Reworking the way a couple quests work

Suggestions
Reworking the way a couple quests work https://forum.arcaneodyssey.dev/uploads/default/optimized/3X/8/d/8d796533720cf21686b99c8c7de2d1af8d8f1e1a_2_1024x687.jpeg
effort 4.875 8 quality 4.714285714285714 7 reasonability 5.0 7
1

suggestions for quest reworks:

imo the current quest system has a couple flaws that if fixed could help player retention

  • quest slots are currently limited,
  • quests are also uncancellable,
  • this means players have to go back and complete quests from 2-3 islands ago just to take new ones, basically forcing new players who didn’t know this to waste time doing irrelevant quests instead of taking part in new content or quests they would rather do
  • the rewards for these quests are basically nothing by the point the players hit the cap on quests punishing players for taking every quest they are interested in
  • players also can’t find the new quests half the time as they miss the hints telling them that they’ve unlocked a new quest at x island, gotta remember that the roblox audience can range from pretty young to early teens who skip reading a lot of dialogue and hints if they aren’t on screen long enough, and even people older then that can miss these hints pretty easily too
  • on top of missing these hints they don’t know where these random islands are
  • story quests have hard requirements to continue doing, forcing players to take part in activities they don’t want to do, this system actively removes player agency which should be the priority in a game this open
  • quest items aren’t playersided meaning you are actively punished for wanting to progress with friends (makes collection quests very tedious)

ultimately these are all just minor inconviences that when put together make a system that has people dropping the game because it starts to feel like a slog

a byproduct of these issues is that a lot of players start repeating any quest they can take multiple times. which leads to some of the ‘‘AO is a fancy bandit beater claims’’ when they don’t realize that there are other options to level

there are a couple ways to go about changing these, easiest would be to just remove the limits on quests you can take / being able to cancel them

the way i would go about it is more of a overhaul to the quest system in general,

  • first thing is that quests no longer list the rewards in numbers, these rewards now scale with your player level, this insures quests no longer become obsolete after a couple levels, no matter when you do them you get a good amount of xp! this rewards players for exploring all content in the game (which is the goal here)
  • every quest in the game is visible in your quest log the moment they become an option, ROBLOX PLAYERS DO NOT READ HINTS, having a 2 second hint saying you’ve unlocked x quest at y location is worthless to 90% of the new audience who don’t even know where that island is
  • a permanent log of quests with a list of islands they can go to and complete them at will push new players to explore and unlock every island they see, maybe even being able to sort quests by island (keep in mind they all have brainrot from one piece games teaching them that exploration is bad and will get you killed)
  • to add onto this maybe have a map buyable at an npc on every island that doesn’t uncover your map but rather just adds the name of the islands over the clouds that vanish when you go to that island (or just have the names floating over the islands from the second you start the game) as the average player will NOT be going to every island to unlock them
  • scale up the general xp gain for every quest by a LOT and remove any repeatable quest. they aren’t fun and encourage bandit beating
  • story quests should have a level RECOMMENDATION not a hard requirement to take, that and scale down bosses slightly so players only have to grind if they’re having trouble fighting them and dying constantly

here are some visual mockups to help demonstrate what changes could look like

image
image1247×837 153 KB

image
image718×652 68.2 KB

the general idea is to just nudge players in the right direction and let them progress however they choose, as well as removing a lot of the tedium from grinding levels, most people playing the game blind have no idea half these quests even exist, so again the content exists and the quests are generally pretty fun it’s just that new players just have trouble finding the content in the first place :broken_heart:

4 Likes
2

I remember dying near fort talos with my sailboat

1 Like
3

im sorry/happy this happened

4

Pretty much everything here I agree with and I believe SHOULD be changed or at least considered.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with the quest limit, but because there is a limit, I expect the ability to cancel quests, that way I can choose which set of quests I want to track and complete instead of being forced to do something I may not want to do. If anything, let me untrack quests so I don’t have the quest marker on my screen at all times.

In my opinion, the issue with quest tracking lies in the overall structure rather than the hints themselves. The current system forces players to remain in specific areas and complete designated quests due to the locking mechanism that prevents certain quests from appearing on the map until reaching certain levels. This approach not only creates a sense of emptiness in parts of the game world and discourages non-linear exploration but also fails to provide visual cues indicating the presence of additional quests beyond the ones explicitly shown by the game.

When players arrive at an island and find no quests available, it becomes challenging for them to keep track of quests mentally because they have no indication of when or if new quests will appear. This lack of clarity hampers the immersive experience and diminishes the player’s motivation to explore and engage with the game’s quest content.

