Since game is still being updated, it won’t hurt to discuss something that’s not been touched in a long time. I don’t mean numerically buffing quest rewards, but making them more interesting. They aren’t overly exciting now. I checked how many quests rewarded us with generic stuff and it’s a sad picture. About half of them could use re-working. Mostly in acts 3-6. Let me explain what I think is wrong with quests now:
Quests should never grant XP. I get XP from killing monsters all day. It puts me off the most when I gain a level from talking to a guy. Wow, what a mind-blowing conversation that must have been! There is also a point at the beginning when I gain levels faster from telling NPCs what I did than from actually doing it. If a quest grants only XP, then maybe it should grant reputation instead, be turned into part of a longer quest or be removed altogether.
In a few instances when I talk to an NPC with a quest marker, I instantly gain and complete a quest. Sahdina does that for example. I believe in these cases marker is acting as a hint and due to engine limitation, game has to display a “quest completed” window afterwards. What kind of quest is that though? I’m not sure what to do about these. Probably best to remove the markers along with underlying quests.
The most important point. Scrap, iron, most crafting materials and components are too common to stand for rewards. They only make sense at the beginning. Heck, even a random epic or legendary item is nothing special towards the end. NPCs are trying to impress me with things I found 5 of during their quest alone. Lowering drop rates would help, but I abandoned hopes for that. What retains enough value then? Blueprints, skill or attribute points are still good, but they are already awarded in some quests. Craft-only components or medal augments could be nice. Game is so generous, that there’s not much left to give the player. What could work are special, single-use services, e.g. NPC duplicating a player’s item, detaching a component from item without destroying them, changing player’s name or even removing a mastery. Likewise, unlocking a new gameplay mechanism is always a good reward. Unfortunately, there are too many quests in need of a re-work to come up with something unique for them all.
Lacking good rewards, many quests seem to be mere progress markers. Couldn’t they be parts of fewer but longer quests?
Some other quests act as incentive for player to explore specific locations. These locations usually provide more value than the quests, so I’m not sure if they’re necessary. Completionists will go there anyway while others will end up with a long tail of unfinished quests.
Does somebody have good ideas on improving quests?
Missions are the best way to level up individually, perhaps they could increase the rewards from them, but removing experience is not a solution. Besides, modifying them at this stage of the game would be a waste of time.
general rewards, yes, fixed blueprint (like set helmets etc), unique items, materia, area unlocks, boss fights, points/progress rewards etc
removing XP, massively bad, colossally detrimental - you can’t replace this nor shift it where it will ever be equal, you’re adding grind at best (yes i know you like that, others don’t)
from direct interaction with players; these are (sadly) clearly highly necessary, because a bunch of people seem to require either gps markers and or just basic info telling them XY “exists”.
So the “breadcrumbs” have to be present to not turn things into an even bigger wiki reader.
I don’t know if it could be done, but it’s also been suggested before, either adding a way to simply get the much requested “abandon quest” feature.
Or perhaps if the game/engine/quest system requires it a way to manually “complete” quests without completing them/when you feel it’s over. (- like a "cleaner"NPC that completes any quest without reward etc to remove it from log)
*this wouldn’t just solve breadcrumb/exploration pointer quests but also just general surplus quests some don’t want - likewise potentially assists with unwanted bounty clearing too ?
That totally depends on what you get. I got two legendary items that I was looking for and didn’t have yet at the end as quest rewards.
There are some that do this (though not for set items). This is nice once, but after that it’s just annoying Getting a random blue print (that you don’t have preferably) would be better imho.
You can disable them and remove them from your list already. I think that’s enough to forget about them (for this character).
Maybe I should make that post that I was wanting to make about lesser known features and hidden mechanics
as i understand quest rewards dont’ (or even can’t?) check blueprint against what you have,
hence why limiting the reward selection to a specific type so there is less chance of duplicate; either way you will have a decent chance of duplicate the further along you are
right now we have mix of relic and rando accessory blueprint on some reward i think, higher or lower tiers depending on quest/difficulty.
So even if the system can’t check against existing (which would still give duplicates unless it kept rerolling infinitely), “targeting” the pool to be either narrower and/or more “desirable” could then make it a decent source,
Heck it could even be a reward for like a special totem or nemesis bounty so you get a fixed bonus blueprint chance/source to obtain
you can’t really, that’s also the complaint
you have to remove them every time you log back in/switched chars
nor does it fix the root issue of them still being there, which alone seems to bother plenty
The most happiness I personally get from a quest is a world change. Brought wood? Boom, get fancy barracks. Or the soiled water quest at the beginning of the game.
They are also probably the most expensive to dev though.
Quests granting granting exp has been a staple of the rpg genre since the dawn of it, don’t know why Grim Dawn should be any different.
Not to mention the vast majority of quests require you to do something before handing the quest, like killing a boss or collecting something, so it’s not like you spend the entire game just talking to npcs and getting exp from doing nothng. It would also be really lame to just get like a crafting mat or reputation from doing those quests and not a single point of exp.
I disagree, it’s most satisfying to get back to DC or Homestead, turn in a ton of quests and instantly gain 2 levels worth of XP.
Those quests are meant for new players who know nothing about the game. Those hand-holding quests should stay as they are.
Agreed, apart from unlocking service NPCs and the occasional blueprint, most quest rewards are nothing to write home about. Like the first reward from Rigg’s questline, it’s just some random crap item that’s not even worth looking at. Might as well receive a few iron bits directly to save you the trouble of walking to the vendor to sell it.
Good examples of meaningful rewards are the limited services offered by NPCs in Diablo 2:
Charsi will imbue one item of choice after you bring her the Smith’s malus, Larzuk will add sockets to one item of choice after you kill Shenk.
These services are so much sought after, they are even traded away to other players.
Would be great so see something similar in GD as well.
If that kind of quest reward overhaul is too unrealistic at this point in development, at least some of the completely useless rewards should be replaced with something more useful, and the unique items given (eg. Sister’s amulet or Skinner’s family seal) should receive some buffs.
What I would really love to see as quest rewards are random mid-high level relics and components. Any level 75 seal would be amazing as a reward for some boss-killing quest on Ultimate, especially for new players who haven’t farmed a million mats to craft that stuff. Even if their current build wouldn’t benefit from it, it might be an incentive to start another one.
Yes that’s true; I remember playing the game as a noob and having GD wiki/grimtools open on my phone or smth. Hell, even now for lokarr quests or something I don’t exactly have memorized I might look up guides.
i don’t think there is necessarily anything wrong with it. Different people are different levels of attentive or exploring.
Having the “quest”/pointer entry also can serve as a reminder if been on a break
Yes, I did think about Diablo 2 quests when creating this thread, but chose not to mention them to avoid replies like: “Oh no, here he goes again with outdated concepts from a bygone era.”