Kelwing
N3
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Shattered Steel, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by Kelwing on Mar 28, 2017 4:04:02 GMT
I'm perfectly fine with side quests so far. They seem to fit what is going on. DA:I, there were some tedious unneeded quests.
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Post by derrame on Mar 28, 2017 4:11:52 GMT
ys, it's the same they did with DAI, it's so disappointing, so irritating, that they did this to ME, the main story missions and the loyalty mission and very few side quests are good, the 99% of the side quests are those repetitive boring meaningless fetch quests, just like in DAI
why would i do them? it's boring
and the puzzles, the omnitool and SAM can hack anything and can't hack a simple puzzle? so annoying
anyway, the side quests are boring, tedious, dull,
terrible that they did this to ME :rage: :sob:
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panzerwzh
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Post by panzerwzh on Mar 28, 2017 4:32:02 GMT
you learned a great deal about the game if you are willing to listen. It lets you play with the systems of the game until you are comfortable and then you move on. Willing to listen to what, exactly? How a scientist came to Andromeda because they really loved science? The rewards for completing fetch quests are a bit of XP and about 1-2 lines of throwaway dialogue. Also, you've mentioned it twice now - what systems, exactly..? Fetch quests, by their very name, don't teach you anything.. The legendary first human baby quest, scan six location, four satellites and setup up possible outpost then a boring firefight. Then you know the name of first human baby in Andromeda... Premium quality sidequest indeed. ;P
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Post by colfoley on Mar 28, 2017 4:36:32 GMT
Willing to listen to what, exactly? How a scientist came to Andromeda because they really loved science? The rewards for completing fetch quests are a bit of XP and about 1-2 lines of throwaway dialogue. Also, you've mentioned it twice now - what systems, exactly..? Fetch quests, by their very name, don't teach you anything.. The legendary first human baby quest, scan six location, four satellites and setup up possible outpost then a boring firefight. Then you know the name of first human baby in Andromeda... Premium quality sidequest indeed. ;P This is kind of the problem with hyperbole, it really helps no one, and why the commentary on Dragon Age Inquisition's side quests got so damn tedious was because everyone was like OMGs guys DA I has nothing but fetch quests guys...so horrible. Forgetting quests like 'Still Waters' or 'An unusual Rift in the Ruins' or 'Cheteu de Onterre' (yes I know, bad spelling, sue me). And its the same thing with Andromeda because 2 of the three quests I have played or seen played in Andromeda that are side quests have had unusual twists and turns, plot twists, depth, and choices involved with them. And even the simple 'fetch quest' had a lot of emotional weight behind it.
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Post by jastall on Mar 28, 2017 4:38:55 GMT
So long as you stay away from the more mundane Tasks, I think the side-quests are pretty decent overall. The Heleus Assignment quests are good across the board, always have dialog, context and a good reason to do what you're doing, as well as often providing decisions.
And much as TW3 is lauded for its great side-content, it also had far more mundane stuff like monster hunts and treasure hunts. The same principle applies; don't do it if you don't enjoy it.
If anything, it's a step above ME3's side-quests. Apart from the Grissom Academys of this world, those were really horrible.
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panzerwzh
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All these violent delights have violent ends.
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Post by panzerwzh on Mar 28, 2017 4:53:10 GMT
The legendary first human baby quest, scan six location, four satellites and setup up possible outpost then a boring firefight. Then you know the name of first human baby in Andromeda... Premium quality sidequest indeed. ;P This is kind of the problem with hyperbole, it really helps no one, and why the commentary on Dragon Age Inquisition's side quests got so damn tedious was because everyone was like OMGs guys DA I has nothing but fetch quests guys...so horrible. Forgetting quests like 'Still Waters' or 'An unusual Rift in the Ruins' or 'Cheteu de Onterre' (yes I know, bad spelling, sue me). And its the same thing with Andromeda because 2 of the three quests I have played or seen played in Andromeda that are side quests have had unusual twists and turns, plot twists, depth, and choices involved with them. And even the simple 'fetch quest' had a lot of emotional weight behind it. Lol, this quest deprives me twists, depth and choice to establish any emotional context. All player could do is establish all outposts, scan destroyed satellites, report back to face dead lady, then Hear baby birth on a ship flying by a way. My only emotion left at the end- what a waste of time.
