The Elder Scrolls Online like quests

Discussion in 'Quests & Lore' started by Lord_Darkmoon, Feb 13, 2014.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    After taking part in the recent The Elder Scrolls Online Beta I was very impressed by how quests were handled in the game. The quests felt meaningful, there were next to none quests like "kill five boars and fetch seven mushrooms". Nearly every quest told a story, branched into a new quest etc. There are even decisions you have to make that can change the world around you visibly. No waiting for respawing bosses as the bosses were gone once you defeated them. Playing the quests of The Elder Scrolls Online felt like playing a single player game.
    I understand that some MMO fans do not like this but as Shroud of the Avatar is 50% SP game I hope that the quests will be similar to those of The Elder Scrolls Online as I think this is the way to tell good stories in an online game.
     
    Retro, Mordecai, Caliya and 3 others like this.
  2. NRaas

    NRaas Avatar

    Messages:
    3,984
    Likes Received:
    5,841
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Glenraas
    Well, it's nice to have a second opinion on ESO. The writer for this article appeared to have the exact opposite reaction to the "quests" : http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/07/hands-on-the-first-few-hours-of-elder-scrolls-online/

    However, I do know where you are going with your suggestion, and I too would expect the side quests to be well written, as one would expect from later Ultima games (hopefully even better so, considering some of the bugs I ran into playing those games). :)
     
    Mordecai likes this.
  3. Carlin the Druid Archer

    Carlin the Druid Archer Avatar

    Messages:
    833
    Likes Received:
    2,847
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    New Britannia
    I'm also interested to see how SOTA handles quests - from what I've read/seen from L.B. and team I think quests in SOTA will have meaning and progress the story since, at its heart, it combines the best of the single player Ultimas (5,6,7) with multiplayer elements (such as UO). Sounds like they are taking quite an innovative approach to how this will work using areas where you enter as 'single player only' and other areas where it is multi-player - each using different methods of telling the story.
     
    Jambo, Time Lord and Lord Baldrith like this.
  4. Fox Cunning

    Fox Cunning Localization Team

    Messages:
    797
    Likes Received:
    1,645
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Wiltshire, England
    Honestly, I didn't like the quests in ESO at all. The only good thing was the voice acting, while everything else felt bland and boring.
    I hope SotA will do something more challenging and intriguing. The story is already looking much much better than what I've seen there.
     
    tradyblix, Margard and Lord Baldrith like this.
  5. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    If you compare the quests of The Elder Scrolls Online to the quests of other MMORPGs they are gigantic leap forwards. Sure quests can be more complex and more exciting etc. and I hope that they will be in SotA. But I also hope that there will be no quests like in WoW or other generic MMORPGs.
     
    Fox Cunning likes this.
  6. Sir Brenton

    Sir Brenton Avatar

    Messages:
    499
    Likes Received:
    758
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Earth
    I have enjoyed my time with ESO as well. Honestly I think that reviewer is a little bit jaded, but to each their own. If you actually read/listened to what the characters were saying they did have some interesting lore. But it is, as always, tempting to just click on to the next arrow and blast your way through - although not required, which some people seem to forget. I spent a couple of hours just wandering around houses looking for books, etc. Once you get to a certain larger area the world opened up and is huge. I am looking forward to exploring it.

    As I've said elsewhere, time will tell.

    I find it very doubtful the quests will come close to the story that awaits us in SOTA. But currently, I will enjoy my time running around ESO for what it is - in my downtime between SOTA alpha/betas :)

    (P.S. Best way to to keep us from other games is to keep us some BETA's live! *grin*)
     
    docdoom77 likes this.
  7. docdoom77

    docdoom77 Avatar

    Messages:
    1,274
    Likes Received:
    3,381
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Latveria

    What else can you tell us about ESO? I really like Elder Scrolls, warts and all, though I can never finish one as I always get caught up in side quests and lose track of the main game until I'm burned out. :D

    What of leveling and combat. Might this be an mmo I actually want to play (probably not.... but it IS elder scrolls and I'm sick of Skyrim... and who knows when the next ES single player game will be... and.... where am I?)
     
