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Interesting quests, what do you think?Follow

#1 Jan 10 2005 at 10:27 AM Rating: Decent
First of all, I would like to state openly that I have had more fun doing the quests that this game offers than any quests that any other game that I've played has put on the table. But I still hear a lot of guff from people complaining that they are all pretty much the same and lack originality.

I can see their point, for the most part. Many of them are either go and slay X number of creatures and return for a reward, or go and talk to so-and-so messenger style and then return to me.

But I got to really thinking about it, and I was hard pressed to think of anything else that we CAN do, questwise, that isn't such a branch off of these simple premises. I'm sure that things will get much deeper and involving when we get further into the game and are able to explore more, but I was just curious as to what everyone else thinks.

I thought "The Journey Is Half The Fun" for the Journeyman's Boots Heritage quest was a great, original idea, for example. Racing around various zones, trying to beat a certin time limit. That's pretty neat to me.

The Dreadguard Belt quest in Freeport was kind of neat too. I didn't want to look up any of the locations, and it took me forever to hunt down the final gravestone in the graveyard. In the end it was satisfying and fun to discover it myself.

Still I hear a lot of people saying the quests are all very similar. I see what they mean, but I still think it's fun.

The question is, how do you guys think we can improve on the quests we are given? Do you guys have any cool, original ways to make quests fun and interesting? Can you think of challenging ways to come up with quests that aren't branches off of the "Kill this/so many mobs" or the "Messenger Route."

Just curious on what the rest of the creative EQ2 community would like to experience.

Thanks =)
#2 Jan 10 2005 at 11:32 AM Rating: Decent
I seem to recall SOE actually asking people to submit their quest ideas a short while back (in patch notes). Maybe if the people who complained suggested what they would do to make things better then things would get better.

As it stands I'm happy with the questing :)

Minky
#3 Jan 10 2005 at 11:48 AM Rating: Decent
25 posts
I think the questing is okay... although some of the writs could perhaps use a little variety. Most of them really are the 'kill x creatures' type of quest, which are some of the least enjoyable. But I do think EQ2 does a good job of doleing out interesting quests... its at least on par with WoW in that respect.
#4 Jan 10 2005 at 8:57 PM Rating: Excellent
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#5 Jan 10 2005 at 10:40 PM Rating: Good
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EvilGnomes

I don’t quest much; I only complete the trendy ones that yield good rewards. However any given one of your ideas you listed I would complete just to see the end of the story. Those are amazing quest ideas. I don’t often find quests like your ideas. When I do find those rare treasures I do enjoy them. If SOE is still accepting quest ideas from gamers. Please show them what quests are all about.

Again absolute awesome ideas. A++
#6 Jan 10 2005 at 11:13 PM Rating: Decent
Evilgnomes, your post has just surpassed all of the previous notions I have had of what a truly awesome creative post should be.

That was truly fun to read. Those are some really cool ideas. Awesome, awesome job. I really liked the murder mystery concept. It would be amazing if something like that were implemented. I think it would make things a lot more interesting if we were given a few options for responses and the quest NPC would react differently depending on what we said. We sort of have that, but it's pretty cut and dry. Perhaps it could cycle through a variety of different dialogues so it would be difficult to keep track of for the people who just look up the ways to get through the quests online, maybe to keep things a little more dynamic.

Overall, awesome, original quest ideas. I'd be up for doing quests like those anyday.

Your warlock ambushing part also gave me an idea. Wouldn't it be cool if there were some section of a quest where we, as the players, were hunted down by something else?

Here's my long, detailed, drawn out idea.

Say, for example, I'm exploring out in the middle of nowhere and I come across a ruined old tower, ravaged with age. Naturally, I want to explore this tower and find out what's inside. So I walk inside, it's barren and empty. There are runes carved everywhere along the walls and dusty old books are lining shelves all over the place. Obviously I'm inside the ruins of some old mage's tower. I travel up a staircase to the top of the tower and find a glowing orb sitting on a stand. It still pulses with magic, even in it's old age. The orb is clickable, so I right click it and select inspect.

