No fetch quests

[Catharsis]

Just playing through Mass Effect 3 again and the worst part about the game was the poorly implemented fetch quests, fetch quests are boring but they shouldn't be annoying on top of that. I think PE should just avoid them altogether.

 

Well now. I could agree as far as to avoid poorly implemented stuff altogether.

As long as it stays within games internal logic and the plot, pretty much anything can be made to work.

 

No busywork just to pass the time, no "I happen to know the missing key is at the bottom of this dungeon, because it makes sense"

 

There was this NWN module The Tangled Web, with a real kick as cool "could you go clear my basement of whatever critters, rats or stuff, is down there".

Wouldn't have thought that particular quest would have had any legs left, but there you go. Highly recommendable the module.

 

"You could easily get that equipment any other way, such as adventuring." I've never played that module but I'm sure that there could have been a better way to do that quest other than making it a fetch quest. If you look at Dragon Age 2 fetch quests were improved to the point where you just spoke to some who said some words then you went out clicked on something eventually got back to the guy, clicked on the guy and recieved some gold (As far as I can remember), how could that fetch quest be improved? Cut it out altogether and replace it with an extra enemy with some extra gold pieces on him. Less effort on everybodies part (Player and developer) in exchange for more entertainment.

[Jojobobo]

I think fetch quests are fine, but to keep the player on their toes they should also through in quests that initially appear to be fetch quests but in actuality are not. For example, have a guy say he wants something fetched from a secluded area but when you get there him and all his buddies ambush you - that sort of thing.

[YourVoiceisAmbrosia]

As long as it's not something like "Bring me 10 rat tails, then I'll give you gold" or "Kill 20 orcs" or something like that, then I'm fine.

[SunBroSolaire]

Depends on if the fetching is interesting. There were some quests in New Vegas that were basically total wastes of time. Finding all of Cass' Caravans and the Brotherhood of Steel initiation quests come to mind.

 

If a fetch quest involves exploring a new area, clearing a dungeon, or doing anything that's actually fun I have no problem with it.

[DocDoomII]

Actually, fetch quests are allright if you implement them with brain.

 

1-You loot a skeleton, find a "Bob's Ancestral Amulet" and automatically on your map appears a Objective Marker named "Bob". <- UTTERLY MORONIC

2-Npc asks you to fetch him some skin to create a pair of gloves. In your quest logs appears the Quest "Obtain the skin of 40 boars". <- TOTALLY IDIOTIC

3-Member of the local Mage Guild asks you to fetch him a rare ingredient found only inside mossy and damp caves. <- EXPLORATION. 'TREASURE HUNTING'. GOOD!

4-Ambassador of <insert place here> asks you to go into two hostile regions and work your way to get their governments to sign a treaty (can be reduced to "fetch me 2 documents". <- VERY INTERESTING, POSSIBLY ARTICULATE AND SURELY PLOT DRIVEN. BRAVO!

Edited October 22, 2012 by DocDoomII

[TheDogProfessor]

I'm all in favour for the fetch quest with a twist idea. In a D&D campaign I DM, I gave the PCs a quest which was deliver a religious artefact to [location] on behalf of a priest. On the way [quest item] was stolen by thugs. After some searching and tracking down an underworld crimeboss figure. Through this contact, they found out where and when the person who contracted the thugs would be. Turns out it was the priest who stole the religious artefact and used the PCs as scape-goats. Was essentially was a "fetch"quest developed into something interesting. I'm happy with quests like this, but not happy with all of the "uhh... grab this from there and bring it back with no twists or surprises" quests that seem so abundant in Skyrim.

[Juneau]

Doesn't it all depend on what the fetch quest is for?

 

I mean.

 

"Get 2 Dragon Bones from "Fire Dragons"....

 

Sounds like a time sink and generic go kill X amount of these and in the process maybe gain a level but if you suddenly throw in two possible story lines.

 

You meet Bronk a Dwarven Armoursmith yadda yadda - can make new types of Armour using Dragon Bone but he's short on materials. If you want "insert type of armour" then you need to bring me "see quest name".

 

Or

 

One of your companions is a collector of rare / valuable items and he hasn't managed to hunt down a Fire Dragon, will you help? In the end you have a dragon head mounted in on the wall in your house or something ^^.

 

Bad examples but that's why I'm not a story writer.

[Gorth]

I can not remember that any IE games had such mundane fetch quests, so I dont think they will start now with implementing them

 

BG1 and BG 2 - the game the most people seem to want PE to be like - had a number of them.

