The Journal - How about a "While in X zone, I need to do something for Z quest Tab?

[EQ2He]

<DIV> <DIV>The Search function on this forum does not work for me for some reason, so please forgive me if this has already been discussed...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In our Journal, we have tabs for 1) what quests I received from X zone; and 2) what quests are Shared.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>How about a tab for "While in X zone, I need to do something for Z quest"?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This would help me out the most.  I hate looking through the journal searching each quest to figure out if I need to do anything in the zone I am currently in.  Worse than that... leaving a zone, going all the way across the world, and finding out I needed to kill 1 more in the zone I was in, ALL THE WAY BACK across the world!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Is there a petition, or something I can start, or sign?</DIV></DIV>

[FeeRs]

<DIV>/sign</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>good idea</DIV>

[IsmeldaLasomb]

<DIV>Would be a nice feature indeed but will make simplier a game already not so complicated.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Plus it can give you hints when the purpose of a quest is to be puzzled a bit. Meaning when you need to find item X dropped on mob Y and don't even know whedre to find that Mob that feature will tell you that you are in the right zone for achieving this goal. Like in a Legend and Lore quest, you never found sirens in EL for exemple and suddenly you know you can find them here because the journal tells you so... Too much indication imho <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Of course everybody, me included, look at website to find clue on quest, but hey, we are lazy <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[Eal]

<DIV>Can you give an example of where this happened to you? As far as I knew quests were catagorized by zones, except heritage quest and those were meant to be challenging.</DIV>

[Azaik]

<DIV>I remember seeing this asked in one of the dev chats on a community site (might be the 'Ask SOE' series). Basically, the response was that they'd considered it but decided against it because they didn't want people 'playing the journal,' as it were, and preferred them to concentrate on the adventuring.</DIV>

[Marty78]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Azaik wrote:<BR> <DIV>I remember seeing this asked in one of the dev chats on a community site (might be the 'Ask SOE' series). Basically, the response was that they'd considered it but decided against it because they didn't want people 'playing the journal,' as it were, and preferred them to concentrate on the adventuring.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Yeah, I remember reading this as well. This was the answer given:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>"While we want to keep improving the quest journal and making it easier to use, allowing you to sort by zone on a per-step basis has a downside. We don't want people playing the journal instead of the game. What I mean is, having a list of all the quest steps you need to do in a particular zone turns your journal into a shopping list, and you lose the story and flavor behind the quests. Though it takes effort to go through your journal and find quests in a particular zone, the very act of doing that makes you read through the steps and remember elements of the storyline that you may have forgotten."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Edit: <A href="http://eq2vault.ign.com/View.php?view=asksoe.Detail&category_select_id=36" target=_blank>http://eq2vault.ign.com/View.php?view=asksoe.Detail&category_select_id=36</A></DIV><p>Message Edited by Marty78 on <span class=date_text>03-03-2005</span> <span class=time_text>06:22 AM</span>

[Dashofpepp]

<DIV>/sign</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Although I don't think they should be sorted by zone / shopping list.  I think that the quest giver in any particular zone should give you a quest to kill X mobs.  Those mobs immediately spawn around the quest giver, are green, non-aggro, and solo.  After you kill them and talk to the quest giver, he should tell you to run around him clockwise 3 times while simultaneously typing SOEISGREAT and doing the /dance.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Then he should reward you with the +15 Str +50 Agi +100 health +500 power (Dual hand) Godsbane Dagger of Invulnerability.  Oh..and it has an invisibility proc that activates at mental command, stays invis against all mobs no matter what I do so I can run around collecting question marks in T5 zones.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Today's flavor:  sarcasm.  Nothing personal.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Retribution - Befallen</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Shadowdu]

<DIV>This is a nice idea, but I see the down side.  What if they made a tab for personal notes etc.  Make it so you could drag your quest into a certian zone folder.  This way you would have to know where the next step is.  So if you had to kill some gnolls in TS you could drag a copy of this quest into the TS folder in your needs to be completed quest section.  Then while you are in TS you could check that folder for quests you need to do while you are there.  This method would force people to actually know what they have to do and keep everything organized themselves without giving anything away.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Just my 2 cp</DIV>

