Favorite type of QUEST

[Ulquiorra]

What type of quest you like the most ?

 

What type of quest you whoud like to see in PE most ?

 

My favorite quest is ocean house in Vampire Masquarade the bloodlines.

 

 

I also liked playing Detective in wither 1

 

 

[Faerunner]

There are so many choices on this poll. To sum it up, I like quests that involve creative, non-violent problem-solving. Most RPG quests I've seen seem to consist of going over and killing, retrieving, or rescuing things. "Go over there and kill x orcs." "Please go and fetch my staff." "My children are trapped in that barn with those monsters, please rescue them!"

 

So I really enjoy quests that can have more conversation or skill-based solutions. For example, the NWN2 quest to stop a lizardling tribe from attacking a village, which can end with you talking to the chieftain and negotiating a peace agreement between the lizardlings and villagers (rather than just killing them all). The beginning of NWN2 Act 2 involves the protagonist being framed for massacre you didn't commit, searching the destroyed village for evidence in your own defense, and then presenting the evidence you find (or don't find) in the trial itself (which is creative and hilarious). The American Idol-eqsue side quest in Neverwinter which involves you getting into a musical contest with a narcissist in a ridiculous sweater, which can end in a number of ways, from winning to setting him on fire and stealing his instrument. 

 

So, apart from puzzles (which I actually detest), any quest that doesn't always involve simply killing and/or retrieving things always makes me happy.

[Dream]

Fun ones.

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I'm fairly open. All quest archetypes can be done well. Some are more difficult to elegantly design than others, for sure. My favorite quests are where the player must investigate, particularly to assemble or utilize an item. The only RPG where this was ever done correctly is likely Planescape: Torment.

 

Investigating is not to follow precise directions or instructions and stumble across blatent narrative devices and hints placed at regular intervals. You need to ask people questions, then ask other people questions, consider what was said, refer to a journal, text, or secondary items, then go back to previously visited people and places to ask better questions and look in better locations. Do this until the item is found. That is an investigation. Not follow this accurate map to "forgotten locations" to ride methaphorical rails through a linear dungeon, scooping up improbably written and dispered fragments of a journal.

 

[/rant]

Edited February 12, 2013 by Mr. Magniloquent

[Larkaloke]

There has likely been some example of every kind of quest that I've enjoyed. Which ones I enjoy the most tend to have something to do with what character I'm playing at the time as well; if I'm playing a thief, I'll enjoy sneakier quests a lot more than if I wasn't, and if I'm playing a character who would be particularly invested in the quest then I tend to enjoy it more. 

 

Generally speaking, fetch and carry quests are my least favorite (I cannot think of any of those that haven't had something else to them also that I've liked), followed by quests that consist of learning some skill (for the most part, I wonder why those are quests at all). 

 

I am fond of combat-related quests, but I also like ones that have more of an element of investigation to them. I do particularly like quests that reveal something about the history of the setting, and ones that have more than one possible outcome are always a bit more fun to replay. Diplomacy or stealth-based quests can also be very interesting to me. 

[Alec20]

Acting/dialogue quests. Ones where you can fool people with dialogue stat checks or whatever. Something for example like a thieves guild quest where you have to steal something valuable from a mansion, and you disguise yourself as a guest and try to blend in. You know, like some kind of heist movie. It makes me feel good beating an opponent through words, and not always with a sword. 

[Starwars]

As long as a quest has multiple ways to solve it, it has a good chance of winning me over.

 

But I do tend to favor quests that have an investigative quality to them I suppose. Especially if it allows you to sort of "fail" in some ways, even if the game doesn't necessarily tell you this. I also like it when quests have research implemented into them. It wasn't some huge complex thing, but I loved it in Arcanum that you had could look up people at the Hall of Records, dig up old newspapers, or have to investigate old books to uncover information. The dossiers in Alpha Protocol was also a fun exploration of this sort of thing.

 

But really, just meaty quests always have a good chance of being memorable. When they have multiple layers, when they possibly "bleed" into others aspects of the game, and when it feels like you're given the reins on how to tackle it.

[Rostere]

So, the greatest consensus is on that we like objectives to be focused on discovering something, finding someone or finding answers and information - while another feature of the quest should be to give you some new information about the game world, main plot or other quests.

