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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe next level of questing
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 2nd 2009 at 2:00PM
Elnia at the Pink Pigtail Inn has some excellent and interesting advice for Blizzard's quest designers (or whoever they hire for the current position). As big a component as quests are in the game, they haven't been innovated on much since the game's release. Blizzard has played around a little bit with allowing us to repeat certain quests, and they've streamlined the group questing mechanic, but other than that, quests are pretty much the same: pick up a task, do it, and bring it back for a reward.So how can it be done differently? Elnia has some great ideas: she asks for quests that span a little farther, that push players through a storyline that might even follow them all the way up to 80 (of course, there are quests like that, though they're few and far between -- and not all players have the patience to finish them). Rewards could be mixed up, too -- instead of the old gold and XP, how about some profession skill, or a tradeoff of badges based on certain quests done. Finally, Elnia suggests that every quest in the game become repeatable. Questing is paced to keep us interested in from 1-60, but we all know how the game works now -- why not let us do some of our favorite quests over more than once?
I'd suggest we go even farther -- Warhammer Online offers Public Quests that are an interesting twist on the usual "go kill boars" mechanic. I'd like to see branching quests with more than one outcome -- maybe a moral choice to make that affects the storyline of the quest you're doing. And talking real pie-in-the-sky here, I'd like to see questgivers treat you different based on the way you look or maybe what title you've got equipped. If you've got "Jenkins," they might not expect you to do much, but with "Champion of Ulduar" over your head, they should probably be groveling at your feet.
Filed under: Virtual selves, Quests, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Moomoomoo Aug 2nd 2009 4:02PM
You guys ever played Fallout 3? it has a pretty damn good quest system. But i don't think you could do that kind of thing on an MMO.
TTFK Aug 2nd 2009 4:44PM
I would like to see the 1-80 Storyline idea taken to the next level.
What I would like to see is a series of say, 20-80 quest lines that, while faction specific, they are not pre-assigned to a particular class or race. Instead, one line would be randomly assigned at character creation. Have a few of these for each faction, but the player would not know WHICH storyline he would get until the end.
Alternately, let the player "Choose Their Path" at level 20 from a few quest lines, telling a different story in each.
UTech Aug 2nd 2009 4:51PM
I'd like to see something similar to the Champion's Writs as a chooseable quest reward for, say, level 40+ quests. Not all quests, obviously, but to occasionally have the choice of a writ you can take to your favourite rep vendor -- be it Darnassus, Timbermaw, Argent Dawn, Wyrmrest, whoever -- and get 250-500 rep depending on the level and difficulty of the quest. You could use them right away to help get the racial mount you want, or save them all and use them in Northrend to get those Hodir shoulder enchants right away.
Kal Aug 2nd 2009 5:11PM
Didn't WoW have something like a Public Quest a while ago? To open up Ahn'Qiraj I believe we had to gather supplies and turn them in to get the gates to open. For those that have played War, is this anything like those, or is are they usually more involved? Either way I wish we had more of them, it was fun racing to see which server would be the first to finish.
Aarkan Aug 2nd 2009 5:35PM
I don't know, I'm usually wearing of the Shattered Sun and people rip on that but in the circles i run in of the Nightfall and the Undying are everywhere so when I'm showing my pride for defending Azeroth from the Burning Legion I'm unique even though I have a "welfare title"
What if I want to represent my burning hatred of the black dragonflight and the blackrock orcs? How better to show than with Jenkins?
Clbull Aug 2nd 2009 6:06PM
Imho, Public quests could work well with WoW, especially if they focus on large scale encounters e.g. the ongoing fight with the Scourge, or the whole Alliance vs Horde conflict.
I think this is what World PvP should have been like. The issue with World PvP objectives like Halaa, EPL and Silithus was the fact that rewards were often not worth it. As for Wintergrasp, the issue is that its a non-instanced battleground/lagfest (due to how many players you'd end up seeing there)
What I mean is that why not make World PvP an ongoing thing in Northrend rather than restricted into a 3-hourly non instanced battleground? Have various objectives/faction bosses in each zone that reward experience, gold, and even tokens for buying decent pvp gear from occupying them. Think Outland World PvP but with better rewards, some siege combat, and a larger focus on completeing objectives.
thottstation Aug 2nd 2009 6:20PM
The only recipe I have left to get is Dirge's Kibler Bits.
Do you have ANY IDEA what that takes? UGH.
Antgrog Aug 2nd 2009 7:15PM
I hope they implement faction change through questing rather than some dorked up attempt at a race change.
