Alpha First Look: Video 5 - Quests and Combat

[Rustyhagun]

See I agree. When you initiate a levequest you go and fight the same mobs at the same level over and over again. Take away the leve initiation and you're still fighting mobs over and over again. Same thing with the "WoW Method." They are all different methods to the same end, grinding.

Leve questing is the involve version of mob grinding. But most of you youngsters are to young to see that.

And I want my story driven mini side quests/missions. All RPG fans should want this. You don't like to read? Whats wrong with the gamers of this generation. Lore is Lore and any MMORPG gamer should welcome it. Or your just a wolf in the fold.

Main Story will have CS and even VO's. wait and see. We looking at alpha, once again.

FATE is a new system, which might be even better than GW2 version.

Crystal tower, if level based, might be a great way of gaining exp if its for mid to end level players (a tower that unlocks higher levels along side the level cap.. till lvl99) << I hope people aren't foolish enough to think Crystal tower will be fully playable for the current 50 level cap.

Bahamut's Lair

Grand Company missions, these are fun. Gaining up in your ranks to unlock new gear.

Who knows, maybe Old fashion grinding is viable with a party fighting mobs 6-9 levels higher than them. It just might take longer.

Anyways, I see a bit of ways to gain exp, with the above listed, in game features. Not sure why everyone is stressing over one lvl4 quest and one lvl10 quest. each being 2.5 mins each.

Along side:
-Fishing, Cooking, Foresting, WeaponSmith, Armoring, Goldsmithing, Alchemist, Woodsmith, Miner, Leathercraft.
-PvP (Instance style) Raids? Not much info.
-Raising/breeding Chocobo's
-GoldSaucer

-Hidden/easter eggs quests around the world (I would laugh if there are hidden, unlock-able quest that pop up, but only if the user completes certain vanilla quests first, in a specific order. Quests that branch out from other quest)

This game is all about the journey.

Sometimes, the vein on the side of my head pops out, reading some of y'alls fears. You naysayers are ruining, what could be a very fun experience. .... complaining about quest cuz you have to read and you can't progress fast to end end game..... pfft...... A.D.D, I tell ya

If the opposed player base can't except that. All the other WoW type, rush too lvl50 end game content mmorpg's, are there on the internet for quick download & play.

[Genjuro]

At this point, I'm at an "I wish" state more than anything else - for FFXIV, and for future MMO's in general. I'm more interested in the idea of "Standardized Questing", however. To me, when something is "standardize", it boxes things in so that new ideas have a hard time expanding that box.

Do you guys believe it is out of the question to have quantity coupled with unique progression side quests?

I believe quantity and uniqueness are not mutually exclusive. The unique quests can be the same length as the more mundane ones. Additional manpower does not have to factor into the equation if you use the resources that already exists, and if that is true, time pressures will not occur, because then the only difference between the mundane and the unique is the idea.

I'm not an avid MMO player, but from what I have played and experienced, I think there is a tether to "quests" and "enemies & items" that stagnates developers' approaches to questing altogether. Why does questing have to involve either one of those two things? Here are some off the hand examples of different quests a developer can generate without enemies or items (i.e. gathering and fetching) being involved. The quests do not have to be elaborate, and I'd like to emphasize the idea of "simple yet different":

• Let the player travel to different marked areas and then return for a memorization test.
• Have players talk to several people who all tell contradictory tales. Let the player decide who is lying and report back. Make failing the quest possible.
• Make a hide and go seek quest with hints as to areas where the other npc is hiding, such as "What's grey and has turrets and is filled with disgruntled Garleans?" Randomize the hiding area every time and make the quest repeatable. Have the higher hide and seek quests make the player go through more dangerous terrain.

I'm sure developers can come up with more enjoyable quests, but what I'd like to make clear from that list is that with these few examples, the player isn't treated as an automaton. Rather, they engage the player on a slightly different level. The quests are nothing epic, but the players are made to explore; They're made to familiarize themselves with the lore; They're involved.

It's being toted around by the developers that the game is for everyone, so why not mix up the side quests so that they can be inclusive as well? Mix the "kill x of y" with the non-killing quests also. What's important is variety. Do you believe developers should try for anything less? The quests that you see in the video may be what many other MMOs have "standardized", and I will not argue that they have worked, but what I want to see is for MMO companies, especially SE, to go beyond what "just works". Don't you?


[I have to put a little disclaimer here because I'm writing all of this under the impression that these types of quests in the video are the main attraction, which more than likely is not the case, and it does not take the main story scenarios into account]

***

To the person who says, "Show me your game." I say that you don't need to be an artist to critique art, a writer to critique a book, a director to critique a movie, and in this case, a programmer to critique a game.

***

As to the video itself, I like it, but a few aesthetically jarring things stood out for me.

• The ! quest icons look huge and intrusive.
• The "Quest Accepted" and "Quest Complete" are also huge and are overly emphasized. Consider seeing those over and over again for the 100th time in a short time span.

Nicely put and good suggestions. I agree with your statements and ideas. I think that SE has shown that they can make something that's equivalent to the standard of what a modern day MMO has. What they have to do now is building upon the standard and evolve this into something that differentiates them from the rest of the crowd.

