Main Questline Feedback from a Veteran

With the double experience event, I decided it was time for me to go through the questlines online. Previously, I've only done this offline and it was on a much older release, so I wanted to offer some feedback based on my experiences.

Part One: Path of Courage

This path has been doable for a long time, and much of it is very well polished. However, the newer piece is not quite as mature.

You are sent to rescue Sir Patrick from the Kobold Expeditionary Camp, which opens a special instance of that scene. Upon entry, the standard kobold complement has been replaced with a less dense but no less aggressive population. Clearing them out, you can make your way to the cage containing the knight and the kobold immediately next to it drops the key.

I'd suggest a couple changes to this scene. First, respawn here really needs to be removed. By the time you get through the conversation with Patrick, you'll be swamped by kobolds again. As a story scene, this is an unnecessary complication.

Second, I'd suggest moving the key to a Kobold Warden deeper into the camp. If we could have the initial conversation with Sir Patrick through the bars, he says the kobolds have treated him fairly. He could suggest simply telling Lord Ferig that he has been treated honorably, and you can move on, or you could follow your orders and get the key to rescue him. The warden might then have a few other cages near his tent, and if you open all of them the key would break, otherwise you'd have a deco key for the quest. I'd think it would be hillarious is one of the captives was a barbarian that attacks you once freed.

The next bit, reporting to Ferig, is very buggy. Although he waves and sparkles, he doesn't respond to anything about this until you speak with Ean about Patrick, then speak to Ferig again. Then upon hello, he comples the quest step. Nothing indicates you should speak with Ean at all, so finding this took far longer than necessary. (I updated the bug report from a previous release that I found, so hopefully this can be fixed soon.)

After that, it went smoothly up until Skrekk. The bits where you need to follow the kobold to the king are annoying, because he is slow, he slows you down when you get near him, he has a hard time fitting through doorways, and he likes to reset if you are standing at the wrong elevation. Once you finally get there, speaking to the king triggers the events you need.

One suggestion for this conversation, and the next conversations with Mara and Ferig; please automatically adjust the conversation camera so you don't have to exit all conversation and move manually in order to experience what is happening. I'd glad everything happens "in game" with no cut-scene, however it is difficult to follow and removes all of the tension if you can't pan and suddenly just see someone dead nearby.

Overall, this path is fairly well done. Of note, however, is that although you have rooted out a traitor and helped free Grannus from the influence of the dread artifact, it doesn't seem like anything will be worked out in the short term. I'd really like to see more from Grannus in a later episode.

 

Part Two: Path of Truth

Again, this is a mature and well polished line of quests. The new quest that sends you into the Etceter Crag Mines provides a unique option; work with Lady Ransom to spare the bandits, or ignore her and proceed to slaughter them. Either works, although you'd need to be higher level for the later. I think the only issues I noticed in here is that the compass marker for Avitas does not display when Captain Steel sends you to him, and the compass marker for Passage to Xenos shows on the compass in Xenos (on the marker for the boat to Etceter) after you have already booked passage and arrived.

Artiface is an interesting place to walk around in. None of the pilgrims are all that interesting, but it does show a lot of the baser desires of the population. The "secret" behind bonesteel shouldn't come as much of a surprise, however the motivation for its creation is excellent. I'd also have expected Artiface to have been in use much longer than it apparently has been, since you received an "early" version of the blade.

The only thing I'd really like to see is the option, after having "completed" the task and returned to Hephaestus, is to confront Notus (or leave through the library like you do now). Notus would predictably flee, but you could fight his two satyr guards and maybe even recover a couple other bonesteel weapons (I'd suggest a longsword and an axe, since they are readily apparent in the supply around the forge). If all three bonesteel weapons were usable as weapons after Artiface, but had some side effect (like lower Virtue while equipped), it would be more believable that these weapons are in the world and a threat. Currently, there is one dagger you see, which has no combat stats, and they claim that satyrs are using them.

Again, the long-term effects of this quest really can't be felt in the world. I do hope Perri, at least, appears later (inline instanced for those who completed the quest) to rally other fauns. He might even make an excellent Companion in the offline version; fauns have some fun spells that might complement some playstyles. Also, it would be nice if you could tell the other Titans of the fate of their brother.

