Pseudo-Poll: Favorite Quest Steps

[+Nyx]

What are your favorite types of steps in quests? What are your least favorite and why?

Example of types:
"Collect x", "Kill suchandsuch mobs"

Please be concise and on-topic

[MhBlis]

I like a mix of both collect and Kill.

That said I prefer variety of huge batches. i.e Kill 10 of X,Y,Z, A, B rather than kill 50 of X

This especially applies if it isnt just teleport to location and wait till enough have spawned.

[Baxster]

I've only been around for a few quest events, so I don't have a lot of experience with all the quest types. These are my favorite types of quest steps that I've done so far in order of preference:
1. Go here and kill Boss Whomever
2. Go here and kill x number of mobs
3. Kill mobs and collect whatevers from their corpses
4. Find the rare type of thing among a multitude of normal things (Easter Egg quest)
5. Go here and steal x

As for least favorite, the only quest step I did not enjoy was stealing items from barrels before the change was made for the additional wild-card barrel. Sometimes an angel statue would spawn right next to a barrel that had an item in it, and not wanting to risk getting blinked, I would just port home and wait 20 minutes for the barrels or angels to swap.

Regardless of the type of quest step, I really enjoy quests that take me places I hardly ever go, or have never been. I'd never navigated the Maze near the Brit moongate before this last quest, but I've got that sucker memorized now. It's also neat to discover buildings or places from Point A to Point B that I'd never knew existed.

[culichi]

i really hate the run around to various npcs part but making fel hedge maze one of the spots at least helped me stay awake during book one of summer quest and i finally learned the maze which was really cool. i loved the way summer quest dungeons were set up with three large dungeons and two minis so i didn't get bored spending an hour in one location farming same old kills. the change of scenery in books 2-5 and the challenging mobs plus the damned moving barrels and sadistic angels really helped keep the quest from feeling like just a time sink the way the spring quest felt. allowing pets was great it really cut down on time i had to spend on kills but i also had to be smart about keeping pets from aggroing more than they could chew.
that the mobs were so challenging was a huge part of why i enjoyed the quest but i was lucky i wasn't under geared or over geared i was at just the right point to really enjoy it so i dunno how you can make a month long repeatable quest that everyone is gonna enjoy as much as i enjoyed the summer quest.

[+Nyx]

Thanks for the input guys

In general, what have been your favorite aspects of a quest you've done? Are there any quests you've done on other shards that had quest steps/requirements that you really liked?

After so many years and sooooo many quests, it gets a bit difficult to find new and interesting ways to use the same old quest book requirements - The books can only accept 'kill', 'collect', and 'escort' requirements. We've managed to finagle other types using xml spawners, but still there's only so much they can do and we're always trying to think of new ways to manipulate the system into fresh new quest ideas. Finding out what you guys love and hate about quests help us figure out which direction to work in

[Baxster]

These are a few of the quests that I enjoyed from the shard I played on previously. I realize that some of these steps are not really applicable to an event type quest so I apologize if it's not really what you're looking for. I'm just including them as I enjoyed doing them.

Stargazing quest
You'd be given a telescope and a book, and the goal of the quest was to traverse the lands using the telescope to record the locations of constellations. There were twelve in total I think, with three in Tram, three in Malas, three in Tokuno, etc. Successfully finding a constellation wasn't tied to a specific x/y coordinate, but more to a general area. You'd use the telescope and sometimes you'd fail to find anything, sometimes you'd record the constellation, and sometimes a monster would spawn and attack. After recording all the constellations, you'd return the book and collect your reward. I enjoyed this one because it sent you all over the place, and success wasn't just a matter of recalling to a specific point and use the telescope.

Crystal collection quest
You would start out with instructions to kill certain mobs in order to collect enough materials to create a special hammer. After collecting enough parts and turning them in, you'd be given a crystal hammer with 100 charges. You could use this hammer on any of the crystal formations in Malas. The goal was to collect X number of different shards (Sapphire, Tanzanite, Sugilite, etc). Using the hammer on a crystal did not always give a shard. Sometimes you'd get nothing, and sometimes it would spawn a crystal creature (which dropped one of the crystals that you couldn't get from just using the hammer). If you ran out of hammer charges, you'd have to go and craft another crystal hammer. After collecting all the crystals needed, you'd return to the questgiver for your reward.

Timed obstacle course
Just a standard maze / obstacle course filled with traps, dead ends, and teleports back to the start, but the traps and teleporters would shift every 15 minutes. It was not possible simply memorize a certain path and blow through it, you had to pay attention and keep an eye on what's coming up in order to succeed. I enjoyed this quest a lot as it was timed, and your reward was based on the time you took to get through it. A lot of us would throw ourselves at the course over and over again to try and get that 'perfect time'.

