I agree that the quests are the most disappointing feature of PS. Instead of constantly making excuses, developers should at least be mature enough to admit it. Stop blaming the players every time they suggest that something needs improvement or a complete redesign. Accept your responsibility, if you hope to have any shred of professionalism. Accepting and learning from criticism should be a part of the job. If you can't handle it, then perhaps that job isn't for you.
It's the same criticism over and over again. And each person thinks they add something new, which they don't.
I have already mentioned in a different thread that many quests have a severe problem, with specific examples (without spoilers). It's likely that the problem is only going to grow and become worse until the developers can no longer handle it. While Jeraphon claims that there are multiple alternative phrases for all the quests, that is simply not true. Many have a very limited range of alternatives or no alternatives at all. I can provide a specific example but that would mean posting a spoiler. However, if someone ever claims that what I just said isn't true, I can prove them wrong. At that point, however, it would probably just turn into a "no, you are lying... no, you are lying" contest. That is another downfall of not posting "spoilers" and seems rather convenient for the devs to avoid embarrassment and responsibility. If people can't post detailed examples of exactly what seems badly written or broken, then devs can just keep being in denial.
I imagine the earlier quests do have limited phrases. Many of them probably need to be updated but, if Jera says that they have alternative phrases then, I'm willing to believe that. Talking to NPCs isn't like talking to Players, I know you've probably read up about the different phrases to use. (Err, I'm guessing you have.)
I used to play a lot of old text only adventure games, which are basically referred to as "text-parser" games, so I'm quite used to coming up with text phrases for solving quests and progressing.
"You are standing in front of a great fortress.... blah blah blah"
"What do you want to do?>..."
If any of those games had a very limited text-parser, the reviews would rip them apart.
PlaneShift has much more to worry about that these. And, we have systems to improve the text, though it is fairly new. Patience is a virtue.
Even if some quests do have alternative phrases as answers, they are simply very limited. A single quest writer *CANNOT* come up with enough combinations to cover every possible alternative that conveys the idea correctly. You cannot claim that you have every "reasonable" alternative because everyone has their own *reasonable* way of saying things or logical alternative solutions, which aren't "unreasonable", just different. As the number of quests grows over time, you won't be able to keep up with the number of alternative phrases, ensuring clear and concise dialog, and checking for spelling mistakes or any sort of bugs that can break a quest or put it in a loop.
It's not just one writer. So you needn't worry about this
I do believe that's on the easily accessible settings devcast.
A fairly popular MMORPG called "Anarchy Online" also started with a text-parser type of communication with NPCs. You had to guess and type the correct phrases for solving quests. Eventually they couldn't keep up with all the bugs and alternative phrases, not to mention that it was an *outdated* approach, so they had to change it to a menu-driven conversation tree. And that game is backed by a commercial company (Funcom)! If even a commercial development team with several people working on quests decided that a text-parser approach was outdated and they simply could not handle it, a single or a couple of quest writers on PlaneShift team certainly cannot.
Anarchy Online (along with being a terrible game) was commercial and so started with a ton of players whereas PlaneShift starts with a low amount. Anarchy couldn't look into it because those players were paying and wanted the change or they would stop paying, PlaneShift doesn't suffer from this.
It's almost guaranteed that you will eventually drive yourselves into the ground with so many quest related problems that you will try to rewrite the quest dialog system and NPC interaction into a menu-driven conversation tree, except it will be a lot harder to do then because you will have a lot more quests to keep up with. Do you want to learn it the hard way like Anarchy Online / Funcom did or the easy way by being smart now? If you set your egos aside for a moment, you will see that your quest system needs a serious make-over.
If you are wondering how you can possibly create quests and puzzles, if they aren't text based, then take a look at how classic point-and-click adventure games do it (Sierra and Lucas Arts, among many) - combining items, picking correct choices from a conversation tree, using items on NPCs or on environment, manipulating environment etc. I don't advise dead-ends for non-optimal conversation tree choices but you could, for example, have alternative rewards in experience points, trias and items.
You can actually concentrate on adding more *fun* quests with this approach, instead of struggling with bugs and alternative phrases in existing ones.
PlaneShift, for better or worse, plans to keep using this system. Unlike Anarchy they have the time and the 'testers' to improve it. There will be grief for now but, in the end, if they get it done well, I'm sure it will create a more interesting world.
You seem to write quite well. I wonder if you'll ever actually contribute to the forums or just keep posting what has been said again and again.
