RuneScape Forum Archive | On the quest releases' problem

Balustan

Posts: 19,291 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Syrus Coy said :
We need to, as a community, lobby for Jagex to start making 12 quests a year. They can do it if they know that is what we want first before any other update.

I continue to say they have to put 12 into development in a year. If they get 10 out they did well. 10 of decent quality and with post quest content. The 2 they don't complete would not count towards next years 12 into development.

Lewis

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Quester

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Scottish

19-Mar-2015 16:18:48

Jakir

Posts: 4,506 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Syrus Coy said :
We need to, as a community, lobby for Jagex to start making 12 quests a year. They can do it if they know that is what we want first before any other update.

Except then we would get crap. Just like how this whole "weekly update" nonsense started and we started getting rushed updates that I'm convinced had 0 or very little bug checking done. Do you really want more "Filler quests" just to meet a deadline? If Jagex wastes time making small quests just to fill the slots it will take even longer to get the decent storylines developed and meanwhile bringing home the bacon part 17 return of the Snausages will be out next month.

And look at how rare bugfixing became thanks to this whole weekly update bs. Imagine what monthly quests will do to curating quests. Why we probably won't see any fixes at all for quests that become outdated. And then one month 5 years later we will get a "quest patch month".

Anyways I'm just here to post that making us replay DoD 4 times (5 playthroughs total) to unlock all the rewards was stupid and pointless and the ultimate in grindmaster level questing.

24-Mar-2015 20:04:14

Jul

2012

Hexie Kazumi

Posts: 3,023 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Ehhhhhhhhh.

Speak for yourself bro. I am an avid quester with two more to go. And I would prefer a few amazing quests to a butt-ton of pathetic ones. It all depends on why you do quests. I play them for story, immersion, and adventure more than interesting gameplay mechanics. I don't want to sacrifice an immersive, epic, or interesting experience just to pop out more quests.

That and, being an adult, I have less time to play RuneScape. Having more time between quests A) makes for a higher quality experience, B) Accommodates those of us who want to play but have commitments and C) makes for higher quality experience.

Do you really want a hundred Cook's assistant quality quests, over a few Deaths of Chivalry?

And you don't factor in the fact that jagex is a business. MOST players expect a standard of quality graphics, game play, sound, immersion, and epicness. If Jagex does not deliver on what players have come to expect, they lose money. They lose interest. They fail.

Popping out dozens of quests a year would exhaust resources, take time out of the game, and reduce overall quality. This will hurt both the game and jagex. Even if you decrease quest quality, the sheer number of quests would exhaust ideas, and take away from other areas of the game

In short, butt tons of quests can only result in a decrease of game quality. The boredom of having less quests drives less people away than it would if people were inundated with crap.

24-Mar-2015 20:37:13

Llarys

Posts: 2,085 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Hexie Kazumi said :
Ehhhhhhhhh.

Speak for yourself bro. I am an avid quester with two more to go. And I would prefer a few amazing quests to a butt-ton of pathetic ones. It all depends on why you do quests. I play them for story, immersion, and adventure more than interesting gameplay mechanics. I don't want to sacrifice an immersive, epic, or interesting experience just to pop out more quests.

That and, being an adult, I have less time to play RuneScape. Having more time between quests A) makes for a higher quality experience, B) Accommodates those of us who want to play but have commitments and C) makes for higher quality experience.

Do you really want a hundred Cook's assistant quality quests, over a few Deaths of Chivalry?

And you don't factor in the fact that jagex is a business. MOST players expect a standard of quality graphics, game play, sound, immersion, and epicness. If Jagex does not deliver on what players have come to expect, they lose money. They lose interest. They fail.

Popping out dozens of quests a year would exhaust resources, take time out of the game, and reduce overall quality. This will hurt both the game and jagex. Even if you decrease quest quality, the sheer number of quests would exhaust ideas, and take away from other areas of the game

In short, butt tons of quests can only result in a decrease of game quality. The boredom of having less quests drives less people away than it would if people were inundated with crap.

It's like you didn't even read the OP. Congratulations on circular reasoning.