  8. Silkie

    Silkie Avatar

    Messages:
    33
    Likes Received:
    47
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Austin
    You are only admitted to ESO beta's when you sign a non-disclosure agreement about the content, so there's not a great deal of detail an honest beta-player can tell you about the game. I forgot about that a few minutes ago when writing a post about swimming and voting for a non-ESO method of limiting how far out into the ocean you can swim. Finding this thread, however, I DO remember and will just say that I spent three days in the 2nd Beta and thoroughly enjoyed it - more than previous ES games I've played. I don't think its revealing much to say the world is quite large and the graphics are quite good, quasi-realistic, not cartoonish like the new Everquest (which is too bad because it has some really nice innovative features, e.g., being able to build - or destroy - quasi-permanent parts of the world). The graphic quality is not quite up to Vanguard's but for those of us who only want to spend hours playing in a world we can imagine to be real, it's quite acceptable. I'll also say the battle mechanics are complex (no details) but interesting, crafting graphics are unique (different than any I've seen before), and it has some of the movement problems/limitations we found in SotA release #2. I agree with the above poster that the story lines/lore in ESO is good, but so far doesn't include the kind moral/ethical complexity many of us came to love in Ultima and look forward to in SotA. All in all, I'd say it's worth a visit to see if it's your cup of tea.
     
    Caliya and docdoom77 like this.
  9. HoustonDragon

    HoustonDragon Avatar

    Messages:
    1,526
    Likes Received:
    4,399
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    Problem is, not many games have ever really grabbed the ethical quandary, and figured out how to really make it work. Bioware does a decent job (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, KOTOR) addressing how your actions effected others, and how you were viewed as a result, as a savior or another scumbag. I'm also a fan of them allowing character imports, so your past is actually considered and referenced. ;)

    Sure, the main stories still have to lead up to the ending, but I'm a fan of games that give as many options to get there as possible, along with multiple endings for those less inclined to take the road more traveled. I think the biggest reaction in the Elder Scroll games was doing an illegal act, and having to fight/pay/bribe the guards. But that was really it, you could be the biggest evil jerk in Tamriel, as long as your fines were paid. :D
     
    Fireangel likes this.
  10. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    In The Elder Scrolls Online there are quests in which you have to make some decisions. Will you save this place or the other. And there are consequences to this. If you decide to save place A, place B will be overrun and everyone will be dead there afterwards. Or you can tell an NPC the truth about something you found out or lie to her. This will either break her heart which results in her commiting suicide or she will live on happily ever after but has to live with a lie.

    Interestingly they made it so that only you would see the consequences of your actions (or those players who dealt with the situation the same way as you did), due to some sort of phasing of the game world. This way you have the feeling of accomplishing something, of leaving your mark in the game world. But the downside of this phasing is that you cannot see other players in the world who did the quest differently than you or didn't do it all.
     
  11. PrimeRib

    PrimeRib Avatar

    Messages:
    3,017
    Likes Received:
    3,576
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    If quest get too "meaningful" and "story progressing" you lose some of the sandbox repeatability. Some quests should feel a little more like dailies / rep grind quests because these can be triggered. e.g. as the town tilts to running low on supplies, people start getting asked to go get some
     
    NRaas and Ned888 like this.
  12. Sir Brenton

    Sir Brenton Avatar

    Messages:
    499
    Likes Received:
    758
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Earth

    Good point. And there are some - plus the crafting replaces some of the normal fetching because you are fetching your own supplies to create items. For example I was killing certain types of people because they seemed to drop armor more that I could then deconstruct into items (that couldn't be bought from the vendors) I needed to enhance my own creations.
     
  13. Ned888

    Ned888 Avatar

    Messages:
    788
    Likes Received:
    1,152
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    My biggest problem with quests that are over scripted is that they allow for no 'off roading' as I like to call it. There is no sandbox to speak of and exploration is not particularly encouraged. You follow the quests and the story unfolds and then.... What? You can't go back to the original areas as you've out leveled them, the quests aren't repeatable, because you already ran though the story.... I sure hope ESO has an awesome end game planned!