 

That's cool with me. Take note Obsidian!

[IndiraLightfoot]

Lovely discussion here, thanks folks!

 

And Rostere sums it up as a general pointer of what PE quests could be much more about than your standard post-year 2000 CRPG. A few fetch, rescue or weed quests I can take, but I'd prefer if the majority of quests were multi-layered, investigative, dialogue-and-culture-rich, socially and morally meaningful, fun and exciting, and with multiple outcomes (not just green tick or a big fat red X - one of New Vegas bad sides - I don't even want to know if I've "failed" a quest. Have I reached any intresting objectives and effects? Great! But please don't make everything like single flag-quests (on or off).

 

Some major points of this thread I'll add to the thread "Ideas not to be forgotten", including a link. Thanks, once again!

[Ulquiorra]

Lovely discussion here, thanks folks!

 

And Rostere sums it up as a general pointer of what PE quests could be much more about than your standard post-year 2000 CRPG. A few fetch, rescue or weed quests I can take, but I'd prefer if the majority of quests were multi-layered, investigative, dialogue-and-culture-rich, socially and morally meaningful, fun and exciting, and with multiple outcomes (not just green tick or a big fat red X - one of New Vegas bad sides - I don't even want to know if I've "failed" a quest. Have I reached any intresting objectives and effects? Great! But please don't make everything like single flag-quests (on or off).

 

Some major points of this thread I'll add to the thread "Ideas not to be forgotten", including a link. Thanks, once again!

 

 

In secound act of Witcher you have and investigation. And if your not useing "manual" with spoilers you don't know if you fail quest even if you find proper suspect.

 

You can in this quest jump to a conclusion that someone is gulity and that someone can be hidden real morderor or innocent guy (at lest in some point) that most curciomstances are leading to.

 

You finish your investigation, and after a while you can discover that you where wrong. i Im 100% for this type of quests.

 

Edited February 12, 2013 by Ulquiorra

[Hassat Hunter]

Like most, my favorite quest would involve many solutions and pathways to get there. And thus be fairly long and intensive, hopefully with many conversations inbetween.

 

I never really liked the ocean house. I guess it has to do with not being scary at all (for me atleast). It quickly loses it's appeal. Especially second game and later.

 

Same with investigations. They may be fun one time, but for replays they are the devil (see KOTOR2- Onderon for example).

[SophosTheWise]

I have to say, some fetch quests are fun. You know, the ones that are so ridiculous you do it over time and do not care about it. Age of Conan for instance. Killing Vanir and bringing in their teeth. 100 of them. I liked it. And I feel ashamed that I did.

[AGX-17]

"rescue someone" is not a "more original" type of quest.

[Ulquiorra]

"rescue someone" is not a "more original" type of quest.

 

it is if you rescue someone from fire, falling from cliff, curse or deasies(sickness) etc.

 

Missions that have "kill objectivs" are the first so rescue someone from troll, rape or bandits is Kill objectiv becouse you must kill someone. You must kill them to rescue some. The originam Rescue some in poll meant non-violent rescue.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Ulquiorra

[Faerunner]

Another thing I like is when companions use their knowledge or conversation skills to help out with quests. This doesn't mean I want quests we can't complete without them, of course, but I think that if they happen to be along and the situation calls for knowledge or skills they have, might as well have them contribute. This happened quite often in NWN2.

 

For example, at one point a captain demands his soldiers attack you. If you fail to intimidate them into stepping down, your burly fighter dwarf will step in and intimidate them for you. At a few points you run into injured animals that your friendly neighborhood druid Elanee can talk to and recruit for assistance, if you aren't a ranger or druid. During the music contest I mentioned, your bard companion Grobnar can offer musical advice if you have high enough influence. When facing down a psychic demon from an astral plane (for lack of a different term), if you fail to bluff her into giving away her true motives, your cheeky rogue Neeshka (who's also a quarter-demon and knows about this race), she'll step up and bluff her for you, which causes several of her guards to leave. The elven wizard Sand can speak to the jury for you in your trial if your character has no social skills. This isn't even getting into the NWN2: MotB companions.

