Most "exciting" quest yet - *yawn*...

Yes I am gonne be the party-pooper again... But come on, with games like Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Divinity or Pillars of Eternity, this can't be for real.

Is this quest representative for how the "final" quests in the game are designed?
I mean I did delivery-quests most of the time in SotA up to now and had high hopes that those would only be placeholders and that we will get "real" quests, exciting quests full of twists, surprises and in which things happen for the final game. Quests that make me want to sit in front of my PC for hours, that have me excited, make me sad or angry.
Now I see this video of a recently introduced quest:



This has to be the most boring thing I have seen in my life. Running around in a village, talking to this guy and to that guy and in the end - nothing happens... I mean, really? Even in Ultima 6 the quest design was more diverse, exciting and varied. There is nothing happening in this quest except for talking and running around. And the other videos of this guy do show the same things again and again. Delivery quests, talking to NPCs... I nearly fell asleep.
It's as if Frodo Baggins walked to Sauron and talked him to death, with nothing else happening.

Does SotA really want to to compete with other RPGs by having quests like these?

 

I agree 100%, and want some great single player narrative, something that draws me in to the story.. still waiting patiently, and wondering if we'll truly see something better than what's going on now. Quests are bland, nevermind the bugs that occur in these simple 'quests' still...

 

Try Ardoris quest regarding murder of children. My guildie fine the content to be intense. If

 

Well, in their defense the arsonist quest in soltown is one of the first quests you'll run into if you take the Love path so I think its meant to be really basic, easy, and simple. Lets you, as a new player, complete a quest and see how the system works, its not supposed to be a more involved / interesting quest. Granted, it is quite confusing if you talk to Richard and find out that the dialog forces you to say one of two things and if you say ANYTHING else you're actually picking an option to complete the quest. Aside from that though, I think the basic nature of it is intended given where it would be along the path for a new player.

 

I, too, was disappointed to find out that the end result of this quest was that... nothing happens. In reality, this was nothing more than a glorified same-town-delivery quest without the item to deliver. But, like has already been pointed out, this was one of the first quests I undertook in the first town I saw. Hopefully things improve.

 

I still think that people should get excited by playing the first quests. I think that the first few quests are what make a player want to play more of a game or quit. If I am bored the first one or two hours why should I continue playing? But if the first quests excite me, scare me, make me cry or make my mouth stand open then I want to experience all of the other quests, too.

 

Pretty much how I remember that horrid trilogy

 

I don't mind if some quests are kind of basic if they are plentiful. I like discovering little details about different NPCs wandering scenes. It makes the whole world seem more alive.

 

Devil's Advocate

Isn't the first starting quests in a new town always like that though?
There's always one where you run around and talk to everyone, almost like they help the new character learn how to navigate the town, talk to people and experience stuff?

 

Wouldn't that be the purpose of the tutorial?
Also after leaving Soltown the next quests are not that much different

 

It's no U4, that's for sure.

 

I'm hoping that the act of "questing" gets more elaborate over time. Because the stories might be good, but the game-play involved is pathetic.

 

Not at all ashamed to admit I've posted these video's on these forums several times... hoping the devs watch them and get to work.

 

Sadly this is probably the best quest in the game at present (from a story perspective) and even it is just so bad, I won't spoil the ending, but the ending of this quest is sooo lackluster it's not even funny, where it could have been spectacular.

Spoiler: Better possible endings...

• The guard Rolf, escapes after being accused and becomes a notorious serial killer throughout Novia striking children in different cites, player is tasked with bringing him to justice.
• After accusing Rolf the guard, he knocks you out and you wake up in Rolf's "kill room" basement\dungeon.
• Rolf has been framed!
• After being accused Rolf immediately attacks you, getting the other city guards to assist him, you must escape the city and find some other way to bring the corrupt guard to justice and now clear your good name!

Basically all we got was...we go tell Rolf's boss that he's got a child killer on the payroll...lame

 

This or just go back to U4.

 

I didnt even know about this quest. At least it gives me something to do this release because lord knows it ain't making gold.

 

Sadly, I too have to agree with this thread. I am hoping they bring their A+ game on later quests and stories. Most of the ones we can do now should be a little easier though as they are at the beginning of the storylines. I think there is definitely some hidden promise there.

I don't think anyone would argue that the quest system is currently in a rough state. It can be challenging to turn in quests to the proper people. Sometimes I have to do the previous step of the quest again to trigger a journal update. Sometimes the quest can't be turned in at all. I would imagine it will be fleshed out much more in coming releases, with better NPC scripts and word comprehension algorithms. There are also glaring errors throughout books and quest text that need caught. In some of the books and quests, the main character is a girl, but all the pronouns are he, him, or his and vice versa.

Player quests will help these issues as well, but I hope we don't have to rely on player quests to fix these issues.

I think the type to NPC's idea is great...BUT this really needs fleshed out more to even make ripples in the pond where the current generation's standard is Siri, Cortana, and the like. I really hope we see some voice acting for at least the key NPC's. Voice acting has become a standard in games across the board and does wonders for immersion. The oracle's mouth clang clang'ing through the silence of her confirmatory drive me insane. NPC schedules could also be improved. Some NPC's speech should be changed when off duty or asleep. Some NPC's should not be wake-able. I also find it odd that every NPC runs to the Inn and takes up every bed instead of having a permanent setup somewhere. I'm also not a fan of how quickly they run to their spot when that magic time hits for them to go to work.

I hope most of my concerns will be addressed later as the team definitely has more important issues to focus on than the questing system. Some systems can also be polished up very easily.

For the above reasons, I am REALLY EXCITED to see the Q4 roadmap. @DarkStarr

I do have a ton of faith in this team to polish this game to a good, balanced state. @Berek was a community member, and after he was brought onboard, his enthusiasm really grew, and he doesn't strike me as even remotely faking it. I bet great things will be coming down the pipeline.

As I have stated in previous posts, I expect the following:

Episode 1: Good
Episode 2: Better
Episode 3: Now we're getting somewhere
Episode 4: Wow, this vision is really fleshing out
Episode 5: Woohoo!!!!

Sorry for the wall of text everyone!

 

I agree. Disappointing quest ending when I played it., and later seeing the arsonist still on patrol. So much for consequences! I started to see this as a tutorial quest to get players to talk to NPCs around town though.

 

Thank you! Yes this has also been bothering me. Why don't the NPCs have their own houses?

 

One issue with the whole quest discussion is that we're past the point of no more wipes and persistence is on. So they could redo the starter quests but people with existing characters won't end up going through them most likely with their existing chars and who would want to re-roll after all the skillups, etc? On one hand I get the no more wipes and persistence thing, it encourages people to play the game (that's why I took another look at it myself). On the other hand if you do that before its finished, you put people in an awkward position with their characters that they're progressing and developing.