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Quests - What's wrong with people?

Discussion in 'Release 26 Feedback Forum' started by Lord_Darkmoon, Feb 2, 2016.

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  1. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

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    While I have to say that I think this whole "get the key from the bard" is a bit strange. Why does he have the key in the first place?
    Why do we need a key for such a big gate?
     
  2. blaquerogue

    blaquerogue Avatar

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    i dont know i didnt write the quest, if i did i wouldve had the guard say "take this key and go through the gate and tell the others (could replace with a certain person to find and where) what happened here! he gives you the key you go out of the town, and report on what is happening to whoever needs to know. If you didnt happen to loot the bodies oh well
     
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  3. Katrina Bekers

    Katrina Bekers Localization Team

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    Absolutely yes.

    But this part of the game is one of the major points of this legacy. Recently I unburied (sp?) UV and UVI from my parents. The boxes were chock full of written papers (by me and my bro!), scraps, notes, and in UVI - a larger box - an entire paper notebook FULL of writings. There was also a phone number for tech support, we thought to call at some point - but being an intercontinental call, I doubt my parents ever allowed that... :D
    Big sigh.

    I'm sure that if I'm able to hyperconcentrate on a single task - when need arises - and troubleshoot and pay attention to the resolutive detail that makes the whole picture make sense, is also due to years and years of training in scanning every pixel, or every word (in a foreign language!), or every hint in hundred of "unusable" games.

    Blizzard mastered the art of presentation, there's no doubt, and their work (not just WoW, but think also Diablo or *Craft) opened up a HUGE market. But I miss the times when a focused, "holmesque" mind was actually your best companion to solve riddles and enjoy details - rather than googling for a walktrhu.
    Hint: he does.
     
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  4. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    I think needing a key for a big gate that obviously is just barred with lumber is ludicrous. It makes the quest feel pointless and I'm done talking about it now that Lum has said it's all changing soon..

    I get the strong feeling that these starter quests are really placeholders, and making them 'fetch' and 'get the key' quests is just to fool with us while they develop the deeper, more meaningful quests that will make us happy once they are completed and implemented.
     
  5. blaquerogue

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    i dont remember that. did it explain why the bard had the key as well?
     
  6. Lord_Darkmoon

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    I think it would be more exciting if we would have to find the key to some escape tunnel and flee through a small dungeon.
     
  7. Katrina Bekers

    Katrina Bekers Localization Team

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    Citing myself from page one of this thread (msg #18):
     
  8. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

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    But why would anyone entrust a wandering bard with a key to the village gates? ;)
     
  9. Andrew Rodrick

    Andrew Rodrick Avatar

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    For people who are invested and understand the quest mechanics and how things are done the starter quests are trivial and straight forward to follow however for someone that is new to the game and does not have experience of a system like this the entry quests are confusing as they stand right now.

    I have a friend who was stuck in Highvale for quite some time until he finally gave in and asked me for help, if I’d not been there he would have been finished with SoTA before he even begun so its super important these quests are streamlined and “easy”.
     
  10. Lord_Darkmoon

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    Was it because of the parser and because he had to type in words/sentences?
     
  11. Katrina Bekers

    Katrina Bekers Localization Team

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    I may or may not say that the strings are due to change sooner rather than later.

    Maybe Edvard (being an omnipresent, teleporting bard always surrounded by Watchers) is a known Oracle emissary, being trusted by Tracy to hold on the key of the gate. The bard himself says he's quite famous in the land - and many in Soltown, Ardoris and Braemar happen to know him. Maybe he's just a common sight in battlefield, looking - as he claims - for inspiration of epic poems of battle and tragedy. Or maybe his Obsidian disguise is working as intended. Who knows? ;)
     
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  12. Andrew Rodrick

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    To be perfectly honest it was because he simply wasn't used to a quest system where you have to actively interrogate the NPC's and follow along.
     