Dmiri Aug 2nd 2009 6:38PM
While they're at it (Figuring out what to do and how to design quests) I would also like for them to take into consideration Tailoring the quest's to reward Profession and or Class relevent rewards along with substantial amount of Coin. I absolutely dislike doing quest's that have nothing good to give me except vendor trash. It could be good for the casual gamer who doesn't have time to grind gear from instances, raids or battlegrounds. I mean, It's nice that these irrelevent rewards can be vendored for coin, but it does nothing to enrich the experience or satisfaction of the casual player with no interest in grinding, just questing. I admit it might be too late for such a system now that they have hierlooms sets and we all have an 80 to grind these rewards. just my two cents
Gigantor1960 Aug 2nd 2009 11:33PM
As a recently retired after three and a half years raiding Priest,(Shadow and Holy), the numbers just reflect what has been a long time coming. Priest are in a sad way and are not very exciting or fun to play in our current state.
Every patch seems to contain a nurf or substantial change in the way we have to play the game while everyone else seemingly gets buffed to no end or very minor nurfs at most,(Druids I'm looking at you). I have switched mains to my Rouge for DPS and am nearly at 80 on my Druid which will be resto....hey if you can't beat them....join them.
That is until Blizzard decides what they want to do with Priest or the Heroic healing class hits. Which ever comes first. I am sure that a lot currently unhappy Priest will be on that bandwagon. Hmmm...maybe that's the intent? Since we can't "Balance" them lets gimp them so bad no one will want to play them. Finally Blizzard please delete the following statement form your site.
"Priests are the masters of healing and preservation" Really? LOL
It has not been true for quite a long time and the joke is old and tired.
Kay Aug 2nd 2009 8:46PM
First off, what the bloody hell are you bringing that up for? This post is about questing and the possibilities if blizz were to redesign their system, nothing to do with boring class whining.
Second, you are completely wrong, and no doubt a terrible player who blames your failure on class "nurfing"(it's "nerfing"). Holy priests are star healers in Ulduar, they can throw huge amounts of healing out, to deal with Ulduar's massive raid damage. Disc priests are able to keep up a tank through huge spikes, if played well. If you think otherwise, you frankly need to change your play style. Shadow priests are adequate. Not phenominal, they could do with a haste buff, but they are certainly not "in a sad way".
"Priests are the masters of healing and preservation"....i'd say they are, they're the most versatile healing class. From your whine you want a noskill faceroll class(which holy priests were dangerously close to becoming during the CoH spam-fest of 3.0) rather than to work at the game.
Anyway, enough of your idiocy...
I think more quests to send you into "dangerous* areas in groups would improve the game and contribute to an epic feel. I thoroughly enjoyed the Scarlet Onslaught quests in Icecrown, where you have to attack a church with is absolutely swamped with non-elite adds, and take out a miniboss. After this, you have to go into an area patrolled by squads of elites, and you eventually battle a major lore character.
I found this to be the most entertaining quest of the expansion, as it was challenging, as long as you didn't bring too many people. There was lots of interesting story, and you went to an area that felt dangerous, and remote. If you went there solo, you'd be overwhelmed, and nobody would stumble along and save you. More quest like this would improve the game, instead of collecting 20 horse nipples, then assasinating some wuss you could kill blindfolded.
Rubitard Aug 2nd 2009 8:30PM
I can see it now: "Patch 6.2: Racial Profiling comes to Azeroth! Want to get a quest from that human, gnome? Forget it! He's RACIST!"
Anaughtybear Aug 3rd 2009 2:14AM
That was implemented in Burning Crusade. I have a passionate hatred for belfs and space goats, because they don't belong there and are obnoxious as all hell. I've always hated gnomes as well, and actually hate all types of elves. So I guess I'm racist. Or maybe they are just stupid and I'm marginally observant.
Lokanaya Aug 2nd 2009 9:09PM
Along the whole reactions to titles things, a cool idea concerning the NPC reaction stuff would be something like Oblivion's reputation thing. For instance, if you were just a new Orc fresh from the starting zone, and went to talk to Thrall he could say something like, "I am sorry,, but I am very busy. If you need something, please talk to " But if you had done the battle of the Undercity, he would say something different. And common NPCs (vendors, guards, etc.) would have say a 5% chance of whispering you (so it doesn't clog up people's chatboxes) "You honor us with your presence ." These would be determined by "reputation points." Common quests("go fetch me this" or "kill these") would give 1 to 5 points, unless it's like the Hidden Ememies questchain, where it would give somewhere between 10 to 15, while Battle for UC would give 50 to 75. NPCs would react according to your rep. points.