 

Part Three: Path of Love

This path still has the most issues, and the new task cleanup script in R52 might be overdone to compensate. You must report to each ruler, and each gives you a task to see Min Liang Tan (about a ring and a writ). This part went fine, except that the task to speak to Min would not dismiss, even after speaking with him several times. I moved on, returned to each ruler, and spoke to Pintar as directed. That gave me a quest to go find a spirit-talker, so I went and spoke to both Samael and Kardan. I chose Samael, but the spirit-talker task would not go away either, even once I had one to go to Necropolis. However, I now had two new tasks to speak with Min, one to ask about a keystone and one that he had the keystone I needed, plus the existing one to speak with Min (about the writ). So I go speak with him, and all three of those tasks get resolved and I get sent to meet him at the Tower.

Now I'm not all that high level, so I figured the Tower would be difficult. However, it really was no more difficult than the Kobold Expeditionary Camp. I killed Min, got the keystone, went further up the tower since I'd never seen the top floor, and even killed the Lich there. Other than a few books, there isn't much in this Tower that players might be interested in. I'd really like to see one of the DeathAdder Banners be lootable, perhaps flagged so you can only take one. Seems like this would be a fitting souvenir for this portion of the quest.

However, upon returning to Ardoris and speaking to Khasi, all of the existing quests for Necropolis and the spirit-talkers vanished from my task list. I was rewarded at each ruler, and speaking with Pintar again doesn't re-add them. They are listed in my "Knowledge" journal, as though they are complete. I think one of the keystone tasks should have remained as "Return the Necropolis keystone to a spirit-talker", as that is required in order to hire them.

The path through Necropolis is interesting, although there are only two shades that you get to talk to. There was one "normal" ghost that got angry and attacked me, but Samael wouldn't help fight it so I just ran until it leashed. I was bummed that Kardan is the only one that teaches you /playdead, as I just couldn't bring myself to hire the boastful lout; this would be a great thing for the guy in Spite to teach you, for riding in his wagon. I couldn't figure out how to get into the wagon either, so I had to take the "hard way" into Malice.

Before that, however, was the side treks into Midras and Brookside. Midras was difficult, not because its a PVP scene (it was empty, as usual) but because of the obsidian golems. I got swarmed by about six of them, and chain stunned. I managed to get to the Crypt of the Avatar with my health in the teens. Inside the Crypt, you only really need to speak with the two defenders, but since Samael was with me I did the search for his report to help put the dead to rest. Right outside the section where this drops, Samael got stuck on the broken bit between the paths, and wouldn't come any further, so I had to take out the last few on my own.

I actually had to look up the keyword to say to Samael in Brookside to get him to show me the ring (keepsake), as he just tells me to go away, and I didn't see him bark that word. Again, there was no compass indicator in Brookside or Spite, so finding folks can be tricky if you don't know your way around those towns. The control point into Drachvald itself is a pain, so I'd suggest having Samael remind players to use the Lunar Rift to travel to Brookside after leaving the Crypt of the Avatar.

Malice itself wasnt too difficult until the encounter with Anapa, who looks very dead for a living guy. He jumps you in the middle of a conversation, but the UI doesn't close quickly, so by the time I could move again I was already half dead, snared, and being attacked by five undead. I had to run so they leashed, then slowly pick them off a couple at a time, then take down Anapa. If conversation is going to instigate combat, the UI for it needs to be much more responsive; move the attack message to a screen popup and instantly dismiss the conversation window, so you can respond instantly.

For the Malice quest, you get two markers that both say "Find Sequanna" (one with an exclaimation and one without), one points to Anapa and one to Sequanna's prison. I think these should be split; "Find Sequanna!" should become "Confront Anapa" when you locate him, and "Free Sequanna" should show up once he's dead. Additionally, some of the quest items don't seem to be deleted when they are used; I now have the three stones, Samael's whistle, the Necropolis keystone, and a few other items. Are these just so we can continue to go through the scenes in multiplayer? Also, Anapa claims to have "torn out Sequanna's heart" and fashioned the dread artifact, yet Sequanna claims it was something she and her siblings made; why the discrepancy, and why would one of them lie about it?

