DiabloFans

The thing is, side-quests are just that; side-quests. You don't have to do them if you don't want. That is what makes them so enjoyable. You reap extra benefits for doing something not totally necessary, away from the main story. So, yes, I do think they are worth it, especially for role-players and perfectionists.

I love the fact that you have areas of the map that are cut out to give way for randomization. That, ultimately will increase the desire to explore.

Side-quests are something I'm really looking forward to in Diablo 3. Sure, Diablo and Diablo 2 had side quests but they were of a different nature than the ones I'm expecting from Diablo 3.

From what I think I understand, the Diablo 3 side quests will be more generic than the ones in the previous two games. They will be less about lore and will be much more randomly generated than the ones from Diablo. They'll offer item and skill boosts, diversion, and maybe some atmosphere as well but won't really provide tasty tidbtis of lore.

Correct me if I'm wrong though. Maybe this isn't Blizzard's intent for side-quests in Diablo 3 and I've got it all wrong. Certainly in an ideal world, side-quests that offer everything listed above as well as lore would be great but that simply isn't possible yet in games.

Speculation like this is very much appreciated. Although nothing official, it's like a mini update for D3 news as most of us come here daily. Cheeeers

So on topic, I am hoping for a LOT of random quests because I myself want to do every inch of the game and I think a lot of people found diablo to be like that, they wanted to find those side areas with gruesome sights and events. There will always be the people that speed through the game and they can just be pushed to the side. That's how they want to experience it.

Fingers crossed for a massive world and 500 quests.

As for rewards though, I surely hope they don't offer equipment like WoW did (choose from 4 reasonable items). I'd much prefer to be offered gold and be on my way with the exception of a select few quests that would offer a rare items useless to an npc. But again, not a selection of weaponry. In fact, I'd go as far as saying they should have a 1 item reward but even have that randomised to an extent (1 item from 30).

:-)

We've known about this for ages... why talk about it now? No offense there. Not saying to stop the discussion, but I just don't get it, especially as News, because its nothing new at all.

The only thing I want here is side quests to be fun, not chores. WoW is a perfect examples of what chores are.

We've known about this for ages... why talk about it now? No offense there. Not saying to stop the discussion, but I just don't get it, especially as News, because its nothing new at all.

This forum name is a misnomer, SFJake. We post stuff in here that, although it may not be news, since we all know news is scarce and can't possibly be posted every two days, we hope will generate activity and constructive conversation.

Quote from "SFJake" »

The only thing I want here is side quests to be fun, not chores. WoW is a perfect examples of what chores are.

Doing chores can be a bit more fun than pointlessly killing monsters in some area until your eyes pop out to grind exp. The thing is, when you level up, you will be killing monsters anyway, so why not do the "chores" along the way which are always closely tied to killing those monsters anyway? At least that way they drive you to go to different places, explore and diversify what you are killing, and also develop the story. So I really don't see your point. But I guess you don't like the fact that not all of the thousands of quests there are each telling a separate story and providing a journey of epic proportions.

But they have pretty much explained that random quests in D3 will be the same as random quests in D1 were, with the difference being that you obtain the quests on field as well as towns, and the fact that you can now actually fail doing a quest because there will be some challenge involved.

I'm looking forward to playing D3 someday. The more content they throw in the more time I get to spend enjoying the game. The more the merrier if you ask me, as long as its all blizzard quality, which I'm sure it will be.

One interesting thing about these side quests being in plug in map chunks, it seems to open up a lot of possibilities. Blizzard might be able to add plug in map chunk side quests through a patch or something. There could be map chunks containing side quests that only appear at certain times of the day / month / year, or once you've reached a certain level. I think that might be cool and fresh to the diablo series, and be a way to add exciting content and repeatability. I'm all for it.

I'm one of those people that every time I play a Diablo game I have to explore everything. I never rush or just go for waypoints or do the minimum. I always want to look for monsters (uniques, champions, etc). So, the fact that they are expanding those possibilities by adding random quests makes it all the more to my tastes. I'm sure this will put a smile on all the completionists faces; such as myself.

I wonder how random they will be though? I mean will it be possible to have a quest that only happens once in a great while; or will it be if you go through an area enough you will eventually get all the random quests? I think it would be neat to be able to say, "I completed all the random quests for this area." Another part of me thinks though, maybe that would get stale quick.

I like the idea of side, random, or scripted quests. But, if people are going to do them then there has to be some motivation. In the end, Diablo players end up pursuing 2 things, items and experience.

With this in mind, I think that the quests need to provide these things. Instead of getting exp by doing 1000 Baal runs in a row, we would do particular types of quests. Or instead of mfing Meph 1000 times in a row we would do other types of quests. We would be pursuing the same goals, but doing it it a way that provides more variety and randomness.

More Content = Better Game

simple

Quote from "milanv" »

I see this the other way. I would like to have quests which are Griswold's Legacy rare not literally but I'd like NOT to be able to complete them easily or in a short time at least.

also, since we'll have achievements, I hope there will be one for completing all the quests and it shouldn't show how many you have left. of course, after some time left with a few really rare quests you'll just stop hoping but that's all the fun for me. imagine the joy of finding it in the end

That idea you got of rare quests is cool enough...
I mean, Items can be rare, so why not quests? Right...
Plus that just means you won't be going through all of them in a month's time.

