Idea: Questing Overhaul
Lets start with a show of hands, how many of you do quests regularly as a viable mean of leveling or income in the game? Now for those of you raising your hands, how many are doing quests and quest lines other than Root Abyss, Gollux, Commerci, and your class story quests for the first few levels...ah, a lot less hands now. Now for another show of hands, how many people join parties regularly. Lots of hands, cool, now how many people join parties that are not for PQs, major major boss runs (CRA, Hellux), or training parties that do not have HS or Kanna. Once again, the hands fall down, and the only ones likely remaining are those who party with friends occasionally or a new player to help them out a bit. I would like to lay out some ideas that have been swirling in my head for things that could change some major dynamics of a massive MULTIPLAYER online ROLE PLAYING GAME (the words in caps are what I will be focusing on primarily). This post will be solely about quests, perhaps when I have the time I'll make another post detailing ideas about changing how partying works and making it...dare I say...beneficial to do, even without HS or kishin
MapleStory is a role playing game, to those of you who may have forgotten, and one of the aspects of a role playing game is supposed to be ROLE PLAYING (the things I feel I shouldn't have to explain). And part of what builds that role playing experience is a world where interacting with the native inhabitants (NPCs) and other players both play a major role in making what feels like a living, breathing world. However, in the game's current state, there is VERY little incentive for a player to complete quests, unless it is one of the aforementioned (RA, Gollux, Commerci) simply for the promise of a reward with a good payout at the end. The game has hundreds of quests, in places that often get forgotten (quick name last time you visited Omega Sector or Korean Folk Town) because nobody really has any reason to go there. My proposition is to overhaul the quest system in a way (this is going to sound radical) that makes quests reward the player with a percentage of their EXP bar (that can be over 100%) in a manner that takes a multitude of factors into account. Your current level, the level the quest becomes available, the type of quest (collection, delivery, search and destroy/elimination, boss, jump quest/obstacle course *shudders* I'm looking at you John's Pink Flower quest, event, repeatable), the level of a quest, and, if the quest is one in a longgg line (hello Temple of Time/Gate to the Future quests) an average time likely to have been invested by the player (2-3 hours I spent on the Temple of Time quests). When all of these things are factored together, the player is given, instead of a flat amount of experience, a percentage of their EXP bar. Examples
Level 10 goes and does Camilia's single part quest in Henesy's for collecting ingredients for a salad. She wants you to get 10 green and 10 orange mushroom caps. So it's a level 10 quest, a collection quest, being done by a level 10, who is likely going to spend a good 5-7 minutes completing it. I cannot think of any wacky algorithm right now, but lets say that for this player soullessly murdering those mushrooms and ripping off their scalps for a quest in the name of salad, the happy noob will receive 280% of his EXP bar. Yes, it will level him twice, and then some, likely thrice (love that word). But when you think about it, how long does getting 2-3 levels at level 10 take? 3-5 minutes total? Throw in some better rewards of something that lower level players often need like a piece of class gear with epic potential (who doesn't love revealing those low leveled epic gears and getting 2% of your main stat and giggling like a schoolgirl...oh wait that's just me), or giving a substantial amount of decent potions (at least 20 potions, and make them at least white potions or mana elixirs. Reds and Orange potions just...don't seem to ever cut it even at the lowest levels), or some town return scrolls even(these things are from heaven). Make rewards something that you are very likely to want to either use or sell to another player, not something you NPC off or drop and watch people scramble to get.
