How many quests? How often?

[Apocal]

Simple question: how many quests do you think notables (lords, merchants, headmen, landowners, artisans AKA quest givers) should have?

I'm not sure if the rate in 1.5.0 is intended, unintended or just a bug but a lot of people (myself included) don't think it is anywhere near enough, especially for building relations in one specific town or even a region. But I'm not sure how many they want.

The poll is per notable, not per settlement, because there can be a huge variation in number and type of notables depending on settlement type, which would obviously affect the number of quests available. As of 1.5.0, you can have towns with seven notables alongside villages with one and of course even before the beta there were possible castle governors who offered quests.

 

[markp27]

I voted other as it would the depend on village or city and where it is located. A village on the border with another nation which is at war, is more likely to see more deserter quests during a year. If a nation is not at war iron miners are less to be transporting as much iron, therefore the amount of quests to help deliver goods would go down. I believe that each notable would be different depending on where they are located and what is happening in the world at that time.

 

[Apocal]

I voted other as it would the depend on village or city and where it is located. A village on the border with another nation which is at war, is more likely to see more deserter quests during a year. If a nation is not at war iron miners are less to be transporting as much iron, therefore the amount of quests to help deliver goods would go down. I believe that each notable would be different depending on where they are located and what is happening in the world at that time.

I agree too, but the system already does this (to an extent) and I didn't want to have some crazy, massive poll with all the different notable types.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

2 per season. 2 per 21 days (6 possible) isn't very much especially considering many of the quest will be passed because of bad consequences.
However 1-2 would be okay also. Perhaps 1 extra that always pops up if another isn't triggered, or after the triggered one is cleared.
Other: There should always be something available for the player to do for a settlement. There should be certain quests with no -relations trade of for the player to do to raise relations and/or help support themselves that cycle through always, even if they have just basic rewards/relation.

In particular, even before 1.5 I was often disturbed by nobody having the bandit base related quest up, despite many, many bandit bases in the area.
Bandit bases give you +2 relations with near by people anyways, but I feel if there is a base near villages or town, there should be a quest, always.

 

[NLCRich]

I think every notable should always have a quest available. The type of quest they offer should change and you should be able to chain multiple different quests together to increase your relation with the notable of your choosing.

 

[SomeWeirdSins]

More than 1.5.0for sure. The quests (and villages without notables) in 1.5.0 are enough of a problem that I'm considering reverting to 1.4.3

 

[NLCRich]

More than 1.5.0for sure. The quests (and villages without notables) in 1.5.0 are enough of a problem that I'm considering reverting to 1.4.3

Yea, it does seem like I've visited quite a few questless towns.

 

[redmark]

I've not noticed such a drop in available quests 1.5 in towns as much as in villages. Which perhaps sort of makes sense, as towns should be more important points for the player; in 1.4.2-1.4.3, you could tour an area spamming extortion by deserters quests in every third village almost indefinitely and I virtually ignored town quests. They've dipped too far, but the balance should be somewhere between 1.4.3 and 1.5.0 frequency.

(In most recent play, had a gap of probably 200 days between extortion quests in quite a large area - the quest even got cancelled as the bandits approached because the village started getting raided).

 

[MostBlunted]

I voted other as it would the depend on village or city and where it is located. A village on the border with another nation which is at war, is more likely to see more deserter quests during a year.

Would make sense, but TW won´t think this far. It´s just random at all.

I also would like that quests can "change", the "deserter" quest is always offered by third guy from the left, if you can even find any in 1.5.0.

 

[NLCRich]

I've not noticed such a drop in available quests 1.5 in towns as much as in villages. Which perhaps sort of makes sense, as towns should be more important points for the player; in 1.4.2-1.4.3, you could tour an area spamming extortion by deserters quests in every third village almost indefinitely and I virtually ignored town quests. They've dipped too far, but the balance should be somewhere between 1.4.3 and 1.5.0 frequency.

(In most recent play, had a gap of probably 200 days between extortion quests in quite a large area - the quest even got cancelled as the bandits approached because the village started getting raided).

Yea but I didn't see that deserters quest as an exploit so much because it required you to win a battle. It's probably the most fun quest for that reason. And from 1.4.3 it is also a good training exercise for learning to deal with troops led by NPCs and how to work with them versus letting them all die.

 

[redmark]

Yea but I didn't see that deserters quest as an exploit so much because it required you to win a battle. It's probably the most fun quest for that reason. And from 1.4.3 it is also a good training exercise for learning to deal with troops led by NPCs and how to work with them versus letting them all die.

Agreed, it was my favourite quest - and a good way to recruit higher tier troops from the prisoners you get. 1.5 patch notes suggest it had been made more difficult, and I certainly suffered more losses in the two or three I found under 1.5 before the notables disappeared and quests dwindled. Once you went looking for it though, to the exclusion of other quests, it felt a bit spammy (and if you decline the reward, a good way to raise charm quickly).

What would be ideal is if it were intelligently generated - say, it becomes widely available in an area if and when the owning faction of villages had lost significant numbers of troops in battles recently.

 

[Bannerman Man]

I think one thing to consider with this poll is that unsolved issues have an effect on various stats in settlements, such as prosperity, loyalty, security, food, notable power, etc. If issues are too plentiful or respawn too quickly then they will have an overpowering effect on those stats. It also reduces the benefit the player gets from solving them if a new issue is generated too soon, as another negative effect will just pop up to replace the one you just removed.

You could always decrease the effects any one issue causes, but if there are too many then it still hurts the player's ability to make an impact on the game world by solving quests.

 

[Apocal]

I think one thing to consider with this poll is that unsolved issues have an effect on various stats in settlements, such as prosperity, loyalty, security, food, notable power, etc. If issues are too plentiful or respawn too quickly then they will have an overpowering effect on those stats. It also reduces the benefit the player gets from solving them if a new issue is generated too soon, as another negative effect will just pop up to replace the one you just removed.

You could always decrease the effects any one issue causes, but if there are too many then it still hurts the player's ability to make an impact on the game world by solving quests.

Oh yeah, totally. I started this thread to get an idea of how many quests players prefer.

I think part of the fix for excessive notable power loss was adjusting the rate at which quests spawn (and therefore power penalties), which makes sense. But it also has had a very visible impact on player enjoyment and engagement with those systems. It just feels like progress with building up notables is less engaging compared to where it was a patch ago, unless I've just missed other adjustments.

So if players want more quests, someone has to get that feedback in the open where devs can see.

 

[Bannerman Man]

Oh yeah, totally. I just started this thread to get an idea of how many quests players prefer. I think part of the fix for excessive notable power loss was adjusting the rate at which quests spawn (and therefore power penalties), which makes sense. But it also has had a very visible impact on player enjoyment and engagement with those systems.

Oh the poll itself is fine. I just wanted to fill in some context for people to consider before they weigh in. I believe they've made some changes to the issue generation algorithm in the last patch and/or hotfix, and I definitely think there's at least one bug with it that decreases the amount of quests that can be generated over time after a save/reload. I don't think they intended the number to be this low.

I think they were aiming to have the total number of available quests (including lord quests) be around 200-220 at any one time, but with the bug it drops to around 100-120 after a save/reload.

 

[Apocal]

Would make sense, but TW won´t think this far. It´s just random at all.

I also would like that quests can "change", the "deserter" quest is always offered by third guy from the left, if you can even find any in 1.5.0.

Yeah, it is a headman (village elder) quest. Landowners represent petty nobility (or equivalent) who operate huge farms with few permanent workers and lots of seasonal labor. They wouldn't care about villagers getting their pockets turned out.