Played for 5 days, and just un-instaled, heres why

[Airjam]

Funnily enough, when being asked if I would like to learn sword making from Harnquist I replied three times "I would like to learn sword making Harnquist" + "I am interested in learning sword making Harnquist" and finally "teach me sword making harnquist"

Why would I get completely rid of a game due to these three things not working?

Quite simply, if nether of those phrases works, imho, this game is incredibilly flawed, I have felt, everytime I have asked an npc, that I am playing an impossible game, now this is supposed to be a roleplaying, no spoiler-sites game, yet the first npc you are told to speak to refuses to talk because YOU DIDN'T PHRASE IT RIGHT?!? In EQ, this kinda quest system worked, because it worked on KEYWORDS, not entire complete exact sentences! All I feel in PS is that I have to talk to npc-shaped robots, and after five days of it, I find the desire to do anything in PS has left me, this is a massive shame, I was looking forward to  getting into this game, I loved it when I first started it up, it reminded me of EQ, there was RP (missing from SO MANY rpg's!) and people were willing to help.

However, to have such fundimental flaws in the way the npcs work is going to lose you more and more people, it's not realistic, it's not "one of the fun parts" of PS. It's frustrating and very pointless, I mean honestly, the first sentence I used, how could this NOT work, it is imho, the most obvious thing that springs to mind in regards to what your told, and EQ could even get this better then PS has, hardly a feat imho to change this.


I'm angry, mainly because I WANTED to play this game, I honestly, really did, but I'm not spending my time wasted saying a million very logical and obvious things to a npc that just says I need to speak a complete phrase! It truely makes no sense, please, make it so keywords are the um, key and I'll come back, until that happens planeshift is just too ridiculous to consider playing, sorry.

Yes I know it's an alpha stage game, but surely, using keywords is even more basic then relaying on complete sentences, you can claim it's to encourage people to use proper sentences, but when those sentences don't even work, it's still frustrating, and pointlessly so.

Start as you mean to go on is a phrase that comes to mind, all I could think was, this is the first npc i speak to properly, and I felt stonewalled. utterly.


Sorry, but MASSIVE disapointment, and I wasn't expecting much in the first place, something better then runescape was my thought

Please don't flame, this is a post meant to highlight an issue that surely must have been mentioned a fair few times now, and without issues being voiced, you cannot improve.


Trev

[bilbous]

Did you try saying simply "yes"?

[Suno_Regin]

It's pre-alpha, dude. EQ's a finished game. Wait a bit and PS will gendown all those other games. =P

[Asraniel]

well, i think i'm not the only one when i say that i too think that currently PS is not playable at all. specialy as a non english speaking player, its nearly impossible to get quests, or worse, finish them.

I'm sure there are many players only waiting to see "npc communitcating now works" in the next changelog to log in again.
But i'm sure we will see that in the next 3-4 releases (so, just wait 6-8 months, and hopefully everything will be better).

[Parallo]

So to play you simply must get and complete quests?

[Asraniel]

well, running around gets boring after some time, and killing monsters too. i can play diablo 2 if i want to do that.
I think quests are a essential part of a roleplaying game, and if they dont work, it's not better than any hack n slash game out there. and the combat part isnt realy the best in planeshift

[Parallo]

If you want just quests then go get Oblivion. If you want actual rping and interaction with other characters stay here.

[lordraleigh]

I rarely use the game engine beyond the chat tab due to its current limitations.

What can you do in roleplay beyond what the game currently supports(Roleplay):

- Anything that is realistic and acceptable by the community(In other words: anything that isn't godmodding).

What can you do using the alpha game engine(Gameplay):

- Powerlevelling, duelling on fully random outcome combat(where you can kill someone with chainmail easily using a dagger while he will have more difficulties when trying to kill you with a longsword) talking with stupid NPCs to get boring linear quests that mostly are menial tasks, Mining ores, crafting weapons and casting ores, testing the game and using the graphical glitches("Piles of dust"  ) for OOC joking(That the GMs will quickly answer to of course), jumping from the Windowless tower to take screenshots, commiting suicide on the Death Realm and moving your character's dead body around, Modding textures to make a video like "The Planeshift Simpsons", adding trolls and "1337 h4xx0r5" to the "ignore_list", reporting the same to await for "*leet* was struck down by Laanx! ..." or perhaps "*leet* was banished by Laanx to another Realm...."  , founding a guild, making a group for OOC chat or IC whispering and taking weird screenshots like this.

[Easton]

 Well.. since this game is a MMORPG (emphasis on the MMO) i would think the point would be moreso to interact with the various people and characters you will meet in the game in a roleplay manner. If all you want are quests and leveling and beign silent all the time and running around fetching things for people, try a single player game.

