7-day_Trial_Monkey
03-25-2008, 01:36 PM
Question 2
Imagine that you are playing DDO and something wonderful happens, something so good that you can’t believe that it’s true. Suddenly things become misty, and you realize you were asleep, and it was all just a dream. What would the dream be about?
This was question #2 in the feeback thread #13, but I want to answer it here on it's own, so as not to highjack the original thread with what may turn into a back and forth discussion.
Here is my dream for DDO:
I login to my account and pick my server. I then see the familiar character selection screen. I choose my character and then I either click on "ENTER" as we do now, or I click "CONTINUE".
Choosing continue brings me to the character management screen for the selected character. From here I can open my Character Sheet, Inventory, Quest Log, Favor Panel, etc... I can also position and organize my hotbars without actualy entering the city of Stormreach.
But that's not all! I can also click to visit NPCs. Either by selecting a location, tavern or shop, and then select "ENTER" to login at that location in Stormreach. Or, I can choose to not even enter the 3D world and instead select the NPC I want to interact with, from a list, and open his buy/sell gump.
And more! I can also open the LFM gump right from this one convenient location. I can join a group, I can create a group or I can search the WHO list and send/receive tells to work on building my group. When the group is filled and all the member click a "ready" button, and "ENTER" button becomes active for the group leader, and when clicked everyone gets brought into the quest to start the action.
So, why this suggestion? It's realy simple. The time spent in quests is alot of fun in this game. Time spent outside quests feels like punishment for all the fun had in the quests. I personaly don't get anything out of the time spent outside quests. In fact, time outside quests seems to force people out of groups and into a solitary cross-country runner kind of feel. How much socializing do people do outside the quests? For me, it's none. Zero. Nadda. Nothing at all. Other MMOs general have things to do outside quests that can be considered 'playing' as opposed to 'working'. Time outside quests in DDO is more like work than play. I hate it. I don't get to share that time with my groupmates at all. It's just pointless running between the same checkpoints as I go here to sell my weapons to vendors, run there to sell armor, then run over there to sell jewels/clothing, then run over there to sell the rest. Then I run over to the AH to drop an item or 2 off for sale, then to the mailbox to send something to an alt. Oh, and lest I forget the run here and there to visit some collectibles NPCs.
It's all work and no play.
So what do people enjoy about the game? The quests! That's why I think the best part of the game is where all our time should be spent. Do we need to delete Stormreach? No, let the people who enjoy the jogging around town continue to choose to do that. However, at the same time, let the people who feel like they are being punished for the time they have to spend outside quests instead do all that inventory/character maintenance from a single convenient interface that lets you pull up all the necessary gumps and then jump from that screen into the quests.
I don't have any solutions to offer right now about picking up quests from NPCs. My initial thought is that it's a pointless excersize that adds nothing to the game and should be done away with. Let people pickup the quests by simply clicking on the quest in the favor tracker and be done with it.
Let the devs focus their attention where it belongs and that's inside the current quests and in making new quests.
That's my dream for DDO.
Imagine that you are playing DDO and something wonderful happens, something so good that you can’t believe that it’s true. Suddenly things become misty, and you realize you were asleep, and it was all just a dream. What would the dream be about?
This was question #2 in the feeback thread #13, but I want to answer it here on it's own, so as not to highjack the original thread with what may turn into a back and forth discussion.
Here is my dream for DDO:
I login to my account and pick my server. I then see the familiar character selection screen. I choose my character and then I either click on "ENTER" as we do now, or I click "CONTINUE".
Choosing continue brings me to the character management screen for the selected character. From here I can open my Character Sheet, Inventory, Quest Log, Favor Panel, etc... I can also position and organize my hotbars without actualy entering the city of Stormreach.
But that's not all! I can also click to visit NPCs. Either by selecting a location, tavern or shop, and then select "ENTER" to login at that location in Stormreach. Or, I can choose to not even enter the 3D world and instead select the NPC I want to interact with, from a list, and open his buy/sell gump.
And more! I can also open the LFM gump right from this one convenient location. I can join a group, I can create a group or I can search the WHO list and send/receive tells to work on building my group. When the group is filled and all the member click a "ready" button, and "ENTER" button becomes active for the group leader, and when clicked everyone gets brought into the quest to start the action.
So, why this suggestion? It's realy simple. The time spent in quests is alot of fun in this game. Time spent outside quests feels like punishment for all the fun had in the quests. I personaly don't get anything out of the time spent outside quests. In fact, time outside quests seems to force people out of groups and into a solitary cross-country runner kind of feel. How much socializing do people do outside the quests? For me, it's none. Zero. Nadda. Nothing at all. Other MMOs general have things to do outside quests that can be considered 'playing' as opposed to 'working'. Time outside quests in DDO is more like work than play. I hate it. I don't get to share that time with my groupmates at all. It's just pointless running between the same checkpoints as I go here to sell my weapons to vendors, run there to sell armor, then run over there to sell jewels/clothing, then run over there to sell the rest. Then I run over to the AH to drop an item or 2 off for sale, then to the mailbox to send something to an alt. Oh, and lest I forget the run here and there to visit some collectibles NPCs.
It's all work and no play.
So what do people enjoy about the game? The quests! That's why I think the best part of the game is where all our time should be spent. Do we need to delete Stormreach? No, let the people who enjoy the jogging around town continue to choose to do that. However, at the same time, let the people who feel like they are being punished for the time they have to spend outside quests instead do all that inventory/character maintenance from a single convenient interface that lets you pull up all the necessary gumps and then jump from that screen into the quests.
I don't have any solutions to offer right now about picking up quests from NPCs. My initial thought is that it's a pointless excersize that adds nothing to the game and should be done away with. Let people pickup the quests by simply clicking on the quest in the favor tracker and be done with it.
Let the devs focus their attention where it belongs and that's inside the current quests and in making new quests.
That's my dream for DDO.