in most MMOs are horrendously done. In other words that means some are actually good.

Now the main quest hub we have now is not quest chaining obviously because Rokien likes it. This is just endless repeatable quest that you can redo any number of times versus quest progression like what you'll see in any other console final fantasy title.

The fact of the matter is, nobody really reads the guild leve quest tags anyways, they just head out and start killing before the timer is up. In the other hand you're questing a series of quest that will set you out on an adventure, or maybe even build your fame and make a name of yourself in a small town. Bottom line is quest progression is always different, and should always guide you to new content.

btw I like both because I like options. If you generally disagree with me then I give up trying to understand both you and rokien. lol

[Elexia]

You said quest progressing in most MMOs are horrendously done. In other words that means some are actually good.

That's the thing, this depends on what you personally find good, since the ones that did it well did a good job with pushing you through your paces, but the presentation is what's universally bad and why I said if people are honestly expecting them to do anything even remotely as good as main scenario or GC for something like this..they're only setting themselves up for disappointment.

FFXI did it very well, but not in the same regard that it gives you exp and money for doing it, you mostly did it because it pushed you out the door to explore unknown places and gave you cute stories or deep lore. People are much more likely to remember things like the Star Onion Brigade in terms of random quests you can do than the ones that send you out to kill 10 dodos. In XIV you're penalized for exploring mostly due to the poor attribute system. No reason a level 80 monster should hit a level 50 player for 3x their max HP.

btw I like both because I like options.

Having options is indeed good, the issue generally is the implementation of said options and the way the community acts, because like in my Example, for some reason what once was the preferred setup for Ifrit (Stack Lancers) suddenly became "DRG and LNC are worthelss for the fight"..this community in particular seems to handle options in a weird manner lol.

[Elexia]

Yeah, XI's Mission (and XIV's main Scenario/GC Umbral Era stuff) is just mission progression for the main storyline, which is done with a lot more care than you see in other MMOs in regards to quest chaining. Quest Chaining is just a series of generic quests that pushes you from one location to the next, rarely presented in a quality manner.

That's my only real gripe with it, it's never presented well and it's hard to believe SE will present it well too, since their whole focal point is making this a 'standard mmo'.

[Ruisu]

They've been giving options for a while now. I don't see how this'll be a problem if it's completely optional, which Yoshida has stated that it was.

We're still getting exp camps
and we're still getting leves.

[Rokien]

They've been giving options for a while now. I don't see how this'll be a problem if it's completely optional, which Yoshida has stated that it was.

We're still getting exp camps
and we're still getting leves.

Which leves are those stupid quests that nobody cares about, why add normal quests like those?

[Ruisu]

Which leves are those stupid quests that nobody cares about, why add normal quests like those?

Cool opinion.

Because they're trying to grab more than like 40k players to play their game? They've been doing a decent enough job catering to everyone with only 1/4th of the team so far working on 1.0. I don't see how this hurts the game anyways. It's just making everyone happy. Not all of the content is created solely for you.

[Elexia]

Cool opinion.

Because they're trying to grab more than like 40k players to play their game? They've been doing a decent enough job catering to everyone with only 1/4th of the team so far working on 1.0. I don't see how this hurts the game anyways. It's just making everyone happy. Not all of the content is created solely for you.

Sadly, the people they do want to grab are the people who generally don't give two rat's asses about a storyline lol, but ah well, whatever makes SE money in the end they'll be happy.

[Sephrick]

I would assumed that those in favor of a longer leveling experience would be in favor of SE putting their twist on quest-based leveling.

It'd be easier to get people on board for leveling slower if the "journey" of leveling was, you know, an actual journey and not a slaughterfest of the same mobs over and over till you're high enough to move on to the next mob.

Especially if those quests were reminiscent of old-school FF stories. People don't dump 90+ hours into the old games because they were just killing the same mobs over and over. There may have been some of that to raise Gil. But most of the time it was off adventuring and getting lost in the world on the way to the next quest point.

I'm all for leveling through content. Camp grinding is dull.

There has never been an MMO with a good Quest based leveling system. Its pretty obvious why. People do not want to read while they level.

Quest XP should only serve to supplement leveling. Quests should Focus on storyline and unlocking features. The second you start making leveling dependant on quests, you start flooding the game with:

"Blah blah blah blah blah Dodos. Please go thin out their numbers." Kill Dodos 0/10

Then you get a friggin hundred of those, you stop reading them, you stop reading everything else, and you grind away on crappy please kill 10 quests instead of Killing things with a group of friends.

MMOs are just progressive in that way though.

You first mission in Eorzea is blah blah blah kill three marmots.

Your last mission is blah blah blah collect nine Hamlet seals, 25k GC seals, 999 beastman coins, doublemeld a weapon, spiritbond at a slower rate and kill a hard boss.

MMOs are one long fetch quest, any way you slice it. It's just that each quest ask for a little more of our time than the last but promises more in return.