Sorry for long speech. Getting off my soapbox now. :P
Tajhz Aug 2nd 2009 10:54PM
I am a strong proponent of a quest that was fun, exciting, hard, and rewarding in Ever Quest. The quest i speak of is your epic weapon quest. I played a Shadowknight, and in going through the requisites for completing the long chain I laughed, I cried and I nearly went bald trying to finish it, it was fun, tough, rewarding, and very involved.
I wish Blizz would develop a weapon quest chain such as the ones in EQ, they weren't necessarily strong weapons, but they served their purpose for a long while. I wish that there was a quest chain that started at lvl 60, you upgrade it and do the quest chain at lvl 70 and so on and so forth. This would serve as a good step-up weapon for those that just hit 60,70,80 so they don't have to rely on some green or blue quest item when first stepping into a raid. I think it can be an epic weapon upgraded every expansion, have an incredible graphic, be between 5 man heroic and 10 raid item level, and be able to 'change spec' based on the spec of the char. You could even go so far as to broaden it into war tanking 1hander, changeable into a 2hander when spec'd dps. Anathema and Benediction come to mind, that was a wonderful idea if you ask me. But who am I other than a paying customer right?
Gigantor1960 Aug 3rd 2009 12:02AM
@ Kay take a valium and chill, it was an obvious mis-post! Idiocy! It's called an opinion. That's what mature people can express without resorting to name calling....try it sometime. As far as Holy and Disc priest ability to rise above despite constant changes and obvious nurfs... been there done that x 3 and a half years so talk what you know. Also raided Shadow and was always competative with te other pure DPS classes as I knew my class inside and out.
As Healing/Class lead in a progression guild I always frowned against Priest who used CoH as a crutch so again talk what you know. I just choose to play another class because in my OPINION Priesting is not fun at the moment. Remember it's a game....that's the point....fun! Have a nice day.
Kay Aug 3rd 2009 5:07AM
A relatively well-written and lucid post. Good to see you were against the CoH spam-fest too, but you can see why i'd assume the worst from your first post, it's all whine but no meat. Stuff like (paraphrasing) "Everyone gets buffed but us" and "They can't be balanced so are nerfed into oblivion" aren't constructive points, they're whiny, empty drivel. It's fairly understandable that i thought the worst.
You can not enjoy priesting any more, and if you think they've been ruined, fine. I'd disagree, and probably have an enjoyable discussion with you about it. For one i'd say the changing playstyle is a good thing, it keeps one on their toes trying to think of new tricks. My issue was with posting a no-content generic bitch, rather than the fact i disagree with you.
Anyway, i apologise for assuming you were a no-skill, and i apologise for the idiocy bit, you're right, trading insults over the internet is Not Cool, i was just trying for a snappy, dismissive way to move on to the next thing i'd wanted to say.
*You* have a nice day.
Richard Aug 3rd 2009 1:36AM
For the love of god, no more robot chicken quests.
After just finishing all 3 quests on 4 of my alts, I'm totally over them. I swear opposite faction 80's sit in Tanaris/Feralas/Hinterlands just waiting to gank me on these quests, I must have done them about 100 times total now.
OTOH, I would love to re-do the Wrathgate questline, was good fun!
rufus Aug 3rd 2009 2:26AM
Since we are all Lvl 80, which, to lvl 40 NPCs, we are pretty close to Immortals. I can totally see say the NPCs ask Kirin Tor for assistance ("new feeling of evil arise from ..."), and we get these Old World / BC instance or raid quests. And we get this "item", that upon used at entrance of said Raid / Instance, would raise the mob and bosses to be of appropriate level (no loot changes), a "Heroic" BRD. And once we kill the final boss (say Aku'mai in Blackfathom Deeps), we pickup the "head of", "heart of" Aku'mai, and Kirin Tor will reward the group with 3/5/10 (10 for raids) badges. This way, it introduces more sources of Badges, but as time consuming (try go through BRD as level appropriate).
Haro Aug 3rd 2009 5:32AM
FFXI separated quests from missions: quests were basically adventures proposed by private citizens, while missions were official adventures assigned to you by the powers that be, and were more "epic" in terms of cutscenes, etc, besides, they were the backbone of each expansion storyline.
There wasn't a limit in the number of active quests, and you had a log that kept track of the quests you had completed (but no progression tracking >_