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Quest reporting

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Hammen
Dreamer
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2017 1:31 am
Character Name(s): Hammen

Quest reporting

Post by Hammen »

Hi folks,

I'd like to share with you my perspective of Underlight's advancement system and where I see something that might need tweaking.

First I'm going to start off by saying what's good. What's good is that there does not seem to be premade quests that everyone has to do. For example, most MMOs will provide same quests for anyone who chooses same path (I.e. Slay 100 boars...bring this note *same note from all* to the king, etc.). While I have experienced a few quests in UL that have quantitative goals as such, there is usually another part that is learned or experienced along the way. Another good aspect is the reporting. Even if given a quantative quest, during the report it is discovered why and what was learned. Which, in a true roleplaying game such as this is brilliant and vital. Another great aspect of this game are the players who play the teachers. In my opinion they don't get enough reward for the work they do. I commend them on the excellent job they do creating unique quests tailored for the student and are uniquely fun in their own ways and styles.

Now let me get to the point that I feel needs improvement. In order for a student to report a quest, the teacher must A.) be online B.) be in an area that the student can reach (or get lucky enough to find someone who can find them; aka sphere or crest restricted areas) C.) be willing and not distracted by other ongoings to hear the report. Other MMOs do not have this problem because their quest givers are NPCs who are always online, always (for mostly all MMOs) where you last found them, and easily able to report. In Underlight, the mission boards in the Library of Dreams are nearly identical to that style. Anyone can do the missions and report when done and get their experience reward. But this is not the case with Quests. Hence problems A-C are prevalent. One of the biggest issues being problem A. There's nothing worse than sitting on a quest for weeks because you simply cannot find your teacher to give the report.

Here are some suggestions I've been brainstorming about to get the conversation started about possibly fixing this nuisance. 1.) What if you could report to other teachers and not particularly just the teacher who gave you the quest? 2.) What if quests could be made to be viewed and reported on a quest board similar to the mission board where teachers and students of different Dream times can still teach and learn...and when teacher approves students report, the art, plateau, or sphere is granted? 3.) What if teachers were given more reward for teaching where upon successfully training students they receive credits toward an art or sphere improvement of their own? This way teachers would be more apt to want to teach as teaching would subsidize their own need to quest and hence teaching wouldn't be as much of a burden.

I'm still a rather new player. So there may be dynamics I don't understand. I just think that there are possible improvements to this aspect of the game and possibly better ones than I've come up with. What do you think?

H
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Elmer
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Posts: 333
Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2017 7:57 pm
Character Name(s): Elmer

Re: Quest reporting

Post by Elmer »

1.) What if you could report to other teachers and not particularly just the teacher who gave you the quest?
i disagree with this, i think a major part of a teacher's enjoyment in underlight is hearing reports, especially if they are amusing. Plus for me, when i am doing a quest for a teacher i am tailoring my report to/for them specifically.
Whisperer>>elms<<Naturalist
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Arnaya
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Posts: 831
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2015 2:25 am
Character Name(s): Arnaya

Re: Quest reporting

Post by Arnaya »

A couple of those suggestions have been made in game as well, Hammen. Until we can get something worked out for it (Personally, I like the quest board idea). Until then though, at least for point A, the easiest way to avoid that (with the exception of GM MT's), is to leave a note on the Notices and Edicts section of the IC forums and ask one of that teachers house mates (Most of us are in houses) or friends to let them know you have a quest to report.

Most of us are pretty good about checking the Forums (Or we bloody well should be, since this sort of thing is the ONLY means a lot of people have of getting a hold of us to run our teacher characters) and, if there's a day/time in the note... we'll try to run our teachers during one of those to meet up with your character.
The most important lesson I've learned over this past year, is not to let anyone make you cruel. No matter how badly you want to give the world a taste of it's own bitter medicine, it is never worth losing yourself.
Dina

Re: Quest reporting

Post by Dina »

I've brought up perks for teachers that they got in Idoaclese. In game and out. Out of game, of course it was a no. The perk the teachers get right now, really isn't a perk. Dina will need to start her own rule. If you want a task or turn one in, you must be jp'd, so she can get that agoknight worth of xp. :lol:
Hammen
Dreamer
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2017 1:31 am
Character Name(s): Hammen

Re: Quest reporting

Post by Hammen »

Dina wrote:I've brought up perks for teachers that they got in Idoaclese. In game and out. Out of game, of course it was a no. The perk the teachers get right now, really isn't a perk. Dina will need to start her own rule. If you want a task or turn one in, you must be jp'd, so she can get that agoknight worth of xp. :lol:
Aye, Dina. It's not much of a perk at all. Some players have said it's "a calling" and that teaching is its own reward. While I can understand the position, I don't understand the feasibility. Unless you are at a point (perhaps like BladeSlayer and Dreiko for example) where you've got not much more to train your character themselves in or you have many hours of dreamtime, then the roleplaying that teaching brings is not halting your time trying to progress you character. I've held teacher's ears for twenty to thirty minutes at times reporting a single quest. Chain a few students back to back hearing reports and thinking of unique quests and that's upward of over an hour. I get between 2-3 hours of dreamtime a night if lucky (sometimes more but never guaranteed)). I'm putting that into perspective for myself, if I were a teacher, as consuming a majority of my dreamtime. It's possible I'm overthinking this but it just seems that a few thousand experience for being in party with a student over a rather long period of time is highly inefficient at progressing your own character. I want you teachers getting more credit for all the great things you do and time you spend helping others. I think it's only fair.

Anyways,...sorry about sidetracking from the original post point. I will try Arnaya's method and see if things in future improve. I'd like to get some buddies of mine involved in playing Underlight with me. But their game time and patience is far lower than mine. I can see them hitting a brick wall and possibly losing interest. I try to remind them that this here is a roleplaying game first and foremost and that's what I enjoy playing. But they like a little more action in their games. Character development needs to be smooth. The only time it's not is when (as mentioned before in original post) problems A,B, or C arise.

But I don't want this to come off as a negative or bashful post. I love playing Underlight. The roleplaying is top notch here. Hours will fly by in what feels like just minutes. Just giving my perspective on the development system for somebody who hasn't played this game for twenty years as some have (Seriously though? Twenty years? wow. That's just an incredible amount of time to spend playing a game without losing interest. Major Kudos to Underlight!).

See you all in game,

H
Sidas
Developer
Posts: 342
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2014 2:11 pm
Character Name(s): Dreiko

Re: Quest reporting

Post by Sidas »

Teachers get a pretty good benefit of being able to easily use other people to do parts of their tasks. You still have to do some of it yourself but there's that advantage. The problem with blanket giving rewards per x amount of reports is it gives incentive to just being a task factory that gives out easy junk instead of more involved, enjoyable things. I'd be all for ways of getting out of some of the more boring reports, though! :-)
Dina

Re: Quest reporting

Post by Dina »

If they bring back the task finished. You don't know if they will or not, so Dina usually does not give out tasks to do her tasks. However....she HAS, just not often. We already have teachers giving out easy junk tasks! I hear about it all the time OOC. Nothing would change. It did work well in SoT.
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