A Dearth of Quests

hustin1 · October 2019

It's pretty clear to anyone not a fanboy that Mod 17 is a full mod in name only. Even calling it "16b" is a stretch. The fact is, if you don't grind TOMM day in and day out, it leaves us with nothing but a mind-numbingly repetitive grind over the same two quests over and over and over...and over.

1. Go to a place in Undermountain, kill a bunch of baddies, and maybe take their stuff. Then do it again.
2. Go through an expedition and kill a boss. Then do it again.

This is ridiculous. There are half a dozen NPC's in Stardock. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM should have something for us to do, from the heroic to the mundane. Of all the Githzerai in the universe, those are the ones at Stardock. Each one has a story to tell -- by definition. And at least once a week there should be something "interesting" for us to do. You guys at Cryptic really mailed this one in, and it shows.

I started a toon on another game yesterday (one that a particular streamer describes as "criminally underrated") and the very first thing that struck me was the large number of quests. The game mechanics aren't my cup of tea, but ALWAYS HAVING SOMETHING DIFFERENT TO DO was a huge breath of fresh air. Huge.

Then I logged back into NWO tonight. I'm logged in as I type this. The thought of repeating these same quests for the umpteenth time is just depressing. We deserve better than this.

People are talking. Some are looking seriously at leaving, but everyone agrees that Mod 18 will be a make-or-break module. We will be looking at it through the lens of whether Cryptic is giving up on the game or not. That is how we are interpreting what we are seeing, at least today. "Mod 17" has shaken our faith in the dev team that badly.

timthegreat89 · October 2019

hustin1 said:
It's pretty clear to anyone not a fanboy that Mod 17 is a full mod in name only. Even calling it "16b" is a stretch. The fact is, if you don't grind TOMM day in and day out, it leaves us with nothing but a mind-numbingly repetitive grind over the same two quests over and over and over...and over.

1. Go to a place in Undermountain, kill a bunch of baddies, and maybe take their stuff. Then do it again.
2. Go through an expedition and kill a boss. Then do it again.

This is ridiculous. There are half a dozen NPC's in Stardock. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM should have something for us to do, from the heroic to the mundane. Of all the Githzerai in the universe, those are the ones at Stardock. Each one has a story to tell -- by definition. And at least once a week there should be something "interesting" for us to do. You guys at Cryptic really mailed this one in, and it shows.

I started a toon on another game yesterday (one that a particular streamer describes as "criminally underrated") and the very first thing that struck me was the large number of quests. The game mechanics aren't my cup of tea, but ALWAYS HAVING SOMETHING DIFFERENT TO DO was a huge breath of fresh air. Huge.

Then I logged back into NWO tonight. I'm logged in as I type this. The thought of repeating these same quests for the umpteenth time is just depressing. We deserve better than this.

People are talking. Some are looking seriously at leaving, but everyone agrees that Mod 18 will be a make-or-break module. We will be looking at it through the lens of whether Cryptic is giving up on the game or not. That is how we are interpreting what we are seeing, at least today. "Mod 17" has shaken our faith in the dev team that badly.

That's something we can agree on, as there should be more quests. It's actually unnecessary for us to repeat the same quests over and over again, just to re-gain access to WEs and FEs. It could take weeks if not months, maybe even a year to get items we need to improve our characters' capability and etc. If this keeps happening, we'll totally see a serious decrease in player count which could result in the game being fully dead and the devs unwilling to continue with it. Believe me, I've seen this happen in SWTOR (Star Wars The Old Republic) and it ain't pretty.

pakatapoes · October 2019

It so repetitive that the enemies are my friends now

sandukutupu · October 2019

I am into fantasy MMO and while "Spelljammer" was an official release of TSR in '89, I never cared for the idea of mixing Sci-Fi with Fantasy. When they announced this was going to be about Stardock and Gith, I thought they planned for us to get in galleons with spelljammer helms. "Spelljammer: Dungeons & Dragons" took place within the design of outer space by allowing flying ships to travel through the vast expanses of interplanetary space, visiting moons and planets and other stellar objects.

But this did not happen, instead they delivered an add-on to Undermountain. I went to see Stardock and found out I had to complete campaign 16 first. Then I was allowed to explore another master expedition to get to a portal to Stardock. Once I saw what was coming, I knew the players would not be happy at all. I wasn't happy about the idea of content, but no content at all, was the worse idea ever. I don't expect every module to appeal to me.

I wasn't happy about module 15 and the non-module 17 was worse yet. Too bad the Foundry isn't here, then I would have some content to run made by people who actually knew what content means. Module 18 better be really awesome stuff, because if it falls flat, module 19 will be welcome to Neverwinter: "3D the Chat Room".

greywynd · October 2019

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a 1980 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game written by Gary Gygax. While Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is typically a fantasy game, the adventure includes elements of science fiction, and thus belongs to the science fantasy genre.[1] It takes place on a downed spaceship; the ship's crew has died of an unspecified disease, but functioning robots and strange creatures still inhabit the ship. The player characters fight monsters and robots, and gather the futuristic weapons and colored access cards that are necessary for advancing the story.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was first played at the Origins II convention in 1976, where it was used to introduce Dungeons & Dragons players to the science fiction game Metamorphosis Alpha.

hustin1 · October 2019

Module S3 really was an exception, though (and I have it sitting on a bookshelf). One thing I'm noticing in "this other game" is that the quests get much more in-depth with respect to the NPC's you deal with: their personal history, their foibles, their self-doubts, and how they interact with other NPC's. The result is that you end up caring about them. It's just like when you write a book -- if the reader doesn't care about what happens to the protagonist (or about those the protagonist cares about), then it's a failure. NPC's are three-dimensional and you get the sense that they're real people with real issues. It wouldn't take a lot of effort on the part of the devs, just brainpower and imagination.

There's a saying I hear a lot in real life: "everyone you meet is struggling with something you know nothing about". They should treat their NPC's this way when they create quests.

gabrieldourden · October 2019

> @greywynd said:
> Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a 1980 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game written by Gary Gygax. While Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is typically a fantasy game, the adventure includes elements of science fiction, and thus belongs to the science fantasy genre.[1] It takes place on a downed spaceship; the ship's crew has died of an unspecified disease, but functioning robots and strange creatures still inhabit the ship. The player characters fight monsters and robots, and gather the futuristic weapons and colored access cards that are necessary for advancing the story.
>
> Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was first played at the Origins II convention in 1976, where it was used to introduce Dungeons & Dragons players to the science fiction game Metamorphosis Alpha.

Something similar happened with the Tales of the Comet boxed set and Alternity. I enjoyed both.

sandukutupu · October 2019

Rifts the table top role playing game was about magic versus technology in the far future. I never got into playing it, maybe because everyone who played seemed more interested in backstabbing than cooperative teamwork. But just to clarify why I personally don't like SF within my Fantasy. I wrote some Star Trek and hated having to research why things work. If you don't research, the neckbeards will tear it apart. With my Fantasy stories it is all about magic, you don't need to explain how magic works. My husband likes all the Star Trek and Star Wars stuff.

But back on topic, what I was saying is; Players expected a lot more to do with exploring and module 17 didn't deliver. Even I thought they would be selling the whales new stylish ships in the zen market before Christmas. I look around at all the places most players will never return to for repeat business, there are so many, Stardock will be on that list.

A Dearth of Quests

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