Another example would be if someone 140-160 took on the entire Temple of Time questline, before it becomes the gate to the future questline. Let's analyze it. First off, it has 34 parts, so the last part with killing Pink Bean should be monumental with its experience reward. This quest line has delivery quests, ridiculous amounts of collection quests that want you to get increasing amounts of drops, search and destroy quests, a boss quest, plenty of different quest types to go around. Each part completion could range from 5-50+% (5% for the deliveries, 15-20% for each elimination/collection, 50+% for reaching each major "stopping point" in the quest line) on completion. Then, after killing Pink Bean for the quest, it awards a massive amount of EXP, like 200-300%. You just spent 4 hours working to get to that point, and you'll be darned if you don't earn a good 10 or so levels total in that time. When you think about it relatively, grinding hard at level 140~150s would likely net you about that much in 4 hours, about 10-15 levels. In addition to that, give some better high level rewards. Utgard gear with epic or unique potential? Stacks on stacks of power elixirs? 2x EXP/Drop buffs? Higher tier scrolls like Epic Pots or one of the many variations of Chaos Scrolls (incredible, miraculous, goodness, etc)? Maybe do all of the above rewards? Or a "select 1-2 rewards" from a list of items that will be of differing use to different players. Someone who is higher leveled but not quite bathing in meso would likely opt for the Unique potential Utgard gear and a 2x buff card, while a rich merchant would likely opt for epic potential scrolls or chaos scrolls. Oh, and lastly, make it so that 2x EXP covers both quests and training, instead of buying a separate card that only Zeroes really care for.
Overall, with a system like this, you'll have a lot less players losing interest in the game during the "leveling hells" because instead of grinding DiPQ or Stronghold for hours on end, they can go do a quest for hours on end and get approximately the same results, just through a more engaging means. A system like this would promote more meaningful decisions by players, a heck of a lot more incentive to explore the vastness of the world to do some of those quests scattered off into the deep recesses of Maple World, and give an alternative to those endless hours spent grinding on the same mobs in the same maps day after day. Also, this could potentially reduce macro'ers/botters, since there will be a fresh, interesting way to gain EXP at the very highest levels instead of falling asleep while spamming the same key over and over again.
Lastly, the test that all ideas are scrutinized with, how does this make Nexon any more/make back the investment of overhauling the system (writers cleaning up old quests and writing new ones, programmers and game designers balancing rewards and how the scripts of the quest play out). My answer, player interest. The #1 reason I stop playing this game and take long breaks is because I lose interest, especially once my characters make it to the 140-160 range. It's because I just don't feel like leveling up to go to the same place as every other character goes/has gone. Given the vast amount of choices in quests, you could, with this system, likely raise up 3-5 different characters, and none of them would do the same quest lines in the same places (except maybe boss quests). You could think of it as them writing their own...story...in a game called MapleStory. This guy was the hero of Neo City, and this gal stopped Arkarium. They both did this at the same level, they just chose different paths.
To summarize, when players lose interest, they stop playing, and when they stop playing they aren't spending, and when they stop spending...you're not making money. Just to get an idea, I'll put up a poll to see how many people would genuinely be excited to level through questing if it was structured in this way, and offered much better rewards compared to now.
To all you TL;DR people, there is no TL;DR for this post. It's a lot of ideas that can't easily be condensed into one paragraph, because "give better stuff for quests" has been going around for years. This lays out a practical way to realistically "give better stuff for quests"
21 Comments • Newest first
Can you like, post this in the maplestory site cuz I want this to happen so bad....so bad. I have always loved doing quests, and still do, completing almost every quest that I see. I would be a way higher level if this was the system lol
I didn't read this cause i didn't feel like it but i do lots of quests
Terra is the worst game ever
Updated quest rewards would be cool
I don't think a reworked quest system would bring new players
The end
@kanji Thanks for your feedback. My "revelation" that inspired this idea was actually when I wandered into the Ludi clocktower. I saw Ghosthunter Bob and thought "Why not do a quest, haven't been down here in 4+ years". Over the next two hours I got humorous dialogue, interesting characters, interesting lore about Maple World, and a Ludibrium Cape which I kept for novelty. Of course, in that time, I got a grand total of 60% EXP (this was on my 150~ Dark Knight) and a cape that sits in my inventory. However, I got to admire the breathtaking atmosphere of the haunting Ludibrium clocktower, some of the best artistic design that meshes childlike innocence with a twisted, distorted reality in an endless void. It was disturbing and beautiful. I would be more inspired to do these things if I was given bigger and better rewards. What if I got 3-5 levels for my 2-3 hours, instead of 60% of one level? What if the Ludibrium cape was scaled to your level with a cap of 120, had epic potential on it, and maybe even had a special visual effect like some NX items do? That would be amazing!
