What is up with the questing system?

m0nstaLulz

First I'm gonna say that I come from MMOs like WoW and SWTOR. I have never played an Elder Scrolls game before.

I don't get the questing system in TESO. It seems you have to find sidequests; they aren't pointed out. In other MMO's (WoW for instance) sidequests are between main quests and are easily pointed out so you can find them.

Also why is only 1 quest shown at the side? I don't get that.

Maybe I'm missing something, but could someone give me some tips on how to find sidequests and make questing easier?

Teeba_Shei

It's because the UI is awful. If you want to have a proper UI you'll have to download some addons.

I have no idea why the side quests are hidden and why the main quests give barely any exp compared to just killing monsters.

Gandrhulf_Harbard

ESO is a much more immersive world than most MMOs.

Exploring the world to find quests, treasure, materials for crafting, or just an amazing view is part of that immersion.

I would like to have more than one quest in the tracker at a time; I suspect there'll be an addon that does just that, but I've not bothered tracking it down yet.

All The Best

daemonios

TES games are about exploring the world freely, finding people and talking to them irrespective of whether they're a quest giver. While ESO is more linear than single-player TES games, the concept is still there, to a point.

Still, I've found most quests simply following each zone's main quest. Watch your compass, bolded black areas will indicate nearby quest givers.

As for the quest log, it only shows your active quest. You can see all other quests you have by going to your journal (J). If you can't live without a quest tracker, there are a number of add-ons for that.

m0nstaLulz

Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »

ESO is a much more immersive world than most MMOs.

Exploring the world to find quests, treasure, materials for crafting, or just an amazing view is part of that immersion.

I would like to have more than one quest in the tracker at a time; I suspect there'll be an addon that does just that, but I've not bothered tracking it down yet.

All The Best

There is one here http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info13-WykkydsQuestTracker.html

Wyietsayon

You have to explore a bit for find the sidequests. That's because everyone wanted a reason to explore. But you can kind of judge where sidequests will be. If there's a empty area on your map, and it is accessible, chances are there's a side quest. Look for the empty arrow symbol on your compass bar, and follow it.

If you still don't like that, there's an addon or two out there that marks all sidequest starters on your map. I don't remember the name of it, because it didn't interest me.

And the quest marker on the top side there is only for your own convenience. If it doesn't help you, ignore it. I don't like the idea of multiple quests marked. I can physically do only one at a time, maybe two if they're in the same area.

Beowulf_McCallum

m0nstaLulz wrote: »

Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »

ESO is a much more immersive world than most MMOs.

Exploring the world to find quests, treasure, materials for crafting, or just an amazing view is part of that immersion.

I would like to have more than one quest in the tracker at a time; I suspect there'll be an addon that does just that, but I've not bothered tracking it down yet.

All The Best

There is one here http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info13-WykkydsQuestTracker.html

That one is great.... There's also an achievement tracker. Between the two you're pretty much golden

Shogunami

m0nstaLulz wrote: »

Maybe I'm missing something, but could someone give me some tips on how to find sidequests and make questing easier?

Yes, I believe you are. The way the "non-critical quest system" (?) works now is basically how the fans and players have asked for it to be - to be found via exploration. And yet some people, like myself, think it's still not enough. But personally I think it's pretty damn awesome compared to any other MMO I've played. Although I have to agree about the quest tracking, the way this game handles quests in the quest journal/quest tracking is less than sub-par to most MMO's I've played, so I guess that evens it out a bit.


To find quests you pick a direction or road and then follow it for a while and see where you end up. You will find quests, a chest here and there and if you're lucky, my favorite - Lorebooks!

What I do is that I check the map and go where I haven't been, pick up any quests along the way and gather any resources I find etc, and after adventuring for a while I head back to town to repair, sell, craft, deconstruct items, manage the bank and maybe do some thieving. And then it's back out again.

If you haven't already, I suggest you pick up some crafting profession and you'll have some more incentive/things to do in the world


I hope you have a great time in Tamriel!

PKMN12

Yeah, as said before a combination of a HORRIBLE UI and the NEED for the TESO fanboys to be forced to explore instead of doing it themselves.

Drazhar14

m0nstaLulz wrote: »

I have never played an Elder Scrolls game before.