    I like ESO; I played the Beta too, but I'm concerned for the longevity of the game due to the very linear quest model. I did buy it though and I'll give it the 30 days it deserves. There were a lot of really good parts too and I definitely couldn't get too far into the game in the limited time I had to play.
     
    Caliya likes this.
  14. enderandrew

    enderandrew Legend of the Hearth

    Messages:
    7,359
    Likes Received:
    15,646
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Omaha, NE
    From what I understand, SotA has no quest log, no quest marker, etc.

    Quests are only picked up by paying attention to the story.
     
    Kaisa and Fox Cunning like this.
  15. PrimeRib

    PrimeRib Avatar

    Messages:
    3,017
    Likes Received:
    3,576
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Basically I remember playing Sims online and you'd wake up and be hungry. Eating made you need to use the bathroom. This made you dirty. Then you'd get bored.

    But in this case, we have a whole, thriving city full of PCs and NPCs. So there's just a lot of little levers moving. You're playing a bit of Sim City or one city in Civilization and then there's the greater empire with it's allies and enemies. Some people just may want help with a daily routine.

    WoW did some of this as dailies / rep grind. You wanted to get closer to person A in faction B, you'd might get them to give you a quest or find some item them wanted as a gift. But WoW revolved around you, a more open world could revolve more around the town / person's needs.
     
  16. Sir Brenton

    Sir Brenton Avatar

    Messages:
    499
    Likes Received:
    758
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Earth


    Correct. But we are talking about lesser games we might enjoy in the meantime :)
     
  17. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Quests that can be repeated kill the whole atmosphere in a game. If they are repeatable they should be more... "natural". Unnatural for example would be someone who constantly tells you to go and kill twenty rats in his cellar to get their tails... A boss who is constantly respawning. Getting scarfs from bandits over and over again... Where do those bandits come from? Why can't you defeat them once and for all? Why is the boss respawning? What is the point in killing him if he can't be killed? Why rescue a princess if she gets kidnappend again and again? What is the point of such quests other than destroying the immersion and atmosphere of a gameworld?
    If you go into the forest to gather wood, kill deer or collect some mushrooms on your own, then ok, that would be natural, as you are doing it by yourself. But NPCs telling you over and over again to do the same things - this would be an immersion-breaker.

    Sure there should be lots of sandbox-elements but I think that the story should be like reading a good novel. You experience a great adventure and when it is over, it is over. When the princess is rescued she won't be kidnappend again, the town is saved and the evil boss defeated once and for all. This way all the things you do are meaningful, the world is immersive and feels real.
     
    Jeremiah likes this.
  18. barkleyjer

    barkleyjer Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    40
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Regardless of knowing full well that everyone is doing the same quests, it always killed the atmosphere when someone would come up to the same npc to complete the exact same quest I was doing. From what I am seeing of this game, I'm comfortable that we'll get something decent, if not superior to what's out there. I wont even comment on the disappointment of other games I recently beta tested.
     
  19. NRaas

    NRaas Avatar

    Messages:
    3,984
    Likes Received:
    5,841
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Glenraas

    Yes, I hear ya on that one. Most likely I'll tackle the main story-line in SPO mode, and save myself the immersion breaking.

    Probably save myself the spoilers as well, I can just see someone running around town yelling out how to complete such and such a quest just to annoy the other users. :p
     
    Akeashar likes this.
  20. barkleyjer

    barkleyjer Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    40
    Trophy Points:
    8
    I always liked the idea of quests that morphed over time, or had randomized components unique to the character. For example (a typical fetch quest), if in step 2 of a quest you are instructed to bring a specific item to an NPC, for one player character that may be Item A and for another it might be Item B. A lot of the story components need to stay the same but some of the identified variables should be able to change for each player character. Some games already do things like this.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.