I really like this idea, only thing I would personally change is how this would work for repeatable quests. First off, I feel that repeatable quests should still exist, but, I would have it so that after you complete the quest once, the reward for completing it again is significantly reduced. That way if you want to repeat the quest again you can, but it’s not as rewarding as the first time and still pushes players to explore other areas or do other quests.

Addressing all three of these suggestions, In my opinion, a preferable approach would be to make all quests on all islands available at any time, with the rewards scaling according to the player’s level or having a recommended level indication (like you suggested). Alternatively, rather than having all quests on every island unlocked from the start, quests could become accessible once the player discovers an island. This way, when players embark on exploration and reach a new island, they would have engaging tasks to undertake or be aware that there are quests available for future completion. This would be a significant improvement over the current in-game situation where, for example, visiting Ravenna at level 10 would yield no quests due to the requirement of progressing the story/level. New players, who might be unaware of this progression, could mistakenly assume that the island lacks quests altogether.

I would also have it so quest markers (the question mark symbol) appear on the AO map, so when you discover an island, you can zoom in and visually see what quests are available. Once you complete a quest, it will disappear from the AO map as well, that way you will only see quests that you have yet to complete or can repeat.

1 Like
5

I really appreciate this, because the current quest system is definitely broken. I never realized how much the current system was destroying player retention for the younger audience, but now that I’ve read your post, I agree.

1 Like
6

this is a really great idea would be much much easier to implement compared to the quest journals adding one / or both would definitely help new players find the quests available to them

my only worry with that was the npc quests but they can just be an exception to the rule (or give them a level recommendation ((not a hard req)) to take the quest at but still let them take it) will definitely help players who can’t find the content to complete + actually rewards exploration onto different islands

my problem with this is…again the playerbase for this game on the platform will see this and think (without a quest log or any proper guidance) that they should just do it over and over again like they already are in other bandit beater type games, this was already proven by half the people going in blind spamming the ice quest and the snow wizard quest till they could take part in the next story mission which is NOT fun or rewarding gameplay and should be avoided at all costs, i really think overall quest exp should be much higher as a trade off for making repeatable quests a one time thing to help encourage getting your xp from a variety of sources (but at the same time not making the forced level locks a bitch to get past)

imo i really dont see why we need a quest limit, it just forces players to complete some, admittedly worthless quests that yield no reward (this would be fixed with xp rewards scaling with levels) even if they could be cancelled those players are missing out on a fun side quest that they would probably enjoy doing if the xp rewards weren’t so garbage by the time they want to complete it

100% agree this is why i suggested a quest journal type thing, AO has a lot of side content, for people going in blind it’s a lot to ask for them to take note of every quest they see (because of the quest limit forcing them to be selective with that they can take :man_facepalming: )

7

this is why i asked vetex to remove your ink magic btw :yawning_face:

8

yeah not even just the younger audience i’ve asked a couple friends my age (older teens) and a lot of these issues apply to them as well, really sucks when i love the game but half the people i know ended up dropping it citing one reason or another

1 Like
9

I agree with almost everything here.

I really like this change. So many random old quests are completely useless by the time you randomly complete them. I would add that at max level quests should convert some of their xp gain to galleon gain. Currently at max level a lot of quests have a downright negligible reward because more than half of the rewards are useless. This could be amended by giving quests unique rewards, such as the secret cave quest at Shell Island giving a strong scroll (I hope I’m referring to the correct quest). Also I think quests would be more fun in general if they gave more than xp and galleons.

I like this suggestion, though some repeatable quests should stay in the game and just be changed to one-time quests. The banana quest at Palo Town may be helpful for encouraging exploration, but some such as the sandy shore collection quest in Ravenna is completely useless and has no reason to exist. The destroy 3 pirate ships quest at Ravenna is also completely useless since pirate ships already give a reward for destroying them, why does it need a small amount of xp and galleons tacked on?

This is the only idea I partially disagree with. I think telling the names of islands and where they are might ruin part of the surprise (though I play on 3-5 graphics quality and can barely see islands infront of me while sailing. one of my friends can see islands from across the map so maybe the looks of the island were already spoiled for him?). Also I am a big fan of exploration so I don’t entirely understand people who don’t try to visit every island to see what’s beneath the clouds.