Well, Elder Scrolls games have always been about exploration. In ESO, you are supposed to venture off the main path to find new quests. Explore and look for quest icons on your compass that appear from time to time and head in that direction.

UrQuan

Elder Scrolls games don't hold your hand and shove every little bit of content in front of your nose like a lot of games do these days. Running around, exploring, and discovering interesting places and things to do on your own is one of the absolute most important aspects of any Elder Scrolls game.

ESO does tend to guide you by the nose a lot more than other TES games as far as the main questline and the alliance questlines are concerned (probably to cater to MMO players who wouldn't be used to figuring out what to do on their own), but for sidequests and other content that isn't required to complete the main quests they largely held to the model that has made the Elder Scrolls games successful: allowing you the freedom to explore and do (or not do) things as you choose. Exploring off the beaten track rather than just racing from one quest to the next one in the chain isn't just a way to find sidequests, either. This is also how you find chests, random encounters (like the summoner ones, bandit ones, mini anchors etc), areas of interest, lorebooks, skyshards, world bosses, delves, crafting stations, etc.

If exploring all the nooks and crannies of the world left you finding nothing interesting, most likely almost everyone who picked up ESO because it's an Elder Scrolls game would have dropped it very quickly.

As far as the "only one quest showing at a time" thing goes, well yeah, that's a UI choice. Only the quest that you have currently set to active shows up on the side of the screen (although you can still see quest markers for all quests on your map, whether they are active or not), and you can cycle through them by hitting T. I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind that design choice, although I don't remember anything showing up on-screen for quests in previous TES games - except for quest markers (and not even those in Morrowind). Those are single player games, though, where checking your journal pauses the game. There is an addon you can get that will show all of your quests on the screen: Wykkyd's Quest Tracker. I've just started using it, and it's pretty good.

Enodoc

As others have said, the design is such that you are encouraged to explore away from the main path to find the side quests. This summed up in a loading screen: Every once in a while, just pick a direction and run. Quests are everywhere, and exploration can reveal unexpected surprises, valuable treasures, and other rewards.

Most side quests can be found in Quest Hubs with black markers on the map. but there are some side quests that you literally have to stumble upon by accident. Note also that even if you turn a quest hub white, there may still be a couple of side quests that are there which are unrelated to the Quest Hub's main Objective.

If you want an add-on that shows quest givers on the map, check out Quest Map.

Rosveen

I'm tripping over side quests, I don't know why people have problems. I never played other MMOs, do they really have zero exploration so everyone's used to running a beeline between main quest objectives?

Heck, ESO doesn't have enough exploration for me. There's only a handful of unmarked quests and almost every zone has the main quest conveniently lead you through every town, with dozens of side quests in between.

m0nstaLulz

Rosveen wrote: »

I'm tripping over side quests, I don't know why people have problems. I never played other MMOs, do they really have zero exploration so everyone's used to running a beeline between main quest objectives?

Heck, ESO doesn't have enough exploration for me. There's only a handful of unmarked quests and almost every zone has the main quest conveniently lead you through every town, with dozens of side quests in between.

Yes.

Rune_Relic

Main quests take you to towns.
Towns give you side quests that take you out to remote locations
Remote locations take you to other remote quest...and treasure etc.

So it really is a case of following the main quests and keeping your eyes open for the Black quest markers on the HUD.
Travelling to towns along every road you see and mooching around while looking for quest markers.
Exploring the wilds and stumbling across quest markers.

Its good. Its well done. Its one of the things that the game excels at.
If you travel all the main roads on the map and keep your eyes open all the time, you wont go far wrong.
Safe journey.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

m0nstaLulz wrote: »

Maybe I'm missing something, but could someone give me some tips on how to find sidequests and make questing easier?

One word: exploration.

Yasha

Rosveen wrote: »

I'm tripping over side quests, I don't know why people have problems. I never played other MMOs, do they really have zero exploration so everyone's used to running a beeline between main quest objectives?

Heck, ESO doesn't have enough exploration for me. There's only a handful of unmarked quests and almost every zone has the main quest conveniently lead you through every town, with dozens of side quests in between.

Yeah, the "typical" mmo model is to have big yellow markers over every quest givers head and the quests they give are like "Pacify and bring back ten run away pigs with this experimental pig calming dart" (Tera) or "emote /wave to 5 NPCs" (FF14ARR).