 

I know this might be a bit more challenging with Project Eternity since there are so many companions and they're all optional (and the game is set up so you can get along without them), but I think it would be fun to include instances where their knowledge or non-combat skills can help affect the outcome of a quest if they happen to be along. I like feeling like my companions are there to to more than just kill things, make comments, or approve/disapprove. If I happen to be in a situation where my character isn't good at something but one of the companions is, I think it would be fun for them to help. 

[Naurgalen]

Ill just copy-paste what someone put in another forum and I agree 100% is the best quest I have ever played:

 

"I remember in Planescape: Torment, when you meet Mebbeth the witch, the
first character who can teach you to take up the Wizard class. She's
this absent-minded insane old woman, and she starts sending you out on
these seemingly stereotypically pointless fetch-quests for the most
inane, irrelevant items - her washed linens, which have been
over-starched, an old picture frame that's missing its picture, a bag
whose contents have all been lost save for a handful of dried-up thorny
seeds.

It's pretty much designed to be annoying, and just when you're getting
really frustrated, she turns all this random stuff around into something
else - stripping the starched surface from the linens to form papery
sheets, stretching them across the picture frame, using a drop of your
blood to grow a seed into a vine that grows around the frame to hold the
sheets in place.

The result is your first spellbook, with a few spells already scribed
into it, including a thorny plant-based one derived from those seeds,
and even much of the seemingly-trivial dialogue you had along the way is
transformed, through a few key phrases from Mebbeth, into insights as
to how wizardry works - not only in-universe, but game-mechanically, so
that the quest series becomes a tutorial on the wizard class.

It's just brilliantly presented - the typically annoying, trivial
fetch-quest is transformed into both a representation of the hard work
and dedication required to learn the magical arts and a genuinely
useful tutorial into the use of magic in-game, and at the end of it you
have an absolutely unique spellbook and some unique spells to cast."

Edited February 13, 2013 by Naurgalen

[AGX-17]

 

 

"rescue someone" is not a "more original" type of quest.

 

it is if you rescue someone from fire, falling from cliff, curse or deasies(sickness) etc.

 

Missions that have "kill objectivs" are the first so rescue someone from troll, rape or bandits is Kill objectiv becouse you must kill someone. You must kill them to rescue some. The originam Rescue some in poll meant non-violent rescue.

 

 

None of those are original. You rescue someone from a fire in a Grand Theft Auto game. Come on. GTA.

 

Rescuing someone from falling off a cliff would consist of nothing more than clicking on the node/NPC in danger (what possible obstacle could there be aside from a time limit? Gee, combat, maybe?) and finding some herb or remedy to cure an NPC's sickness is ALL OVER the RPG genre. JRPG, WRPG, cRPG, it's ubiquitous. And you want this to be done without combat, in what the developers call a combat-centric game. That leaves standard use of non-combat skills, also not an original approach to an unoriginal scenario.

Edited February 13, 2013 by AGX-17

[Tsuga C]

At least some of the "sidequests" should have consequences attached to whether or not you complete the quest and the manner in which you complete the quest, should you choose to do so.  Little happens in a vaccuum, after all.

[Nonek]

I'd go with the investigation to uncover Azar Javed's identity in the second chapter of the Witcher, mainly for two reasons: One it requires actual investigation and logical deduction, two it can be failed so badly that the protagonist dies, I find both of these features to be refreshing in an industry where harvesting golden quest markers is seen as the height of good design. It also really fits the character of Geralt, a man who has made a career out of playing it Bogart.

 

I also thought that the first little triangle quest you find in Torment was endlessly charming, it teaches you a few of the games systems, tells a little story, and immerses you in the mood of the place. With the added benefit of a tasty bit of loot being uncovered, that's worth quite a bit of jink.

[Lephys]

Another thing I like is when companions use their knowledge or conversation skills to help out with quests. This doesn't mean I want quests we can't complete without them, of course, but I think that if they happen to be along and the situation calls for knowledge or skills they have, might as well have them contribute. This happened quite often in NWN2.

 

...

 

I REALLY like this, but I think they should provide a bonus to your skill check (if you happen to have them in the party in that situation, and they don't hate everything you stand for), rather than mulliganing your skill check with their own.

