Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis

Since I intend to remain level 6 until roleplay/IG achievement propels me out of "newcomer status" and into "Veteran Adventurers Status." I am going to do all the newbie quests at least a couple times and give some feedback. If you also conduct them and have feedback please post below and I'll update my analysis.

Infested House (5 Times)
Pros: Quick, right at the start, easy
Cons: Overdone
Most Common Loot: Cure Light Wounds wands/Random robes
Best Loot: Some PP items
Notes: Simple, easy, can be done even by non-front liners. Mostly trivial but a good intro quest.

Broken Bottle (3 Times)
Pros: Gives potions, right out the door quest
Cons: Number of spawns could overwhelm a non-melee class
Most Common Loot: Niche potions (Prot from good/Camouflage/Etc)
Best Loot: Commonly used potions (Shield/Blur/Clarity)
Notes: Could be cheeses due to the barricades but it is better to have those than let the spawns escape. Don't have any recommendations except maybe add another room or two and spread the spawns out a bit to accommodate casters/squishies? No really issues though.

Fungus Infested House (2 Times)
Pros: One spawn per room makes it easier to flee if overwelmed
Cons: Spawns could potentially kill newbie non-melee in 2-3 hits
Most Common Loot: Fungus flavored gear
Best Loot: Cloak/Chain Armor
Notes: Replace the banded armor (AC 6) With something similar but medium (AC 5) Banded armor will likely never be used over half plate or full plate but people will use AC 5 armor until they find some upper tier quest loot or crafted armor.

Haunted Mansion (3 Times)
Pros: Good loot and decent XP for 4-5
Cons: Enemies are immune to most damage without magic weapon
Most Common Loot: Purple Dragon Contraband
Best Loot: PP from Purple Dragon Contraband
Notes: Consider replacing the shadows with something that doesn't require magic weapon to hurt. It has a very high DR. Easy enough for a paladin or cleric though.

Save the Beer (2 Times)
Pros: Good loot and potions
Cons: Best loot is only available in secret rooms
Most Common Loot: Decent potions
Best Loot: Dwarven Armors/Fey Items
Notes: Did not experience the boss bug on this one today. I would recommend increasing the PP value on the heavy armors to make them worth the haul out. Also consider making the Dwarven Valkyrie armor half plate or Breastplate instead of splint. With the cleric spell level, the only usable by female, and +1 AC it is very nice loot that would see the light of day on adventurers if it wasn't in that weird never used 6 AC niche. Reducing it to 5/2 or upping it to 7/1 would make it used more often.

Sticky Situation (2 Times)
Pros: Often drops summon books
Cons: Cultist can be annoying
Most Common Loot: Basic jewelry/Scrools
Best Loot: Ooze summon book
Notes: This quest drops arguably the most useful summon book for lower levels of all the common book types. That alone makes it worth it. Otherwise solid quest, no recommendations.

Remnants of the Precept (3 Times)
Pros: Amazing quest recycling the original precept visuals
Cons: Cant find any to be honest
Most Common Loot: Scrolls
Best Loot: Spears/Summon Books
Notes: The trapped/locked doors do not reset between people doing this quest so unless you are the first person doing it per reset, you don't get the puzzle part. Most of the chests drop scrolls despite there being scroll specific drops.

Old Tomb (3 Times)
Pros: Puzzle is fun, amazing loot
Cons: Could use a few more spawns, many rooms are empty
Most Common Loot: Potions, starter weapons
Best Loot: Paladin/Cleric gear
Notes: This is arguably the best loot of any lowbie quest in the game. The LG cloak can't be matched by any quest cloak I've seen yet IG even on harder quests. I also have about 4 20 use wands of bless from that quest only doing it 3 times. I would argue maybe increasing the difficulty of the quest with more spawns to increase the risk/reward ration or add a boss monster. I'm super happy with it though.

Downtown (3 Times)
Pros: Allows use of social skills
Cons: Traps appear to not reset for multiple runs per server reset
Most Common Loot: Potions
Best Loot: Various starter rogue gear
Notes: I'm incredibly happy this quest offers a resolution via social skills. My only recommendation is perhaps a couple more spawns and check to see if the traps reset when the quest re-initializes. Love this quest for the non-violent resolution alone.

Kobold Nest (2 Times)
Pros: Some good potion drops
Cons: Boss can be brutal for lowbies
Most Common Loot: Potions
Best Loot: Various niche gear (Gnome paladin)
Notes: Did this the first time and it was easy. Second time somehow party wiped. We got hit with combust, chain lightning, and two cones of fire in quick succession killing the bard and dropping me to 1 HP and paralyzing me. Got offed while paralyzed. I wouldn't make the boss harmless but he has some deadly spells for a lowbie.

Recommendations for all Lowbie Quests

Reduce the difficulty to identify the items. Lore potions cost almost the whole quest reward, or make lore potions drop more on lowbie quests.
Increase the PP value for anything heavy. A low STR character isn't going to want to lug away a 40lb object for 5 PP when they get the same from a cure light wounds.

Echo

These are very helpful. I'll take a look at implementing some of the suggestions this week.

Puffy

I have gone through the loot chest of all the low level quests to make them more in line with low level quest loot, rather than have golden nuggets of loot you would never replace in your PC lifetime. Greater focus on spell charges and stuff like that which is fun

Puffy

@Crusader-K said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

Reduce the difficulty to identify the items. Lore potions cost almost the whole quest reward, or make lore potions drop more on lowbie quests.

Resolved by investing into lore

@Puffy

I'll have to look how much lore I have. I do have some investment but not fully stock one would have with all skill points put in and I can't identify almost anything from the quests.