Such quests are also used to run you to the next quest hub (quests are usually set up in "hubs"). Players quickly grab all the quests in the hub and then look on map/ mini/map for the markers and mechanically go through completing each kill/fetch quest. At some point one of the NPCs at the hub will give a new quest that asks you something like "Go take this pie to Colin at the ranch because he looks really hungry" (ArchAge), this then directs you to the next quest hub at which you do the same thing again.

ESO tries to walk the line between a single player rpg quest/story line set up and an mmo system. It has tended to get criticized by rpg players for being too much like a (typical) mmo and by mmo players for not having all the (typical) mmo trappings.

Personally I look at it as the mmo with the most interesting questing system and most immersive UI for pve on the market. The console version should be especially awesome because without the option to download addons that alter the UI, players will be forced to play it as the game was designed.

BlueIllyrian

BTW, did they tell you once you finish your faction's quests you get to do the same for each of other two factions? So yes, you get to do everything trice. If you played WoW think how much fun would be to do all the quests Horde and Alliance on one character, and all of them mandatory if you want to reach maxed level.

phairdon

Rosveen wrote: »

I'm tripping over side quests, I don't know why people have problems. I never played other MMOs, do they really have zero exploration so everyone's used to running a beeline between main quest objectives?

Heck, ESO doesn't have enough exploration for me. There's only a handful of unmarked quests and almost every zone has the main quest conveniently lead you through every town, with dozens of side quests in between.

Gw2 does not guide you (being my only other mmo). You explore all the maps in different zones to find all dynamic events, world bosses, skill points & points of interest

glak

Yasha wrote: »

Rosveen wrote: »

I'm tripping over side quests, I don't know why people have problems. I never played other MMOs, do they really have zero exploration so everyone's used to running a beeline between main quest objectives?

Heck, ESO doesn't have enough exploration for me. There's only a handful of unmarked quests and almost every zone has the main quest conveniently lead you through every town, with dozens of side quests in between.

Yeah, the "typical" mmo model is to have big yellow markers over every quest givers head and the quests they give are like "Pacify and bring back ten run away pigs with this experimental pig calming dart" (Tera) or "emote /wave to 5 NPCs" (FF14ARR).

Such quests are also used to run you to the next quest hub (quests are usually set up in "hubs"). Players quickly grab all the quests in the hub and then look on map/ mini/map for the markers and mechanically go through completing each kill/fetch quest. At some point one of the NPCs at the hub will give a new quest that asks you something like "Go take this pie to Colin at the ranch because he looks really hungry" (ArchAge), this then directs you to the next quest hub at which you do the same thing again.

ESO tries to walk the line between a single player rpg quest/story line set up and an mmo system. It has tended to get criticized by rpg players for being too much like a (typical) mmo and by mmo players for not having all the (typical) mmo trappings.

Personally I look at it as the mmo with the most interesting questing system and most immersive UI for pve on the market. The console version should be especially awesome because without the option to download addons that alter the UI, players will be forced to play it as the game was designed.

Does not seem to have been brought up yet, but talk to every NPC and pick up every shining book. This leads you to various places you would have missed without an addon.

MyNegation

Eso handles the quests differently. (IMHO in a much better way than other MMOs)

you have a point of interest on the map , which can be: town, mine, plantation, graveyard etc and a story related to this area.
this story consist of couple of quest chains in the vicinity that progress the story. when you finish the story the point of interest turns white on the map instead of black.

RenhardtESO

There really are side quests everywhere. You just have to actually go out and find them. I play WoW also and get a little annoyed because every quest giver is right there within 5 feet of each other. I have been a TES player for a long time so I guess I am used to the exploration aspect and the immersion it gives.

The advise I can give to you if you aren't one for going off the main story path is follow the main roads around the map and keep an eye out for quest markers. There are also a bunch of addons you can download showing undiscovered places and quests so you don't have to go searching for them.

And for all you milk drinkers complaining about the UI, DROP IT!!!! Get an addon then and quit your bitching. The devs have been saying from the very beginning this is an elder scrolls game and for sake of immersion, the UI is minimal. So no there aren't going to be a long list of quests built into the side of our screen, and mini maps and stats flying all over the window. If you really want those then download an addon because I am pretty sure the devs have no intention of ever building those things into this game.