Again, where are the effects on the world for completing this? The undead attacks don't decrease, Sequanna doesn't reappear, etc. I'd like to see a special set of sieges for the Perennial Coast where when you try to enter a town you instead find an undead siege randomly and you have to fight your way through. This would echo Solace Bridge, and give a sense of urgency. These "popup" sieges can stop once you have freed Sequanna.

 

Part Four: Path of the Oracle

So first, once you have finished the last path above, you are instructed to go see the Oracle. However, you don't get a task for this, so I can see some players forgetting or not understanding where to go. Its interesting learning the former name of Brittany, but is there anywhere else this is discussed? I might recall the name from the Blade of the Avatar novel; I'll have to check that again.

Obtaining the pages seems fairly straightforward (I grabbed the Britanny one while I was there), but the lenses are a bit more problematic. The locations for these are quite dangerous, and you don't have Samael with you anymore.

With an hour or so to play, I started out to pick up a few of the pages. I decided to do four, two via the Ruins and two via the underground access, just to compare. There is no comparison; the Ruins (since they are empty of PVPers) are FAR easier than trying to find your way through the winding corridors, get keys, and wait for scene loading times. The mobs are easier to avoid, and the route is clearer. I was even lucky and got a piece of gambeson in one of the chests. The others I picked up the next night through the Ruins as well.

The only difficult page was the one in Rhun; the trapped tower leading up to the portal was amazing, but filling it full of a mix of melee and ranged combatant mobs is horrible. Died twice to mobs here before I could zerg to the portal.

The colossi were the next challenge. Sequanna and Boreus were great, lots of fun puzzles and quite fulfilling. The Grannus Colossus was a giant pain. Not sure if its just my computer, but I couldn't run through the closing gates like I've noted others mentioning doing, so I got stuck with waves of fights at each camp. And of course, a wave of melee is fine (they can be kited), a wave of archers is annoying but I figured out how to get them down, waves of mages killed me each time, and waves of mixed opponents is just evil. If I was playing in Open Multi, I might be able to hire enough muscle to join me here, but my family I play with wouldn't have helped me at all. This is the place I really stared missing Samael, and wishing Companions could be used in Single Player Online mode.

After getting all the shards, I ran to Hint and fought my way down to the forge (dying once to the Lich Mage). At the bottom, I discovered to my horror that my smithing hammer was missing; I know I had one before, but it was gone now. So I recalled, bought a new one, and zerged all the way down to the Obsidian Forge (without dying, amazingly). This part was cool, although the animation of walking to the forge is horribly broken (shows you falling through the world, then snapping back to start working).

The scene at the Confluence was awesome, and I love the Prophecies and what we didn't get to see up until now. I had thought that each page was going to be unique (thought I saw some art for this somewhere), but even just as text it is very cool. This, the scene with the Oracle, and Arabella, was emotional. My path through Forsaken Virtues is over... but there are so many hints of things to come!



Observations

Something I did note: through the entire main questline, you obtain zero Titles and only one Emote (and that, only if you intentionally choose the "wrong" spirit-talker). I'd expect a fair portion of the non-xp rewards to come during this questline, but virtually none of them do.

As far as xp rewards, some steps give you decent xp, but many don't have any at all. I think all "Tasks" should have some reward, even if its only 500xp or so, when they are complete.

I was overjoyed to read that each player gets to be "the" hero, but this is made very difficult in a multiplayer environment. I'd like to suggest that the Dread Artifacts and Shroud of the Avatar, when wielded by another player, have a slightly different appearance; this would at least let us maintain our internal story, that we have the only true, unique versions of these items, but allow us to lampshade this a bit for other players. A tan "shroud" and tarnished bludgeon and crown would serve excellently.

The Path of the Oracle has some very well written sections, and draws up the story to a satisfying conclusion, while giving hints about what is to come. I'm hopeful that the other paths, especially Love, can be polished to the same level.

Overall, an excellent game. Thank you @Lord British and all of the @Devs for your hard work and dedication.

 

Good write up.
fyi
I have had some task disappear by logging off and back on Especially on the love quest.

