So I'm wandering around the kobold warrens right now. I suspect there is something questy in the area. I've found a few items that seem odd, but they could just be for ambiance. If I KNOW there's something here I'll keep plugging away until I figure it out. But I don't know for sure. When I'm done here, I want to head over to Prosimy, because there has always seemed to be something going on there. But I...JUST...DON'T...KNOW. The outlying village...well, once again...who knows. How do I know 'trash' from a quest item?

I would really, really like to see mobs 'rumoring' to players. A way of letting players know there is a secret here waiting to be discovered. In the kobold warrens it would be something like "A wandering merchant rumors, "I've been hearing stories of a dark, evil magic in the depths of those caves." The key thing here is that rumors are extremely Nepenthesque but ONLY fire when there's a quest in the area. They do nothing but tell you that yes, there is something here. Those random trinkets are quest items and you are the correct race/class/align to do it. I want zero help solving the quest, I just want to know that spending my time here might be rewarding.

....or...you could have all these fantastic quests that those of us without an OOC group are unsure of and dismiss as poor area design.

It's the ooc groups that actually benefit most from your suggested change.

A lot of the "powerplayers" will do quests for the rewards, but they won't generally explore.

However, when a group of them finds a quest exists, one of them will figure it out and suddenly the whole lot will do it.

If people don't even know a quest is there (unless they are generally an explorer), they won't bother putting in the effort. I've managed to do quests a couple of years ahead of them becoming common knowledge because of this.

(I haven't, however, figured out the one you are talking about, and I agree that it looks as if there is one there.)

The automated quests are one of my favorite parts of the game. At least the first time around. I've spent hours and hours in that area and haven't found an actual quest either, if that helps. Or rather it seems like an unfinished one as I did find something(s) that hint at it, but even if it was it probably wouldn't be much reward. Tons of apparently red herrings too.

On your point about having some sort of system to alert the player, I mostly agree. It would detract from the hours I put into some areas finding/completing a hard to find/very difficult quest, but not everyone has the time or interest and they are probably missing out.

>So I'm wandering around the kobold warrens right now. I
>suspect there is something questy in the area.

As far as I know there isn't. (Unless you consider a handful of hidden-ish rooms 'questy') I don't know everything, though.

The area is well-put together (how the hell do you phrase that, grammatically? Anyways...), and it seems like a quest is in there.

Also, I prayed about this a long time ago when I was lich questing (because I scoured the ####in globe), but there is a quest in the Dale which seems to have all the elements there, but none of the code. Up for making that one come to life, mi amigo?

>Also, I prayed about this a long time ago when I was lich
>questing (because I scoured the ####in globe), but there is a
>quest in the Dale which seems to have all the elements there,
>but none of the code. Up for making that one come to life, mi
>amigo?

Maybe when I'm working less. ;)

Really the only questy-ish thing I can think of now in the Outlying Villages relates to a certain potion and the various things you'd have to do (sort of) to get it.

There are a whole bunch of items that are seemingly interconnected...I can't recall the exact details, but I had it all in a document. I prayed at the time, spelled it all out for the Imm who responded, and they were as dumbfounded as I was, but said that there was nothing they could see to indicate a quest was there.

Should I post here everytime I'm uncertain if there is a quest?

There is an altar in the kobolds that says:

"The language of the writing is unknown, perhaps it is Kobold, but its form is quite angular and appears complex. Some sort of translation key would be required to understand even part of what is written here."

The translation key is in the area and I found that. But you can't use the key to decipher the words. It looks like it's only good for a few words outside the gate.

The problem isn't with this area specifically, this is just an example of something I find discouraging.

How about sticking this under my WTF post? That's precisely the kind of thing it's all about.