[Gallenite]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> EQ2Hero wrote:<BR> <DIV> <DIV>The Search function on this forum does not work for me for some reason, so please forgive me if this has already been discussed...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In our Journal, we have tabs for 1) what quests I received from X zone; and 2) what quests are Shared.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>How about a tab for "While in X zone, I need to do something for Z quest"?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This would help me out the most.  <FONT color=#ffff00><STRONG><EM>I hate looking through the journal searching each quest to figure out if I need to do anything in the zone I am currently in.</EM></STRONG></FONT>  Worse than that... leaving a zone, going all the way across the world, and finding out I needed to kill 1 more in the zone I was in, ALL THE WAY BACK across the world!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Is there a petition, or something I can start, or sign?</DIV></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Yellow/bolded emphasis mine.  No need to start a petition. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>A Journal feature to get around this problem is currently in development.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Searching through the text of 50 quests to find out which current step applies to your current zone doesn't add a whole lot of gameplay value.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The world and the quests themselves are the fun gameplay challenge -- Searching through 50 quests to find what you're supposed to do where is not what we meant to be the "fun gameplay challenge."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As far back as beta, we'd been saying that we agreed with the requests and wished we would have been able to do something about it sooner, so this isn't any kind of massive 180.  It was just a large, large chunk of effort that we couldn't spend on this right then.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Over the past few weeks, we've been investing the effort to make this happen.  It won't be in for the next major update, as it's not even ready for Test Server yet.  It should be coming up in the updates following.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Take care,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- Scott</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[ag]

Fan-freaking-tastic! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Looking forward to this change.

[Gallenite]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Marty78 wrote:<BR> <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Azaik wrote:<BR> <DIV>I remember seeing this asked in one of the dev chats on a community site (might be the 'Ask SOE' series). Basically, the response was that they'd considered it but decided against it because they didn't want people 'playing the journal,' as it were, and preferred them to concentrate on the adventuring.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Yeah, I remember reading this as well. This was the answer given:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>"While we want to keep improving the quest journal and making it easier to use, allowing you to sort by zone on a per-step basis has a downside. We don't want people playing the journal instead of the game. What I mean is, having a list of all the quest steps you need to do in a particular zone turns your journal into a shopping list, and you lose the story and flavor behind the quests. Though it takes effort to go through your journal and find quests in a particular zone, the very act of doing that makes you read through the steps and remember elements of the storyline that you may have forgotten."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Edit: <A href="http://eq2vault.ign.com/View.php?view=asksoe.Detail&category_select_id=36" target=_blank>http://eq2vault.ign.com/View.php?view=asksoe.Detail&category_select_id=36</A><BR></DIV> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P> </P> <P>To reconcile the answer that I just gave above with the quote from Moorgard's -- We still don't want people exclusively playing the journal.  That's absolutely true.  The opinion that we're currently operating under is that people will still be focusing the vast majority of their attention on the world.  The travel and accomplishment elements still exist as before, as does all of the lore that goes into each quest.</P> <P>What we're aiming to accomplish is a much more clear presentation of a person's short-term ("this zone") goals, in a way that will also let them get caught back up on the storyline for each as they progress, yet not reduce the game to an act of executing "shopping lists." <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>- Scott</P> <P><BR> </P>

[Ghaleon]

<DIV>definetly looking forward to this </DIV>

[Jatr]

<blockquote><hr>Gallenite wrote:<BR><BLOCKQUOTE><HR>EQ2Hero wrote:<BR><DIV><DIV>The Search function on this forum does not work for me for some reason, so please forgive me if this has already been discussed...</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>In our Journal, we have tabs for 1) what quests I received from X zone; and 2) what quests are Shared.</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>How about a tab for "While in X zone, I need to do something for Z quest"?</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>This would help me out the most. <FONT color=#ffff00><STRONG><EM>I hate looking through the journal searching each quest to figure out if I need to do anything in the zone I am currently in.</EM></STRONG></FONT> Worse than that... leaving a zone, going all the way across the world, and finding out I needed to kill 1 more in the zone I was in, ALL THE WAY BACK across the world!</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Is there a petition, or something I can start, or sign?</DIV></DIV><BR><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><DIV>Yellow/bolded emphasis mine. No need to start a petition. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>A Journal feature to get around this problem is currently in development. </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Searching through the text of 50 quests to find out which current step applies to your current zone doesn't add a whole lot of gameplay value. </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>The world and the quests themselves are the fun gameplay challenge -- Searching through 50 quests to find what you're supposed to do where is not what we meant to be the "fun gameplay challenge."</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>As far back as beta, we'd been saying that we agreed with the requests and wished we would have been able to do something about it sooner, so this isn't any kind of massive 180. It was just a large, large chunk of effort that we couldn't spend on this right then.</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Over the past few weeks, we've been investing the effort to make this happen. It won't be in for the next major update, as it's not even ready for Test Server yet. It should be coming up in the updates following. </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Take care,</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>- Scott</DIV><DIV> </DIV><hr></blockquote>Oh thank the gods!