 

Emotes:
Double check the people in the Castles you are asked to speak with. I know you get a handful from them on the love quest.

 

You can get the /iheartyou and /hug emotes in Ardoris, but you don't have to be on the quest to do so.

 

Updated with the last couple days of progress; I have the pages and tried both the overland/ruins access and the underground access routes.

 

Samael's Farm is in Brookside northeast of the town crier across the river from the crier. He acted like he didn't know me when I showed up and wouldn't talk about any of the quest line but type "keepsake" and it will start the dialogue and quest for the ring.

 

Having just finished the quests of Truth, Courage and Love, I 100% concur with these observations. The Quest of Love definitely needs more..... love! :-D

 

I need to review my logs, but I'm not sure where you should actually be learning the "keepsake" keyword.

 

Finished the quest, and updated the topic with the Colossi and beyond. #IAmTheAvatar (oh wait, that's for Underworld Ascendant...)

 

My experience was quite different. First, I received the quest to free Sir Patrick within my first week of play. Second, I went to the Kobold camp and nothing was aggressive. I was to speak with the Kobold Commander and he gave me the option to fight in the arena to win Sir Patricks freedom. The biggest problem I had was I got owned in the arena. I played for another month and leveled up quite a bit and just completed the arena today with blades/plate/heal combo. The final boss of the arena with the shock attack was still pretty tough. I had to kind of bug him out so I could heal up in order to beat him.

Sir Patrick sent me to Ferig with no reward. Ferig sent me to Grannus with no reward. Grannus was buggy. He wouldn't talk with me until I typed the keyword "amulet" then he told me to talk with Mara and Essen. They were buggy. They both told me to follow but wouldn't walk anywhere. I had to leave Valhold through the door and immediately renter to kind of reset it. Logging in and out didn't work. They sent me back to Ferig or Demig. I chose Demig because Ferig annoyed me already when he basically said he didn't give a care about anything but whine and then sent me to Valhold. The papers worked fine at Demig's gaurd. The headpeice worked fine at Demig although he wouldn't speak to me after he gave me the order to go to Kobolds leader in Skrekk. On a side note I went to Kobold encampment on accident and they still were not aggressive. Also, they replaced Sir Patrick with a different prisoner named Ned. I went to Skrekk and everything was agressive getting to the Caverns of Skrekk. King is in the caverns. Gave the Writ to the first kobold gaurd to get 5k xp. Nothing was aggressive in the caverns but didn't have a map so king was tricky to find. Followed the marker to Krishach and asked him to escort to the king but he bugged out on the steps and couldn't walk up them. I went ahead without him and found the King in the top of the castle. Somehow Demig just showed up and I almost got sucked into the battle with him and a Kobold Champion. Luckily I didn't hit something and aggro the entire room. Anyway they ported me back to Valhold where I blamed Mara and she was killed. It gave me 200k xp and the scepter of Dread. Mara's warrant is still in my quest log. I'll try to turn it in later.

-When I left Valhold, Mara's quest cleared out of my log.

 

Interesting, I wonder what the difference is? Have I just killed too many Kobolds (I use the uninstanced version to earn xp, but they've always been aggressive). Even the ones outside of Skrekk were aggressive, just not the ones inside after I gave Ferig's letter to the one at the gate.

I'll try offline again, where I havn't killed any kobolds.

 

Wonderful stuff everyone. Thanks for taking the time to do this. This will really help the game so much. @Puuk @Lum the Mad

 

That one is so much easier via Graff mines that it isn't even funny. The passage also makes a nice pause area for Graff that the mines that are clones of it (if any are still left) don't have.

And my experience with the kobold camp (on an alt) was that the circle area in front was some sort of arena, and I kept getting waves of kobolds there, with no chance to rest focus between them. Unlike Etceter, there didn't even seem to be a bypass quest. I had been stuck on this for months (my alt was in the mid AL40s) until I leveled up taming and got an elder wolf pet. That was just enough that I eventually got through the next to last wave. Then the last wave was "What, really?", but as it was only one mob, it was much easier to take on with a pet. By the time I got the shroud, thanks to the double XP, my alt was AL56.