And with quests being randomized, I think we should be getting a couple of hundred of them, no?

Not all of them being radically different, but some being other variants of the same quests.

(that's just me wishing out loud... o_O)

"Wow! You'r a barbarian huh?"

Making a choice of a character and have specified quest for them is something I would like to see!

Just think about it! In Diablo 2 some of the people said diffrent to each class, but not all of them.

D3 will have interaction with more people and altso added the sidequests for each class specific. Hell, more of anything that made D2 stick out - and stil have the feeling of Diablo 1.

I need to write to understand it people, this is gonna be legendary in "ARPG".

I think the side quests will not feel like side quests while you are playing. Using the demo from blizzcon 09, the tunnel quest where you had to risk death bs greter reward. I think quests like this will be quick and entertaining. I don't see myself going in, seeing the quest, and being like "no time got to further the story line. It seems like they are doing a great job of adding more content while not taking anything away.

I think some side quests should be tied to the character class.
This would be actually a large quest chain of 10+ quests that starts at low levels and only ends at level 90 or so. This quests would tell a personal goal of your character class (like monk and the tattoo thing or the barbarian trying to rebuild his home).
This would really makes the game better in many aspects imo. First it would adds more deph to your character because you're envolved in his story and all this without removing the hacking aspect of the game. Second it would adds a ton of replay (to complete all the quests of the game you must get all classes at high level).

Another types of seide quests would also be nice, especially large chains with really good storybehind. Anyway, imo Quality>Quantity. No matter if you have one million quests in the game if all are the same (get 20 monkey eye in the monkey cave, etc...).

Expecting a chain of quests that lasts between difficulty is a bit far fetched.

Quote from "SFJake" »

Expecting a chain of quests that lasts between difficulty is a bit far fetched.

No it isn't.

Actually yes, you could skip some i think. For example i remember my brother once not getting that one Act3 quest, given by the crazy potion guy. But i don't even know of any other quests like that, and i wouldn't look at them as side quests because anyone who's not rushing (which i believe to be abusing the game) would normally do them. (Or am i wrong?)

In Act III there were three completely optional quests and three mandatory ones (50/50)- the optional ones were the Golden Bird, Lam Esen's Tome, and the Gidbinn. In order, they gave you 20 health points (quite useless, really; most attacks by this stage in the game inflict way over that, especially in NM and Hell), 5 stat points (this is semi-useful depending on if you need it or not), and a rare ring, which usually, unfortunately, sucks

In Act I, all of the quests were optional but killing Andariel. You don't even need to rescue Cain- all it does is give you a ring from Akara and free identification (in all following acts, if you don't do this quest he charges 100 gold per item). So that's 5 optional quests out of six.

In Act II, Radament is the only side quest (+1 Skill Point, reduced vendor prices after you talk to Atma).

Act IV, out of the three quests the only mandatory one is killing Diablo. And in Act V the only mandatory quests are defeating the Ancients and killing Baal.

(Mandatory meaning they are essential to progress in the game.)

Quote from "italofoca" »

No it isn't.

How can it make any sense, lore wise? Everything repeats itself between difficulties, with difference and its harder, yes. But you are asking for class specific quests that makes sense and go across all difficulties.

Besides, I refuse that any important in-game lore be out of reach for anyone that only completes Normal. I've known quite a few that never stepped in Nightmare in D2, and instead just made another character and started over (the idea of completing the game "again" with the same character, even if it was harder, was boring as hell to them).

If there are unique quests that lasts a long time, or unique nightmare/hell quests, their impact on the Lore should be minimal, or they should even be detached from it (uber tristram).

Quote from "Seth" »

In Act III there were three completely optional quests and three mandatory ones (50/50)- the optional ones were the Golden Bird, Lam Esen's Tome, and the Gidbinn. In order, they gave you 20 health points (quite useless, really; most attacks by this stage in the game inflict way over that, especially in NM and Hell), 5 stat points (this is semi-useful depending on if you need it or not), and a rare ring, which usually, unfortunately, sucks

Anything permanent is worth having. 5 stat points and 20 hit points is 15 stats and 60 hit points accross all difficulties. Sure, its not a lot on its own, but no point in missing these out.

Anything permanent is worth having. 5 stat points and 20 hit points is 15 stats and 60 hit points accross all difficulties. Sure, its not a lot on its own, but no point in missing these out.

So they are completely perfect as is and couldn't be better in any way? Of course it's good to get them just because you can, but they really aren't all that great of rewards for all the hell-trekking you do in Act III, not to mention doing the same things in Hell, fighting monsters in the Disused Temple or whatever it's called that do hundreds of points of damage in one hit and being rewarded with 20 hit points. It just doesn't make sense

That's like saying just because every monster in Hell can drop an HR you should kill them all. Your chances are so infinitesimally small it's really not worth it if you can spend the same effort and time off doing something with greater return.

In the same way, if you can be off running bosses or leveling, getting a far superior return for your time and effort investment, then 20 measly points is nothing.

The rewards should have been scaled with the difficulty level.