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  13. HoustonDragon

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    One of my favorite RPGs was Stonekeep from Interplay, mainly because the story and characters are awesome, but also for the fact that the game gives you this really nifty journal early on. It has stuff like your character's stats, inventory descriptions, and stuff like that, along with the automapping system, which you could also add notes to yourself (similar to the Ultima Underworld games). But most importantly, you had the option to write notes in it. LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of notes, just so you could go back and reference it.

    I do miss the days of actually keeping progressing game notes :D
     
  14. StrangerDiamond

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    Haha don't need much imagination for that one... isn't the city in ruin ? Read : total loss ?

    :O
     
  15. HoustonDragon

    HoustonDragon Avatar

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    We located it on Vespus off the Mistral coast. :p

    [​IMG]
     
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  16. Elwyn

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    Then it's a good thing we have a scrolling MMO-style chat window so we can look back! Amirite?

    Clearly? I have no problem agreeing with you there. The UI is a mouse-dependent mess (probably due in no small part to whatever Unity base code it started with), and the Recipes window is a low-contrast, small-point-size insult to people whose eyes are more than 45 years old. Even this forum we are using right now is a contrast nightmare, which I was able to make less unusable with CSS overrides. And then there is the lack of usability at low frame rates due to things like throwing away the coordinates from mouse-down events, instead polling the mouse position a few hundred milliseconds later. (also probably due to Unity base code that hasn't been rewritten yet)

    As basic and (relatively) cluttered as the FFXI interface is, you can still do most things that don't require typing actual words with two hands holding a PS2-style joypad using mostly JRPG-menu-style up/down/enter/exit control. When I do have to type, its CLI is relatively powerful. In particular, you aren't limited by having to attach actions to hotbar icons before you can use them.

    And do I know a few things about usability. A few years ago I soloed the software for a commercial lighting controller with a 3" QVGA screen and numeric keypad. (competing products were still in the 20x2 text LCD / six buttons era of UI) It was luck that I ended up on the project, but I even went so far as to pixel my own font for readability (couldn't find a good 12x16 anyhow). I even put in things like subtle lockouts so that if the screen changed, there was a 200ms lockout to prevent finger bounce from hitting ENTER or ESC again and causing unexpected action on a screen you hadn't seen yet.

    I specifically avoided touchy-feely icon stuff in favor of a text menu interface after finding the FFXI interface so usable. I also pushed back against touch screens, especially after it was so horrible on a previous product we had. Touch screen is fine if you are selecting stuff, but sucks for entering configurations. The hit area is too sloppy, and your finger covers what you are trying to look at.

    I'd be happy to drive down to Port once in a while to help give them some usability advice, but I know that they've got their hands full right now just packing everything they can.
     
  17. Elwyn

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    Ironically, it was harder for me the second time because the first time, I started with no preconceived ideas about it and searched everything. The second time, I just wanted to get through, had heard about the magically appearing key, and was thrown off by the key's location being changed.

    I didn't have to type in any sentences to get out of Highvale. I was clicking on the underlined words, and "key" was not one of them in the bard's conversation. So naturally I only had to say the word "key" to the bard when it was not an underlined word in any conversation. A lot of other words were underlined that gave information about back story, but "key" was never underlined.

    I usually keep a text file open with my notes on whatever game I'm playing. Hooray for multi-tasking windowed operating systems. That would have been quite difficult in the 8-bit era.
     
  18. HoustonDragon

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    I hate doing that though, as it tends to break the immersion. I much prefer an in-game version (if possible), or else back to the old school notebook. Back in the 8-bit days, graph paper was the win for mapping dungeons :D
     
  19. Lord_Darkmoon

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    No it's not! The chat window is an abomination!
    We need a real dialogue window with formated text and without any elements of an IRC Chat. Of couse scrolling should be possible.
     
  20. HoustonDragon

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    The chat view must be set up for the Game! :D
     
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