Since you're suuuuuccchhhhh a buuuuussssyyyyyy aaaaaddddduuuuullllltttttt, I'll give you an easy to read, singular sentence:

"As the past three years have shown us, even when Jagex sacrifices quantity of quests in an attempt to increase quality, we still get the same quality of quests, and as many would argue, even lower quality of quests, than we used to in the years prior."

All hands on deck! Douse the sails! Batten down the hatches! There be a **** storm a brewin'.

25-Mar-2015 19:03:12

Jul

2012

Hexie Kazumi

Posts: 3,023 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

"As the past three years have shown us, even when Jagex sacrifices quantity of quests in an attempt to increase quality, we still get the same quality of quests, and as many would argue, even lower quality of quests, than we used to in the years prior."

I didn't get that far because the first couple of posts were long and unconvincing.

I would argue that quests are of stellar quality, and better than before. A point like "many would argue" is a hollow argument unless you have extensive statistics of people's opinions of quest quality. I see no evidence that these are the same quality they would be if dozens were released a year. And it is a risk to find out.

25-Mar-2015 20:36:50

Feb

2023

Demonborn

Posts: 4,749 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Spot on for all points.

I believe the biggest reason quest development is faltering is Jagex's awful management.
Jagex mods are constantly being shifted from project to project whether done or not. This means that more mistakes are made and more time is spent trying to get each developer to agree on the quest path.

My two cents Proud Rock Climber, Owner of the original Weekend Hardmode Vorago Team, The Supreme, The Billionaire, Author of the Red Sacrificial Teddy Bear, Owner of 3a Dyed Drygore Longs
Highest Send Currently: V13

25-Mar-2015 22:16:46

Sep

2010

Lord Drakan

Posts: 7,043 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Relevant:

Original message details are unavailable.
Lord Drakan said: Original message details are unavailable.

1) Currently, story-rich Sixth Age quests are, on average, a few months apart, whereas other quest series (desert, pirate, gnome, EW, *cough* druids *cough*, etc.) have intervals of multiple years - how can this be justified?

I'd imagine you'd prefer your answer came from someone who has control over the schedule and makes these decisions. For tonight, you'll have to make do with me and my speculation - which is by no means accurate.

I suspect that continuation quests haven't recently had an equal amount of quests due to Sixth Age quests is that Sixth Age quests are by design accessible to more players: They aren't locked behind a long quest chain that a lower percentage of players have completed, and therefore the update has a larger audience to justify the investment in a large quest project.

Quests that are the continuation of an established series also tend to be big. They've built up steam from earlier quests, so are earmarked to need significant resources before we can do justice to them. That and the need to produce regular weekly updates limits how many big projects we can take on at once.

Or they're niche, like the Elemental Workshop quests, which I'd love to see more of, but aren't to everyone's tastes.

This is why RuneLabs is so helpful - it allows us to create slots in the schedule for the projects that would get the most player appreciation. I'm delighted to see that recently quests have been in the top running! Bizarre Boron Fusswell, scryer extraordinaire. OSRS: POH ideas & RS3 minigames & achievement ideas !

Perhaps you're half right; perhaps we can't win. But we can fight.

— Zanik

26-Mar-2015 15:25:42

Sep

2010

Lord Drakan

Posts: 7,043 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Original message details are unavailable.
Lord Drakan said: Original message details are unavailable.

2) Lately, the vast majority of quests appear to have been trying to be "epic" and "momentous" with lots of story and lore, new locations, characters of magnitude (gods, Mahjarrat, etc.), plot twists, ..., etc. What happened to the - as Mod Jack calls them - bottle quests? The shorter, classic, sweet li'l quests that aren't all of the things I just listed and have a relatively short development time but are still fun to play and not "pointless" (think Making History, One Small Favour, As a First Resort..., The Tourist Trap, Shades of Mort'ton, etc.), balancing out the "juicier" quests - where are they?

I'd like to see more bottle quests. I'd like to see more quests in general. Heck, if it was up to me, I'd develop nothing but quests!

