Slow down!
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Glad to hear someone likes my suggestions :) A couple other things; in general in the online roleplaying genre games are moving away from the traditional quest model (ie Guild Wars 2) as it has been done to death and usually is go to this area and kill 10 rats which is quite boring now. The more randomized but quality content we can provide I think would help the server as well as make us more attractive to new players as it is something different than what they have seen before. I am not saying get rid of quests entirely just don't have them be the only way one can go on adventures and kill shit. Also when it comes to designing quests I would suggest add more variety than just go here and kill this. Perhaps have more hold this area from waves of attacking creatures, or escort this NPC to X location. Both of these examples can also have random elements inserted into them quite easily for instance the type of creature that you need to defend the outpost from can be different every time or the path you take or even the location itself that your trying to escort the person to can be different. Stuff like this adds a lot more replayablity that is fun and the more content you can have like this I believe gives people incentive to stay online longer.
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Quests are repetitive because people only do the same ones over and over again.
Stats for last month:-
qParnerShrine - 112
qNadaHouse - 64
qOrcCamp - 38
qAntLion - 0
qGnomeGolem - 0
qGoblinFort - 0Yes, I know these aren't smack dab in the middle of the city, but this is a game about adventure, exploration, plots. If you don't want to explore, and want everything handed to you because you're too lazy to get off your behind and explore, you are going to miss stuff.
We already have secret areas, chock full with monsters and loot and a plot hook, that has been around for over a month, and not a single PC has found them. Recently, one did, but immediately left without even going in, and never came back again; Nor spread the information about the area.
Before you go "you should tell us", that defeats the point of "secret" area. They're rewards for people who visit the lesser-visited areas, who explore the world.
The game is what you make of it. There is nothing we can script or do that can end repetitiveness, because that is the nature of scripted content. That's why we need players to spice shit up when we aren't around, and why we always reward the players who make the lives of other players more interesting.
Finally, if anyone sees luring, backward walking and the like (which is a blatant exploit and has been stated as such in the forum many times) then PM a DM immediately. Said exploiter will be banned.
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Definitely could use some advertising of less known quests than….the sending idea could help with that along with placing more quests inside the city.
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i agree here too… some quest are not so easy to find, perhaps some chart could be done in order to help the new players get by more quest, like location of npc that give quest with level stats and party maximum, it s ooc knowledge, but at the same time it would facilitate group forming and then on have more choice of quest, and becoming less repetitive.
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Also, suggestions that involve such heavy scripting as WildCard's are not always feasible. It's very easy to make suggestions, sit back and pass judgement on our content, but who's going to actually build it, improve it, change it? We do have lives, and we have a huge backlog of bugs, features and systems to add.
Plus, there is a much easier solution. Spice up quests yourself. Actually roleplay. Stop playing CoA like WoW. Of course, that puts the onus on the player, and not on the builder DM.
For the record, with nwnx installed, we are looking at randomized content implementation anyway.
As for quests, there's a very easy way to find them.
- Get up
- Go outside the city once in a while
- Visit a few areas you have never visited before.
- Find quest
- Enjoy quest
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For the record, with nwnx installed, we are looking at randomized content implementation anyway.
Excellent news.
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They aren't hidden at all.
They just require people to go to areas other than what they usually do.
Again, they might not be new to 10 year old players, but they are new to the majority of the server, most of whom are new.
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do not forget last month many players were trapped inside a sieged city..if that has any bearing on the numbers, or were those results from a month previous to the siege?
also some people could not go out of the city during that lengthy and interesting event, and we were also warned not to metagame certain areas of the server, that may have had a impact as well on the exploration part (possibly)
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I can name 10 different quests people dont go on, mostly because they either dont know about them, or they are death traps ever since the AI change was done.
There are alot of quests people dont do, but alot of them dont have a reward to equal the risk
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People were trapped in a sieged city last week, for 4 days. Not a month.
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If the content is genuinely too difficult, then we should change it.
But is it too difficult, or is it just not "rush-friendly"? The AI not behaving like a brain-dead monkey does not constitute "difficult". It just means you can't mindlessly kill stuff and move on like a single-player campaign.
I have noticed rushing sometimes when I log in and want to spice up some quest. With the new AI, it usually means death. I also notice a lot of them expecting to beat the quest without using a single consumable. Whaaat? What in the world are you stocking them up for? Use them. You see that potion of stoneskin? Use that when you're about to die, maybe you won't die.
Another reason to take it slow and enjoy yourself.
