Beating a dead horse... *Quest starters on Grey Con mobs*

[BarrowBott]

<p>.. But still.</p><p> I would like to know if the whole quest-starters as chest drop only business can be reviewed.</p><p>Realistically, I will never be able to find a newb to mentor long enough to get every quest starter from, for example, Vermin's Snye.  As a quest enthusiast, and a completionist, I have an OCD "need" to get these quests done.  At this point in time, short of reactivating a second account, I really have no recourse to get these quest starters.</p><p>Would it be considered game breaking at this point in time to have more quest starters added as body drops?  Previously, this was to discourage high-level players from farming grey con quest starter dropping mobs, but at this point in time, there is enough content in the game to satisfy everyone.</p><p>Thoughts?</p>

[Wulfborne]

Agreed. Please allow this to happen. I like all manner of quests - grey or not. ~Hawke

[Lakaah]

Yes, please.

[xOnaton1]

Currently the best way to get those quest starters from chests is to fight through the area with a lower alt. When you get the quest starter in a chest you can just camp to the character that needs it and loot it after the timer expires. Othesus - Dirge - Lucan DLere Vaspar - Fury - Lucan DLere

[BarrowBott]

Othesus@Lucan DLere wrote: <blockquote>Currently the best way to get those quest starters from chests is to fight through the area with a lower alt. When you get the quest starter in a chest you can just camp to the character that needs it and loot it after the timer expires. Othesus - Dirge - Lucan DLere Vaspar - Fury - Lucan DLere </blockquote><p> Sure, that's the best way currently, but it could be done with a lot less hassle.</p><p>AFAIK, the <b>ONLY </b>reasons that grey con mobs don't body drop quest starters, were to keep higher level characters from monopolizing spawns, and to foster the mentoring program.</p><p>I say cut out the middleman.  If we are going to be monopolizing the spawn with our alt anyway, why not just let the quest starters body drop?  As far as mentoring goes, no one wants to be mentored by me while I camp the same spawns repeatedly, days on end, looking for that one rare quest starter.  Frankly, I don't blame them either.</p><p>I would love to hear a dev's opinion on this.</p>

[KBern]

<cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>.. But still.</p><p> I would like to know if the whole quest-starters as chest drop only business can be reviewed.</p><p>Realistically, I will never be able to find a newb to mentor long enough to get every quest starter from, for example, Vermin's Snye.  As a quest enthusiast, and a completionist, I have an OCD "need" to get these quests done.  At this point in time, short of reactivating a second account, I really have no recourse to get these quest starters.</p><p>Would it be considered game breaking at this point in time to have more quest starters added as body drops?  Previously, this was to discourage high-level players from farming grey con quest starter dropping mobs, but at this point in time, there is enough content in the game to satisfy everyone.</p><p>Thoughts?</p></blockquote>I thought they already did away with most of the chest drops for quests.  Maybe they missed some.  Is there a specific one you are trying to get?

[BarrowBott]

Saurakk@Guk wrote: <blockquote><cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>.. But still.</p><p> I would like to know if the whole quest-starters as chest drop only business can be reviewed.</p><p>Realistically, I will never be able to find a newb to mentor long enough to get every quest starter from, for example, Vermin's Snye.  As a quest enthusiast, and a completionist, I have an OCD "need" to get these quests done.  At this point in time, short of reactivating a second account, I really have no recourse to get these quest starters.</p><p>Would it be considered game breaking at this point in time to have more quest starters added as body drops?  Previously, this was to discourage high-level players from farming grey con quest starter dropping mobs, but at this point in time, there is enough content in the game to satisfy everyone.</p><p>Thoughts?</p></blockquote>I thought they already did away with most of the chest drops for quests.  Maybe they missed some.  Is there a specific one you are trying to get? </blockquote>They did away with chest drops for Heritage Quests.  There are still many, many droppable quests out there that start from chests.