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Post by colfoley on Mar 28, 2017 4:55:29 GMT
This is kind of the problem with hyperbole, it really helps no one, and why the commentary on Dragon Age Inquisition's side quests got so damn tedious was because everyone was like OMGs guys DA I has nothing but fetch quests guys...so horrible. Forgetting quests like 'Still Waters' or 'An unusual Rift in the Ruins' or 'Cheteu de Onterre' (yes I know, bad spelling, sue me). And its the same thing with Andromeda because 2 of the three quests I have played or seen played in Andromeda that are side quests have had unusual twists and turns, plot twists, depth, and choices involved with them. And even the simple 'fetch quest' had a lot of emotional weight behind it. Lol, this quest deprives me twists, depth and choice to establish any emotional context. All player could do is establish all outposts, scan destroyed satellites, report back to face dead lady, then Hear baby birth on a ship flying by a way. My only emotion left at the end- what a waste of time. Not playing that specific quest (hell I did not even know it exisisted until a minute ago) I cannot say for certain. But it would be a mistake to assume that this is indicitive of the product or the quality of the other quests in the game. because at least what I see to be playing on my end contradicts it...and hell the quest you mention does not even sound that bad tbh.
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panzerwzh
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All these violent delights have violent ends.
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Post by panzerwzh on Mar 28, 2017 5:01:26 GMT
Lol, this quest deprives me twists, depth and choice to establish any emotional context. All player could do is establish all outposts, scan destroyed satellites, report back to face dead lady, then Hear baby birth on a ship flying by a way. My only emotion left at the end- what a waste of time. Not playing that specific quest (hell I did not even know it exisisted until a minute ago) I cannot say for certain. But it would be a mistake to assume that this is indicitive of the product or the quality of the other quests in the game. because at least what I see to be playing on my end contradicts it...and hell the quest you mention does not even sound that bad tbh. Lol this is the reason I use this quest as example, there are so many side quests are wasted due to the fail to establish emotional context with player as many reviews and feedbacks from people who actually played the game. First born in a New Galaxy-perfect opportunity to provide a humane story and in depth discussion about life and sacrifice yet the quest design/structure ruined it.
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Post by rasande on Mar 28, 2017 5:21:58 GMT
It's what they think players want, because of Skyrim. I remember seeing some director saying that Skyrim changed landscape of RPG's and what a relatively new player will think of when they think RPG. And at a glance Skyrim is just a lot of rather simple dungeon delving quests so that's what they fill the gameworld with, but often miss that the gameworld with it's immense population of dungeons and what not is the main draw and the quests are just a way to get you around. They're buisy adults that work like 10-12h days which doesn't leave much room to actually play games if they enjoy them in the first place. I know i would rather do other things with my time if i had so little free time to spare.
That said i think the tasks are alright, the context is always good at least. It makes sense you'd take time to do them rather than "my cat is sick, please take time away from chasing down Dr.Evil to fetch a herb that only grows on the peak of Mt.Highasfuck!" that i recall being in Inquisition. There's also some pretty neat ones, like i was exploring Kadera(or whatever it's called, the one with Exiles) and came across a quest where 3 people where subject to a rather inhumane experiment(hint hint) and had to decide their fate, very short and sweet and a nice reward for exploring. It does devolve to a LOT of scanning though and there's definently room for improvement, i'd rather have fewer quests with more dungeons/strongholds and dialogue, but they're fine. It's not like you have to do every side quest or task. I get people often feel you have to do them since they're in your quest log but you really don't.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2017 8:26:38 GMT
I'm finding that a lot of the side content really helps to flesh out the world and provides some great role-playing opportunities.