Right after I inspect the orb, I get a tell from an NPC monster saying, "Why have you awakened us? You shall pay for your foolish mistake, mortal.."

Another message a moment later saying, "Our bonds of magic have been broken! We are free to roam the earth again! I must find the one who has freed us, and..reward...him..."

A few seconds later I would get another tell from a third NPC saying, "Can you possibly imagine what it feels like to have your soul imprisoned for five hundred years? Perhaps you shall find out soon enough..."

If this actually happened to me in the game, at this point, I would be freaking out. I would get the feeling that something was chasing me, and I would want to get the bejesus out of that tower.

I would run to the entrance, and a gnome, a high elf and a human would have popped at the doorway, all dressed in robes. They would make short introductions, explaining that each was a Conjuror, a Wizard and a Coercer, each hailing from three different towers in the corners of the zone. They have sensed a powerful evil magical disturbance, and realize that their worst fears have come true. In touching the forbidden orb, I have released the spirits of three evil Necromancers that used to capture and perform necromantic experiments on unsuspecting adventurers many years ago.

The ancestors of these three good mages joined forces and sealed the evil necromancers away with the power of a magical talisman (or something, hehe). Who I am speaking to are the decendants of these mages, who have guarded the secret of the locking away of the necromancers for generations. They tell me that the remnants of the magical talisman used to seal them away has been kept secret, even to them. All that they know is that the talisman has been divided into three pieces, and that they accompany the three original mages in their burial chambers.

Over the years, their location has still remained a riddle, and if I hope to send the necromancers back to their prison, I must solve it and recover the talisman. They each give me a clue, in riddle form, which is all that they know about the locations themselves, pretaining to where I can find each of the three small burial chambers and recover the talisman shards. Finally, they tell me that since I was the one to release the spirits, I must be the one to seal them away and I must go alone. ((Edit: it could even be that the burial chambers pop in the zone in random spots upon recieving the quest, and one of a couple different sets of riddle clues are given, just to mix up the quest and somewhat keep people from finding all the locations and running straight to them after looking them up online.))

As I start to leave, the ghost spirits of the necromancers pop on top of the three good mages and they start to fight. Two of the mages are slaughtered in battle, with the high elf being the only one to gate away in time. This is where the chase begins. The three necromancer spirits become unengageable by myself or anyone else and are ^^ red cons. They begin to chase me, but at a very slow, walking pace. I can easily outrun them, but if I stay stationary for a period of time, they will certainly catch up and destroy me. It's up to me to solve the riddle of the locations of the talisman, while I'm being pursued or hunted by the lurching necromancers.

I find all three locations according to the clues, reassemble the talisman and seal the necromancers back in their evil prison. Afterwards, I would be greeted again by the high elf, thanking me for saving the forest and it's inhabitants.

Then he would offer me two items, a necklace, the prized magical possession of the fallen gnomish mage, and a staff (or something) that belonged to the human mage. He explains that in their passing, they would have been honored to bestow these gifts upon a hero such as yourself. Then I am offered a gift by the high elf, a book that he has been writing for many years, chronicling the history of his ancestors and the original magical confrontation beween the necromancers and the mages. This could be placed in our houses.

Wow, that was a long, streaming thought. Definitely fun writing it though, I think of stuff like that a lot when I'm bored, hehe. Don't really know if it is something that is feasibly implementable or anything, and there are some holes in the short, sloppy story, but you get the idea. It would be fun to do.

It would be crazy to try and keep a cool mind while scrambling to figure out the answers to a riddle to solve a quest while you're being chased by lurching mobs. Them moving slower is actually scarier than if they were always running after you. Anyway, that was my long, drawn out quest idea, hehe. Again, not complaining about the current quests, it's just fun to think up creative ideas for what we could experience.

Any others?