The Admins have lost their marbles
Just a collection quest, collecting 15 or so marbles which were scattered throughout the lands. The marbles did not spawn in one specific spot, it was random where they could spawn. This was not intended to be finished quickly, it could take weeks to find all the marbles needed, and the reward was a little piece of GM deco that was highly sought after due to the length it took to finish the quest.

Master crafter quest
Various crafting NPCs (Alchemist, Carpenter, Blacksmith, etc) would give a weekly quest based on your skill level. 110 Alchemy would give you a specific quest, 115 would give you a harder quest, and 120 would give you the most difficult quest. Completing the quest would give you a reward similar to a BOD difficulty reward, with a chance from the 120 skill quest to give you a Master's token. Collecting the Master's token from each of the different crafting NPCs would reward you with a choice of rare deco deeds (similar to the Raffle deco). I tried to do this one as often as possible because omg rare deco.

Again, sorry if some of those are not really applicable, I just have fond memories of doing those quests.

[jimbo.marshall]

some sort of team quest would be nice. one where you were required to work with teammates. it would in a way reward the nice people on the shard because it would be easier to find help. kind of like the doom puzzle but a quest where all members of the party get a reward. i think it would also encourage the "less friendly" people to treat others a little better if they wanted to finish the quest. there are a few bad apples on the shard and i think this might change their attitudes a little. man it was tough to keep the language under control there. had to delete and reword several times. thanks for what you guys and gals do. this shard is great!

[+Nyx]

I'm enjoying the suggestions so far, and keeping notes of any I think we can use

I too have been mulling over how to implement more group play, and I'm considering having some quest steps where you need say 4 people each in a separate room, killing / whatever at the same time, and it counts toward everyone in the group's quest book - but it's difficult to manage that without it being exploited.

[jimbo.marshall]

i participated in my first event when it was players vs admins. it was a blast. right about the time i started to get bored with it, an hour in, it ended. i missed the hunger games due to irl obligations, but participated in the big game hunt and loved it too. i dont think yall can miss with the events. im all the way in every chance i get. Personally i would love to see a crafting contest or event. havent heard anything about one of those yet.

[MhBlis]

I sadly haven't seen a small scale successful group event that wasn't exploitable or just so camped some never got to participate.

What I have seen work was the events like "Plagues of Despair" or the World of Warcraft "Ahn'Qiraj" event. Specifically gatheirng the war supplies http://wowwiki.wikia.com/Gates_of_Ahn'Qiraj

Basically global kill, collect, escort quests that everyone could participate in solo or as a group. You could work on parts of it solo and for others you needed full groups to deal with the monsters or puzzles.

So some of the monsters could be champ spawn boss level and would require people to access them through a series of group puzzles.

Others are more like the peerless bosses which require key farming.

Others are just straight kill and loot.

And then there is the resources gathering component which is 100k+ (depends on how active shard it may be millions)

Lastly there are Admin run events like a monster invasion of Vesper which the players have to fight off waves of monsters or the town becomes lost. A series of these in different locations. Like if yew isn't defended we could no longer use it as a town. Then in later events the Players could try retake it. thus creating a second event of players attacking and Admin's Defending.

Reward for something like this is
Participation: Deco stuff, tokens
Completion: Access to new areas



---------------

But my favorite quest has actually been used on a few other shards

Assassination.

As a PVP event.
Every participant is given a book with the name of another participant in it. Then everyone is released into a small area. You could only kill your own target and defend against attack.Dealing damage to someone not your assassin or target wasn't possible/disqualified.

You then loot your new target from your target until only one is left.


As a PVE event.
This was run through an NPC guild. You would collect your "target note" from a drop box in the guild building. Then head out and find them. One of a few special weapons had to be used. you gained access to them by gaining rank in the guild. Once you completed your target task you would be sent to some other out of the way place in the world to collect the next one. you could do 5 a day and they got progressively harder. Each was also storied and time sensitive, getting progressively harder during the chain and as you rank up.

The instructions either dymaically updated or you got new ones as certain stages.

Sample mission chains:
1. Steal a prison key from Guard Captain Althen in Yew.
2. Meet Jimmy the snitch in Yew crypts
3. Talk to Edgar Sootfinger about where he the diamond (this required sneaking into the prison and using the key from 1)
4. Travel to location. i.e Hyloth Balron Room and find correct chest.
5. Deliver the Diamond to Thiefmaster in Bucs Den.


Sample Mission Chain.
1. Meet Edgar Sootfinger at The ratmen camp in Ice dungeon. (would need to find a invisible character Tracking and method to reveal)
2. Deal to the guard by poisoning their Stew in the Orc Dungeon (poisoning skill needed)
3. Steal a uniform
4. Infiltrate Lord Valender's home by using the uniform
5. Retrieve Lord Valender's ring (Steal it from NPC or Assassinate him and loot it)
6. Hand in to Edgar.

So targets are in Guard Zones, all facets, in dungeons.