Like picking up some additional bits about angaran culture and history. Learning more about inter-faction rivalries and activities, and thwarting their plans. Crap, even helping an exile contact her mother on the Nexus serves as a reminder of what some of these people are experiencing. I've found some seemingly minor fetch type quests that ended with my character having to make a decision and take a moral stance. Those decisions probably won't impact the main story line at all, but they're still important, because they are great role-playing opportunities. They help to define the character, and express who that character is in the world. I've also found a few easter eggs in the lot.
Another point to consider is that simply choosing whether and when to engage side content represents a series of role-playing opportunities. Pretty much everything your character does or doesn't do says something about who s/he is, what s/he values, how s/he prioritizes. In a role-playing game, this stuff is key.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2017 8:43:35 GMT
I would mind the sidequests so much if travelling from one location to another didn't take up so much cinematics and animations. Now I just finished a chain of sidequest on Kadara and literally my next unlocked assingement which requires me to travel back to Kadara to a camp which I allready cleaned out once.
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thumbfu
N1
We made it...
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Origin: Thumbfu
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Post by thumbfu on Mar 28, 2017 9:37:55 GMT
I'm on my second play-through now, doing a NG+ and i'm enjoying it a lot more by knowing what side quests are actually skippable, it cuts out a lot of the tedium and busy work, streamlines the game a bit more and allows me to focus on the decent side-quests, companion content and critical path.
Without the horribly monotonous moving from quest marker to quest marker, scanning rocks and picking flowers, the game feels more like the Mass Effect i'm looking for. (As a point of reference so you know where i am coming from: I actually liked dragon age: Inquistion and other open world games, but i am of the opinion a Mass Effect game needs to be a tightly focused story, with good characters, it doesn't need huge open spaces, just the right things populated in smaller ones)
That's just my opinion though, no need to go spreading it around.
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Post by Psychevore on Mar 28, 2017 9:41:30 GMT
All of them are some variety of "go here, scan/find/gather this. Repeat x10 or x20" Welcome, This must be your first RPG, cause you have just defined a sidequest.
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Post by mikeymoonshine on Mar 28, 2017 10:32:07 GMT
There are good side quests tho, like much better than anything in Inquisition but the game makes you wait to access them.
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Post by warbaby2 on Mar 28, 2017 10:34:56 GMT
I'm perfectly fine with side quests so far. They seem to fit what is going on. DA:I, there were some tedious unneeded quests. That's about it, though... the quest "fit" better into the game, they aren't done better. Collect artifacts, manifestos, scan wildlife, minerals, etc.
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Post by ymirr on Mar 28, 2017 10:38:32 GMT
It was one of the things I worried about before the game came out, fearing it would be like Inquisition. Turned out it had more problems than that. Whenever I saw someone with a quest marker, I had to keep myself from engaging with them, it wouldn't lead to anything good. I keep thinking back to kotor, even thought I didn't like Taris, just the whole cure quest was so simple but nice at the same time. Good times..
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Post by warbaby2 on Mar 28, 2017 10:45:07 GMT
It was one of the things I worried about before the game came out, fearing it would be like Inquisition. Turned out it had more problems than that. Whenever I saw someone with a quest marker, I had to keep myself from engaging with them, it wouldn't lead to anything good. I keep thinking back to kotor, even thought I didn't like Taris, just the whole cure quest was so simple but nice at the same time. Good times.. That was elegant writing... true.
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Post by mikeymoonshine on Mar 28, 2017 11:22:56 GMT
It was one of the things I worried about before the game came out, fearing it would be like Inquisition. Turned out it had more problems than that. Whenever I saw someone with a quest marker, I had to keep myself from engaging with them, it wouldn't lead to anything good. I keep thinking back to kotor, even thought I didn't like Taris, just the whole cure quest was so simple but nice at the same time. Good times.. I don't know how anyone could prefer inquisition's side quests to be honest. They were all terrible, I can think of two or three that I didn't completely hate outside of companion stuff.
