Breakfast Topic: Daily Quest design

by Mike Schramm Oct 12th 2007 at 8:05AM

I've been doing the daily quests a lot lately (for time invested vs. reward received, they are great), but I kind of agree with a comment one of you readers made earlier this week-- sooner or later, they just feel like a job you're doing. I'm still glad Blizzard is down with the idea-- patch 2.3 is going to bring cooking and PvP daily quests to do.

But I still the idea is missing something. So this morning, we're giving the mic to you-- what would your perfect Daily Quest be? It has to be interesting enough and varied enough to keep doing day after day, and yet it has to be simple enough to do in a short amount of time. A good daily quest can't be anything that epic, either-- a daily quest to kill just one guy over and over would be a little strange, but it has to be epic enough that you want to keep doing it every 24 hours. Taking out the trash is too boring for us adventurers to call a "quest."

So if you were designing the perfect daily quest, what would it be? What day-to-day jobs in Azeroth would make for a good task for players to do for a reward every day?

Tags: but-not-that-epic, daily-quests, design, epic, kaliris-suck, player-feedback, quests

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast topics, Quests, Making money

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Arras Oct 12th 2007 8:36AM

I'd like to see a daily quest that involves using a net to capture the monstrous kaliri in Skettis. In WC3 there was a level in the Horde campaign where your trolls could use nets to snare the harpies so your melee troops could kill them. I'd really like to see something like that.
If nothing else, it would certainly help clear the skies of the stupid birds with their stupid hamstring and stupid mile-wide aggro radius. Stupid birds >:(

I agree that more daily quests is a good thing, I like the idea of PvP and cooking dailies and the rotating heroic dungeon quests could be pretty cool. My problem is that you're limited to 10 quests still. If I do all the Skyguard and Ogri'la quests, that's 6 quests - not much room for cooking, pvp, and dungeons. I'd like to see the limit of daily quests go up to 15, maybe even 20

Malacia Oct 12th 2007 8:40AM

Maybe adding a group daily quest where you must kill one random elite mob per day.

Also more rewards could be added for doing additional objectives on existing daily quests. Eg - the one in HP where you need to capture all 3 towers, maybe add another few tokens for defending it for say, 10-15 minutes. This would also add more world pvp which sure as hell beats random ganking.

Evodius Oct 12th 2007 8:48AM

Daily Quest
"Burning the uncleansed"
Travel to Stratholm and continue the cleansing of the fallen town by burning down 10 tainted homes of the villagers there.

Rewards - 11g 50s,
Reputation with the Ardent Dawn* increased by 315

*or some random faction of your choice.

jpn Oct 12th 2007 8:50AM

"...but it has to be epic enough that you want to keep doing it every 24 hours."

Pet peeve - not everything in the game has to be "epic". If everything WAS epic, there would be nothing to compare it to, thusly...you know...yin and yang...anyway.

Even the most "epic" of quests would become "non-epic" and routine because you have to do them daily. Unless they can randomize them insanely well, which could get frustrating. I do like the new daily Outland dungeon quests though, and how they switch dungeons daily. Hoping for something cool, like chasing someone/something through different dungeons, etc.

J0ust Oct 12th 2007 9:03AM

Make them class-based, and put them on a timer. Hunters have to track or tame or trap something, warlocks banish/enslave/defeat demons, warriors use their stances to defeat certain foes, druids use their forms to negotiate the elements (obstacle course?), paladins heal/cleanse wounded and purge undead...all against the clock. Maybe there'd be a small chance of a nice class-specific BoP Blue dropping for really good performance.

The associated mobs and zones could include Azeroth as well as Outland, and be randomly assigned on a per-player basis, eliminating the usual overcrowded camp-fest and populating some of the more deserted areas again.

Those are off the top of my head, I'm sure paid Blizzard devs could come up with far better.

native Oct 12th 2007 9:06AM

i don't care how boring the daily quests are.

as long as i can complete them with a minimum of fuss.

i'm really looking forward to the daily cooking quests. bout time my cooking skill was good for something other than a few buffs.

arctic Oct 12th 2007 9:12AM

Taking Onxyia for her daily walk and letting her do her 'business' outside Orgrimmar, sounds like a pretty sweet quest. ;)

Magnetite Oct 12th 2007 9:14AM

I'm still liking the daily quests - and if there are more than 10 to do per day, that helps with the 'boredom factor' - there are already some I don't like to do, such as the Netherwing one in Nagrand - did it once, and probably never again!

@5 - sounds a great idea - the druid aquatic form part of the swift flight form quest was great fun. Speeding down the river, avoiding bombs and trying to catch an NPC - I'm sure that could be done pretty easily (says the non-programmer!)

Gill Oct 12th 2007 9:16AM

Even now that I just recently purchased my epic flying mount, I find the quests to be something like a job: you gotta do it everyday to earn money.

However, it only takes half an hour to an hour for me and I do them in the mornings right before I head off to my RL work so I really don't mind. I do want to see some variety/randomness to them on a daily basis though. For example, the bombing quest in Ogri'la. Rather than bomb the same spot over and over, send us to a different camp. Have us wrangle something else other than Aether Rays, etc.

Erika Oct 12th 2007 9:38AM

I would like to see some daily content involving Old world raids.

Calaana Oct 12th 2007 9:51AM

Class themed, role specific quests. I'm a restro shammy, so maybe something where I have to save a few warriors that are defending the non insane elements or something like that, rogue might have to sneak in and murder some one, steal something or just solo a few guys down, ass/sut/combat specs, have the warlocks pet run loose and they have to retame it, have to kill something in x seconds or do so much damage to something (saaaay a gnome) that it explodes, demon/affliction/destruction there.