In various respects, I tried to make Dimension of Disaster more of a bottle quest (in fact it's kind of a world in a bottle). A return to old-school mechanics, less bespoke mechanics created to make a quest more interesting and distinct, more tried-and-tested fetch questing, skilling and exploration.

That seems to have resonated with some players - more than I'd hoped, in fact, and helped drastically with reducing the development time of the sub-quests. I've also seen players that absolutely despised this style, and not just because of the quest's replayability. Whether that trade-off is worth it versus "epic" quests remains to be seen.

Thanks, Mod Stu! <3

@Smith: I would definitely argue that quests nowadays are, on average, not of a higher quality than a few years ago. Graphics and audio and stuff, sure, but that's just enhancement. Bizarre Boron Fusswell, scryer extraordinaire. OSRS: POH ideas & RS3 minigames & achievement ideas !

Perhaps you're half right; perhaps we can't win. But we can fight.

— Zanik

26-Mar-2015 15:27:07

Drakan

Posts: 1,455 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

What irks me a lot in recent quests is the rushed feeling. Subtle things in the storytelling that make it feel like Jagex's working down a checklist on what they need to include in the story somewhere in order to 'keep the lorepeeps happy' as it were, rather than making a solid tale.

One of the biggest examples of this is the difference between finding the Stone of Jas and Guthix.

In While Guthix Sleeps, when the Stone of Jas was first discovered by the player, its location was discovered by Movario, who you learnt a lot of through journals and conversation throughout the quest before the final act. These journals told you about Movario's extensive efforts, how he slowly closed in on the location of the Stone; it gave a feeling of an epic journey this NPC went on. This made Movario being there and finding the Stone make sense, it didn't fall out of the sky.

Now on the other hand we have World Wakes, where some guy you've never heard of just randomly happened across Guthix's resting chamber which, despite not having been found by anyone for thousands of years, was right beneath the surface next to the Legend's Guild. Why is it there? Dunno. How'd the Archeologist find it? Dunno, he just sort of came across it.

In both cases the writer needed a plot device to advance the story, but in While Guthix Sleeps that device was prepared so it'd make a proper impact. In World Wakes it just appeared for the sake of advancing the story, not because it'd actually make sense.

More examples of things like that that irk me can be found here .

PS: THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE, OP. The spear only brushed my earlobe.

27-Mar-2015 11:09:20 - Last edited on 27-Mar-2015 11:10:24 by Drakan

Jul

2012

Hexie Kazumi

Posts: 3,023 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

"What irks me a lot in recent quests is the rushed feeling. Subtle things in the storytelling that make it feel like Jagex's working down a checklist on what they need to include in the story somewhere in order to 'keep the lorepeeps happy' as it were, rather than making a solid tale."

Actually, they have been planning the recent developments for years. And anyways, when I look at quests like Fot* and Heart of Stone, there are little "hints" about the Elder Gods. They have yet to outright state "Oh btw, the Elder Gods are waking and are going to wreck everything." As of right now, we have reached that conclusion based on /allusions/ to what is coming.

The way they do it right now is, a quest answers a few questions but then asks a few more. I don't see how that amounts to fanservice for lore players. That's just the way they want to do it, because they have a story in mind, and are excited to share it with us.

"Now on the other hand we have World Wakes, where some guy you've never heard of"

You mean Orlando Smith? The guys we worked with in the Varrock Museum? He wasn't out of nowhere bruh. He was meant to be a clear Indiana Jones type character from the start, and, while it would have been nice to say, see the dig slowly make progress, it definitely was not from sheer nothingness.

"Smith: I would definitely argue that quests nowadays are, on average, not of a higher quality than a few years ago. Graphics and audio and stuff, sure, but that's just enhancement."

Yes, and they add to the immersion. There are also still fun, challenging new mechanics, like in TWW, Heart of Stone, and Plague's end (well, that was a variation of a mechanic, but still a fun one). And story is better than ever before.

TL

R, I don't see any area where quests are less than before.

27-Mar-2015 12:49:01

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On the quest releases' problem