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I have a question about questing
tarodin
Member UncommonPosts: 128
Will this game be similar to another games or will be more eq1 in questing system?
I prefer not to play to another game of killing X mobs, looting X items and talking with a NPC then with another and so...
I remember when i played eq1 calling for exp group in loio, KC, sebilis.... and do this all day and having fun with that...
And the epic quest was really epic.
Comments
EQ2 fan sites
So far, everything they've said about questing leads me to believe that it won't focus on "kill x mob, gather y item, run to z area" going from hub to hub. At least not so openly obvious.
Questing is supposed to be more "natural" and happening all the time. Not go to town, pick up 5 quests, repeat.
I'm sure there will be some of the old style buried underneath because you can only get so creative, no matter the AI or scripting, but won't just be a quest log with 1/5 mobs killed (hopefully).
So in some ways, like EQ1, but so much more.
World is going to have at least 5 Tiers/layers requiring players to adventure and discover content. Lots of room for grouping and less focus on solo missions.
I hope Ai wont mean a bunch of "if player(bla bla bla) then bla bla" because it's not AI.
Oddly enough most people work on an if-then setup IRL lol...just alot of them taken into consideration at once or very frequently with the history of If-Thens effecting present If-Thens.
I am curious to see how Storybricks plays out, especially since it seems like players will be able to "program" these NPCs en Masse IIRC with more potential detail than a dev team can give them due to their time limitations and manpower vs the fanbase.
So imagine the game had 2million players, and each player creates 1 NPC a piece, most will be fairly dumb NPCs ala the standard, but a small percent would be amazing. Even a mere 10% at 200000 NPCs would be incredible...imagine the RPers NPCs with fleshed out likes, dislikes, and If-THen reactions based on certain criteria.
Lots of potential for legit world building IMO, which goes beyond simple landscape. Very exciting stuff ahead.
Some random hopes for questing from me, ramble style!
I could be way off on my own preference here, but the "pick up a quest" model bothers me to begin with. Part of EQ's "magic"for me was figuring out what things were used for, and deciding whether to hang onto them before I knew what purpose they served. Turning in gnoll fangs doesn't bother me at all, but having an NPC tell me "Go out and kill gnolls and gather 4 teeth" just seems to lead me too much. It's basically the same thing, just without the initial instruction. Perhaps that's why I wasn't a fan of the mail quests.
I'm hoping they allow a quest journal of sorts, but somehow without specifics. I don't think all quests should be riddles, but a lot of the better quests in EQ were "I need this, but I don't know where to get it" or "So and so wields this, and I need it. He was last seen traveling through the Karanas" which leaves me alone to explore all of WK, EK, NK, and SK. Referring back to the original information IS very useful and doesn't ruin whatever immersion I have. I'm pretty sure I would write down the concept of what Captain Tillin told me.
I would like the option to set markers on NPCs once I find a quest, but I don't want them shown to me to begin with. I wouldn't want it on-screen necessarily, but clicking a few buttons to mark them on my map (and therefore minimap) is fine by me. If someone needs help I should be able to find them more easily later on. In Everquest though.. I may not figure out what the hell the quest objective is until a month later, at which point I forget where I got the text to begin with. "I will help you expel the darkness!" Yeah that doesn't help me remember either. Haha.
Summary: I think things like map markers, hubs and quest journals can be used in scaled back versions to make gameplay more intuitive, but still keep that old school, exploration-encouraging feel to them. There is a balance between hand-holding and intuitive usage.
- Nellus
As far as I know, player control over NPCs/AI is a Landmark feature, not EQN. Could be mistaken, but Landmark is more the "build your own mmo" while EQN is a dev created world.
I'm with you, so many ways to do questing that have a lot more long term enjoyment.
Would love to see a company focus on the main game and forget about releasing huge expansions or even content updates with "new" stuff. Simply adding quests to a NPC I might not have seen/talked to in a year would be fun for me. Give a reason to go back through previous areas and explore things I thought I had learned everything about. As long as it isn't super obvious and easy for a site to put everything into a database instantly, I'll be happy. Hopefully the "life of consequence" has some impact behind it where they at least give "quest npcs" a few different options, even 2-3 would be better then the static 1.
Because im not english i always had troubles for expres myself. But, Slaker is right, it was about inmersion not direction. Maybe camp sebilis for the Fungus look like a work, but it was something you decided to do, instead of do this, do that, kill 20 go there etc...
Yesterday I downloaded EQ2 but i uninstalled 10 mins after I saw all quests are like that. It's like a job and your boss is the game.
EQNext won't allow players to program the NPCs. In EQNext, the player is just another agent, has in something that can interact with the different AI. Landmark is the game that will allow players to create NPCs and put AI/script on them on their claims.
The game will also have two different layer of AI (not talking combat):
- Swarm Intelligence for NPC faction groups: basically objectives has a group. Will manage respawn, conquest, retreat, global goals, etc.
- Individual AI: personality and role (in the swarm and world).
Players can affect these both by either helping or hindering them. Players can also represent both of these. A Swarm Intelligence of players would be something like a guild.