Quests haven’t gotten a lot of press since Fallen Earth released, mostly because at this point in the MMO timeline, people feel very comfortable lumping everything in with World of Warcraft without pausing to notice any differences. If it’s got a symbol over the head, a quest text box, and at least one quest somewhere that orders you to kill 10 rats, then we can safely dismiss it as a necessary but unexciting feature, right?
Except that, at least for me and a few friends whom I’ve discussed this with, there’s something attractive about Fallen Earth’s quest system to put it somewhere above “boring kill 10 foozles” sameness and below “radical questing overhaul that will ROCK YOUR WORLD”. I not only enjoy doing the quests, but I’m stopping all the time to read the quest text. There’s a great amount of backstory, personality and lore that go into these things, and I feel that Fallen Earth’s quest designers and writers should get a bit of credit for being inventive with creaky quest concepts.
The apocalypse has given rise to a wide range of vivacious personalities, from a guy who’s cloned his dead wife (but only made a half dozen imperfect copies) to an angry woman who demanded I kill her ex and get her two precious “children” (read: dogs) back. I’ve done quests that involve sneaking, many which throw ambushes at me, and once in a while I’m greatly surprised and tickled at what I encounter.
A terrific example of a Fallen Earth quest is courtesy of one of the lowbie towns, Depot 66. Among an amphitheatre where the townies are willing to literally go to war over what play is staged next and a an abandoned amusement park in the process of renovation is a shady guy named Bing Tangelo. You know he’s not on the up and up, as the first quest he asks you to do is called “Snipe Hunt”, and his second quest — that to attain a genuine “Malibu Dream House” — smells to high heaven. And yet, I did it, partially to see what would happen, and partially because the quest chain awarded 2 AP.
My clannies did the quest as a group the night previous, but refused to tell me how it ended (I guess I’m spoiling it here for you in a way they didn’t, so if you don’t want to find out, don’t read further!). After a couple small tasks, Bing unloads a whopper of a quest on your shoulders — to kill 200 mobs, 50 of 4 different types. At these low levels, that’s an insane amount of kills for just one quest, especially as I had to hunt around for certain spots where only they’d spawn.
A couple hours later, grumbling and muttering into vent, I finished it up (a clannie came out to help point me in the right direction), and got the follow up, the last quest of the chain. I did it: Bing gave me a compass and a map to my very own dream house. Who says that Fallen Earth doesn’t have player housing?
So I mounted up and took my horse on a long ride to the quest marker, which was just about off the map and into the Death Zone (oh yes, Fallen Earth has a “Death Zone” — it’s just that cool). What did I find?
Bing apparently had been pulling this scam for years. That sign just made me laugh for a couple straight minutes. Sunny Malibu indeed!
Bio Break 
I’ve found the quest text to have more of an appeal to it too. For me, I think it has to do with setting. Even if I have to kill 10 foozles, the getting there will be different because I’m not in fairy land anymore. I no longer know what to expect and can’t take anything for granted because I might miss something along the way.
Hehehe, atleast you got 2AP for it, and 200 kills, that must have put you a fair way through a level on it’s own (not to mention the fact that those guys were probably camped to buggery with everyone else doing the quest too).
Nice. I will admit I have been fast clicking through quest text for the last few MMO’s I have played … CO, EQ2, WAR. But in FE I have started reading them as well. They can be quite entertaining. Maybe it is the bits of humor, maybe that the world is so new and different, taking me back to Wasteland the the RPG Aftermath.
Question … any way to tell where quest givers are in a town that have a quest you can do? I hadn’t noticed anything on the map so I was curious if we have to old school hoof it from house to house to search and find them …. not that there is anything wrong with that! I am loving the old school feel of FE. Reminds me of my first weeks in AC, EQ and DAOC when they were launched.
@ Sord – There should be biohazard markers on your minimap and tactical map to show you where questgivers are. If you can’t see them, then you might have them toggled off in the filters (click on the top-right icon on the tactical map for filter options).
Is it just me, or are there bushes growing *through* some of the previous… tenants?
Fallen Earth: Where the men are corpses, and the bushes are armor piercing.
The only quest-related gripe I have is with the escort ones. Find person, fight mobs that ALWAYS spawn midway to the dropoff point, drop person off.
Just finished Terrence last night, so I went through the business with the clones and the rampant zombies. The quests with the rogue AI were pretty neat, especially when you go up to the house and use the radio 🙂 “damage control” lol
Speaking of radios, I discovered Post Apoc Radio last night and it changed my life :O
@ Sord
It also helps to turn off the merchant icons, since huge clusters of them tend to hide any biohazard icons that might exist in that area.
Thanks Syp, that makes sense. Map is a little small … I’ll have to enlarge it some and look.
BTW, the game is a blast. Level 3 and made my Riding Horse. I can see I will need to gather and grind the ballistic and armor crafting skills if I want to outfit in some better stuff. I’m usually not one much on crafting either, but they have done a lot to make it fun. I like the queuing up while ingame or out, very nice.
I think I feel a cold coming on, might have to go home sick …
That has been my favourite quest thus far. The fact that I wasn’t annoyed that I had ridden to the middle of nowhere only to find I had been duped (though I saw it coming from miles away) speaks volumes for how well crafted it was.
I’ve been consistently impressed with how well-written most of the quest text is. I feel like it’s an afterthought in a lot of MMO’s, but somebody at Icarus put some love into their job… NPC actors riffing on Shakespeare in post-apocalyptic Arizona? Why not?
I just finished Depot 66. I will never look at Macbeth the same way again. And I think the wonderful thing about Sunny Malibu is that you have no one to blame but yourself for doing such a blatantly grindy quest for such a shady “quest reward”. Even the text at the end of the quest says so 🙂
lol. I LOVE this game for all the reasons u do. It’s actually my first MMO. I was attracted to it because of it’s similarities to Fallout. But once I started playing it, I found that it was unique. Different then Fallout. Special. I feel at home in this game. It’s amazing.
BTW, the devs are actually implementing a housing system, and as soon as they do, a lot will appear there and you will get to build your dream house.
then again, maybe not. Afterall, it is a DEAD zone.