Better communication/quest system etc

[Felis]

its just has nothing to do with lazy.. ask any GW2 player that it is much more modern and DYNAMIC gameplay..
just to walk back every silly quest just feels like routine where you are ripped out of the actual gameplay

Please, do some more quests. Not in every quest you need to walk back to the starter NPC.
Example: Together we stand (Gridania)
It start in Mor Dhona and end in Gridania

Or Two Vans are Better than One
It start in the Twin Adder HQ and end at the Gridania Airport

[Estellios]

Actually, there is a feature like that buried somewhere deep within the menus. I don't use it given I almost exclusively only party with people I personally know or people I hear shouting for help for hours on end, but I do know i've seen it and, according to many things i've read on these forums, JP groups pretty much ask you to join their group through that feature rather than request a party invite from the leader.

It's, amazingly, in the "party" section of the menu =P

I've been using it a lot lately for Hamlet Defense groups since if you set specific classes/levels the only way people can join is if they actually have it.

I wish there was an option for "X OR Y" for specific slots or stuff like "tank" or "DD" and an auto-translate in the party description but now that they added a lot more purpose options it's pretty nice.

[Elexia]

Communication system:
- An ingame Messanger where you can create a private chat with friends

- when you receive a new message/moogle mail. a visual signal should come up in the corner

Yet more reason they should have kept POL for XIV.

[Seif]

I'd like them to just make a lot better quests in general where cutscenes aren't limited to a handful of missions.

I'd also like them to make us travel a lot more and require longer commitment sometimes.

Leves do neither of the above and they pale in comparison to games like Tera that have casual quests but they don't treat their players like cows on a meadow.

Casual does not mean pointless nor boring.


Elexia is so right btw. SE should stop taking features away from their products if they don't have anything more or better to offer in it's place.

[Elexia]

I'd like them to just make a lot better quests in general where cutscenes aren't limited to a handful of missions.

:X quest chaining to level means this won't happen as they need a ton of them to even make it possible. They even said doing voice work for cutscenes would push updates to longer schedules and they're trying to get a 2 month? update schedule so that already means there won't be quality quests in this game because if they're making a lot of quests they can't spend time on cutscenes for even a majority of them unless they do it FFXI style with 'pseudo' cutscenes.

This is why even "the ultimate questing experience" of SWTOR was medicore and subpar, because they got lazy with it after the initial areas and questlines because it just can't be done xD

Tera that have casual quests but they don't treat their players like cows on a meadow.

Tera also threw out mob grinding past the starting levels and the quests were essentially all the same, so while you weren't treated like a cow in a meadow, you were treated like an errand boy/girl to do the same task in almost every quest you come across.

Casual does not mean pointless nor boring.

It doesn't but can you blame people for thinking this after seeing what happened to MMORPGs with the push to cater to casual playerbases? No MMO has really done a good balance or quality for casual gameplay/hardcore gameplay yet, especially not GW2.

[Eekiki]

I hate doing this (not really), but again I have to reference Xenoblade Chronicles.

In this game, there are sidequests given by generic NPCs that are your standard (go kill X monster(s), collect X thing(s). Once you fulfill the objectives, the quest automatically completes.

Then there are sidequests given by named NPCs. These are the quests that have a little story to them, and on occasion are more than your typical run-and-fetch fare. These require you to return to the quest-giver, and sometimes they'll want you to do something else before the quest is completed.

This is the way to do it. This way, you don't have to think of some kind of backstory for the "traditional" MMORPG quests, and you still leave yourself with the ability to design more complex quests with good stories and unique objectives.

[Felis]

In this game, there are sidequests given by generic NPCs that are your standard (go kill X monster(s), collect X thing(s). Once you fulfill the objectives, the quest automatically completes.

We have this already. It's called Leves

[Seif]

I hate doing this (not really), but again I have to reference Xenoblade Chronicles.

In this game, there are sidequests given by generic NPCs that are your standard (go kill X monster(s), collect X thing(s). Once you fulfill the objectives, the quest automatically completes.

Then there are sidequests given by named NPCs. These are the quests that have a little story to them, and on occasion are more than your typical run-and-fetch fare. These require you to return to the quest-giver, and sometimes they'll want you to do something else before the quest is completed.

This is the way to do it. This way, you don't have to think of some kind of backstory for the "traditional" MMORPG quests, and you still leave yourself with the ability to design more complex quests with good stories and unique objectives.

You took the words right out of my mouth.
Also FELIS if you think they're like leves you could not be more wrong. This difference is everything that's wrong with leves.

Xenoblade quests are tied really well to stories and the characters and writing is memorable. The cutscenes that pop up sometimes do the job well without any VOs.

Gah so simple fixes but what can you do...

[Eekiki]

We have this already. It's called Leves

Guildleves are very...the best word I can use to describe them is detached. You never even see the person who needs the quest done. Not to mention that guildleves are all repeatable, so you're doing the same quest over and over again. In Xenoblade you don't repeat any sidequests.

[Seif]

Guildleves are very...the best word I can use to describe them is detached. You never even see the person who needs the quest done. Not to mention that guildleves are all repeatable, so you're doing the same quest over and over again. In Xenoblade you don't repeat any sidequests.

Also they make exploring the world useless and like you hinted at the story behind them feels fake because you don't meet the people and completing quests doesn't DO anything. They don't lead to further quests allowing the npcs to have their own evolving lives.

I know a lot of MMOs have shallow stories but nowhere does the name "flavor text" fit better than on the back of each leve.

Personally what really gets to me is having all this landscape and then game design that makes me warp to same location every time to do the same recycled and time restricted, area locked favor to a rock.

Remember in XI when collect X amount of Y meant that you could do it in any way you want with or without help and whenever you felt like it and you could even buy your way out of some quests of it suited you. Not to mention there weren't any restrictions on how many quests you had open.

The writing was short but it stayed true to the melancholic theme of war and loss of the game. What IS XIV's theme?

Yes I broke the taboo of bringing up XI (0Oooo!) but honestly guys there is nothing stopping SE for giving us those nice things.
Even XIII-2 got it's act together and shoved they can do quest writing that is relevant to the game.