Alpha First Look: Video 5 - Quests and Combat

[RahJah]

The low-level quests should start out really easy.

I think the Devs are right on track with this video for the starting quests. However, the hand-holding should decrease as player level increases.

At least give us an option to toggle the beacons and markers on and off so that we can actually search for the hunt, key items, and NPC's involved in questing!

[ZakarnRosewood]

I think there is a difference between building the main story and building the lore of the world and bringing the world to life. I cant expect all of the 300+ quests to be integral to the development of the main overarching story. Some of them will be people living in the world who have real problems of their own. Their garden is constantly attacked by squirrels, a child who lost their parents, or a City guard needing extra shields for the new recruits, this brings the world to life and you get a feel that "real" people live here. I dont want or need every quest and battle to be an epic struggle.

[Kiote]

I think there is a difference between building the main story and building the lore of the world and bringing the world to life. I cant expect all of the 300+ quests to be integral to the development of the main overarching story. Some of them will be people living in the world who have real problems of their own. Their garden is constantly attacked by squirrels, a child who lost their parents, or a City guard needing extra shields for the new recruits, this brings the world to life and you get a feel that "real" people live here. I dont want or need every quest and battle to be an epic struggle.

I would agree that not every quest needs to be an epic adventure. I just also believe the majority of the quests should not be so simple.

"Hi, can you kill this" > Kill > "Thanks, here's an Item"

It is one thing to have random NPCs that just need a Favor. It is a whole other issue if every Quest in the game is that simple and points you straight to the objective.

There isn't that much difference in the development between creating 5 throw away quests and 1 deep quest that last as long as 5 throw aways.

[ZakarnRosewood]

I posted this on a different thread but i think it applies to the conversation here as well. Forgive me if this is a taboo thing to do but here it is.

I agree that end game and the Hardcore players need to have lots of challenging content to keep them long term, this give an MMO sustainability. Appealing to casual alone is a nail in the coffin for an MMO, once they move on as casuals do then those subs disappear. How much time did you spend at the lower levels in FFXI (just being curious not trying to needle) VS how much time you spent at end game? How memorable was the early stuff? I do hope for a decent end game to keep players busy for more than a month (look how fast the Primals were beaten and that was supposed to be the hardest content.)

By the same token I think the early to mid levels should be about learning how to play, how the game functions, and how to work well in party play. This is aimed at the casual or beginner player and it should be this way. If it is hardcore through and through then you will never get a new audience or build a more steady player base. To date they have shown us one starting area, a 5 min demo of two (out of 300+ quests), all at level 5-12. So far everything seems quite good and paced well for beginners and newcomers. For the hardcore, you will fly through this on your way to end game and will probably forget all about it anyway, so why the worry?

If the team does not try to include the new/casual as well as generate epic end game content then the game will probably die off like so many before. I'm not to worried about that honestly. I have not seen a Dev team so devoted to listening to their players and dedicated to making a game succeed as this one in all my years of gaming. It looks like they have a solid core system down now that has much more room for development than the previous one. Watching 1.0 evolve into what it was in the end given what they had to work with, I can't see this team stopping after launch. This is the nature of an MMO, it is constantly evolving.

I too have my concerns but I'm not the type of person that only focuses on the negative. The world is too diverse to focus all the devs resources on trying to appeal to one particular niche group, remember that at one point you were a "noob" too. we all were. I seriously doubt at 5 years old when you picked up your first game that you aced that in a day. I only wish people were more considerate about new players and wanted to include them too. We all have to start somewhere and if someone chooses to start am MMO with FFXIV, I want them to enjoy it and continue to play until they are a hardcore too. don't you?

[Psykotsu]

I posted this on a different thread but i think it applies to the conversation here as well. Forgive me if this is a taboo thing to do but here it is.

So true. I wish people were actually considerate and actually thought outside their box for once.

[Kiote]

For the hardcore, you will fly through this on your way to end game and will probably forget all about it anyway, so why the worry?

It is a pretty big assumption that Hardcore players simply want to fly through content to the Endgame. I think you may be confusing Hardcore players and Elitists. Where Elitist care only about having the best stuff at the highest level, true Hardcore players are more focused on having Endless and Entertaining game play that they will enjoy for years to come. Not a completely hollow unmemorable experience that culminates in repeating the same endgame dungeons a hundred times.

