I'm adding more quests to my Rumple Mod and I'd like to know what kind of quests appeal to the players. The poll setup doesn't really allow for ranking so if you could add that to your responses, it would help.

I'm expecting a lot of answers to say "variety", but I'd still need to get a feel for the balance of combat versus stealth, for example. If you had a "fetch item" quest, would you fight your way in to get the item, or try and steal it without being noticed? Should the quest be biased toward one or the other? That kind of feedback would help me design the new ones.

Other: Skill checks, multiple solutions, multiple paths(In terms of the map... or story, but that's harder to pull off.), cerebral (maybe some puzzles but mostly just no hand holding), character driven (ie: the story has some personality, and likeable characters involved... it doesn't feel like some random task doled out by a job board), etc.

Basically like quest from Integration: The Stranded Light ... not just like it though, I mean everyone has their way of doing things it's just.... Oblivion is already so overloaded with generic: fetch, assassinate, kill all, deliver, puzzle quests. It gets old after a while and there are just so many other ways to achieve sucess.

Rankings:(out of 5)

fetch from hostile= 3
Kill specific= 4
clear all= 0
Deliver= 1
escort=2 (maybe higher if some kind of interesting hook were involved, but that also applies to most all of them)
Puzzle solving= 2-5

Your option you gave for the poll doesn't cover all types of quest mods. I really like puzzle-solving quests and multi-branched quests that allow you to finish the quest in different ways. Good for replay value.

Mostly what pheonix1213 said.

Most of the listed quest types are what I would consider sub-quests. On their own they are not that great, but a quest that combines many of those aspects is good.
Also, linear quests get boring pretty fast and they sidetrack the player. Quests with choices and different consequences are best.

I'd agree with phoenix1213 as well. I've come to really dislike the standard, "Go to a cave and kill a bunch of baddies and bring back some item" quest. There's just no depth to that. Quests that have interesting background, emotional depth, moral dilemmas, differing sides, and ones that make you really think are the best type. And they are admittedly much harder to design and create. But well worth it in my opinion.

I'm bored at Work(base) so, what the hell... I'll try and think up a good example

Let's take the "kill all" type quest.

Okay you have barbarians in a cave. you can
1 Go in and slaughter them all yourself!
2 Convince the guard captain in a nearby town that they pose a significant threat to the city(he sends guards to help, or kill them themselves)
3 Steal a nearby goblin totem and hide it in the barb cave( goblins attack the cave)
4 steathily assassinate the wife of an allied barbarian clan and make it look like one of them did it(barbarians go to war and the formerly allied clan goes after you after the target barbarians die(because they figured out you set them up))
5: infect the wild life around the cave with disease so that when the barbs eat it they get sick.
6:use magic/alchemy to cause a cave in trapping them in the cave to starve to death.
7:decypher they're language and try to come to a peaceful solution(...just to add a "puzzle" option mostly)
8: mix and match( Make peace, poison food, make everyone attack them, and then cause a cave in... just for the hell of it, and to make them all hate you.)

Granted all that would be rather complex but even 2 or 3 things like that would make the generic "kill all" a lot more fun, and you could even give the same treatment to the fetch/assassinate/deliver/escort/puzzle type quests(except maybe puzzle... because it's a bit harder to make a puzzle have fun multiple solutions. It's not like 15-down "a red flower" can be rose OR submachine gun.)

I'm going to echo Cydonian Knight somewhat. I want quests that include a well written, lore appropriate story.

Emotional depth, moral choices, and characters I care about are all more important to me than whether the quest is fetch, clear, puzzle etc.

Throw in a newly designed dungeon to feed my insatiable desire for environments I haven't seen yet, and I'm one happy gamer.

The best quest I can give as an example is the micro-quest in Wrye Morph to get the power to morph.

Very short, but perfect. A superb job by Wrye as always.

The basic type of quest involved doesn't really matter. What matters is how well it is implemented, plotted, etc.

In a good quest the player will feel like he's discovering new things, figuring out hidden truths, proving his might and cleverness by overcoming challenges, and preparing for future challenges by acquiring loot or other rewards. In a bad quest the player will feel like he's discovering trivial permutations of what came before, figuring out plot details that only pretended to be hidden, proving he has high enough stats and/or fights cheaply enough and/or can solve asinine riddles well enough to overcome challenges, and picking up loot or other rewards that is either useless or that cheapens the value of the rest of the game.

There are no hard and fast rules because there is no true objective difference between the two - it is basically a matter of emotional engagement. The best you can get is some "best practices", loose guidelines, that sort of thing.

That said, escorting non-essential NPCs is annoying because it often comes down to managing the AI on the NPC (ie figuring out how to prevent him from doing anything REALLY stupid).

My favorite quest mod is Havish, by JOG. Okay, that's a Morrowind mod not an Oblivion mod. For Oblivion, I think The Lost Spires was probably the best quest mod.