Edited, Mon Jan 10 23:24:11 2005 by Vanrael

Edited, Mon Jan 10 23:31:13 2005 by Vanrael
#7 Jan 11 2005 at 2:06 AM Rating: Decent
Grouping with NPC's in a quest as a cleric for example where you task would be to keep em alive, as usual but for soloers would be fun to have a group to be able to run all by yourself and discover your true weaknesses and strengths.. and the ideas so far has been Gr8
#8 Jan 11 2005 at 5:20 AM Rating: Decent
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Gosh, thanks Toxic, Van, and MasterB - Smiley: blush

That was a cool idea about the lurching necros. It would be creepy being chase by slow but unstoppable nasties. It would sure freak out noobs too who saw them go by.

Yeah, healing other NPCs is a great idea - or keeping them alive - I don't know why something like that isn't in the game.

I still haven't figured out the burned down house way out in antonica. A couple of farmers stand there and say "look what the gnolls did", but they seem to be attackable and not quest npcs! This seems totally unused. Protecting them from a gnoll attack seems more in order - or something.

Have u all see the little cave where the gnolls are making rotstuffed scarecrows in Ant?? It's cool. It's near the end of Pecket's Patrol quest. If yer low lvl ask a lvl 24 or so or higher to team w/ u while u go in to check it out- they'll be grey to u w/ a team like that. Safe.

Oh - one of you said about the murder mystery that it would exploit separate answer chains - and maybe have multiple outcomes - exactly what i was thinking! It would be harder to make a spoiler for it that way. And the player would be less following a designers path and more making his own way. Imo the game needs more independence of action for the player. There so far is only one quest w/ multiple outcomes, besides hallmarks, that i've found - you choose either to kill bloodsabres or gnolls, and each choice has a different final battle. At least they did that one.

The book quests that u buy in the mage tower - haven't done one yet, but they seem to just be more "go kill x nunber of z" quests. What a missed opportunity! Well, they did put in that whiny little Halfling poet and his book of poetry, which is pretty funny (first time I read the Peeking Tree I didn't see the "k"! - i went huh? OH!). And there are a few other book quests with stories or info - gnoll mastery, etc. But the bought books - man, there could be some really challenging puzzles and cool stories in the books.

Well thanks for the support! Maybe this will become a cool thread. It is fun to try to think these up! Smiley: smile



Edited, Tue Jan 11 05:33:39 2005 by EvilGnomes
#9 Jan 11 2005 at 2:15 PM Rating: Decent
I agree that eq2 has the best quests so far but more are needed with more content. Why not add a sign post to choose solo or group quests also split up more like hunting, gathering, crafting, long or short quests.

Sony should of asked dms who create quests for d&d for detailed and fun quests, I used to dm d&d games and tried to make the players enjoy the quests. These are just some simple quests that aren't deep. I've still got loads of ideas for large campaigns in my head and if I start typing I wont stop!

Why not add rare armour and weapons with some decent background story. Like during the cataclysm there could of been great defenders/warlords of the land who before dying asked that his/her armour to be scattered across the land so players could find the pieces by exploring rather than getting the same quest. The pieces could random spawn all over the lands to make it so unique.

Or find the orcs bane sword that was broken into pieces and given to great orc chiefs to prevent a new champion from emerging from the humans, the pieces when forged in blood ore valley could give bonus damage and res against orcs.

At the moment there arn't many quests for specific classes. Something simple even like if say a paladin has a specific quest to destroy an undead champion in his crypt. The paladin could find specific classes to help like a rougue to disarm traps to get in and a wizard to read the ancient text to open cetain doors all the while the paladin proctects the other party members. At the moment grouping isn't that fun its simply find a tank, healer and maybe a wizard for magic damage. Also the only thing rogue classes can do is disarm a few chests rather than traps and doors. Rogues could have a skill to detect traps and the like.

Also why not bring more story about qeynos against freeport, like follow the freeport assassins around qeynos to find out what they are planning before stopping them in the right place. If they see you before you find out what they are planning then you dont get as much xps and a good item. I like the idea of more choices in quests so friends will have chosen diferent paths to me which makes it more exciting. You could do these quests to go up faction points for either freeport or qeynos and then spend them on things unique like qeynos captain breastplate etc

Unique race quests would we good to make people feel different cos at the moment everything is the same. I dont want the race quests making any race better than the other just add different items and maybe story involving each race.