If players need help finding islands for quests then I have multiple minor solutions that can be compounded:

  • A colored aura that points you in the general direction of multiple islands
  • An aura around multiple islands on the map
  • Actual directions to the island in the quest, maybe a rough description of the visuals/themes (might not be helpful since players can’t read, however I think this could work if the directions were placed beside the map when you open it)

Either way I don’t think players should ever be directly told to go to an island. But players might need that extra help since I can’t empathize with being unable to read or explore on my own (ik this sounds a bit condescending but idk how to say it in any other way).

Overall a very good suggestion, I like how you outlined the problems and then gave multiple solutions.

1 Like
10

100% hard agree i had this idea in my head but i forgot to put it down :man_facepalming: this suggestion has kinda been brewing in my head since I finished the story for the first time and some stuff got forgotten about and it feels too late to add more since it’s such a long one already, but i seriously agree that most quest rewards in terms of money are basically worthless and some more unique rewards would definitely push new players to take every quest they can

(also yep that’s the right quest your thinking of dw)

yeah i think any repeatable can stay just remove the repeatable aspect of them

hmm it’s a nice incentive for new players? i think the reward should be something better…like maybe a canon upgrade? or an exclusive sail or something?

i agree and i feel the same way however this platform (and this genre of seafaring games in general) have basically conditioned the audience for these games to NEVER explore as any exploring in these games always leads to dying to some higher leveled npc, while AO is similar in the sense the island progression is linear tobi’s suggestion of adding quests viewable on the map (as well as having every quest be obtainable from the moment you start a new file + level reward scaling down or up) would both incentivise players to check these areas out and unlearn these terrible habits picked up by these slop bandit beater games

if we’re being real i think ANY of these would work and be better then the current system in game, 100% on board with vetex adding any of these so new players can actually experience more then 20% of the game before throwing in the towel

11

i feel you here, unfortunately as open as AO is new players uninvolved with the community will need some more nudging in the right direction or they’ll revert to their bandit beater instincts

thanks man i’m happy you gave it a full read and replied with your own opinions! really interesting to see how other people would tackle these specific issues and even if none of these are used i truly hope the early game is tweaked so player retention and first impressions can be improved (i’ve seen it first hand with my friends deciding to quit because of some of these issues :sob: )

1 Like
12

Personally, I think the ability to cancel quests would be better, but since that’s off limits, this is the next best thing

1 Like
13

sounds pretty unnecessary when theres that whole quest log constantly telling you on what islands your missing quests are. its their problem if they are too scared to explore, theyll just have huge clouds on their map clearly indicating what they havent checked yet

dont really have much else to add. i like removing the level requirement for the storyline even if it would definitely lead to a bunch of people getting stuck (they already are stuck at the intended level to fight bosses), although i think itd still be good to be kept for awakenings or to progress to the next sea story .
interesting approach to quests even if i doubt repeatable quests will be removed, meaning you also cant make the exp of quests scale with your level

1 Like
14

4464_yes_honey_left

i don’t disagree but i would like the game to be just a bit more friendly to people who aren’t already invested in the community, these people are coming off games like gpo and blox piece or whatever where exploring gets you punished so i can’t exactly fault them for playing a roblox game like it’s a roblox game

fair enough, ultimately this is a collection of ideas i think could help, not a step by step guide or anything, even just one or two things like the xp rewards scaling with levels could help alot

15

I love all of these ideas. These would make quests a lot better, though I am not on par with the buyable map at an npc on every island that doesn’t uncover your map suggestion, it feels unnecessary. It would also be funny if the story level caps were removed, meaning people could reach awakening very quick.

1 Like
16

yeah i mean currently you go through an ‘‘arc’’ and have to take a break of just level farming so
if anything i think the pacing of the game would be better if you could decide yourself when you want to grind and when you want to try fighting a boss underleveled (this rewards players for being able to fight a boss at a disadvantage while also letting people who are having trouble grind up more if they want to)

yeah maybe a map is too much, maybe just having quests give you pointers in the general direction? otherwise all the players get is ‘‘you unlocked x quest at y island!, where’s y island? go find it!’’ which is a little overwhelming for new players since there’s so many islands there’s no way to know where to go (on top of that going to every single island is a waste of time early game because of the lack of quests, this issue could be fixed if every quest was available from the start like tobi suggested, giving players a reason to explore)

17

What do you mean, it’s “off-limits”?

18

It’s in the declined suggestions list

19

That sucks, because I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be able to cancel a quest.

1 Like
20

but why…? i mean if vetex wants people to do every single side quests just remove the limit on how many you can take… or just make them all scale to your current level to at least give a decent amount of xp

currently the casual players will just have to ignore half the side quests they see because of the limit and because they dont want to spend 20 minutes backtracking and doing a quest for no xp