What's Missing? - The 10 Quest Types in MMORPGs

  • One of the biggest complaints I see people making about this game right now is that all the quests (or "voyages") are the same. Quest giver tells you to go find something on another island, you go get it, and you bring it back to them at the outpost (usually without having to travel very far). They're intended to be a starting point for the players to make their own adventures, which is fine, but I do believe there's some room for a little more variety in these starting points.

    Looking at this post on MMORPG.com, there are essentially 10 different types of quests in MMOs:

    1. Kill X of Y - Defeat a certain number of one type of bad guy.
    2. Kill Named Y - Defeat one particularly powerful bad guy
    3. Delivery - Take something from the quest giver and deliver it somewhere else
    4. Collect X of Y - Find a certain number of some kind of object
    5. Escort - Lead an NPC from point A to point B
    6. Locate - Either a "go find the place/person/item" quest, or just a "go to this place/person/item" quest
    7. Defend - Defend someone or something as waves of attackers try to kill it
    8. Interact - A variation on Locate where you have to activate something at the location(s) you're going to
    9. Crafting - in games with a crafting system, quests that encourage making stuff with it
    10. Reach Achievement X - level barrier quests that keep you from advancing too far into the story when you're not strong enough

    Looking at this list, it's easy to see why Sea of Thieves might feel a little stale on the quest front. Generally speaking, there isn't a lot of variety to be had in MMOs to begin with, and Sea of Thieves is a very unusual sort of MMO, deliberately designed with horizontal progression and no story. So some of these quest types simply won't work here. 9 & 10 are definitely out, but that's okay, because they're filler quests, anyway. Let's look at what we have and what there might be room for.

    -Quest types 6, Locate, and 4, Collect, are probably the only ones we can definitively check off as implemented. There are elements of Escort and Delivery inherent in these quests, as well, but in an unusual form, where the only potential obstacles are other players.
    -Quest types 1 & 2 seem likely to be covered, to a certain extent, by The Order of Souls. We'll likely need to hunt down a certain skeleton to take his skull back to the quest giver.

    So where is there room for more?

    -The easiest to implement, and most suggested I'm seeing, is Delivery. Instead of playing fetch for the quest giver, play mailman. Take something he gives you (perhaps something you just brought him from a previous quest?) and deliver it to a different outpost.
    -Escort is a possibility, but would require the addition of perhaps NPC ships. Maybe the quest giver doesn't trust us with his cargo, but needs some hired guns/cannons to keep him safe from other players.
    -Kill quests (1 & 2) may already be covered to an extent, but maybe there's room for some headhunting quests. Some player p****s off one of the Gold Hoarders by stealing a chest that was supposed to be delivered to them and taking it to a different one or something, so now they've got a price on their head.
    -Defend is possibly sorta-kinda in place with the skeleton forts, but it's more attack than defend, at least until you get in there and take the loot, and then the defense comes in the form of PvP. Adding quests of this type while maintaining the loose, player-driven non-narrative lore might be difficult.

    I guess what I'm trying to show with this is that while, yes, the quests we have currently are repetitive, and yes, there's a little bit of room for variety, MMOs don't have a whole lot of it to begin with. And when you're deliberately trying to give the players control of the story, you're even more limited. So maybe the playerbase should be thinking of this game less like an MMO and more like a Battle Royale, I don't know. Find your fun outside of the quests, is my point, I think. And hopefully Rare will add some degree of variety to those quests later on.

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  • if you break down most missions its all based on some of the same basics. fetch, protect and dont die. The thing with this game is all gold is all for skins making this look one way and that look another, with no weapon improvements what else do you do?

  • @mickeyc13 I would really love to see Escort and Defend!
    Especially escort. Maybe their will be something on the escorting ships to let other ships know that that ship is escorting rich npc.

  • @mickeyc13 this game isn't advertised as an MMORPG

  • Oh! Me! I know! I know!
    It's missing: none of above!

    Cuz it's a sanbox and it's not WoW, nor CoD, nor LOL, nor Minecraft, it's SOT.
    Pleeeeease, don't act as if all games were the same and let this game do it's way and bring new things over time.

  • @thejolirouge which is... Kinda what I said...

  • @too-much-space that's by design, though. Horizontal progression. There are a ton of games that don't give you anything but cosmetic unlocks as a reward for achievements/hours played (Overwatch comes to mind), it's just unusual for something that sits this close to MMO. The challenge then becomes making the gameplay entertaining enough to keep people coming back, even if it is all the same, for the gameplay itself, rather than for a reward. Which I think this game can do, with a little more variety.

  • @kylemccarley said in What's Missing? - The 10 Quest Types in MMORPGs:

    1. Kill X of Y - Defeat a certain number of one type of bad guy.
    2. Kill Named Y - Defeat one particularly powerful bad guy
    3. Delivery - Take something from the quest giver and deliver it somewhere else
    4. Collect X of Y - Find a certain number of some kind of object
    5. Escort - Lead an NPC from point A to point B
    6. Locate - Either a "go find the place/person/item" quest, or just a "go to this place/person/item" quest
    7. Defend - Defend someone or something as waves of attackers try to kill it
    8. Interact - A variation on Locate where you have to activate something at the location(s) you're going to
    9. Crafting - in games with a crafting system, quests that encourage making stuff with it
    10. Reach Achievement X - level barrier quests that keep you from advancing too far into the story when you're not strong enough

    Some toughs on these quests

    1. This is basically the minions you have to kill in Order of Souls missions.
    2. These are the captains you fight at the end of those missions.
    3. Delivery is Merchaints Alliance you just have to find the stuff first. (maybe transferring an item that they already to another outpost would add some variety)
    4. Sounds Like Treasure hunting to me. But why set a goal of how many chest or skulls i need to get before i turn them in?
    5. I think finding a stranded NPC on an island or shipwrecked boat and taking them somewhere for a reward would be interesting.
    6. Breadcrumb quests are really boring. You should be out exploring anyway, it is a more natural way of discovering things.
    7. While there is no defend quests the constant fear of enemy's keeps you on guard and makes you have to defend yourself and your loot. Whats more important then my loot.
    8. Solving the riddles on treasure hunting quests is basicaly finding as hidden thing on an island and following the trail to find the chest.
    9. Crafting could be fine but its not really a quest. I don't have any ideas what you would want to craft in this game. And crafting dose not really fit with the consent movement of this game.
    10. Since there is no level progression in this game and new and veteran players have the same stats, I don't see why you would want to add any artificial barrier. This game allows you to bring on a new player and take them anywhere. I would not want to see crews be cut in half because some members don't have achievement X.
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