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i did not note how long the siege was, but i also noted it was a interesting event..and though it was not lengthy..you should collectively pat yourselves on the back as DMs, it felt longer than it was, and really created a atmosphere that we really were in one, no small feat considering this is just a game
i also feel education may be in order, some players may not really be aware of the rules fully, heck..i was not even aware that something i had been doing in game was disliked by the dms, and the generic warning against such behavior was posted on the forum, it was missed by me..oops..sorry…but rest assured i will not do that again (which i appreciate since it did not make me feel as if a finger was pointed at me, even though one should have been)
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one of my rules for surviving in the game is…pay attention to the screen, there are some places you cannot really RP to the same degree of detail as other places, and going AFK can be a death sentence (also some enchantments though they supposedly last hours, in reality only last minutes in the game, and RP is done at real time, this may have a impact as to why some players are rushing...it is just a guess on my part) (i have also seen on a few occasions during my time here, where protagonists will try to make a conversation drag so that enchantments can wear off, this i know is a two edged sword and it does not happen often)
i personally like slow and careful, provided of course we are not breaking any rules
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A question about the AI; as it stands right now can it lay traps? That would be so cool if it could :D Also would keep people from rushing ahead
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Another reason to take it slow and enjoy yourself.
I think you said the right things but made a wrong conclusion. People obviously try to squeeze the most out of their wards while they last and it's perfectly IC. Thus they are not prone to tarry and banter during quests.
The other night the server was almost empty and I've done a very difficult quest with a group. All of us apparently had lotsa time so we took it slow and roleplayed a lot. We had to leave the dungeon a few times to rest. All in all it took us about an hour and a half (instead of half an hour max). It also did cost too much in consumables, because wards kept running out, so i spent more than i earned on that quest. While it was fun, it's understandable that you can't expect players to prefer to spend more time than needed on statquests often.
And if we're talking about easy quests - they're usually done quickly and you objectively have no time to "flesh out your character" there. In fact, i hate it very much when people start making those snake jokes during Albon's quest or ask me philosophic questions while swinging a sword at a goblin. :mrgreen: -
Yes, that is true. People try and squeeze the most out of their wards. There is an easy fix for this, make spells that last 1 hour actually last more than 5 minutes.
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Think about it, though. There are 300 angry goblins around you, looking to kill your ass. Do you stop to talk about the weather or how bummed out you were by the elections last week? I wouldn't. I'd shut the hell up and try to kill those bastards as fast as I could. Just sayin'.
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There are 300 angry goblins around you, looking to kill your ass. Do you stop to talk about the weather or how bummed out you were by the elections last week? I wouldn't. I'd shut the hell up and try to kill those bastards as fast as I could. Just sayin'.
No you would say, something like "Form a defensive line" , "Die in the name of Torm!", "There are too many, flee!", "Mage do something!" etc
Its not about talking about the weather or hats, its about bringing a bit of colour to what can sometimes be a mundane task OOC. Just quick one liners that flesh your PC out, a bit of banter, curses, yells, cowadice, whatever.
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No you would say, something like "Form a defensive line" , "Die in the name of Torm!", "There are too many, flee!", "Mage do something!" etc
Its not about talking about the weather or hats, its about bringing a bit of colour to what can sometimes be a mundane task OOC. Just quick one liners that flesh your PC out, a bit of banter, curses, yells, cowadice, whatever.
I can't think of a single quest I've been on where people have not done this. And frankly I don't think this is what the OP meant when making his first post either. People don't have lengthy conversations/emotes mid-quest because they are focused on not getting killed, just like any sensible person would. If you are in the line, you'll be concentrating enough on crowd control, defending your lesser allies and generally staying alive to have much thought left for chatter, both IC and OOC.
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I can't think of a single quest I've been on where people have not done this. And frankly I don't think this is what the OP meant when making his first post either. People don't have lengthy conversations/emotes mid-quest because they are focused on not getting killed, just like any sensible person would. If you are in the line, you'll be concentrating enough on crowd control, defending your lesser allies and generally staying alive to have much thought left for chatter, both IC and OOC.
Erm, I am the OP :)
What I meant was that questing with PCs that are stoney silent and just running through one encounter to the next is, IMHO boring. I appreciate that during a tough fight all your attention is on killing the NPCs, but even the use of quick slotted emotes can add something.
But even then, usually encounters arent continuous, there are bits of downtime between each one, where people heal or buff or whatever, still time there to type a quick sentence.