Random quests?

[Srikandi]

I've only recently started following D3 closely. One feature that's mentioned in the gameplay video, and alluded to here and there on the forums, is "random quests" or "adventures". Haven't been able to turn up much info about it though.

Can anybody tell me any more about this? I like random features in games and I always enjoy questing so it sounds very exciting to me.

[Mizantrop]

It is like D1 if you ever played it. You had the main quests which you had to do in order to get through the game but also a random pool of "extra" quests which might show when making a new game (see Diablo Quests).
It would be the same in D3. For example The Skeleton King quest was the main quest for the Blizzcon demo. But playing through it a few times there were other quests that would change from game to game. These quests were: escort a captain to his soldiers, save the soldiers (without the captain) and kill an out of control demon which the acolytes foolishly summoned.

[Srikandi]

Ah yes :) I'd completely forgotten that some of the sidequests in Diablo were random. Maybe I should reinstall it :O

Would be happy if these quests had new areas/dungeons and not just new tasks :)

[kavlor]

Im wondering if they will be MMO style as Ive seen this happen in a few ARPGs.I do think quests are the vital component of the 'rpg' part of an arpg and give it more replayability.Hardcore fans might not like the 'mmo' style but I think it would only add to it without taking the 'action' part out.

[Mizantrop]

^
When you say MMO style you mean "collect X-return" quests? I think we won't see that kind of quests in Diablo (hopefully).
Anything other than that is good: escort messenger, bring heart of demon, rescue damsel, protect caravan for a few minutes while waves and waves of monsters engulfs it (very cool) :thumbup:

[Mad Mantis]

Please, no escort missions. AI is too retarded for that. They ALWAYS try as hard as they can to get themselves killed. Frustration is the only thing that can come from escort quests.

[sbn]

It would be great to see an expanded quest system that would break the monotony and repetitiveness of D2. What I am speaking of is what D2 is now, not when it was new. As it is now, the online portion is either MF runs, Baal runs, or dueling.

It would be nice if they could even allow user created scripts to be submitted to create new, fresh, and random quest generation. Anything to prevent D3 from becoming what D2 is now, a game that has many players, but very...very few who actually play the game. In fact I would go further to say that I personally would like to see a quest system that would essentially be the core of the game after completion.

[Mizantrop]

Please, no escort missions. AI is too retarded for that. They ALWAYS try as hard as they can to get themselves killed. Frustration is the only thing that can come from escort quests.

You are right about the AI for path-finding (my captain got stuck on a table:doh:). But the death-wish problam can be easily fixed by making important NPCs unkillable (just like cain was in the WWI gameplay).

[Srikandi]

I'm with Mad Mantis on escort quests. Even with an unkillable NPC, I hate 'em. I don't mind FedEx quests, I will happily perform Kill Foozle quests, but I HATE escorts ;) It's the pathfinding issue and the danger of misplacing your client, plus the fact that they seem to be unusually prone to bugs.

Not sure what an MMO style quest is -- I haven't seen a quest type in an MMO that I haven't seen used extensively in single-player RPGs as well, except of course for party/raid quests. But those are generally the same quest types as single player quests, just set in an environment that requires a party.

The kind of quest I prefer has an interesting motivation story-wise, has more than one step, and has a few surprises (of course, in an infinitely replayable Diablo-type game they don't stay surprises for long, but I still like em :) ) The guy you're saving morphs into a demon and attacks you, for instance. Or better yet, the questgiver does :)

Am I thinking of another game, or did I see somewhere that there might be class quests? I like those too; adds to the fun of trying out all the classes. Heck, better yet have "build quests", where having a certain number of points in a skill tree opens up a questline where you have to use skills in that tree to solve a problem, and gives a build-specific item as a reward :)

Yeah, that's a lot of quest design, but I'm sure Blizz has the chops ;)

Aaaand like I said if they open up special areas or at least change up the dungeon layout in an interesting way, that's a bonus.