Alpha First Look: Video 5 - Quests and Combat

[ZakarnRosewood]

Finally have more than levequests? We had quests in 1.0. Have you played it? Quests in 1.0 had way more dialogue than this. We didn't have more quests because they decided to rebuild the whole game. Yoshida has said "this is only alpha" is never an excuse for bad content, so please, stop using it. Animations are horrendously stiff, specially the lancer, but I don't think they'll get much better than that. I hope we can remove that fucking red circle, it looks like shit. The players being higher level but having their HP drop to less than 50% health shows we will either be tackling content that is lower than our own lv when solo, or will be constantly dying attempting anything higher. If those hoglets were lv 15, she would have died. This type of quest is disgusting, but not surprising. Surprising is the reception from the majority of players here, and their brains seemingly unable to imagine ANYTHING that differs from this old formula. It's really impressive how unimaginative you can be. Unfortunately to some of us these quests look boring, uncreative and stupid, we can in fact quite easily imagine something better than this, and we truly wish we had any way to do it. No, there are no other popular MMORPGs with quests that are any better than this, which is precisely why this game is following the trend. It's still shit. Yoshida will not show content that doesn't represent best what the game is going to be, and since it has already pleased most of you, shut it with the "there will be harder more interesting content later on". This is as interesting as you want it. Also, no one but one or two are advocating for vague, impossible to grasp quest content. Your childish arguments all seem to revolve around "if you don't like white then you probably want black", "it's still alpha" and "every kid is doing it". God damn this community and their innate conformism to mediocrity.

Wow, you got all that from a 5 min video that shows two quests? I guess this represents EVERYTHING that will be in the ENTIRE game. Sorry but it looks like, by your own admission, this wont be a game for you. There are many who are excited and interested in this.

[strallaalaa]

looks good. but i think that is all they fixed with 2.0. they fixed the engine and graphics but ruined the content and mmo. i refuse to solo level in mmo's. but i will assume soon as i level high enough i can party play level in dungeons over and over with people. but even then it will feel like tera and gw2 and be boring. rather then tons of zones that you level up in like ffxi, every 5-10 levels moving to a new zone it's going to be grind same dungeons over and over.

i'm worried for the game. spirit bond leveling was so much fun. lets hope crystal towers impresses or this game is fuked on the real. either way i'm still excited to see 2.0 release and give it a big time try. this is the one mmo that i sincerely want to love and play for a long time, but you can't convince people for long that a turd is potpourri.

p.s. lol darshu you rock. everything he said is in my brain and wants to punch all of you in the face with it.

[Headseed]

Well this topic turned into a flame fest. Well I also noticed the Water knock back effect which I thought was nice . I also noticed that the mobs had different letters at the end of their names the Hogs had A & B the slugs had K, L, M & N. Does anyone know what those are for? Thanks.

[Arcell]

Theres 3 paths an mmo can take for combat level progression: Quests, Monster grind, or combination. You cant jump up and down in one spot to gain EXP. Just drop the cookie-cutter junk and let it go.

Exactly. Even Guild Wars 2's highly touted dynamic event system ended up breaking down into being the same 5 or so events over and over again, just presented slightly different. Attack this, defend this, find this, Group event kill this and maybe one or two actual unique ones.

It's monster grind with context, extra rewards and a little more monster variety thrown in. That's all kill side-quests are. While you're not outright forced to read the text, those who will will be given context and motivation. Those who don't read them will come on here and complain about mindless kill quests or get on with their lives and keep playing.

[Reika]

There is no denial. It's clear that MMOs will use these quest systems. It just comes with being an MMO. Are you asking for quests like:

"Protect this valuable figure while he carries this valuable item, from point A to B!"
"Disguise yourself as these guys and listen in on this conversation to see what they are planning!"
"Make it to this switch in ? minutes before this devastating effect happens!"
"Talk to all these people, figure out who is not saying who they say they are!"

?

I am fairly sure WoW has those quests too

[Darshu]

Got all that what? Most of what I said had nothing to do with predicting how the entire game was going to be. But the questing system can be pretty much defined. Two quests that were published to represent specifically how the questing system is looking like should be enough for us to take our own conclusions. Everything else is real, too. The circle is awful, the animations are stiff, the quests had more dialogue in 1.0. And just like I said, many are excited and interested in this. What many aren't interested in, though, is bringing intelligent responses and rational defenses to what they think is better game design. Not surprisingly, since you can't honestly defend the position that you enjoy what is mediocre. All you can say is "This is alpha/5 minute video". I think if it really bothered you, though, this excuse would not cut it.