The timed quest is a good idea but more of them would be good like get anti venom to the gate captain before the poison kills him from a poisoned gnoll arrow.

Why not add battle spawns at certain villages or even defend the city from orcs/gnolls for a certain amount of time, that would get huge raid parties and even solo players would have fun. Players would feel that they have defended something and feel part of the story. Certain players who do outstanding could have their names on posters in the main cities for a certain amount of time.

When I start I get carried away! Sorry if I bore ne1!
#10 Jan 11 2005 at 6:15 PM Rating: Decent
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No yer right, Stripe. This is a huge conceptual gaff SoE has made, imo. When you set out to achieve "egalitarianism" (make everyone literally equal) you stifle variety, which is the spice of life - and monotony, drollness, boredom is the necessary outcome. It's why almost no one was or is flocking to move to communist countries, but everyone wants to move to open democracies where you have lots of personal freedom. Imo it's the same basic deal.

Well, computers get more and more powerful each couple of months. So they have the power to offer us more - and more cool stuff. Let's hope they wake up and do it!
#11 Jan 11 2005 at 8:40 PM Rating: Decent
All these ideas are wonderful BUT! As I imagined my idea of what I envisioned what EQ would be before I purchased it.. There are limitations even a BASIC programmer from the old ages like me know why diversity is the greatest fiend to MMORPG's..

#1: There arent simply a normal person around that could afford the hardware-equipment necessary to hold in memory an "unlimited" amount of personalized quests, armor and other differentiating equipment and even if a few would and could hey what about the rest of us?!

#2: I envisioned myself like Gandalf in LotR deeply entombed in an dusty library digging through tons of facts that made me the hero when I discovered the facts that was afoot... I then realized the not likely event that 50.000 other adventurers also wanting to be unique and a natural focal point at next party at the "Golden Beaver Inn" would have specially made adventures that had tons of written material, 100.000 of items to sift through and 1000 of NPC's to meet and talk too, specially written by a staff of ???.??? people at SOE !

#3: The balance of all MMORPG's are weird as a world compared. Imagine Washington 95% Politicians 4% Imobile brokers, tenants and other riff raff. and 1% Police cars patrolling up and down between two streetcrossings. Then imagine all Politicians making all the comodities thats necessary to live and also all the HongKong plastic crap that U fill the bubblegum machines with(something that is shiny and looks good but is broken the minute u get it in your hand).

#4: Why it wont work is. That for a living comunity with fun quests all we would have to do is to have all people with good ideas running the RPG servers and they should control all the NPC's and thereby fill the world with fun. But that takes a lot of energy from a few to fuel the needs of the many and thats unfair.

Well forget about my rantings I'm tired and shoulda been in bed a long time ago Kudos evryone...
#12 Jan 16 2005 at 3:16 PM Rating: Decent
A few ideas for quests.

Save the captives from X dungeon. Not just kill mobs till you get a key. You can kill your way in or have a scout sneak to the wall where the key is hanging and grab it, oh no the key is gone. One of the guards must be using it to move a captive. (We can wait till he brings it back, or find the guard that is moving the captives and take it from him by force). Once we have the captives, we are not done yet. We have to get them to the zone line, alive. If they grab agro you have to pull the mob off of them fast. They may help you fight if they were a warrior, or may run and cause more agro if they were a commoner or a prince. Once out of the dungeon, the bad guys may be on your tail till you get back to your home city. You'll have to keep them back. Kill them, root them or have a brave and mighty warrior hold them back long enough for you and the captives to get a head start.

Or for the Priest classes, how about a rez count quest? To prove your devotion to the healing of others you must mend the broken bodies of 25 adventurers.

Defend the out post: waves of gnolls are trying to destroy the fishing village in the northwest, gather your group and go (10 min timer to get to the outpost or it's gone). Many waves will come with random named spawns. The mobs will agro on you, buildings and the villagers. No villagers or buildings must fall.

Stop a supply caravan. Engage wagons full of goods and soldiers to prevent the enemy camps for re-supplying. Be fast, while you are killing one the caravan is still moving.

Just a few ideas.
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