quest-mechanics
Latest
Neverwinter unveils the Campaign system
The first major content addition to Neverwinter isn't just bringing new dungeons, it's bringing a new way to experience the game's content. The new Campaign system will see its debut in the region of Sharandar. This isn't just another name for a series of quests, but rather a new way for players to unlock both new rewards and new areas simply by adventuring and completing larger goals. The Campaign window is a new UI element that lists a number of Projects players can undertake. Questing in the area, running solo instances, or diving into the new dungeons will provide new rewards that can be spent on clearing projects, unlocking new regions, new dungeons, and so forth. Players can also earn new equipment by completing other Projects, which offers several methods to reap the benefits of hard work. The new system, like the rest of the content, is still due out for sometime this summer.
Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite quest mechanic?
Remember when everyone loved to hate The Oculus? Group members dropped like flies the moment some hapless noob intimated not having flown a drake before. Or jousting in the Argent Tournament -- ah, yes, another quest mechanic that united many players with the burning passion of unmitigated hatred. The thing is, some players like varied quest mechanics, even flying things and jousting at things. They like a change of pace from MMO standards such as Kill 10 Rats and the Fed Ex breadcrumb delivery (or in Blizzard's case, anything to do with poop). Me, I usually resent the intrusion. I prefer to play my character, galloping around the hills to find things and using my entire arsenal of spells to peek, tweak, and then slay everything in my path. I must admit, though, that Mists of Pandaria could be swaying me from this stoic path. While I'm adamantly not a fan of the quests that put you in the shoes of the quest giver and his saga, the general variety of quest mechanics has been ... distracting. Refreshing. Dare I go so far as to even say they're downright fun? A little variety is turning out to possibly be a good thing. (I said "a little." I still want to play my character. Harrumph.) Do you enjoy playing a variety of quest mechanics as you move through WoW's storylines, or do you prefer to stay in your character's own skin with your own spells and abilities? What are your favorite quest types? Which would you be just as happy to never encounter again?
Final Fantasy XIV previews levequests and group combat
Final Fantasy XIV is changing a lot with its relaunch, but many of those changes are a matter of giving the old a new purpose and function. Such is the case with the much-maligned levequest, previewed in the latest video update from the game's alpha version. The new system seems much cleaner, with more narrow level bands, a distributor right at the camp, and a much simpler interface for starting and finishing one of these quick repeatable bursts of content. Looking forward to working in a team a bit more? Then you'll be happy that the second half of the video is devoted to an early preview of group combat, switching back and forth between several members locked in battle with large opponents. While the abilities and balance are still rough, it's a clear departure from how the game looked and felt in the first version. Check out the full video just past the break.
Discussing the design of quests in The Elder Scrolls Online
The Elder Scrolls Online has certain player expectations going in, such as an expectation of the sort of quest structure you usually find in the series. More specifically, it's the sort of structure in which you start off on some simple quest and wind up wandering off into some completely unrelated point of interest. A recent interview with creative director Paul Sage and lead content designer Rich Lambert reveals that the team is aiming for just that sort of model in the game. As Lambert explains, the team wants to move away from the usual hub design in favor of several points of interest, each of which provides a little snippet of content and story. The points aren't meant to be structured as an A-to-B affair; instead, you have several points of interest in a given region which build into a large overarching story. Take a look at the full interview for more information about how quests will work in the game and how players will be guided through objectives as they play.
World quests coming with Final Fantasy XIV's patch 1.16
The time for more changes to Final Fantasy XIV fast approaches, and this patch promises to be a bit more substantial than its predecessor. While patch 1.15 brought a number of improvements to the game's mechanics, the actual amount of content remained the same. Patch 1.16, on the other hand, is slated to bring in something new -- world quests. While there are no exact numbers, the addition of more world and storyline quests promises to be a huge boon for the game's players and a welcome update. While that alone would be something to look forward to, the preliminary patch notes also reveal a reduction of the rate of wear on items, thus making repairs less frequent. There are also plans to streamline the Journal display for quests and let MP regenerate over time (as opposed to its current non-renewable state), along with several general optimization improvements. Final Fantasy XIV's players can expect to see this update sometime in early March, most likely next week or the week after.
Breakfast Topic: What's the best new quest of the expansion?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Bombs! Disguises! Flamethrowers! War! A really big fish! Questing after the shattering is a new experience, and I am loving it. Sure, there are plenty of the same old WoW quests, such as "go kill so many of those guys" or "go collect so many of these things." Those quests are great; however, there are a lot of new quests that seem to have a more console-game feel to them. For example, in the Southern Barrens, there is a quest from good old Gann Stonespire. The quest is basically the same as it has always been (go kill nasty dwarves), but it's been revamped in an amazing way. Once inside Bael'Dun Fortress, you pick up a quest from a thinly disguised goblin who orders you to blow up the place. Once you activate the charge, you actually have to run out of the fortress, and at the entrance, it cuts to a little video that shows the explosion. In other words, the quests have actual effects to them now. Back in the day, more often than not when I looted battle plans off an Alliance NPC and turned them in to a Horde commander, I got some sort of response like, "Good job! Now they can't attack us!" Not any more. After turning in some battle plans in Stonetalon, I hopped into a goblin antiaircraft machine and shot gnome pilots out of the sky. The Stonetalon quest chain is, without a doubt, the best new chain I've encountered so far since the shattering. What do you think is the best new quest? What do you think about the integration of phasing and machines in the old world?
Final Fantasy XIV fansite mines out guildleves and hidden models
Final Fantasy XIV is a game that's provoked no shortage of strong opinions, ranging from adoration to venomous loathing. If you're knee-deep in playing it, however, you could certainly use a full rundown of the guildleves available in the game. FFXIVCore, which has been quite active over the course of the beta, has provided a full rundown of the leves in the game, sortable by various criteria and listing all relevant data about each given levequest. Should that not be quite enough to tickle your fancy, some astute glancing through the data files for the game has revealed the ship models and several other currently unused files within the game. Although the models are untextured, there are some that should provide no end of fan speculation, such as the model very clearly resembling the ubiquitous Ifrit. Final Fantasy XIV hopefuls whose expectations have sunk will probably not care, but current players should be happy for the new resource.