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Post by ymirr on Mar 28, 2017 11:32:00 GMT
It was one of the things I worried about before the game came out, fearing it would be like Inquisition. Turned out it had more problems than that. Whenever I saw someone with a quest marker, I had to keep myself from engaging with them, it wouldn't lead to anything good. I keep thinking back to kotor, even thought I didn't like Taris, just the whole cure quest was so simple but nice at the same time. Good times.. I don't know how anyone could prefer inquisition's side quests to be honest. They were all terrible, I can think of two or three that I didn't completely hate outside of companion stuff. I can't say inquisition quests were better, but the planetary travel in ME:A makes these for a real headache. If I could only have selected where to go directly, rather than having to pass through all these unnecessary areas, I might actually have tried some more of them. But when I am in Nexus ops, and get a quest that's on a planet... Nope.
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Post by wolfsite on Mar 28, 2017 11:36:27 GMT
Honestly Side Quests are pretty good. One side quest I did yesterday felt like I was racing against time to find someone (Don't want to say more to avoid spoilers) but it felt like it had meaning the entire way.
then another one along the just had me laughing out loud from how ridiculous but at the same time how real it could have been.
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Post by Ieldra on Mar 28, 2017 11:42:01 GMT
A mission that started by asking me to scan animals culminated in a choice between destroying or saving research into biological weapons. Point is, even the side quests have context. This. Anyone who thinks the side quests in this game are mindless busy work isn't paying attention. Having context doesn't automatically make a sidequest enjoyable. That task where you had to collect 8 goodbye letters from a battlefield in DAI also had context, but that didn't make it any less of a chore. Here are some criteria that appear to apply: *Repetition. The more often you have to do the same thing the less enjoyable it gets. Yes, that also applies to combat. *Time and significance. How much time it costs you, compared to its narrative significance and/or reward. *Annoyance factor: Hard jumping puzzles? Repeatedly having to cross the same terrain? Hard-to-access locations? If used sparingly, that adds needed variety. If used too often, it just adds annoyance. That quest on Havarl was low on repetition, had significant narrative payoff and no little annoyances except the far too frequent fighting on Havarl in general. Meanwhile that "find the 6 lost drones" quest on Eos was higher in repetition, travel between locations cost you more time, it ended as soon as you found the last one with no narrative payoff at all, and one of the drones was in a very hard-to-access area.
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Post by Ieldra on Mar 28, 2017 11:45:25 GMT
Also, a recommendation: if you treat everything in the "additional tasks" section as strictly optional you should be fine. As a side benefit, you also avoid some of the worst writing.
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Post by Pounce de León on Mar 28, 2017 11:55:36 GMT
I don't know - I was drilling for water someone else wanted, too and then I had some very interesting times.
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Post by Ahriman on Mar 28, 2017 11:59:15 GMT
Sometimes mundane quests end with rather interesting twists, like scanning crates on Eos. Sometimes it feels like you are doing something important. Sometimes you get 200 credits for scanning 2315 rocks. But every time it feels like the game makes you pay with your time. I guess it's just the problem with huge open spaces which player is supposed to run around. Could this damn trend on open-world RPGs just die off a little, pretty please? TES, Fallout, The-Game-Which-Should-Not-Be-Named 3, Horizon:ZD, incoming Cyberpunk, Dragon Age and now Mass Effect. Every modern AAA RPG has to be open-world apparently. I'm just tired.
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Post by goishen on Mar 28, 2017 12:11:51 GMT
Sometimes mundane quests end with rather interesting twists, like scanning crates on Eos. Sometimes it feels like you are doing something important. Sometimes you get 200 credits for scanning 2315 rocks. But every time it feels like the game makes you pay with your time. I guess it's just the problem with huge open spaces which player is supposed to run around. Could this damn trend on open-world RPGs just die off a little, pretty please? TES, Fallout, The-Game-Which-Should-Not-Be-Named 3, Horizon:ZD, incoming Cyberpunk, Dragon Age and now Mass Effect. Every modern AAA RPG has to be open-world apparently. I'm just tired. That is referred to as grindy. You must be new to the grindy scene. As an ex-EQ player, I can tell you all about it. Being grindy is generally considered anathema in the west.
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