“Totally not an !” or Quest Markers must go

I popped on here to briefly check out the news on the upcoming release and I find out about this...I honestly don't know what to say other than, *facepalm* and *shake my head*.

Thank god it's optional, because if it weren't I think I would be done with Shroud. Like @Kabalyero mentioned, is auto-pathing next?

I fully understand why they are doing this, but I also fully understand why Stalin "advised" East Germany to erect the Berlin Wall. It still didn't make it right!

 

That's a good starter list. I'll have to add to it once I'm a beer or two in this weekend.

 

One thing that might work, is if we have to have this system, what if the npcs waved at you and maybe whistled or made a noise? That'd alert you, without being immersion breaking, and you'd still have to somewhat have a clue and not just easymode it at hyperspeed.

 

• Quest Discovery & Navigation Improvements: We are working on improving the ability to find characters who have quests and/or who you have active tasks to complete for quests. Characters who have quests for you, or who have current active tasks, will now have a blue glow. The character's glow will turn off once you complete all quests assigned to it. Additionally, as long as you are on a quest for a character, they will appear as a Point of Interest on your compass. These will be options you can turn off if you wish to continue to play “old school.” We lovingly call this system “Totally not an !”.

• Journal Improvements: If a quest sends you into an area that requires combat (such as a dungeon or hostile area), the journal entry will warn you if the difficulty of the area is more than you can currently handle. As your skills grow in power, the evaluation in your journal will change. This is not exact, but should warn avatars a bit too eager to head to their certain doom. We will be adding many combat-related tasks going forward and this will help you be aware of which are currently appropriate for your character.

And of course this is a great place to 'react' to this. So if you notice the wording on the statement about Quest Discovery it says this:

'We are working on improving the ability to find characters who have quests and/or who you have active tasks to complete for quests.'

This is also a call for ideas imo. So react away and then you can try to help to with your great ideas, because I can tell you right now almost all new people who come in the game are fine with a lot about the game, but this broken disconnected world we travel in can be very overwhelming to say the least. It has to change in some way. It is not like an offline game to work it out for hour upon hour. It is a multi player online game that confuses and loses it's audience, perhaps in offline as well. I find it an improvement in some ways of what is proposed but still I'm opened to hearing what others have to say and 'contribute'. For myself I am still thinking.

 

I strongly support. I think this doubles our chances of having a game to play this time next year. Couple it with keyword driven dialog and we have something like 4x better chance of a successful game.

Sorry. Sometimes you have to not go out of business.

 

That beings said, improvement is always possible, and I think this idea by @Leinad Laurelwreath is really good.

• No matter you turn ON markers there will always be hidden quests not visible with this option.

This made me imagine that there are some very interesting ways to evolve the quest marker.

 

This is great news
I remember way back when I started playing this game and I near quit many times because it was so painfully hard to quest - The only thing that kept me in the game was my real life brother and friends.
I love that this is an option and I feel from my background in gaming that this is needed to keep more players interested in the game and not plain frustrated.
*cheers*

 

Good grief !
You guys are talking like it's not optional.
IT IS OPTIONAL !
Get over it....
The moment this addition appears in game, TURN IT OFF.
After that, everything is just as immersive as it was before.
Go find something better or more important to complain about....
Sorry, but that's how I feel about now.

 

Oh please..... seriously ?
This an OPTION in a game.... get a grip.

 

I agree that this is great for the game. It sounds like it will be an option to turn on so it wont affect those who don't want to use it. Implementation of ideas like this for new players who have not had the advantage of years of experience to learn this game is fantastic. We need and want as many people as possible to try this game and stay with us.

 

No, facetiously, obviously! Get a pull will you! Lol...baka...

 

I fully understand that we need ways to make it obvious which NPCs are important. But the blue glow is the most simplest solution to this, the lazy way out. And this just shows how important immersion and story/quests are in this game.
For me this whole adventure and immersion part seems to just be a pain in the side of the devs. They have to deal with it and when they deal with it they seek the easiest solution. Instead of having the NPCs wave, walk towards the player or have them marked on the map they just get a blue glow.
This just fits so well with the rest of the adventure-system. No choices with visible and lasting consequences, no burning cities during sieges. Nothing can happen to the NPCs, no twists during quests, very simple quest-mechanics with "run-talk-read", party-members are just talking pets...

The problem SotA has in regards to keeping players invested is not that the NPCs need a blue glow. The problem is that the quests are not fun, that we do the same things over and over and that nothing can happen during the quests or the story. This will drive those players away who want to experience a great story. Those players who want to have Charlotte and her mother reunite and not just read that they met and that she had to send her away. Those players who want to free the farm of the undead so that the farmer can return and not stand in the tavern until all eternity. Those players who want to bring the murderer in Ardoris to justice instead of just talking to this and that NPC. Glowing NPCs won't change that.

 

whether it's an exclamation point, a question mark, highlight or glow... it's still a quest marker... if the only defense to that is the TOGGLE then why not add all modern MMO features like auto looting, auto pathing, auto botting, auto combat, etc. and just add a TOGGLE to them...

 

There are a few more options here:
1. Have quest markers only for the 'basic' quests. This will help new players learn the quest system faster so that they won't mind doing it without markers.
2. Take away quest markers for 'advanced' and/or optional quests. Provide more reward for these more difficult quests. Players that get into the quests and game lore won't mind the additional effort required to do quests without the markers.

 

Noobs have damaged gaming industry forever... Why shouldn't this game be any different xD

 

Are you always this endearing to other people's opinions or is it a product of your candidiasis?

 

I think the glow should be purple.

It's a nice color.

Oh wait why does this matter?

 

Really a whole thread about this... Seeing as it can be turned off if you don't like it makes for a non-issue imo. People enjoy games differently, not better, not worse, just different. How is that a problem?

 

I am okay with the change; I know some people that really need the hints or they just can't play. It would be nice, for those of us that turn it off, to get some sort of attention getting thing from some quest givers or some other hints from inn merchants and guards and such. I know some of this is in certain areas, but expanding on it would be great.

 

I don't see this feature as a problem per se, but the issue in general with games that go this way is that they often do not provide a valid alternative to turning such features off.

For example, if all NPCs looked about the same (as was the case in SotA last time I played), then you are pretty much forced to turn on this feature -- unless you want to click 100 identical NPCs individually to find the one you are looking for.

Basically, these things very often lead to lazy design.
Why differentiate the NPC appearance when players can just look for the glowing one? -> Glowing NPCs options becomes mandatory.
Why write detailed text and dialogue, when you can just write a one-liner and let the player follow the mark on their compass? -> Quest markers become mandatory.

Don't get me wrong: I am all for adding "modern" features, but only as long as they don't become a mandatory choice.