Flagging Quests vs Finding Quests

[Phe]

That'd be a pretty good idea for the simple and shallow exp. quests, I guess. I like it.



This would be pretty cool, too, but people would then cry for the exact item and the location of said boss to be pointed out for them in obvious fashion (gigantic golden markers, anyone?), completely defeating the purpose of your idea. :/

could also be a random drop. escpecially in areas that are not so frequently visited.

[Klefth]

could also be a random drop. escpecially in areas that are not so frequently visited.

Kinda like some of XI's pop items, maybe? That'd be cool.

[Roaran]

This idea adds a convenience and increases the likliehood that I will explore without chaining myself to following the quest structure. I would love this idea for the sole purpose of being to just go out and explore to my limits while the whole time thinking that I will probably be rewarded for this, rather than feeling like I have to pay for exploring by not picking up quests and being told what to do and where to go.

Alas traditional MMO quests should be scrapped entirely in favor of using those resources for more unique missions that FFXI was known for.

All you need to do to implement this idea is change how quest conditions are satified. It's actually a fairly easy thing to do, no need to overcomplicate things by requiring items for all quests. They won't do it though, too out of the box for them most likely.

[finiteHP]

Interesting idea. I'm fine with either way. I'd most likely pick up the quest first either way. The joy of exploring is the only reward I need to get me to explore. I don't need potential quest rewards to get me to check some place out.

[Kiote]

I like your idea a lot actually. I hate quest based leveling, but getting credit for something I happened to do would be great. Of course this won't really work for every quest, but I think it would make the Kill this, Find this, non-story Boss fight quests better.

The biggest problem I could see, is having to make secondary quest starts for ever quest this works with.

For Kill Quests, we would need something to the effect of, "There seems to be an abnormally large amount of these, if no one thins out the crowd, it could cause problems for nearby towns. After finishing report to the town official."

This is something Lord of the Rings Online has recently introduced with their latest expansion pack. It is a great way to cut out the constant travel in and out of town brought on by quest leveling and does worlds to extend time in the field. The one major draw back is that is severely inhibits Story-lines.

I think the effective fix would to always have a followup quest waiting at the NPC. "Yes, we had noticed the over bearing number of enemies. Would you mind exploring this place to try and find the source of the problem?"

Find quests are the easiest one. The elder scrolls method of "This looks interesting maybe someone knows something about it."

I, personally, would insist that this kind of quest require you to seek out an NPC to identify it and point you to the person who is interested in the item. "This odd flower seems interesting, maybe someone at the botanists guild knows something about it."

Boss quests are a little more complicated. The game would need a way to track your kill without having the quest ready. I think this could be solved using the Achievement systems base functionality. I'm not saying every boss should have an achievement, but that there could be an invisible tracking system that registers to your character that you have killed this enemy.

When you happen across the Quest NPC, instead of the normal, "This guy is causing trouble go take care of it.", you get, "So your the one who took care of that guy. I can't thank you enough. This town will be forever grateful."

As I said before though, there are some quests this cannot work with. NPC escorts of course can't have this kind of auto-start.

The other thing that comes to mind is quests that involve an NPC asking you to examine locations. I don't think you should be able to go to these locations in advance. If for no other reason, because your character does not know what he's looking for. It just does not feel right that you could just happen to notice every thing that every one would be interested in. An Item is one thing, its peculiar, you can put it in your inventory. But exploring some statue, sure you can look at it, but you don't really know what details about it would be relevant to another person.

All that said, I agree with your idea, but SE would have to put in the effort to not allow it to impact the quality of their quests.

[razz]

It's really a great idea! However it should never be done with obtainable items (which go into inventory), cause i don't wanna go like: can't sell this or that, maybe it's for a quest...
But when we can do quests inbefore, it should also be possible to fail quests before accepting them. Like "go kill boss monster x, but don't kill y or activate trigger z" so if you did x, y and z you can't complete the quest and have to reset it. That's the best idea ever

[Daniolaut]

One thing I think you guys might be missing here is the programing side of this. In order to implement such a thing you would need some sort of tracking system that tracks everything you kill. The current system relies on "flagging" (or triggering the event scenario) then following its required guidelines.