 

For example, say you have a skill of 50 at Intimidation. I know P:E might not have an Intimidation skill, but just pretend it does for the sake of the example (however it works in P:E, this will still work the same way, just not with a hard skill value.) If you try to intimidate some person who has an Intimidation difficulty check of 55, you're going to fail. BUT, if you have Thorbert the Dwarf in your group at the time, he totally backs you up when you Intimidate, and your collective Intimidation is 65 now, so the NPC in question looks at the both of you, gulps, and spills information/lets you pass/etc.

 

Basically, it could've worked like that in NWN2. I'm not sure. It might just have you fail (because of the example 50 versus the difficulty check of 55), THEN have your companion step in and add their boost.

 

All I'm getting at is, if you have an Intimidation skill of 5, and they're just gonna step in when you fail and give you a roll of 65 anyway, it kinda detracts from the usefulness of your main character EVER specializing in Intimidation (unless you play alone, or always have the wrong people in your party at the wrong times).

[Faerunner]

 

Another thing I like is when companions use their knowledge or conversation skills to help out with quests. This doesn't mean I want quests we can't complete without them, of course, but I think that if they happen to be along and the situation calls for knowledge or skills they have, might as well have them contribute. This happened quite often in NWN2.

 

...

 

I REALLY like this, but I think they should provide a bonus to your skill check (if you happen to have them in the party in that situation, and they don't hate everything you stand for), rather than mulliganing your skill check with their own.

 

For example, say you have a skill of 50 at Intimidation. I know P:E might not have an Intimidation skill, but just pretend it does for the sake of the example (however it works in P:E, this will still work the same way, just not with a hard skill value.) If you try to intimidate some person who has an Intimidation difficulty check of 55, you're going to fail. BUT, if you have Thorbert the Dwarf in your group at the time, he totally backs you up when you Intimidate, and your collective Intimidation is 65 now, so the NPC in question looks at the both of you, gulps, and spills information/lets you pass/etc.

 

Basically, it could've worked like that in NWN2. I'm not sure. It might just have you fail (because of the example 50 versus the difficulty check of 55), THEN have your companion step in and add their boost.

 

All I'm getting at is, if you have an Intimidation skill of 5, and they're just gonna step in when you fail and give you a roll of 65 anyway, it kinda detracts from the usefulness of your main character EVER specializing in Intimidation (unless you play alone, or always have the wrong people in your party at the wrong times).

 

I suppose this is an interesting idea, but I think it would be more difficult to implement, especially conversational skills.

 

What's more, I don't think that just having a character with certain skills stand near my character would automatically make her more competent in those areas. For example, my sister is very charismatic whereas I'm very socially awkward in real life. Just having my sister stand next to me when I try to talk to someone doesn't magically make me socially gifted just because she's there. I get just as flustered and tongue-tied when she's there as not, so she often has to step in and use her own silver tongue to ask questions and make requests that I can't. That's how I envision it for companions with their conversation skills. My character can try, but ultimately the companions know what they're doing. It's the same with languages and technical skills.

 

Your last comment  "if you have an Intimidation skill of 5, and they're just gonna step in when you fail and give you a roll of 65 anyway, it kinda detracts from the usefulness of your main character EVER specializing in Intimidation" concerns me too. I don't mind my character not being the best at everything. If my character has a low skill roll and a companion with a high one happens to be standing near, I want them to step forward the same way I would want a real friend to step forward.

[Rostere]

Like most, my favorite quest would involve many solutions and pathways to get there. And thus be fairly long and intensive, hopefully with many conversations inbetween.

 

I never really liked the ocean house. I guess it has to do with not being scary at all (for me atleast). It quickly loses it's appeal. Especially second game and later.

 

Same with investigations. They may be fun one time, but for replays they are the devil (see KOTOR2- Onderon for example).

You can have great investigations without the result needing to be the same every game. See

[Hassat Hunter]

That would be great.

Actually a part of randomnisation I would agree with

[Aleenik]

I really enjoy sidequests, so I hope there are plenty of them in Project Eternity.

[IndiraLightfoot]

In an ideal CRPG, there is no such thing as a side quest, they are all just quests, or better still, "objectives", although  I am aware that word can mean a lot of things in these forums, and I mean it in a very general way and not as something necessarily counting xp.