@seatillite: I guess I meant more along the lines of when you are questing... They ask you to collect stuff in a map for maybe 5 - 10 mins. And then you move to another map. And you do that about 5 times and then the quest is done. I guess you can say this is a goldilocks and the bear problem. It's hard to find a good middle ground for the varying types of players. I myself hate the grind, but I also dislike moving map to map too frequently.
and I do agree that quests are great, but I don't think your proposal would be extremely instrumental in influencing an increase in questing for the "right" reasons.
I guess you can say something like friendstory was a good questline. It wasn't too much about the grind,and it had a good story and very unique items given to you at the end.
Your proposal seems like "it's still about the grind, but hey. do a quest while your'e at it". and I just don't think that is "questing" in an mmorpg even if you call it a "quest".
I couldn't agree more with this post. Quests should be an integral part of any MMORPG, but in Maplestory they've gone to waste. I actually went through most of the Edelstein quests today while training my Mechanic just to see what they were about, and many of these quests take the most insignificant NPCs and give them some depth. Like Emily, who, unlike the rest of the characters, wants to leave Edelstein, but isn't sure if she's ready to leave yet. Then, some quests take major characters and build their background even more. Vita's quest line is just fantastic in that it turns her from the test subject you rescued and left in the HQ into a member of the Resistance. Essentially, it fleshes out many characters in ways we don't bother to see.
The reason behind it is just as the OP said: Quests just aren't worth the time of day when grinding is much faster. I wholeheartedly agree with chain quests, like the Temple of Time. Those quest lines should both open new areas up, while also training the players so that they're prepared for the next area. Instead, they kind of leave you for dead once you finish them. You have to grind out your next few levels before you can enter the next area.
Hopefully they change this and fix up the questing system because grinding all the time is most definitely not the way MMORPGs should be played.
@ceseva I'm not totally sure, as I'd argue that players would LIKE to have an excuse to move different places. When you're grinding? Yeah, people want flat maps or maps with easy navigable platforms. However, give me an excuse to leave SDH for a minute and I'll be outta there faster than a a cat with turpentine up its george. Also, because quests would take into account the time or distance between destinations, you'd recompensed for your time. So instead of seeing it as unappealing, perhaps it adds another choice for the player to make in the genre all about choice. If you like to kill mobs on mobs, you go for it! You'll reach level 200 about the same speed as your questing friend, possibly a bit sooner. I know that I personally would snatch up this chance if it were offered
@silverfoxr
A lot of people enjoy question, and collecting. With more rewards, exclusive armors and weapons. Thats even more incentive. Also, for unfunded players, these quest items cn actually be worth getting. a level 90 set could be good until 140 for instance. and even passed that if they cant afford end game gear right away
I disagree with that proposal in the sense that I don't think it will work at all. but I somewhat see your point.
Back when it was much harder to level up in maplestory (where even third jobs were considered a lot of work to get to) quests were a viable option rather than training because it was something that gave exp, but you didn't have to kill a lot (because killing is actually difficult). However. You want to revamp and give more quest exp and this is not going to change much. You could kill to get exp. or you can quest to get exp. The problem with that is that questing will still be unappealing.
Now why is it unappealing? Because questing requires moving from map to map, searching and looking, killing, and collecting. One of my pet peeves is lvling up higher than the map i'm training at and having to walk all over to a different map. Yeah, walking is a lot easier than it was back then, but back then walking provided a sensation of adventure. You would ride ships that personify adventure and meet people on ships that give you a sense of exploration and meeting travelers. Now, walking is just a chore, a hindrance from your next destination and goal.
