Quest Talk:The Limlight Gorge

The changes that RTC made here from "Speak with" to "Talk to" are part of the long running debate -- Do we make up quest dialogs from the "done" part of the Quest Log (or even the "live" Quest Log, or from the actual "live" dialog?

This issue does seem to be a "constant" with Turbine; namely all of the NPCs tell you to "Speak with xxx in yyy about zzz" in their original dialog boxes, but the quest log always shows things shortened to "Talk to xxx," leaving out all of the other details. (And this is while the Quest is running. It gets shortened even more when the quest is completed.) Frequently, but not always, the additional information shows up in the Quest Log as "Background," information, but more often, the "Background" information is "fabricated" out of whole cloth... i.e. not part of the original NPC's dialog.

Perhaps this is a glimpse into the internal corporate structure of Turbine?

One supposes that the NPC (i.e. the Dialog writer) is actually "roleplaying" by using an archaic form of "polite speech," -- "Speak with." While the "chroniclers" of the event (Quest Log writers), are speaking as the "Narrator" (as in Winnie the Pooh movies by Disney), and using the "less personal" form of "talk to."

I guess I'm just feeling overly "academic" this morning.

I know that we have discussed this before in other environments. This comment is primarily to point out the fact that with Update 6, "nothing" has changed... sigh. :(

Oh well... T.T.F.N. Wm Magill - Valamar - OTG/OTC (talk) 13:27, 13 March 2012 (EDT)

I've taken to calling the text that appears in bold yellow with the red bullet at the top of the right pane of the quest log for an active quest, a goal. This is to distinguish it from the numbered objectives displayed in the quest history and in the quest log for a completed quest.

The goal identifies the specific action you must perform to advance the quest. The quest objective describes what you must do in more general terms.

An objective has at least one current goal, although there may be several simultaneous active goals that all must be completed. Completing a goal often advances you to the next objective, but sometimes advances you to another goal for the same objective. Without looking at the quest history while doing the quest, you cannot tell if the goal completion advanced the objective. This is why we sometimes see consecutively numbered objects with the same objective text, but different goal text. They are actually the same objective with two sequential goals. This behaviour is similar to a slayer or collector quest where the goal advances each time you slay the target mob or collect another quest item.

The goals are displayed in the quest log of an active quest and in the quest tracker. They are not shown in the quest history. Once you complete the goal, you will not see it recorded anywhere in the game.

As far as I can tell, when you complete a quest, the content of the quest history is placed in the quest log of the now completed quest. Once you have completed a quest, you cannot see the goals, except by examining collected screen shots. I have a suspicion that the content of the completed quest log is completely static, so that it never changes if changes are made to the current version of a quest.

What that means for me is that I prefer to create the quest article while I am performing the quest, or I have to take a massive number of screenshots, and try to piece it back together later. Working from the quest log of a completed quest simply does not provide all the information I would like to see.

So when I apply my treatment to a quest, please consider it an enhancement, rather than a criticism of your efforts. RingTailCat (talk) 20:38, 13 March 2012 (EDT)

There is another interesting "phenomenon" I noticed with (so far) one of the Limlight Gorge quests, but I assume it happens other times as well. This happens to be two overlapping "quests." One is actually a Deed, Limlight Gorge Explorer.

If on first entering the Gorge, you talk to Captain Agelbrit, he will give you a quest The Prospector's Shack -- to go find it. However, if you do NOT talk to the Captain and simply "discover" the Shack on your own, Brid basically gives you the same quest, which immediately auto completes, before going on to his actual quest. In either case it counts as part of the Limlight Gorge Explorer deed.

I suspect the same is true of the sawmill Quest:The Limlight Mill, but I haven't been over there yet (post beta). Since I visited the shack first, I don't have a copy of the Dialog with the Quest giver, Captain Agelbrit, but only the version from Bird. It would be interesting to compare the two. As well as Bird's follow on quest. Wm Magill - Valamar - OTG/OTC (talk) 22:17, 13 March 2012 (EDT)