JD2013

Because at its core this is an ES game. It being an MMO, there are, quite naturally some quest hubs. But if you want to find them all, you're going to have to get out into the zones and find them and see the world.

Arunei

Exploration is fun . Not only does it lead to you finding side-quests, you also find out-of-the-way treasure chests and resource nodes. Many times I've meant to complete a questline and have been waylaid by gathering mats, which ends up with me in a completely unintended location picking up even more quests.

So simple answer; start collecting mats and you'll have plenty of quests in no time n__n. You can also use the Destinations addon like I do. Mind you, I only use it to ensure I've completed every quest in an area, b/c I like to finish one zone 100% before moving on to the next.

Also, something I don't think anyone has mentioned; there are numerous quests you can't start until you finish a quest somewhere else. Thus going to a black area on your map (indicating it hasn't been completed) won't always start a new quest for you to do. If you go to a location and can't find any quests for it, there's a good chance you either haven't completed a previous quest in the line, or haven't even picked it up to begin with. All the more reason to explore the heck out of everything.

As far as quest tracking goes, download Wyykyd's Enhanced Quest Tracker (it might be called something else, I'm not entirely sure XD). This will give you a little box that lists every quest you've taken by zone or type (Main Story, Guild, Cyrodiil, Stonefalls, etc etc etc). You can then expand or collapse each section to see all the quests you have there. For example, if you have 10 quests active in Cyrodiil and you expand the Cyrodiil section, it'll list those 10 quests for you. It's a handy little thing and much easier than hitting T over and over to set a certain quest as the active one, since you can just expand the quest tracker and select the quest you want to do from the list.

Fhaerron

m0nstaLulz wrote: »

First I'm gonna say that I come from MMOs like WoW and SWTOR. I have never played an Elder Scrolls game before.

I don't get the questing system in TESO. It seems you have to find sidequests; they aren't pointed out. In other MMO's (WoW for instance) sidequests are between main quests and are easily pointed out so you can find them.

Also why is only 1 quest shown at the side? I don't get that.

Maybe I'm missing something, but could someone give me some tips on how to find sidequests and make questing easier?

I suggest you get the folowing addons on ESOUI:

Skyshards (displays all the shards on your map)
LoreBooks (displays all the lorebooks on your map)
Lost Treasure (displays the treasure maps locations on your map)
Destinations (displays all quests locations on your map)
Wykkyd's Quest Tracker (displays a frame on your screen where all your quests are shown in)
MiniMap by Fyrakin (displays a minimap on your screen, will work with the other map addons too (will also display the pins for locations))

This should solve all your problems.

Enodoc

Question for people using the add-ons; do Quest Map and Destinations show the quests in the same way?

Volkodav

I love this game.It took me a while though.It got off to a rocky start,but it's doing just fine.I am the same as another person here.I go one direction,intent on finishing one quest line,and get waylaid by an entire other set of quests.Even the side quests have more quests hooked to them.It's almost neverending. I just created a new char,ran him up to level 13,and thought I had done every quest in Auridon.Nope.While I had done the required 37 quests to get an achievement,there are a lot more to still do. They arent laid out for you.Morrowind didnt even have quest giver marks.You had to find the people to do the quests.It drove me nutz for 12 years now,and I still play it.Lol. (I have a hard time with the Ashlaners!)
Dont get a bunch of add-ons.Play it like it is.

Fhaerron

Enodoc wrote: »

Question for people using the add-ons; do Quest Map and Destinations show the quests in the same way?

What do you mean with quest map?

Destinations will display pins on your map (can configure a lot of options). These are displayed on the world map and also in the minimap if you use 'Minimap By Fyrakin'

Enodoc

Fhaerron wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

Question for people using the add-ons; do Quest Map and Destinations show the quests in the same way?

What do you mean with quest map?

Destinations will display pins on your map (can configure a lot of options). These are displayed on the world map and also in the minimap if you use 'Minimap By Fyrakin'

I meant if anybody had ever tried both Quest Map and Destinations, whether they could say if the way they display quests is different at all. I realise Destinations can do more, I was just wondering if specifically the quest stuff was essentially the same on both add-ons.