So people who did quests back then were probably a lot like me who did quests for the excitement of getting an item at the end. For example, one very popular quest was the KFT quest where you get that silly chicken leg looking weapon. This quest was long af. You walked all over the place. But when you get a stupid chicken leg thing that most people don't have then you feel a sense of accomplishment. You got bragging rights for something that didn't take nx, just a lot of hard work. You get a bit of exp while doing the quest, so you don't feel like you wasted your life.
Oh, I also kind of want to say. That there are quests that give players good items to use. But the fact that you want to do that with a lot of quests makes it a bit sad in the sense of that those items would be cheapened.
Remember when people did that NLC quest for GFA? Yeah. That was good.. it was a good item from an obscure quest. But to be a lot of good items to a lot of quests is kind of going to make the game way too easy.. man. :l
tldr: the appeal of questing, imo will always be the unique items. in the end you will just be grinding. but instead you are grinding at a crap area + you gotta pick up stuff and then move to other maps. & to put a bunch of good incentives to do quests would cheapen the gameplay imo. So meh.
@silverfoxr I'm aware of "the best" syndrome of games. Metas are rarely broken because someone doesn't want to be that loser who spent 3 hours getting questing (current system) and getting one level when they could have spent that 3 hours grinding and getting 10. However, despite how much people acknowledge "the best", I hear countless complaints about "I'm sick of SDH and I'm not even 200 yet" "Is there ANY alternative to DiPQ??" and things like that. People don't sound too concerned with "best" anymore, as much as they seem concerned with dynamic and engaging (#businessbuzzwords). Also, if done right, the system would be designed so that it always keeps up with the average grinding speed at that level, so it'd hard to say "SDH is better than running that PQ". Also, the ideas for a much better reward system would REALLY make people choose if they were that concerned with a 1 hour discrepancy. "I could get from 160-170 in 2 hours from grinding...or I could do it in 3 hours while questing and earn a Unique Potential scroll and a 2x coupon for later..." and then a meaningful choice has to be made on the player's part! It gives them the power to decide what's more important to them.
@charles0012: I played it once with a crew of my IRL friends and there was 2x exp so i got to about 50 or so before quitting.
Remember that most people will completely skip any and all content if it's not the "best" way to do things... even if the difference is minimal.
Heck, Scrapyard, the newest high-level content, was designed to (and has been proven to) be better training from 190+ than Second Drill Hall... but despite the exp gain being higher there, you have to move around more and potion cost is higher. So, in standard lazy fashion, players ignored it for the same, simple method they're accustomed to.
So, unless quests give a ridiculous exp gain, nobody's going to do them. And, with so many quests, you'd pretty much be at max level by the time they're all done... and even then, most people will likely ignore it, because guides tell them that "this is the best from lv x to lv y".
Tera's fun, i always quit around level 30 though so i got bored repeating 1-30 6 times
You couldn't go to Omega Sector or Korean Folk Town even if you wanted to.
@charles0012: Ya dude i was playing Tera and in order to progress we had to do quests and i was like whaaaaaaat is this.
I tried grinding in archage, and by level 6 I realized questing is an essential part of a game. who knew
Maple was first computer game i played and since i avoided questing bcuz maple quests r bad, now whenever i play RPGs by habit i avoid questin
I love it.
I also encourage Quest specific items. ie.
Omega Sector, like you said I havnt been too in years. So i have no idea what level range it is.
But lets say its levels 70-85. There can be a quest line that gives you a class specific weapon at the end, that has a special effect. Like the cannoneers hyper, you do % less than normal, but you attack 3x as much, ultimately making you a tad stronger. Especially for high crit jobs. and evan add armor pieces around the maple world that you have to do diff quest lines to get them all. And there can be dozens of weapons and effects and armors exclusive to certain quest.
And they will all look rad af, so people can anvil them
Is that you, @ashleyattacked
So......when can I put my hand down?
Ya, I agree.
no tl;dr => tl;dr