 

Planescape: Torment parodied the fetch quest with stuff like the Pandora's Box quest, and the Rat Catcher, so I don't think Obsidian will be filling this game with them, or if they do have fetch quests they will somehow make it interesting.

It also had the fetch quests to become a mage that was made exactly for the purpose of testing your patience. In fact, most IE game quests fell in one of two categories, fetch or kill. Sometimes both. If you remove fetch, you are pretty much reduced to kill type quests. There have been a few exceptions (body guard and escort type quests), but they have rarely been more interesting than fetch and kill.

[Krios]

I think the typical player wants a lot to do in a game. That is one way to justify xx number of hours. And fetch quests are the filler, in between all the good stuff. Good creative writing takes time and often effort. I just feel we should not expect too much from the writers.

[ImRhoven]

well in The Witcher the fetch quests were well-implemented, they were contracts. An Alchemist needs 5 vials of ghoul blood for X experiment, obviously can't get it himself etc etc

 

Gotta earn money somehow ;P

 

Yea, I didn't mind it in the Witcher. It fit in the Witcher's character, (he is a monster hunter for hire, he actually does stuff like that for a living) and they were completely optional, plus the story had plenty of natural pauses were it made sense for you to take time off and just wander about killing monsters to make a buck.

DA:O however worked with a similar "bounty board" type of fetch quest systems, and most of them annoyed me to no end as to how poorly they were implemented.

[Zoma]

Fetch quest can be used as an opportunity to nudge players to explore undiscovered regions of the map. So its not that bad if implemented well.

[Rink]

I also have nothing against some fetch quests here and there when it is done nicely with a story like in the games of old. I don't mind collecting iron ore and a magic artefact so the smith is able to make me a new shield he always wanted to make. I also don't mind collecting roses so a bard that is currently busy writing a crappy song/poem is able to give it to his loved one just to see him fail miserably and being rewarded with the music instrument. I even go out and get a lot of wolf-pelts if I see a family that is freezing under a bridge in winter.

Not every quest has to be very well written, but I think if a quest makes us think about a problem or a reward and not the fetching itself, then we wouldn't even notice that it is one :D

[Sensuki]

But you didn't enjoy, I keep saying it in this thread and I keep saying it because it's true and many of you keep ignoring it, fetch quests are boring, you "don't mind them" but you don't enjoy them, the fact that you don't hate them is not an arguement to keep them in just like a bug not ruining the game is not a excuse to keep it in the game. The difference is that fetch quests actually require coding

 

Any quest can be fun depending on what happens along the way. In that one you went into a house, went downstairs, fought a bunch of 'toughish' monsters that gave you pretty good XP .. but he offered a pretty crappy tangible reward for the quest (he didn't have any money to pay you). So that quest wasn't very good.

 

The one where you had to find all of the Sephirots was fun though.

[JOG]

First quest in PE: "Fetch a rat from the cellar" (for the innkeeper's most famous rodent stew)

[Ieo]

Planescape: Torment parodied the fetch quest with stuff like the Pandora's Box quest, and the Rat Catcher, so I don't think Obsidian will be filling this game with them, or if they do have fetch quests they will somehow make it interesting.

It also had the fetch quests to become a mage that was made exactly for the purpose of testing your patience. In fact, most IE game quests fell in one of two categories, fetch or kill. Sometimes both. If you remove fetch, you are pretty much reduced to kill type quests. There have been a few exceptions (body guard and escort type quests), but they have rarely been more interesting than fetch and kill.

 

I remember that mage quest! It was brilliant. Besides fetch and kill quests, there's the deliver/inform class of quests too ("meet & greet" as a subset), but I don't remember too many of those in the IE games as they're always used as transitions. Escort quests--I don't remember those in IE games at all, huh.

 

But you didn't enjoy, I keep saying it in this thread and I keep saying it because it's true and many of you keep ignoring it, fetch quests are boring, you "don't mind them" but you don't enjoy them, the fact that you don't hate them is not an arguement to keep them in just like a bug not ruining the game is not a excuse to keep it in the game. The difference is that fetch quests actually require coding

 

I have never heard seasoned CRPG players deride or prefer an entire category of quests (I mean, kill quests can be boring as hell too); it comes down to "Depends on how it's implemented/written/designed," which is why all the answers so far are basically neutral in "feeling" to the category.