[Biggs]

Well this topic turned into a flame fest. Well I also noticed the Water knock back effect which I thought was nice . I also noticed that the mobs had different letters at the end of their names the Hogs had A & B the slugs had K, L, M & N. Does anyone know what those are for? Thanks.

I would imagine they are there to make targeting and communication amoung party members easier. For instance, when determining which order the party will kill a group of similar mobs, party leader could say, F, then G, then H. Of course, its alpha, so I could be totally talking out of my butt and none of that will be in the final build. Just a guess.

[Biggs]

Finally have more than levequests? We had quests in 1.0. Have you played it? Quests in 1.0 had way more dialogue than this. We didn't have more quests because they decided to rebuild the whole game. Yoshida has said "this is only alpha" is never an excuse for bad content, so please, stop using it. Animations are horrendously stiff, specially the lancer, but I don't think they'll get much better than that. I hope we can remove that fucking red circle, it looks like shit. The players being higher level but having their HP drop to less than 50% health shows we will either be tackling content that is lower than our own lv when solo, or will be constantly dying attempting anything higher. If those hoglets were lv 15, she would have died. This type of quest is disgusting, but not surprising. Surprising is the reception from the majority of players here, and their brains seemingly unable to imagine ANYTHING that differs from this old formula. It's really impressive how unimaginative you can be. Unfortunately to some of us these quests look boring, uncreative and stupid, we can in fact quite easily imagine something better than this, and we truly wish we had any way to do it. No, there are no other popular MMORPGs with quests that are any better than this, which is precisely why this game is following the trend. It's still shit. Yoshida will not show content that doesn't represent best what the game is going to be, and since it has already pleased most of you, shut it with the "there will be harder more interesting content later on". This is as interesting as you want it. Also, no one but one or two are advocating for vague, impossible to grasp quest content. Your childish arguments all seem to revolve around "if you don't like white then you probably want black", "it's still alpha" and "every kid is doing it". God damn this community and their innate conformism to mediocrity.

Another argument for better forms of quest content without actually suggesting ways of changing it. You argument is as hollow as you claim this games quest system is. Lets hear some new ideas otherwise you are just as guilty of not contributing anything meaningful to the conversation as the people you accuse.

[Platinumstorm]

This is how you make level progression, repetitive, mindless and boring if you have no imagination and have decided instead to just copy almost every other MMO for the past 8 years with the same repetitive "kill x of y" crap.

Talk about uninspired and derivative.

And why even have the quest dialog in there at all? Hell even the person in the video isn't taking the time to read it. And why bother? They have *3* different indicators showing you exactly where to go for the kill quest, and 2 showing you where to go for the "moist depression".

"Well, we have all this dialog but, you probably won't read it anyway. But, in case you do, you're probably too dumb to figure out where we're directing you to. So, we'll show you on the mini-map. And because you're probably too dumb to realize the circle on the mini-map indicates where you should be, we'll put markers for the mobs on the mini map too. Now don't panic... We know you're too dumb to figure it out even then. We've accounted for that by also putting large markers over the mobs' heads in-game too. You don't even have to know what the mobs are called or what they look like. Just look for the big, intrusive golden markers walking around."

For the other quest.. "go to the clearly marked, pulsating markers on your mini-map and look for the moist depression. Okay, you're too dumb to figure out the purple hazy looking spots that just happen to be exactly in the same spot as the mini-map markers are likely them, and you're probably too much of a mouth-breather to figure out that targeting those spots will tell you what they are. So, don't worry. We'll make sure to have the words "moist depression" hovering over them as well. Hopefully it's not too presumptuous of us to assume you can read big words like "depression".

"See? We have your time in mind! We know you don't want to be bogged down with boring stuff like interesting content that actually requires your participation, attention and, you know... usage of your brain (I mean, pfft.. who wants to use that?). We realize what you're really interested in is getting all this boring gameplay stuff out of the way so you can get back to serious stuff... like jumping up and down on tents."

Give me a freaking break already with this patronizing, hand-holding "we will show you exactly where everything is so you don't even have to try" crap already. Seriously. Gamers are far smarter than this nonsense.

What a cop-out.

I don't mean to be trite but I have problems with certain elements of this too in World of Warcraft. You know what I do to remedy that? I customize the experience so it fits my needs, so if I'm leveling it means I'm not using the minimap tools, if I'm leveling an alt that I haven't played for a long time I turn it on since I don't know where I'm going, or if I'm doing repeatable quests I turn it on to end some of the suffering.

I'm not defending their system of choice, but to see an unreasonable condemnation of the system with such limited information is distressing.

Leveling systems should support users seeing content, and even though aspects of the questgrind are indeed not perfect, it accomplishes that goal far better than spending days in the Valkrum Dunes sitting in one spot.

[Allesasi]

People complaint too much thats all I'm gonna say.