Alternate Solutions

[Thaos Nightwind]

Scenario:

Okay. You're in a quest. Normally your only option would have been to kill some beast for the 50th time in order to succeed. However:

"Our Quests provide for alternate solutions ... but players must be clever enough to take advantage of these alternatives, and they must also have the requisite abilities to do so. The more types of players enter a quest, the more alternatives and the most flexibility a party will have when solving the Quest." - Melissa Meyer

This will be interesting. Lets say your group has a few members that are used to, and prefer, to just go slay happy and try to mussle the foes into submission. That decision results in heavy aggro getting pulled. But a few suspect, or even saw that there was another more clever way of completing the quest.

So whilst in the heat of battle 3 group members run off to try and quickly take advantage of that other less bloody solution and suceed in saving the melee artist and completing the quest for all.

Is it me or can you just hear the griefing from the melee grinders '... but we had them in our hand. What'd you guys go and do that for?'

 

[frostydf2]

Haha Thaos wonderful scenario at the end. I'm also looking forward to how they put this in. Maybe not even so much as having to go kill things, but being able to 'trick' the NPC into thinking you killed 20 orcs by collecting their fingers. You may have purchased them at a black market down the road, and you get a quick reward for a small price.

Thats one of the other scenarios that I think would be fun, and satisfying!

 

[Thaos Nightwind]

Haha Thaos wonderful scenario at the end. I'm also looking forward to how they put this in. Maybe not even so much as having to go kill things, but being able to 'trick' the NPC into thinking you killed 20 orcs by collecting their fingers. You may have purchased them at a black market down the road, and you get a quick reward for a small price.

Thats one of the other scenarios that I think would be fun, and satisfying!

DOH!! . Thats an even better one Frost. Thats the kind of play that I think is going to make a major difference between HJ and other games. Thats what I think The Journey System may encourage from players and you're right. Many of the probable alternate solutions may be quite a bit more satisfying than just rank killing.

 

[z80]

Since quests will be instanced it's not really a big deal.

 

[Thaos Nightwind]

Since quests will be instanced it's not really a big deal.

???? Not sure i understand???

 

[z80]

I mean like the quests will take place in private areas for just you and your group. So more often than not the people won't be grouping for quests to grind but to complete the quest by any means available and will accept any methods used.

 

[WatchMaker]

I hope some HJ dev is going to read my post right now, because its very important that they understand this.

The alternate routes for quests is a great idea. I actually had a idea like this lined up for my -perfect- mmorpg design document. However, one thing you guys must not do is put up a weak front with it. By that I mean, don't put it in one or two quests and then just forget about it. If you really are going to put this out as one of your hooks for your game, you can't neglect it. CoH made the mistake of doing this several times. They bragged like hell on their cut scenes and physics in CoV, but we didn't see but one or two examples months into the new patches.

The point I am trying to get across is, I hope they don't get lazy on their quest mechanics.

 

[frostydf2]

I hope some HJ dev is going to read my post right now, because its very important that they understand this.

The alternate routes for quests is a great idea. I actually had a idea like this lined up for my -perfect- mmorpg design document. However, one thing you guys must not do is put up a weak front with it. By that I mean, don't put it in one or two quests and then just forget about it. If you really are going to put this out as one of your hooks for your game, you can't neglect it. CoH made the mistake of doing this several times. They bragged like hell on their cut scenes and physics in CoV, but we didn't see but one or two examples months into the new patches.

The point I am trying to get across is, I hope they don't get lazy on their quest mechanics.

Watchmaker. I belive with 500+ GM's, that wont be a problem. I think every GM they are hiring is very into this game, and wants it to be the best it possibly can. I would expect more from this game then any other. That is why I chose Hero's Journey to make a fansite for, and no other game.

I wouldn't worry to much about HJ neglecting their promises. They will do what they say they will.

 

[Daax]

If anyone runs off with the npc before I have my fun chopping up th evil dragon, then there's gonna be trouble. We have a routine to follow here people. Don't rock the boat. The fate of the classic boring instance in all the crappy MMO's depend on it.

>__>;

 

[Thaos Nightwind]

I mean like the quests will take place in private areas for just you and your group. So more often than not the people won't be grouping for quests to grind but to complete the quest by any means available and will accept any methods used.

Hmmm.... That may be a troublesome notion. You've grouped before. Group "leaders" are not always 'followed'. The errant individual who thinks their char is Uber Tank will pull that aggro like nobody's business dispite all attempts at group organization to simply finish the quest. And people have surely done quest to farm/grind over and over again.

Probably only a well organized group and/or a good guild with machine like percision would be able to "complete the quest by any means available". Other than that its 6-8 peeps who may have never grouped before and it can be a free for all lack of organization that can result in often funny and unpredictable events.

 

[Rubowsky]

the only problem i see, is that the stupid, monster-slaughtering way to solve a quest will be more rewarding when it comes to xp and drop.
so there will be a lot of people who just want to bore themselves in order to gain more xp.
"omfg! don't use your intellect! don't use that tricky thing over there! I WANT XP FFS1111111!"
this problem could be easily solved by rewarding players for using their intellect. just like in pen&paper rpgs.

 

[WatchMaker]

Well, this may result in quest rushing just like in CoH. Instead of killing for XP, you just fly through tons and tons of quests, stacking up bonuses.

 

[Thaos Nightwind]

the only problem i see, is that the stupid, monster-slaughtering way to solve a quest will be more rewarding when it comes to xp and drop.
so there will be a lot of people who just want to bore themselves in order to gain more xp.
"omfg! don't use your intellect! don't use that tricky thing over there! I WANT XP FFS1111111!"
this problem could be easily solved by rewarding players for using their intellect. just like in pen&paper rpgs.

But I think that this will be exactly the point Rubowsky. I think HJ is going to have at least equal to (heaven forbid for the grind puppets) or even greater XP and drop rewards for the Intellect route. Theory of course.

 

[WatchMaker]

We will all see in due time.

 

[z80]

Hmmm.... That may be a troublesome notion. You've grouped before. Group "leaders" are not always 'followed'. The errant individual who thinks their char is Uber Tank will pull that aggro like nobody's business dispite all attempts at group organization to simply finish the quest. And people have surely done quest to farm/grind over and over again.

Probably only a well organized group and/or a good guild with machine like percision would be able to "complete the quest by any means available". Other than that its 6-8 peeps who may have never grouped before and it can be a free for all lack of organization that can result in often funny and unpredictable events.

Just talk before you quest. Only group with people who are only interested in taking the path of least resistance.

 

[Thaos Nightwind]

Just talk before you quest. Only group with people who are only interested in taking the path of least resistance.

Ahhhsooo HjHopper. Ahhhh sooo.

 

[WatchMaker]

Bless you?

Most likely I will be doing what ever is funnier. In the video's, I think it safe to assume that alternate solutions will often be funnier.

 

[JonDDA]

I never thought about that.

Im sure they'll figure out some way to make the exp the same for the different solutions.