For me, in every MMO I have ever played, the most memorable moments are:

The first time I get to explore the starting city.
The first time I get a party.
The first time I hit Level Cap.
The time I finally beat the Epic Boss that was preventing me from moving forward with a Story.

Endgame Content, when made well, is fun, but it does not compare to the experience of getting to Endgame.

[Orophin]

I dunno, most hardcores I've met seem to fly through the leveling process as soon as they can just to get to max level so they can participate in end game. I was guilty in this in WoW, although admittedly it was on subsequent characters other than my first and I had already read all the quest text, so I just skipped through everything. That's not to say that some people don't care about the story (some people clearly don't) and will just skip through the text and get to the task at hand.

Quest Grinding makes Partying Obsolete.

That's not true at all. Yoshi-P has said that major arcs in the main storyline will require parties to complete. There's also dungeons that can be done in between as well as end-game content. There will always be people grouping together. It shouldn't matter how people level up. It's just a means to an end.

[Hestern_Nestern]

Helping this precarious conversation along to the Tangent Lands...

I have made friends in monster-slaying grinding parties. I have made friends in quest-slaying parties. But the only reason I ever did was because I bothered to do so. I engaged the other players in dialogue and became friends with them -- often times I wasn't talking to them about what we were currently doing - but whatever my silly brain could think of to say.

And I've made even more friends in towns or walking along in some zone. I just see people passing by or doing something and I wave - I start emoting, sometimes roleplaying - I compliment people's appearances or I follow people around because I want to figure out what nefarious deeds they are up to (they are usually doing something innocent like buying or crafting stuff and wondering why this little guy is following them around). I make a lot of friends by being helplessly lost despite a map (navigational issues, me).

But the point is...I make friends because I make friends. Sure, certain systems might facilitate friendships more, but inevitably it all comes down to me. Do I speak? Am I friendly wherever I go? Do I explore the world and the people in it? We must use whatever system we are given to our advantage to make friends to grind or quest with. We can't expect some magical string of code that will do it for us.

Yeah.

/speech

[Sanne]

Nice video!
Can't wait till I can play it

Helping this precarious conversation along to the Tangent Lands...

I have made friends in monster-slaying grinding parties. I have made friends in quest-slaying parties. But the only reason I ever did was because I bothered to do so. I engaged the other players in dialogue and became friends with them -- often times I wasn't talking to them about what we were currently doing - but whatever my silly brain could think of to say.

And I've made even more friends in towns or walking along in some zone. I just see people passing by or doing something and I wave - I start emoting, sometimes roleplaying - I compliment people's appearances or I follow people around because I want to figure out what nefarious deeds they are up to (they are usually doing something innocent like buying or crafting stuff and wondering why this little guy is following them around). I make a lot of friends by being helplessly lost despite a map (navigational issues, me).

But the point is...I make friends because I make friends. Sure, certain systems might facilitate friendships more, but inevitably it all comes down to me. Do I speak? Am I friendly wherever I go? Do I explore the world and the people in it? We must use whatever system we are given to our advantage to make friends to grind or quest with. We can't expect some magical string of code that will do it for us.

Yeah.

/speech

So true. I couldn't have said it better myself

Also in a silent party you can feel more alone, then when you solo.

In Ultima Online I played 90% of the time solo, but I have met with so many people on my way. Somehow I talk with more people when I am just walking around alone. Now that I think about it, in FFXI I also have met most of my friends when I was playing solo.

Playing with other people doesn't have to mean you need to be in a party together.
However it mostly does end up in a party together

I really like it more that way then shouting for a party.

[strallaalaa]

personally i love player interactions in my mmo's ...the more forced party play the better. its not about small groups, intimate 2player thing though. i don't really like small parties where it's me and another running around. i'm more like the "it's a party!!" college, full house of peoples you don't know kinda thing. i like it large and tons of people together. anything less then 6party kinda feels dull to me doing anything other then farming and the jollies i get curing someone when they are fighting and have a nice chunk of hp down. i consider them friends even if i don't know there real names, and i don't need to know squat about them. it's as intimate as i want it in a mmo. i want the grouping and fun and then the one day cya later, hopefully 5years later when the game gets stale. i don't want to meet you or talk to you on phone or give you my number or anything like that. typing and having fun is as far as it goes and i luvs it. i frigin hate solo play, gw2 was an all time record in how fast i quit an mmo. 2 weeks. fuk that game and fuk all mmo's trying to copy it.