 

I've certainly enjoyed a number of so-called fetch quests, so your "truth" is patently false. It can be done well--and what you keep ignoring is the fact that in CRPG quest programming, there are only so many categories of quests that are even possible. Cutting out the umbrella "fetch" ones is extreme. And DA2 as an example? Heh So you don't like them, fine; skip them all.

[eselle28]

I enjoy some fetch quests, especially when they're used as ways to point me toward other content. I'm up for some amount of exploration, but I don't want to have to stumble over everything by accident. Sometimes wandering in the wilderness gets old and I'd like to head over to the nearest village or dungeon.

 

Aside from accidental discovery, the other way games seem to point players to content is "go talk to..." quests. Those have their place, but only if my contact actually has anything interesting to say. If all I'm going to get is, "Hey, why don't you help out the villagers around here?" I'd prefer to be sent to the village to retreive an item and then just notice all those people in need of help while I'm looking for it. It feels a little more organic.

[Chabneruk]

There are lots of ways around fetch quests, though some of these quests may be unavoidable for story purposes. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Acting as couriers can be an interesting plot hook. First point in the conception of any quests should be: "Will this quest be boring or will it add something interesting to the game". Baldurs Gate 2 played with this, mercilessly. The quest you got when you uttered the wish (by magic spell) to have "a quest like I never had before" was utterly long and quite tedious, but funny in that, because these wishes were designed to really twist your words around. Standing before an adamantine golem + friends because you wanted more experience was... evil. And great.

 

Some of these fetch quests can be made believable by embedding them logically into the game world. A village is starving because of cold winter? With the right skills you can go and hunt (maybe respawning) deer for them. After a few times they would have enough to survive (Experience Gain, if given for quests) but would still pay you for meat and pelts. Even better, if the game uses acts and you did not hunt for them, you return to find the village depopulated and the survivors desperate. If you hunted for them they survived and support you with later quests. And so on.

Edited October 22, 2012 by Chabneruk

[Amentep]

I've always liked the idea of using an optional "job board" for most fetch quests. Makes a lot more sense then having every Tom, **** and Harry Peasant ask you to gather some random item they lost in a field or something. Make it so the jobs change every so often and you've got something that people can do if they choose to and then if a more important quest is a "fetch" quest it can be disguised a bit more.

[jivex5k]

Fetch quests can be done well.

Just don't have my party looking for turnips or something.

[Attero]

i dont think there is anything wrong with fetch quests and often they are unavoidable. As long they dont try to fill content with them and they make sense im good.

 

And yes job board is great thing for thsoe small quests that you may want to do to get extra gold but are not much to talk about.

[Rink]

I've always liked the idea of using an optional "job board" for most fetch quests.

 

If they decide on this I can live with it. But I didn't like the board in the witcher games because you had no motivation to read the text and get into the story why you had to fetch that things. You knew it was just about fetching X of Y right away when you searched something on the board anyway. I think that is much better done if told in person by an NPC imho, where u can tell a story and "disguise" the fetch-quest with something interesting.

[Darkpriest]

There is only so many quests that are not killing or fetching... I mean I do not recall any game where there would be "no fetching". If you get other people involved it revolves around bring/take care of. It is how they are implemented and what story is build around these tasks... You can have completely brain dead quests, like ME3 has, or you can have fetch quests like PS:T, BG, Fallout...

[Infiltrator_SF]

ME3 was bad on so many levels I wouldn't even dare uttering the game's name on these forums. That said, I think fetch quests have to exist on some level, but as long as they are put in with the right context in mind they can make sense and not be a chore at the same time.

[redneckdevil]

If fetch quests are rightly done and well integrated meaning they make sense, then I dont mind them as long as their isnt an overflow of them. Like for example in morrowind, sorry been playing that lately and experiencing it fully for the very firat time, but the mages quild, the very first couple of quests were fetch quests for mushrooms and flowers. It didnt bother me because one of the skills the guild focused on was alchemy and it was done to basically mutually benefit us with notes and info on ingredients for ourselves while we are helpung someone else trying to rank up. It makes sense and seemed to have an actual purpose.

Now if someone was like , bears have been ruining my job here lately I want you to go and bring me back some bear pelts. I dont care where u get them, from the bears actually damaging my goods, bears from across the world, or hell buy them from a shopkeeper, I dont care just bring me back and ill reward you and thank you for slaying the bears effecting my life stock..... Those are the ones I wanna them to stay away from.

[Legbiter]

Hah, the fetch quest is a staple of RPG's though it can be padded a little from the basic "collect 10 bear asses".