Ideas For Longer Term Quests

Hey Guys,

 

Everything below is a quote from a post I made in the team forums regarding ideas for longer term quests to guide new players. The beginning but was a reply to another post so it might not make sense to someone who hasn't read the other posts so if you'd like just skip that.

 

Long term tasks would be good but I think they should be quite acheivable as well, artefacts, admins & conquering is something that really depends on ability and play style. We are trying to uncourage new players to play for as long as they are able within the game and I think getting an artefact is something that doesn't happen for most new players even if they are decent (or even good) players. Conquering is another choice, many players choose not to conquer because they either like their villages to have a certain plan, aren't agressive enough or simply have a lack of choice for villages to take. By not allowing some of these tasks to the majority of players you create yet another divide between active simmers and actively agressive people. The same can be said for attacking someone with catapults. Any tasks should really be available for people who choose any route.

Anyway I am assuming the idea

Anyway the ones I like of yours were:

1. Research A Unit
2. Conquer An Oasis
3. Extend Resources Fields to 5

However I think that most of the others aren't great choices for smaller players and some are complicated, and might force people to change their choices for their account. For example I'd include:

Build 10 Troops:

A very simple goal that helps a new player become more able to defend themselves (admittedly at the beginning of the game).

Complete A Marketplace Trade:

I think new players would be well served to get to grips with the marketplace system.

Get 75 Kills:

Now although this may seem like it's catering to the aggressive side of the market I would suggest that this is a war game and at some point combat may occur, however I'd like to see defensive points and kills of animals in oasis count towards this total.

Reinforce An Alliance Member:

I think this will help encourage people to join alliances with players based nearer to them as well as to help build a sense of teamwork. I'd suggest that most players will join an alliance and help other members so there would be the minimum number of people missing out from this idea.

Focus Group 1 Ideas:

Admittedly these ideas aren't mine, it comes from the first focus group I set up because I thought it'd be good to get the ideas from a variety of players both very experienced and some not very experienced, nine people were included. The way they were chosen was random by me going over my online skype list and randomly dragging people into the chat.

All I told the players were told was that the ideas should be:

- Aimed for the longer term
- Available for all play styles (sim/defend/offensive/etc.)
- Helpful for new players

Barracks to Level 5:

Helps new players build up an infrastructure if they need or decide to build troops.

Train 120 Troops:

For any tribe this is a decent short to medium term goal and is available to players of any standard and gameplay style while costly it will help players survive and is not a ridiculus expense.

Build A Residence:

A step on the way to getting a second village.

Train A Settler:

Getting so close to a second village, this is like a guide.

Build A Second Village:

And you're there. A second village is an immense goal and very important for a new player to cement themselves in their area.

Focus Group 2 Ideas:

This was a much larger group made up of close to 25 people, and they came up with all of the ideas above plus a few more new ones.

- Aimed for the longer term
- Available for all play styles (sim/defend/offensive/etc.)
- What Would Have Helped Them

Train A Hero:

I'd say the majority of players who last past the artefacts and are active have a hero, and quite a few new players overlook heroes when they are pretty essential to gameplay and can really help you. They are accessible for all sorts of accounts whether you defend, attack or just sim in peace.

Send Resources to An Alliance Member:

Help another member, I'd probably put a base limit of 100 resources on this and not offer a big reward.

Build A Town Hall:

A building often overlooked by new players and could save them a lot of time and is available to all play styles.

Host A Party:

Links into the task posted above.

Offer A Trade On The Marketplace:

Helps a player get to grips with the economic side of the game rather than just the war heavy side, sometimes both sides will be equally important.

Win A Battle:

Simple really, to win a battle you must kill more of an enemy's troops (or nature's) than they killed of yours.

Message An Alliance Member:

Because communication is a key part of the game.

Refer A Friend:

Quite simple really as it makes use of a framework we already have in the game under the 'Earn Gold' tab but this time it would be a once only quest to get someone to join the game but they wouldn't need to reach the usual target.

Build An Academy:

Goes with the idea of researching a unit which I said earlier.

Not Serious: Hot Pictures

Un-surprisingly this was suggested and became very popular, so instead of pictures of troops have pictures of hot girls. What was more surprising was this idea was more popular within the female portion of the focus group than with the male section. Also the least surprising thing of all was this was suggested by the legendary Surikat.

On thing I started to realise quickly after we began this is that some of the quests seem to be steps on to the next quests and mean that some people can't do certain quests until they've completed others and although I like the idea of people being able to pick and choose it might be good to layer them. So there'd be a certain number of quests available at once and once you've done one of them you get another from that category. Using the examples above I've completed the layers:


- Build An Academy
-- Research A Unit
--- Train A Hero


- Train 10 Troops
-- Win A Battle
--- Barracks to Level 5
---- Build 120 Troops
----- Get 75 Kills
------ Conquer An Oasis


- Message An Alliance Member
-- Reinforce An Alliance Member
--- Send Resources to An Alliance Member


- Build A Residence
-- Residence to Level 10
--- Build A Town Hall
---- Host A Party
----- Train A Settler
------ Settle A New Village

- Complete A Marketplace Offer
-- Make A Marketplace Offer

Steve