[VampirePrince]

Fun? How about you get a quest you have to camp several hours for the named to spawn? Who calls that fun...that time actually gave us time to scroll through the journal to look for other quests to do meanwhile. I don't share SOEs version of fun. *throws wet towels their way*

[Roke]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> VampirePrincess wrote:<BR>Fun? How about you get a quest you have to camp several hours for the named to spawn? Who calls that fun...that time actually gave us time to scroll through the journal to look for other quests to do meanwhile. I don't share SOEs version of fun. *throws wet towels their way*<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> You know what is even more fun?  Having to camp a rare spawn in an instanced zone!  What is the bloody point of that?

[Tstorm]

<blockquote><hr>Gallenite wrote:<DIV>A Journal feature to get around this problem is currently in development. </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Searching through the text of 50 quests to find out which current step applies to your current zone doesn't add a whole lot of gameplay value. </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>The world and the quests themselves are the fun gameplay challenge -- Searching through 50 quests to find what you're supposed to do where is not what we meant to be the "fun gameplay challenge."</DIV><hr></blockquote>Thanks so much for this. I love doing quests, but on top of just having 50 quests in my journal, a percentage of quests have been in my journal for some time because they are way over my head, they take a long time to complete, or I just haven't gotten around to it.While I don't base my EQ2 gameplay around the quest journal ("playing the journal" as Moorgard said I believe), it's really easy to lose track of a quest and some better organization tools are really appreciated.The other related annoyance I have is I'll sometimes spend the time to open my journal, expand the tabs, close the tabs with quests not on my hit list, then go adventure. If I zone, die, or breathe the wrong way, the journal resets itself. I don't necessarily want to be spammed on screen with "You have entered the Thundering Steppes zone. In this zone, you need to kill 20 antelope, 30 beetles, 12 centaurs, ..." but I do want to be able to organize myself without having to resort to out-of-game spreadsheets and such.

[Victor_Hugo]

<DIV>One of the most popular items from the playermade ui sites is a setup that allows the quest journal to be displayed vertically instead of horizontally. Could that be an option more easily implemented until a more indepth attack at the journal is decided?</DIV>

[Ricassari]

Making the Journal sortable by "zone you have to do something in" does not equal turning the game into executing a shopping list. Other things do that. It would be just a mechanic that turns a shopping list into an easier searchable shopping list. I currently tab into Excel to check my "shopping list", where I enter most of my quests sorted exactly this way. Implementing this feature is a good thing, I think - it is needed.Interesting quests that have less shopping-list approach are the solution if you really fear the disadvantage. And there are many good quests currently. So it really should not be a big problem.

[Korpo]

<blockquote><hr>Ealix wrote:<DIV>Can you give an example of where this happened to you? As far as I knew quests were catagorized by zones, except heritage quest and those were meant to be challenging.</DIV><hr></blockquote>I notice this especially in early quests. It'd be nice if there were some way to look up who you had to talk to when you were in Baubbleshire, instead of having to look through all your quests from all the zones and read through to figure out that the quest called "A thirsty frog" from Castleview Hamlet wants you to talk to someone named Fizzlefingers Stinkypants in Baubbleshire to get some jumjum juice.