Can't put it better than skyranger did!

I really liked the Blade of the Haunted - it is a nice set of quests involving decent puzzles, and most importantly a good plot that literally screws with your psyche (especially if you are using a realistic sleep mod). The rewards are good, but it is still a small quest and there isn't as much NPC interaction as I'd have liked (the scope was not a grand quest, so the mod is great for it's scope).

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5751, is a perfect example of a simple "go there kill" quest mod that isnt just another "go there kill" quest. One of my favourate.

I don't like dungeon dives, so I prefer quests that don't involve those. I have played The Lost Spires a couple of times now because the story kept me going. I probably won't play it again now that I know the story. In the end, I really didn't like the loot. So a good story that makes you care about the characters will pretty much get me to do anything - even a big dungeon dive (which Lost Spires was full of). I agree with Phoenix and SkyRanger's comments as well. One thing I really don't like is a non-ending quest to draw it out more. There was one quest mod that I finally just removed from my game because it drove me nuts. It had a bunch of step and fetch it quests, which are really annoying to start with, and then when you got the item and returned it, you'd be told "oh, you're not done yet, now I need this". Please, I beg you, don't do that...

Non-linear quests, and quests that require a bit of thinking.

quests with multiple endings/ways to complete are my personal favs. However, i hate when the multiple paths led to the same conclusion, or one option is basically the "correct" one because it gets the best quest reward

I voted Puzzle Solving + Other,

I like quests with a detectivesque style, in a way similar to the Chorrol one (but better done than that, of course), when you have to pay attention to your surroundings, gather information, and follow clues... maybe track footsteps (there's hardly any tracking in this game!)

I think Integration: The Stranded Light is the best example I know of this type of quests, but I've yet to play it fully! And Glenvar Castle has some of it too...

Those are my favorite

Cheers!

A lot of the comments above ring true to me. A quest is interesting less because of its ostensible objective than because of the design elements incorporated therein. Some factors that are important to me are:

1) Foremost, does the quest have a story? A motivation that the player either sympathizes with, or opposes? Characters that have a personality, a history, interests of their own? A mystery for the player to resolve? Give me an emotional hook over loot and glory any day.

2) I also love exploration. Show me new place, or better yet, a new kind of place. If there are enemies, let them look different, or behave differently, than those I have met before. Finding a sufficiently interesting place is a reward on its own.

3) I like quests that require investigation. However, it should be noted that there are two types of investigation. The first is "diffuse investigation", which is probably the most realistic in some ways. In this sort of investigation, the player is left with few or no clues about where to look. They may need to find books or clue-objects hidden in a variety of places, talk to numerous people, follow a number of likely paths, etc. before any real knowledge comes their way. This can get quite frustrating, especially for those who try to play a quest directly from start to finish. "Directed investigation", by contrast, will usually tell you when you have found any relevant clue, and suggest a next direction to search. This is more friendly to casual players, but can be less satisfying to those who cherish their realism, nonlinearity, etc.

4) I marked 'puzzles' as my favorite type of quest, but there are many kinds of puzzles. There are investigation puzzles, discussed above. There are a variety of 'classic puzzles', which consist of first deducing the rules of some artificial situation, and then deducing how to use those to accomplish a goal. (Have you ever played the Myst games? They are filled with such classic puzzles.) There are searching puzzles, in which one needs to get to the right general area (finding the general area may be a puzzle on its own), and then pay very close attention to one's surroundings. There are 'tool puzzles', which mostly consist of determining what simple method may overcome an otherwise very difficult problem; in Oblivion, this may mean, for example, using a telekinesis spell to fetch an out-of-reach item. Classic boss fights are often tool puzzles; trying to jump on Bowser's head will not work, but grabbing his tail and swinging him around does the job. Similarly, count on most fire-elemental creatures, including bosses, to have a weakness to frost spells. There are word puzzles (including riddles of various stamps) and math puzzles, which are sometimes classic puzzles but not always. These may require special skills that not all players will have in abundance, but that is technically true of every type of puzzle. Word and math puzzles, however, deserve special mention because children, the five to ten percent of the population with dyslexia, the 30% of US citizens who do not complete high school, people speaking English as a second language, and people who never understood story problems collectively make up a very large fraction of the potential audience, and all of these people will have trouble with language or math puzzles at some level of complexity - not to mention the people who are not in those groups, and will still have trouble. Additionally, language games do not translate well. Different players will find more to enjoy in different types of puzzles. I, myself, enjoy investigation and classic puzzles, like search puzzles if they are in unfamiliar areas, am neutral towards tool puzzles, am good at math puzzles but not interested in most of them, and moderately good at word puzzles but usually despise the harder ones.

5) Lots of people love nonlinearity, and lots of people love multiple solutions, which are not strictly the same thing. Multiple solutions means multiple ways to accomplish a given task. Nonlinearity means a choice between different tasks to accomplish. Both add roleplaying value and repeatability to a quest.

