Couple of QoL Suggestions

So far I am enjoying the game. I wasnt old enough to play many of the older MMOs that this might resemble but it has reminded me of Morrowind which I loved.

The only problems I have had so far is lack of directions and NPCs being hard to see.

For example I was told to find someone who is by the windmill. That is all I remember being told. It didnt help that the windmill was in a big walled city, didnt expect to see it there. Then I was told I could find bonemeal in the crypt. But no real directions beyond that. So I am left standing there wondering where in this big zone is the crypt. They talk to me as if I am a local and know where everything is. Then to make matters worse the map is virtually useless and the world doesnt seen to have any directions either.

So I suggest making things a bit more realistic I suppose you could say. By making NPCs treat you like an actual person, instead of like a player. Instead of just telling me to go to the crypt have them say it is south east of here or whatever. Also have them mark it on your map. It wouldnt be as bad as like a glowing arrow on a compass or anything and it makes sense. If you are in a world where people carry maps and you want to show someone where to go you would logically show them on the map.

Also road signs to specific areas would be nice at certain points. Like heading out of the city haveing a sign point to the direction of a important place like the crypts would make sense.

As far as seeing NPCs go, it can be difficult to find them when people are grouped around them and you dont know their name. The lag in town currently makes this worse. I know holding alt shows names of everuone around, problem is NPCs still look like players. Simple change I suggest would be to give them a different name color so you can pinpoint then more easily.

Starting now, with all the other new players, is quite the rush. Certainly it is confusing and crowded in Serbule. OMG. We all feel that. Hopefully some of the more <cough> experienced players will eventually relocate to other towncenters. This game has always been about finding your way and problemsolving. It's one of the elements that distinguishes it from other mmos. Although you can't see the changes, lots has been done to improve the newbie experience, and I'm sure that development will continue.

Having the NPCs look like players is part of the immersive qualities lots of players enjoy. And not having everything marked out and labeled and mapped and....

Well, it's about exploration. And patience.

Take some time, look around, and set aside the expectations you might bring from other games. There's no rush here...

And we will definitely try to help. Multiple veteran players like myself really enjoy sharing our knowledge, but we don't want to pass on toooooo many spoilers that will erode your personal explorations.

I am strongly against map marking. I don't need quest markers etc... that's part of the beauty of the game is going out and finding the location based on clues. I don't mind a small hint like 'to the east' or 'to the south' etc... but we don't need the location being mapped for us on our maps.

I think its a great idea though for NPC's to stand out a bit more from players. Maybe a GUI outline over npc's when your cursor is on one. This would just help them pop out when you place your mouse cursor over them as opposed to over players. The color text of their names to be different from players is something I've requested a long time ago. (Which btw should be the case for players in your guild, their names should appear a different color than just another random player, and those on your friends list!)

Certainly there is room for improvement in that area.

Signs pointing to different major cities would make sense, i.e. a sign towards serbule hills just outside of town on the south side would help newer players find their way there.

Oh!

And don't forget the Wiki. From the chat, you can go directly there. Don't google anything--that's a waste of time. For example, you can /wiki alchemy in the chat box and you will go right to the wiki page. On that page, you will find "spoiler" and "expand" options. That's so you don't see what you don't want to see! But if you click those, more information will show up.

Some players, BetaNotus in particular, invest gobs of time in that wiki; it's the epitome of player-driven efforts. I consider it a stellar resource.

Caveat: For a lot of people, bumbling around and finding things themselves becomes the right way to play the game. In some ways the wiki exists so the same things aren't typed over and over in game chat. It's no substitution for experimentation and messing around. Playing by the book....could be less satisfying.

A big realization for me was that i didn't need to do quests in order, i could explore, come back to them, let them sit for ages. It's truly an open world. It's a lot of fun just exploring and finding people and things.