But yes, the quest system, along with just about every other aspect of the game, needs tweaking at best. Hence prealpha testing.

Easton

[Airjam]

Did you try saying simply "yes"?

Pretty sure I started a sentence with that, that sure did make me think though haha! However, harnquist isn't the only npc i've tried to speak to, and every npc has, across the board, been that frustrating, and regardless of alpha stages, keywords make a hellova lotta sense to me, the fact you need to use a complete sentence, and at that a very precise sentence, still comes across as flawed, again, surely, it's takes less programing power to have the npcs respond to a single word? (even if it has to be delivered in a sentence) I don't know, as I have no experience of any kind of programing, modding or anything simlier, so again, this is another thing that held me back from perhaps getting as much out of PS as I could have.

Anyhow, hope you all have far more positive experiences then I, I will return in the future perhaps, right now though, it's just too frustrating=(


Trev

*edit*

Well.. since this game is a MMORPG (emphasis on the MMO) i would think the point would be moreso to interact with the various people and characters you will meet in the game in a roleplay manner. If all you want are quests and leveling and beign silent all the time and running around fetching things for people, try a single player game.

But yes, the quest system, along with just about every other aspect of the game, needs tweaking at best. Hence prealpha testing.

Easton

I mentioned the people were helpful, that wasn't the issue though, as the times I tend to get to play are often rather late, and I've hardly seen a soul, so quests were the main thing I wanted to concentrate on, and if I wanted to play a single player game, I would, thank you =P


Trev

[ Please avoid making one post right after the other in the same thread. Just "Modify" your first post to add more information. --Karyuu ]

[emeraldfool]

We don't really care, 'Airjam', if I can be so blunt.

If the words 'Alpha-testing' and 'Roleplaying' mean nothing to you, then Planeshift is not the game for you.


Why would your entire opinion of a community role-playing game be based on how well you can interact with a computer?

[Nikodemus]

Read it Carefully.

Quite simply, if nether of those phrases works, imho, this game is incredibilly flawed, I have felt, everytime I have asked an npc, that I am playing an impossible game, now this is supposed to be a roleplaying, no spoiler-sites game, yet the first npc you are told to speak to refuses to talk because YOU DIDN'T PHRASE IT RIGHT?!?

This is very good argument for this discussion: The Winch -- What are they thinking?
Just look, Airjam was playing for only 5 days and was extensively trying to communicate with NPCs. It is one of the most valuable opinion for the devs to think what exactly are they doing. And see what is the concluccion? The game NPC communication is encouraging spoiling. Yes, spoiling
The NPCs communication has to change, or one of the goals to avoid spoiling at all goes to hell. Sorry to rush you guys, you know all this very well, but it is that bad currently. I hope you manage to fix it, even if basing on the current system, not making new one.

Airjam, don't go away, i understand it is flustrating when you can't do quests. But most of the community feels the same. And i the meanwhile RP with other people, organize events for yourself and join events made by others. It may be fun. It is what almost no other MMORPG will offer you. And yeah, its testing-developing stage of PS, don't treat it like ready gsame where everything is working.

[Janner]

MY first thought to any quest offer is yes please, but always say yes, why do I not use my manners to NPCs you ask? Simple, todays youth will very rarely use the manners they were taught, why you ask? Again simple there friends do not why should they, only older generation like that boring old fashioned stuff.
Another thing to remember when doing quests, who made them and for what age group did they make them for.

[ThomPhoenix]

and EQ could even get this better then PS has

Maybe because EQ was made by a large paid team?

using keywords is even more basic then relaying on complete sentences,

No it's not. It's relatively easy to make something like IF $playeranswer = "Do you need help?" ELSE $npcanswer "What are you saying?". When you start using keywords the NPCs must of course know synonyms, or else you would still get the same situation, only you would not be guessing whole sentences, but words, which is quite the same. Of course a keyword system is in the works, but it will take a while for the NPCs to become so intelligent that they can recognize synonyms.

The game NPC communication is encouraging spoiling. Yes, spoiling

You are confusing things here. When you simply go to a website and read the guide to complete questX, yes, that's spoiling.
But when you go to that website or ask someone about a quest not because you're lazy but because you can't get a sentence's spelling right, I do not think that's spoiling, for you already know the answer.

And by the way, welcome to 0.3

[bilbous]

The sad truth about talking with npc's is that sentence fragments seem to be the rule. "about this", "tell about that",  and it is true that quests are frustrating, I mostly don't bother with them but from time to time I will ask an npc "who are you" and "can I help you." Often you can get them talking "about hydlaa" or "about *randomly chosen word of significance from their or another npc's dialog*"