6) Roleplaying value attracts a lot of players. Can you choose to be good or evil? Can a goal be accomplished via combat, stealth, or manipulation?

7) On the other hand, not all quests are for all characters. Some quests are really just for thieves, or assassins, or competent mages, or competent fighters, or the silvertongued, or good guys, or bad guys. If you know that, and market accordingly, it's all groovy. I wouldn't download Thieves' Arsenal while playing a paladin, nor The Order while playing a sinister assassin. However, if you intend your quest mod to be "for general audiences", then alignment- or style- specific quests should be optional, and preferably balanced out by other alignment- or style specific quests.

8) When it comes to tangible rewards, items that perform a unique function and/or have a unique appearance are more interesting than those that are extremely valuable or powerful but technically replaceable.

9) 'Fetch item' quests are most interesting to me when specifically framed as theft quests. This distinguishes them from the vast pool of 'kill your way to the item' quests, and if well-designed, may elevate them to puzzle quests.

10) I don't like dungeon dives, or fights, all that much. That may be strange, given that Oblivion has - well - a LOT of dungeon-diving and fighting elements, and I'm playing it. Nonetheless I'd rather explore a mostly-empty dungeon with hidden passageways and traps than hack my way through one filled with enemies. The more unusual the dungeon layout and the enemies within it, the happier I am to fight through it. If I must fight, I'd rather a single interesting fight to a lot of ordinary ones. Refer to (1) and (2): I'm all about Story and Discovery when it comes to my games.

11) Escort quests are the bottom of the barrel, because the AI is horribly self-destructive and dumb. This has been true in every game I have ever played. You'd think someone would figure it out, but no.

All that said, I am a very specific type of player, and not every gamer will enjoy what I enjoy. I know a guy (from another game) who never reads quest texts, just follows the quest markers and kills whatever he's supposed to kill there. A whole class of people just want powerful and/or pretty gear and/or adoring, subservient, beautiful followers who look like Legolas and are named Legolas. But, people with these tendencies usually satisfy them by downloading weapon and companion mods, rather than by downloading quest mods. /shrug/. In the end, the way you design your mod is a choice of which audience you want to attract. Take your pick, and whatever you decide to do, have fun modding!

Hrmn. For me it's easier to point out which kind of quests I don't like. From the options above:

"- Escort non-essential character (e.g Farwil)"
Words cannot describe how much I hate these kind of quests. The AI is just magnitudes too dumb for this to be only halfway enjoyable for me.

"- Clear all enemies in a location"
Now where's the last missing rat? No fun.

However most importantly: Blant, unoriginal quests. Let's just take a look at "Deliver item to individual", and see what Integration did with this simple premise:
- One quest has you deliver an item that tries to drive you insane, and is actively playing various pranks on you.
- One quest has you deliver an item that is easily damaged, and needs to be protected from various environmental dangers.
- One quest has you deliver an ordinary item, but you've got to figure out the right recipient.
- One quest has you deliver an ordinary item, but you've got to figure out where the recipient resides.

And much, much more. Now these are usually also only steps of a quest, for example the item trying to drive you insane has to be aquired first, from its previous owner who was driven insane. Of course "Deliver item to individual" can also be turned into completely boring and uninteresting quests. It doesn't have to be. And that's important.

Of course not all ideas work out, especially those using unique ideas. Take a look at Integrations "Mortals and Daedra" quest, probably one of the most despised quest in existence. Using Oblivion's clunky dialog system to combine clues was not a great idea :shakehead: .

At least it's not "following the red/green arrow and be done with it". Or "just do the same things over and over and over again". That's what I didn't liked in Vanilla, and what I don't like in quest mods. Go there, kill stuff, go back. Over and over again. Once or twice it is fun, but then you'd like to have something like the Thieves Guild (which imho is the best designed Vanilla guild). Or, oh I don't know, a Mages Guild that is a Mages Guild in more than name only.

Also very important is, for me at least, something like "the greater picture". Morrowind also had a lot of simple quests, but they made sense in context, brought life to the world and its characters. The whole "Dwemer research" quests of the Mages Guild were pretty simple, but they made sense. They developed the world, they developed the people involved. And sometimes they shook you out of your routine, e.g. by finding clues leading to the discovery of what has happened to the Dwemer.

What? You removed the Main Quest!?

I agree with the most, story and interesting characters is what gets me involved the most.

Other: I like quests that tell you something about the people you're doing it for, and that present you with some motivating reason to perform it that doesn't fit into one of the specified molds. There should also be different outcomes based on how you choose to handle completing it, as well as lasting consequences for the actions taken. So your quests, which may contain one or all of your specified types, should not be biased toward combat, stealth, or diplomacy. They should be solvable using all 3, and even if in the end someone HAS to die, you should be able to manipulate things so that you may not necessarily be the one to do the killing yourself.