Questing Boredom

[Fric]

I have an idea that will most likely get shot down. But please hear me out...

I do a lot of questing. I think there should be other side quests to do. Maybe for the healers of each kingdom. Maybe set the timer for 4/5 ticks, depending on if you have a bright rune. Have the quest give 20 tokens and if you have a pulsing let the program do the math and that is your bonus and so forth.

It wouldn't be mob kills just item finds. It gives us questors something to do when no one else is around. It will also breaks up the whole sitting at quest masters and waiting for the ticks to go down. Some players like to quest and build their gear before power leveling. And I know I hate it when I am say 15 tokens away from my goal and can't move on because I have to wait for those last 15 tokens. It will help the speed of the custom building a bit.

I know I left some things out but it's an idea to get others to help put their two cents in...

Ok DAK, ready for the holes...if you can hit me...

[Daklore]

Not terribly in favour of the prospect of mini-quests, but I can certainly see the need/appeal. Part of the problem with customs, is no matter how much Chalgyr and Enthor say they're not necessary... they -are- necessary. When you have a level 97 player complaining about how hard it is to kill anything that's worth something--and he's struggling to make kills of 50 exp at this point--with few if any customs then you know there's a problem.

One solution would be to reduce the mobile's hitting power at lower levels to reduce the reliance on customs at low levels for those who don't catch on that you need customs to survive the higher levels. Since groups are really not a reliable option for new and low level players (partly because the group range is so small, maybe it's time to expand base to 25 levels + 15 for sworn). Without reliable group access, customs become the necessity to make up for it.

Another solution would be to introduce a buff buy option at healers that grants, at the least, the sanctuary spell (which would reduce mobile damage by half), increase low level healing spells so scouts and priests are much more useful with cure/heal light/serious/critical. Getting rid of the quaff penalty(ie: getting full on potions/pills) so pills and potions of healing would actually be a viable option once more for novices so they could survive levelling much easier.

Perhaps a better solution than mini-quests would be some sort of in-game job, or something--like mining, fishing, or "farming(like farmville or harvest moon, as an example)" which could give bonus tokens, or maybe even special "bonuses" like reputation bonuses that give quest boosts or reduce timers, or something.

Yes we could use something to do between quests, but there are other things we could do to make levelling at low levels that much more plausible.

Also, get rid of hidden/invisible doors/exits in sub-100 level zones. Unless they remembered to get a faceplate in newbieland, and even then it's iffy, they'll be stuck on quests that require them to go through these hidden/invisible exits/doors until they can get customs with detects on them in the first place.

[Fric]

The farming idea would be fine, but it's kind of like a mini-quest. It's something to do while the person is waiting on the quest timer. I am hoping that we can find something to do other than sit and quest. Yes we can cast spells but that gets boring just spamming them. And you can't quite farm gold without killing mobs. But that is getting off target. It's about the last 15 tokens you need for an item and you want to move on. That's why I suggested a mini-quest at a healer. They are already in the game, making the objects are not that hard, they already have the program to place the item in rooms, and it will keep people active that want to build and move on.

[Daklore]

Yes, but this also has the problem of giving more tokens, which cheapens the value of customs. Which are meant to be not so easy to get. If you can do a mini-quest twice per quest, then you're essentially getting 2 quest rewards every 10 minutes. Even at 1 miniquest per quest, that's 3 quests per two quests done. Roughly. Killing mobiles can get you quest tokens as well, so no, we shouldn't give people more incentive to sit at level 33 and get customs. If you want to sit at 50 so you can't level at all, totally your call. You won't get bonus tokens from kill mods then.

Mini-quests are not needed. Introducing side-games/bonuses that can give you useful bonuses such as tokens, or improved questing for a bit, then sure. But not the ability to make more tokens just so you can sit at a low level and not worry about levelling.

[Fric]

Ok so possibly making the mini-quest at the healer the same time as a normal quest, with a lesser reward for doing said quest. Or possibly making other things like the chicken hunt with Franz. It's something to do that will give you an added bonus to your quest tokens or getting spelled up like the widow bog.

What kind of side-game could be implemented that wouldn't take to much work?

[Daklore]

I imagine anything would require work. It's just a matter of, why do we need a secondary questor? We've had similiar ideas in the vein of reducing the quest timer so we can get more quests, or increasing rewards. Both ideas were met with, "Then everything would have to cost more to counter-balance it." So really, we should be looking at "mini-game" type things that can be done between quests to combat the boredom, instead of having a mini-questor with half the rewards to do between quests.

I still saying mining or farming would be the more likely. Mining could net you gems you can shatter, among other rewards that might sell for silver/gold or even tie into the war system. Farming could net you tokens outright for good produce and gold/silver, and also tie into the war system. Both being resources that could be used for something. Such as speeding up an upgrade, or whatever.

Fishing is about the only thing I can't really think of a decent reason to outright give tokens for. It'd be more probable to give gold/silver for it... or some sort of reward for getting X type of fish and getting X amount of tokentype or something.

[Fric]

I like those. The mining would be cool with possible gem extractions. But now we just have to have an IMM read these and say yes or no.

[Daklore]

And it'd be nice of other players would actually weigh in. Slacking slackers.

>.>

[Fric]

Yes it would. You all heard the Daklore, now start shooting bullets into the idea...

[Thalia]

I read.

Now I've commented.

[Thalia]

Oh, wait.. you wanted a yes or no.

[Fric]

It's just an idea to have more things to do other than power level or spamming spells. I have a feeling the answer is no, but it didn't hurt to ask.

[Thalia]

Answer isn't no, but it's not yes either. 

Questing boredom is absolutely an issue and an improvement to the situation would be great.

I've played games where there were other activities (crafting/mining/fishing/et al) between quests, but sometimes that just ended up being "bored while questing/crafting/mining/fishing/et al", because they become boring repetitive activities at some point.   

How comfortable do you feel that after you've fished your ten thousandth fish, mined your ten thousandth gem, et al, that it would still feel interesting or at least non-boring?

[Fric]

Well, most of us who are questing for custom would like the gem idea because we can shatter them for tokens. That would help with the last 15 needed for a custom. I think if you can gather tokens while waiting for the quest then it would be fine. It might be boring after a while but while you are waiting because you have nothing to gm, and if no one is around to rp then mine. Make it a low level skill for all classes and it is something you have to gm. It gives those who want to gm stuff, those who want to quest, and those who don't care something to do.

[Daklore]

I solve my boredom by surfing the net. Repetition isn't usually going to fix the problem down the road, at best it's a band-aid fix. Fric seems to be more focused on getting more tokens while questing, rather than on the actual boredom though. It doesn't matter what you implement, there's always going to be that "last 15 tokens till custom" problem.

I think what we're really lacking, is roleplay. Which we can really only remedy with more players, to be honest. That's what made it less boring pre-wipe, we had a lot more players to RP with between quests to pass the time.