[lilmohi]

<DIV>:smileytongue:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Can't wait, escpecially for doing the newbie quests that have little to no ongoing story.  At least in Qeynos there are over a hundred quests lvl 4-15, that cross all the suburbs, city zones and newbie dungeons, so i end up spending 5 mins every time i zone just looking through my quest journal.  Later on its not such a big deal since by then 70% of my journal is collection items, and the rest only  cross a few zones.</DIV>

[Miral]

<DIV>awesome glad y'all changed your minds.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm really starting to gain faith in the EQ2 development team with these last few patches (barring the little slip on test that inflated what little economy there was beyond recognition, but hey - thats test)</DIV>

[AlA]

<DIV>Gallenite quoted : "We don't want people playing the journal instead of the game."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Because of this I and other players are being griefed, used, cheated, exploited and ripped off by other players! Read on....</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There's that sequence of words I keep seeing, this "We don't want ..." Players to log into a shopping mall, Players playing the Journel instead of the game.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I hate it when I go through a quest, every step like I did for the Zek quest for instance, where this group deliberately used me to get THEM through the quest, but when I asked if I was supposed to speak with the NPC on step two, they all said "It's ok, you don't have to, You'll get credit. Well, it was one of the most aweful groups I ever was in. They NEVER warned anyone that an attack was imminent, They bumbled around, ran in opposite directions and did a LOT of stupid thing that added up to a truckload of exp debt for me, and when it was all said and done, guess what? I got NO credit for doing anything but the FIRST step!! None!! I felt used, abused taken advantage of and defrauded and I STILL have that quest to do and I'm level 36.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>IF I had gotten a message that said I NEED to do this I would have insisted on them sticking around for me to do my turn at talking to the NPC and I would not have been lied to or decieved. Trying to get a reply from the group was like pulling teeth.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I would think that SOE would also be interested in what the PLAYER'S want too instead of totally discounting their feelings and saying such things as "We don't want X" which implies that the only thing that is important is what SOE wants and players be damned. That IS what it implies to me, but I know better, that what the players desire IS important to SOE.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So, Dev Team, please, before making a descision based on what YOU want, think about the possible consequences.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It seems that in this case, everyone was so focused on trying to keep the game as the focus that they never thought of the potential for groups of players to "USE" fellow players to finish their quest without the player having a clue that they are not getting credit. I felt like a soiled and discarded roll of toilet paper. What he OP suggested would have prevented this.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy helping players, but I do not enjoy being tricked into doing all the steps of a quest with a group and getting no quest reward.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One of these days, there will be a quest created that will be like this where the player the group exploits and decieves will be rendered unable to complete the quest because they have done a particular step and if it's an access quest and one that can't be deleted but is also a CRITICAL step in the game process, players who have been victims of this type of dastardly deeds will be very upset, and maybe stuff will start hitting the fan and whatever hits the fan won't be evenly distributed. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In conclusion: I think we NEED to be warned when we are missing out on a critical step verses the rest of a group, and I am made a bit nervous when I see the words "We don't want X" It just sounds just like another way of saying "We don't care what you think." and I don't think that's what you intend to imply. IE: I'm trying to point out how aweful those words sound, the terrible conseqences, and say that I still have respect for SOE. A hard tightrope to walk sometimes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Final question: How immersed in the game do you think I felt when I found out that tho I had done all the steps for the Zek quest short of the ROV and Boat ride, only to find that I only got credit for step one, and a truck load of exp debt? I tell ye respectfully, that if I felt immersed, it wasn't in the game, but felt immersed in the reality of how inconsiderate, impatient, greedy and totally devoid of conscience a few players can be.</DIV>

[SageMarrow]

<DIV>well yeah i feel ur pain- but im click happy and click on everything i can find and have a pretty good understanding of how the quest system works- </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>so with that being said- yes the system will be welcomed with open arms but on that same note i have a slightly different gripe.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>all the decent quest for crap that matters are heavy skilled grped quest- now with that being said- that is hard to find!!!! </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>for starters im a bruiser - so that says enough 0 other than that -there is the problem with finding a grp- my server to my knowledge doesnt have any well rounded mid-high level guilds yet- im level 33 and thats the least saturated area.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>at level 33 most people start rolling alts - or taking a break from the game- i know so many friends that all stopped at lvl 35 for some reason and either spend all day and night Tradeskilling or playing their lvl 13 assassin wanna be or 22 wiz. lol ???</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>its crazy but ive spent ALOT of time tryin to get simple quest done like Fishbone and EE bag and cant find a grp= i know the guild comment - but like i said there are no mid - high level guilds on my server- ive been in 2 guilds in the first i was the highest level and the only one ever on- and in the one im in now - there are 3 players 30+... some higher guilds with about 6-7 lvl 40's but still thats a big gap from 33 and still doesnt take into account whos on and when</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>quite the same situation when tryin to find an exp grp.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>not a rant or a complaint - but moreso a plea for some added flexibility to get good items - ive spent many many levels solo simply because it was either that or sit still long enough for someone to invite me to grp-  for me to run to them only for them to have to log in 20... lol weve all heard that one - so yeah im done</DIV>