On the item stuff, I like the idea of more spell charges and stuff. My comment wasn't to say the quest loot needs to be great for the lowbie quests, just that some of the items will likely never get touched, such as the 6/1 armors and a modified version that is slightly better than starter store loot but 5/2 or 7/1 would see the light of day. Not going to lie though, I will probably never replace that LG cloak from the tomb quest unless I get DM/Faction loot someday for the life of my character. Perhaps it can be moved to a higher level quest instead?

Puffy

@Crusader-K said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

I will probably never replace that LG cloak from the tomb quest unless I get DM/Faction loot someday for the life of my characte

This falls under too good to be true :)

Black Point (2 Times)
Pros: Interesting back alley spider vibe
Cons: Not much loot and harder than most with the poison
Most Common Loot: Healing kits
Best Loot: Some Antidote potion
Notes: Not a bad quest. The spiders have some poison but the boss always drops an antidote potion. Haven't really seen any of the unique loot yet besides a "drow ear"

Maela's Monsters (2 Times)
Pros: Interesting vibe, fun monsters to fight
Cons: Off the beaten path and may never be found before people make 7
Most Common Loot: scrolls
Best Loot: Haven't found any special loot yet
Notes: For being so far away from the primary starter area, there isn't much that makes this particular quest special besides it being something fun for newbies to do in Immersea, if they make it there before seven. Nothing wrong with the quest but I could see it not being done often just for being a far away starter quest. May see more traffic now that Immersea is a primary plot/house hub.

Puffy

@Crusader-K said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

Not much loot and harder than most with the poison

Added 7 new loot items 8143

Puffy

@Crusader-K said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

Perhaps it can be moved to a higher level quest instead?

Moving some of the better loot to 4-9/4-10/7-10 quests 8143

Puffy

@Crusader-K said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

5/2 or 7/1

Modified to 5/2, stats tweaked to be more generic with spell charges. Similar to the original version will be lifted to 7-10 quest in the Storm Horns

Zolm

Wyrm Cave (2 times)
Pros: good aesthetic design, some unexpected enemies
Cons: the chests are often locked AND impervious to harm, making me leave behind loot every time as it's inaccessible.
Most Common Loot: wands, scrolls, starter weapons
Best Loot: Wands, rare weapon types with minor enchantments
Notes: the quest is alright but the enemies get a bit stale and predictable. The boss has few unique spells and summoning a badger instead of a lesser or tiny flame elemental seems a missed opportunity.

Zolm

Black Point (4 times)
Pros: Lots of webbing
Cons: a party of higher then 1 spawns only 1 ettercap per encounter, not exactly a challenge. No lore of any kind of why the are is the way it is. feels very disconnected
Most Common Loot: armour against poison, anti poison stuff
Best Loot: pitions
Notes: the quest is woefully in need of soome kind of rework, at the very least it could do with some tweaks to the encounters, they could be more challenging especially on higher PC counts.

Puffy

@Zolm said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

Black Point (4 times)

Updated area with some fun lore, live 8172

Puffy

@Zolm said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

The boss has few unique spells and summoning a badger

Added summoning theme to the boss, live 8172

Zolm

@Puffy

my thoughts for Black Point first run in Arabel version 8172.

Ran with a lv6 Fighter, Weapon Spec. Longsword and pure fighter armour.

Spiders spawned in singles - This is good for non frontline PCs, but for my fighter it was a bit of a stomp, I hate saying this to the mistress of Balancing but this was very easy for me to overcome.
The loot was 90% not worth even carrying.
- Healing kits and herbs are not loot.
- the Pot helmet showcased here is a classic example of filler loot that nobody will ever want to wear.
- The following consumable item is also something which I will freely say I would never use.

Puffy

@Zolm said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

Healing kits and herbs are not loot.

Counter point, they cure poison and disease

@Zolm said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

the Pot helmet showcased here is a classic example of filler loot that nobody will ever want to wear.

Its a light weight helmet granting a fun small bonus, it can be edited, and its a fun joke

@Zolm said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

The following consumable item is also something which I will freely say I would never use

10 charges of burning hand can be very useful in situations

Zolm

@Puffy said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

@Zolm said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

Healing kits and herbs are not loot.

Counter point, they cure poison and disease

Counter - Counter point: Nobody at the levels you drop them have any kind of healing skills to make using them worthwhile. You use herbal kits at level 10 with maxed out healing skill so they actually fire, instead of just taking up space in your inventory and always failing 10 to 1 at low levels.

@Zolm said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

the Pot helmet showcased here is a classic example of filler loot that nobody will ever want to wear.

Its a light weight helmet granting a fun small bonus, it can be edited, and its a fun joke

Ok. So what is the joke?

It can be edited - this is not a factor when there's other items which 'were' stronger, dunno if you've systematically decimated the rest of the quests' useful items too but there's deffo better options.

Said small bonus is to a social skill tho- most people seem to RP similarly whether 1 skill increase or no.

@Zolm said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

The following consumable item is also something which I will freely say I would never use

10 charges of burning hand can be very useful in situations

I have never seen Burning hands used except by NPCs ever, NGL.

Locke

@Zolm It harks back to a day when every noob rogue with a idea of being a bandit had a pot helm to hide their face. Good times

Cadiz

@Zolm said in Newbie Quest Feedback/Analysis:

I have never seen Burning hands used except by NPCs ever, NGL.

it is really useful if your frontline actually use blur as it wont touch them but you do 5d4fire dam to everything in front of them every round until your wand is spent

Puffy

Many changes done across the server thanks to this great feedback thread