make this quest EVEN EASIER. *holds up gigantic spoon* Open wide.
Hmm, the problem is that once you have a certain understanding on how NPCs work, it's not really hard to get the phrases right (most of the time, anyway). However, there are some quirks that simply aren't intuitive. Indeed the key phrase has been said by the NPC. Sadly, it's still hard to conclude what is needed... (somehow I can't bring myself to consider this to be a spoiler, as
the content really is straightforward):
"ask about the gilded hilt" is nothing that anyone would think of, because:
1) it is completely removed from IC, and defies the illusion of talking to a real person. A real person would require a phrase like those mentioned by the OP ("Harnquist sends me to get the gilded hilt").
2) It requires the player to suddenly
not speak as their character, but
issue a command to their own character. That is a completely different concept and therefore breaks both what the player usually sees and the intention of the designers (FAICT). In fact, the more emphasis is placed on "the NPCs are normal people like other characters", the harder this change in concepts becomes to a player.
3) It is the exception, so most of the time a phrase has the expected effect, and this makes it even more difficult to suddenly try commandeering the own char in such an unusual way, especially since the complexity of the dialog involved would not change at all (so the command can't be interpreted as saving hours of typing; "explain <XYZ>" may be, but still, is a breach in concept).
If nothing else, IMO this unusual trigger type warrants an inclusion in the guide. It really shouldn't be something a player would have to think of themselves. The adaptation to the quest at hand may rest with the player, but not the discovery of the command itself.
Lastly, while of course it is annoying if people keep complaining about quests being difficult, it has been said that the quests are difficult for the wrong reasons. The reasons are interfacing issues, IOW OOC and completely unrelated to the quests themselves. People aren't criticising the quests or their content. Nothing is hard about the quest itself, except maybe the run to and from Ojaveda. After all, it is nothing but a simple errand. The issue seems to be that of course someone who knows all about the NPCs and their workings will arrive at the correct conclusions in no time. Someone who has no idea how communication bots work in general, let alone NPCs in PS, however, is going to have a hard time. As the saying goes "Everything is easy if you know how to do it.".
I assume that this quest is being easier to interface to after the new phrases are in, but this seems to be something that creeps up occasionally so keeping it in mind may be a good thing regardless.