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Originally Posted by Aionlasting

I am strongly against map marking. I don't need quest markers etc... that's part of the beauty of the game is going out and finding the location based on clues. I don't mind a small hint like 'to the east' or 'to the south' etc... but we don't need the location being mapped for us on our maps.

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There are a couple of different instances of finding a location. One example is NPC says I need 5 of X, please go and find me some. In this case we could avoid map markers because the NPC doesn't know where to send you just what it wants.

Another instance is where an NPC says I need 5 of X, you can collect these from ABC Farm. Knowing where this is the NPC would show you on your map where the farm is. It is simply logical sense of immersion. If you asked someone to go get something for you and you knew exactly where it was you wouldn't just say go find it. You'd accurately say where it is, and in a world where people carry maps you'd show them on it.

Some things are near impossible to figure out ingame and that is bad. You either have no idea what you're doing and hope you stumble into everything or you look up stuff on the wiki(which isn't much difference to the whole map markers everywhere)


Add guards to a few maps that can give directions, I legitimately do not know if any NPC tells you where the graveyard is because when I was looking for it I talked to a bunch of NPC's then asked in global. The quest giver should either say 'You can get bonemeal from the graveyard which is to the south west' or add another NPC that will give directions. Ie he will point you in the direction of the docks, crypt, serbule hills etc

The quests don't give specific directions because we are still moving stuff around and the text seems to CONSTANTLY become wrong, and it's impossible for us to maintain right now. And having wrong directions is much worse than no directions. Quests will eventually give general cardinal directions after the geography of the world is more locked down.

Also note that as you raise your skills you will get some tools for finding quest points. For instance, there's an ability that will orient your character toward the goal spot (if the objective has a specific area). There will eventually be an ability that marks it on your map for you, akin to how surveying maps work. The quest-objective-finding feature is kind of limited right now -- for instance, if you need to get something from a dungeon, it doesn't point you in the direction of the dungeon, it just says "not around here" -- but we'll eventually make it fairly robust.

5 days in and without using orienteering once yet, I am getting a really good feel for where everything is at and how to find stuff/people in Serb and Serb Hills... Much the same as if I had moved to a strange city IRL

It is difficult and maybe a little frustrating at first, but once I started to think, study and plan the things I decided to do before I set out, it became much more rewarding to accomplish a task

I definitely feel much more connected to the landscape here and aware of my my surroundings than I have in countless other games that put neon markers on everything to make finding stuff easier.... I say leave it as is, though adding general directions in the quest dialog wouldn't hurt anything

When games start adding so called quality of life features that make certain tasks effortless, like finding an NPC or locating a landmark, the tendency is to make only battle and grinding challenging... I much prefer it that everything requires effort and thought, even the trivial stuff

As a new player I’ve not hugely had issue finding stuff. Partly because there’s a nice skill the game gave me which points me towards a location for a quest I’m on if it’s in the zone I am in

I've only been playing for a month, and the first 1.5 weeks or so, I was frustrated because of how hard it seemed to find NPC's and spots out in the wild. But now, I know how the game works. It takes a bit more brain power, but that's ok. I even took the 2 "find" skills off my hotbar, because I never use em.

I do however, refer to the zone maps on the Wiki, some (maybe all) have been updated fairly recently (whoever did that, thank you!). I save the map onto my computer, and if I just can't find something, and my in-game map is still mostly fog, a general idea of "where" from the wiki map does the trick.

The only time I use map pins is when I am doing surveys / treasure maps, or to mark something I want to research for later (this is a portal in Eltibule that I marked because I have no idea what it does, and I keep meaning to research that).

I like that there are not neon signs all over, etc. It feels more like a real world. Including the time it takes to get anywhere, arg.

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Originally Posted by Azarik

... and in a world where people carry maps you'd show them on it.

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Maybe the NPCs don't know how to read maps. Maybe maps don't really exist in PG, at least not like IRL. Otherwise, I'm sure Marna would sell them :)

Besides, you can always ask if any other player is willing to show you. I've seen players offer often when someone asks where something is.