That will eventually be up to them in the end. But at the very least, they can establish themselves on the same playing field as their competition.

[Ruisu]

Just to clear something up here. Genkai 3(65 cap raise) was about getting three crests that were in specific locations, not mob drops aka no killing involved. Genkai 2 (60 cap raise) was a key item drop, just go kill three enemies and get the ??? from the ground. Genkai 1 (55 cap raise) had the situation were you had to farm just like subjob ( To remind the player of their first pattern ). While Genkai 4 (70 cap raise) had nothing to do with killing enemies.

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/quests.html?fquest=320

While the last Genkai was to defeat Maat himself as the class you represented.

Completely missed the point. You're essentially doing the same thing other MMOs have done as well. FFXI players are the biggest bunch of hypocrites because they assume that their game performed things any different, when the only difference was that they didn't get EXP after clearing a quest, and the quest was incredibly cryptic.

[Andrien]

Instanced exp dungeons is another thats gonna have some issues and no thats not what I meant. Now seeing you said it open world dungeons would be better than running thru an instanced dungeon and you dont have to worry about a cool down.

If that is not what you meant, then you're talking about mob grinding at any given place?(You can do this) Do you want to compete for exp mobs, camps, or both inside an open dungeon? I'm not sure what it is you want since you're not making yourself clear, but that seems to be the only option.

With that said, I'm not in favor of competing over something like exp mobs.

Now what issues will instance dungeons bring? Would you please shed light on that. Wait..(edit) there is a whole thread for that already..

[strallaalaa]

@andrien on his last question... instanced dungeons, you get players trying to join that are just exp'ing. or want to run quests in it rather then just gear up. so you still have to shout

it makes it unentertaining since your doing both at same time. it also halves the content since your doing both at same time. when you hit the level you want you just move onto the next one so really the dungeon gear is just a bonus and the next dungeons and beyond you get fuk tards all half geared and making runs long and more tedious then it should of already been.

theres probably other things wrong with leveling in dungeons but i can't think of them at moment. but the biggest thing is it makes endgame underwelming and less epic when it was the same thing your just leveling with too.

oh and in the end what mmo has even gotten expansions lately? i not keeping track but i don't think many are really pulling out large new expansions. lot are failing ..going f2p and maybe after long time give small expansions. soooo, what is the point of endgame at all then? you don't need it for anything cause nothing new is coming lol.

[Kerwin]

Isn't this the starting area to the alpha? I would imagine we will get more extensive and in depth quests come higher leveled areas.

[Davorok]

... I imagined it would involve long storyline that would lead me to a journey through the world, one new area at a time, and interesting dungeons for both solo and group play for many different level ranges. Instead we got this.

I guarantee ARR will have a Long Storyline that leads you on a journey through the world (it is the Main Scenario Story).

I guarantee after you finish the sidequests in one area, you will be sent to New Areas with higher level mobs with new sidequests.

I guarantee there are Solo and Group Dungeons for many different level ranges. (well maybe not a lot for solo).

Personally, I am very happy that there will be 1000's of quests as that is what I most like to do, esp when I only have 1-2 hours to play I can just knock off a few sidequests and still make some progress.
When I have more time to play (weekends), that is when I'll try Dungeons, Raids and other group content.

I like the way ARR is shaping up as it looks like there will always be plenty of things to do. I'm not sure how much will be available at Launch but here is a partial list of things I am looking forward to:

Main Story Quests
Side Quests
FATE system
NM Hunting
Dungeon Crawling
Primal Battles (5 at launch?)
Chocobo Raising
Personal/Company Housing
Crystal Tower
Casino
Labyrinth of Bahamut
General Exploration (New Areas & Maps)
Leveling Classes & Jobs (I only have 3 at 50 and I will certainly make new characters as well)
Gathering
Crafting
Materia Melding
Content Finder (I hate shouting for parties)

...and of course more content will be added with future patches and expansions.

[Kiote]

The fact of the matter is, there is a difference between Side Quest, and Main Storylines. What you also saw in that video is a low level quest for players below level 12, and just like any other RPG they have side quest. Expect hundreds of them in ARR.

Apparently, you do not play Final Fantasy Games. Side quests are not simple, one objective throwaways. Side quests in Final Fantasy games are intricately weaved in to the story. The serve to bring greater amounts of depths to Secondary character. They expand upon the world in which the game takes place.

The kind of quests demoed in this video are not side quests. They are XP throw aways. They serve no purpose except to give Solo players a way to gain XP.

If you want a quest base leveling system, you have to do it right. You don't give players five quests that ask them to kill 5 different monster ten times. That's just solo grinding. You make quests that involve the developments of the region in which they take place. You have them lead players to interesting places and to meet knew characters.

If your "Quest" requires you to talk to the starting NPC more than doing anything else, it's not a Quest. It's an XP give away. There shouldn't be hundreds of Quests. There should be dozens of long progressive quests.

[ZakarnRosewood]

its just a 5 min video people.....

[TrystWildkey]

**Strolls into the thread and reads a few random pages**

Grrrkkkkppppffffftttt

**Wonders if these all separate pages, or if it's all the same comments copy/pasted**

Le sigh