[CyclopsSlayer]

<DIV>I hate having to search the journal all the time to figure out what category that side quest I just got is in.</DIV> <DIV>Is an Access quest under Access, Zone OR Hallmark, often seems to be random which. I have done Ferrott access, yet it isn't under the access tab. How about starting with sorting the quests in something resembling a Logical fashion, then add all the tabs you want.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also, doing History of the Iksar 1, Bought the book in NFP and it was listed there, then after one of the steps the whole quest moved to the Commonlands tab, I thought it was gone, but then later found it there looking for something else.</DIV>

[Twizz]

<DIV>I have a little problem with this. I already see people "Play the journal".</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This is especially true for the AQ quests, and I hate groups sitting around for a particular mob instead of crawling. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It CAN be done while crawling right now, but  many people don't do it. There shouldn't be people refusing a group cause they need AQ2 instead of AQ3. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Simple solotion to this would be to randomize mob spawns in zones a bit more but that's a bit off-topic. I don't think journal improvements will help or break this. I would like to see a feature of that type myself though I don't quest in that way.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[CyclopsSlayer]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Twizz wrote:<BR> <DIV>I have a little problem with this. I already see people "Play the journal".</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This is especially true for the AQ quests, and I hate groups sitting around for a particular mob instead of crawling. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It CAN be done while crawling right now, but  many people don't do it. There shouldn't be people refusing a group cause they need AQ2 instead of AQ3. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Simple solotion to this would be to randomize mob spawns in zones a bit more but that's a bit off-topic. I don't think journal improvements will help or break this. I would like to see a feature of that type myself though I don't quest in that way.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>While those quests that require generic mob can indeed be done while crawling, in most cases, many other quests require mobs that have limited spawn areas or involve a specific named target.</DIV> <DIV>Those you do not get to by crawling, no matter how much you might want to. Unless you kill Mighty Griffons, BloodTalon doesn't spawn, you don't just wander by and find BT waiting. The quest to kill tailors in Ruins of Varsoon, there are only what 3-4 of them at a time and they only spawn in one room, crawling serves no purpose unless you intend to fill this quest of 5-6 visits, and can convince your group to go out of its way to run over to them that many times.</DIV> <DIV>Sadly the higher I get in level the less crawling is possible when doing quests, almost all the Heritages and Access require specific target. When that target is on a multi hour timer it is easy to let it go for now and continue with something else, then a journal reminder would help you to remember to go back and try to finish X quest. Especially since SOE has level limitations on some quests, Lord Everling not working if you are 40+ means you have to go back and finish things before that time. There a Journal reminder would help.</DIV>

[Wiou]

Would be hard to do

[xOnaton1]

I can see a couple things that would make the journal easier to use. It would be cool to be able to sort the quest journal by con color so that you could see all the green quests that you should be working on and the orange/red quests would be at the bottom (that would obviously stick my 15 white collection quests in the middle but it would still be an improvement.)Before I enter a zone, for example Wailing Caves, I look through the entire journal for the quests I have for the WC so that I can work more efficiently. I leave those sections flipped open for reference but then when you zone into the WC the journal resets and none of the sections are flipped open. One thing that would help would be a check box to the left or right of every quest in the journal. You could mark the quests that you're currently working on, for example, all the WC quests. Then you could sort by marked and unmarked so that marked quests would be at the top of the list. Would this be too much of a shopping list style of playing? It wouldn't give away that a certain NPC or MOB you're looking for has to be found in a particular zone...Just some thoughts.