Your proposal suggests a system in which everything you kill is tallied up and stored within the questing log and then as you speak to an NPC the quest is removed from the list. So in theory when you start the game all quests must be in the triggered mode, and you would just claim the reward as you spoke to the NPC. This is actually quite difficult because your character would be carrying an overabundance of data. This is not possible with the current system (carrying too much data) because certain quests require completion of other quests.

(I say this because I know some of you might be thinking well, what if I went out and flagged all the quests I could possibly muster.)

To my knowledge I even recall reading something where it says you can only carry a max of 5 quests at a given time? Or maybe it only shows you have 5 quests at any given time? The reason for these types of things is to cut back on lag, one of the main reasons FFXIV even needed to be "Reborn" in the first place. (Server lag)

(I just also would like to say I agree finding stuff on your own is fun and rewarding, if there truly was a way to make a game rewarding to adventure yet also didnt leave people in the complete dark as to what to do, then we would have a great game indeed. Problem, like i mentioned, is the limitation of cost/equipment to allow gaming companies to produce a cost effective game, that runs smoothly.)

[Klefth]

One thing I think you guys might be missing here is the programing side of this. In order to implement such a think you would need some sort of tracking system that tracks everything you kill. The current system relies on "flagging" (or triggering the event scenario) then following its required guidelines.

Your proposal suggests a system in which everything you kill is tallied up and stored within the questing log and then as you speak to an NPC the quest is removed from the list. So in theory when you start the game all quests must be in the triggered mode, and you would just claim the reward as you spoke to the NPC. This is actually quite difficult because your character would be carrying an overabundance of data. This is not possible with the current system (carrying too much data) because certain quests require completion of other quests.

(I say this because I know some of you might be thinking well, what if I went out and flagged all the quests I could possibly muster.)

To my knowledge I even recall reading something where it says you can only carry a max of 5 quests at a given time? Or maybe it only shows you have 5 quests at any given time? The reason for these types of things is to cut back on lag, one of the main reasons FFXIV even needed to be "Reborn" in the first place. (Server lag)

That's where one of the suggestions made in this thread would come in: items. Make this sort of quests tied with certain specific items that you might encounter here or there while killing stuff somewhere. Kinda like when you were killing stuff somewhere in XI and you got an odd ra/ex item that could later on be used for a quest, for example.

[Daniolaut]

That's where one of the suggestions made in this thread would come in: items. Make this sort of quests tied with certain specific items that you might encounter here or there while killing stuff somewhere. Kinda like when you were killing stuff somewhere in XI and you got an odd ra/ex item that could later on be used for a quest, for example.

Very true, but I played FFXI, and if you ran out of inventory room (which happened 100% of the time) you would have to drop an item you received. Thus leading to you having to do the very thing you just did to obtain the item in the first place. Which leads us back to the limitation of the amount of data a character can carry around :/

[Daniolaut]

Ah another thought RQ

I was just thinking about Bahamuts Labyrinth, and if its done right it possibly could satisfy the adventurers appetite.

What people get out of exploring is the reward and the finding of wonderous places to look at.

The labyrinth could have multiple corners and turns, almost like a maze, but not a place you could get "lost" in. While exploring the labyrinth you could find chests, some could hold something pitiful such as 100 gil, or maybe a animal skin. While other chests could hold much grander items and gil such as maybe 1-5k gil, and maybe half a stack of a rare crafting item, or maybe even a great item such as a rare untradeable piece of gear. These chests might require a full party to get to and would be difficult.

You could also possibly find deep within the cavern a very nice place, such as a waterfall or some other nice looking place to view. Maybe really go all out, and make it a sanctuary? It could include maybe a special Moogle shop that sells items at a discounted price? Something like in FFXII, the Baknamy Merchant in the Nechrohol of Nabudis

Additional notes: The chests could appear at random places and once obtained they disappear until a specified amount of time (time would be in relation to the balancing system decided by SE.) They have a percentage of how often they can appear in certain rotation. For instance: Chest A could appear behind the powerful monsters and contain the best items 99% of the time, but 1% of the time it could appear in the complete open or the sanctuary. They could either have set locations in which they appear or have an area percentage. (all relation to lag prevention and balancing per SE.)