Or hell, something midly soloable by a tank/healer class. Fair go too much to ask for? Gawd.

Bob Oct 12th 2007 9:57AM

How about taking a leaf out of grand theft auto and having a taxi run quest where you get 2g for each person you taxi to some far off place up to 16g total.

Shadowisp Oct 12th 2007 10:00AM

Daily Quests for the things we really really do...
* Report 10 Gold Spammers
* Teleport 5 L1s from one city to another
* L70 only quest, complete Dead Mines with only a group of L20s or lower.
* Assist a person getting an Attunement
* Kill 10 Horde/Alliance in Outdoor PvP that must be 30+ levels below you.
* Create 100 stacks of water and trade them all away.
* Resurect 20+ people (not in raid or pvp)... if I heal, I dont get to rez them... so conflicted :(

Jeff Morgan Oct 12th 2007 10:05AM

I think the problem with dailies is that they are...well...dailies. I can't think of anything I would like to continue doing day in, day out that holds the static promise of 11g 50s. Even though the dailies do improve faction reputation, they become increasingly painful to go back to each day.

Number 9 says it best: "I find the quests to be something like a job: you gotta do it everyday to earn money. However, it only takes half an hour to an hour for me and I do them in the mornings right before I head off to my RL work so I really don't mind."

That's a problem. Instead of dailies, tap into number 5's ideas for some class specific quests - I'd go a step further, though, and recommend LONG quest chains - something that could keep a player busy for a while, and make use of the class skills we've all been honing up to level 70. I love the class quests in Azeroth, just tune up some handy rewards at 70 for completing the giant chain.

Eventually that runs out, so how can we make more money? Professions and farming motes are obvious choices, but what about some investment opportunities? Sounds corny, but think if the goblins were creating a new, say, riding mount. You take a calculated risk by offering to support them with a gold sum of your choice. Some investments are shakier than others, but with better payoff. Blizzard could even make use of the NPC entrepreneurs and make successful inventions/ventures available in game. Maybe success is based on the amount of support it receives? If so, it's probably a low-yield investment, but still a cool opportunity for player driven content.

Progressive content would be so much more enjoyable than static dailies. Griftah was a weak start, but a good idea nonetheless. I say get players involved in this type of content - it would be a blast.

Just got an idea - talent spec quests. Create a faction kind of like the rogue "Ravenholdt" which calls upon players to complete various tasks. These tasks could have rewards and even consequences (i.e. reducing your Orgrimmar faction). Sometimes it requires healing, say to stave off a disease. Tank 40 lower level mobs so a goblin can test out a new bomb. Guard a caravan as it travels as in Mannoroth. Alright, I'm done....really.

T. Jaxon Oct 12th 2007 10:38AM

The problem with dailies is that after a while they are too predictable. You are doing the exact same thing over and over again. I propose that dailies should be something that makes the person be wondering, as he clicks on the quest giver, just what he is going to be asked to do today.

Have the daily quest giver randomly pick from 30 quests, and lets use the old M:TG system from boosters to divvy them up: lots of common quests (but all of them different), a few uncommon, and a couple rare ones. You can vary the rewards based on how easy/difficult they might be. Some examples:

1. Aw crap! I have to go 'tag' all the outhouses near Utgarde Keep!
2. I need the bank for Fire Resist - I'm on whelp duty out near the border today!
3. OMG! Hey guildies! I got the super-rare Daily quest where I have to investigate a sighting of Arthas! Who's with me?

The key is to keep players' interest in dailies - throwing a bit of randomness in always helps.

Ancalimon Oct 12th 2007 10:39AM

i would like to see something a little bit different. not quite a daily quest, but more of a weekly quest chain.
start off with something simple like killing a specific mob, then the next day, u have to kill/capture something else. as the days go by, u have a choice of which way to go. have the quest givers give u a choice of 2-3 different objectives, not just one, giving players a little more variety and making it a little less mundane, but the farther you go, the more difficult the quest.
make the final quest a choice of an elite, one of many in a certain town or camp. this way, one week u have to over come a different objective, kiling a different elite mob wich requires a (slightly) different tactic.
when u have the choice to branch off, give the players a choice of which faction they would like to gain rep for (argent dawn, cenarion, etc)
just an idea, but i think it would keep players more interested for longer.

Diabla Oct 12th 2007 10:52AM

There's a daily in Nagrand? I had no idea..

Oblivion Oct 12th 2007 10:55AM

I think the daily quests are great. You can only do 10 and Blizzard is continuing to add more and more so hopefully the monotony of it all will decrease because players will have so many choices. I'm really glad to see that daily quests for dungeons, battlegrounds, and professions are being implemented. I think this is a big step in the right direction.

I would like to see daily quests injected into old world content for people that are leveling. A daily old world dungeon quest would be great. That way, I could finally find a group to run Maraudon. It could be used as a fun tool for people to run Dire Maul, or UBRS again. Of course, the gold reward would have to compensate for the time invested. Nobody is going to run Scholomance for 12 gold when you can just go drop bombs on eggs in Skettis for 5 minutes for the same reward.

I know you said to think of quests that are not epic; however, I think some epic ones would be cool too--Blizzard could make them weekly or monthly or something. For instance, what if there was a monthly quest for each faction to kill a lore character in a major city? Or, a weekly quest to kill a random raid boss from the old world? One week it might be Hakkar, which would require a full ZG run. The next week it might be Val, the second pull in BWL. Maybe even add outdoor raid bosses to the mix like the dragon aspects.