[Viemzee]

<cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote>Othesus@Lucan DLere wrote: <blockquote>Currently the best way to get those quest starters from chests is to fight through the area with a lower alt. When you get the quest starter in a chest you can just camp to the character that needs it and loot it after the timer expires. Othesus - Dirge - Lucan DLere Vaspar - Fury - Lucan DLere </blockquote><p> Sure, that's the best way currently, but it could be done with a lot less hassle.</p><p>AFAIK, the <b>ONLY </b>reasons that grey con mobs don't body drop quest starters, were to keep higher level characters from monopolizing spawns, and to foster the mentoring program.</p><p>I say cut out the middleman.  If we are going to be monopolizing the spawn with our alt anyway, why not just let the quest starters body drop?  As far as mentoring goes, no one wants to be mentored by me while I camp the same spawns repeatedly, days on end, looking for that one rare quest starter.  Frankly, I don't blame them either.</p><p>I would love to hear a dev's opinion on this.</p></blockquote><p>Just a thought... Monopolizing a mob on a lower level alt isn't the same as monopolizing on your level 70 main. With your alt, you have to fight one mob at a time, with a chance of diying and aggroing other mobs. And by the time you kill your mobs, other will have spawned. If you go with your main, you can wipe the entire place clean in a few minutes and everyone will have to wait for the respawn. I think it is a very bad idead to allow chest drop for much higher toon, although I sympatise with what you say.</p><p> The only way I see this could work is by allowing the player to decrease their own level temporarily, but that would be weird. </p>

[BarrowBott]

<cite>Viemzee wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote>Othesus@Lucan DLere wrote: <blockquote>Currently the best way to get those quest starters from chests is to fight through the area with a lower alt. When you get the quest starter in a chest you can just camp to the character that needs it and loot it after the timer expires. Othesus - Dirge - Lucan DLere Vaspar - Fury - Lucan DLere </blockquote><p> Sure, that's the best way currently, but it could be done with a lot less hassle.</p><p>AFAIK, the <b>ONLY </b>reasons that grey con mobs don't body drop quest starters, were to keep higher level characters from monopolizing spawns, and to foster the mentoring program.</p><p>I say cut out the middleman.  If we are going to be monopolizing the spawn with our alt anyway, why not just let the quest starters body drop?  As far as mentoring goes, no one wants to be mentored by me while I camp the same spawns repeatedly, days on end, looking for that one rare quest starter.  Frankly, I don't blame them either.</p><p>I would love to hear a dev's opinion on this.</p></blockquote>Just a thought... Monopolizing a mob on a lower level alt isn't the same as monopolizing on your level 70 main. With your alt, you have to fight one mob at a time, with a chance of diying and aggroing other mobs. And by the time you kill your mobs, other will have spawned. If you go with your main, you can wipe the entire place clean in a few minutes and everyone will have to wait for the respawn. I think it is a very bad idead to allow chest drop for much higher toon, although I sympatise with what you say. </blockquote><p>Don't get me wrong here, I'm not asking for chests to drop off grey con mobs.  I think that would cause more problems than it would solve... I'm asking for the quest starters to be made body drops, rather than have them in the chest.</p><p>Quite a lot of the zones that these items usually drop in, are already only visited by questers.  Pretty much no one goes into Edgewater Drains unless they're on a quest.</p><p>Making chests drop from grey con mobs I think would actually have a negative effect.  You would start to see farmers camping grey con nameds 24/7 for masters and fabled to sell to people's alts.  That would not happen if the quest starters became body drops. </p>

[Mighty Melvor]

<p>Yes, you are beating a dead horse.</p><p>And no, I don't want to see the current system changed.</p>

[Valdaglerion]

<p>Agree with the OP -</p><p>All the Lore items which are quest starters and collection updates should be changed to body drops rather than chest drops. Many of those things are too rare to even think about at this point as it is. </p><p>The mentoring system doesnt work for these - I spent over 100 hours mentored in Rivervale looking for the book quest starters and still havent found them and only had that luxury because I was mentoring my alts on a second account. Finding people that want to hunt endlessly for quest starters is just another complexity that prohibits you from enjoying the game. I long since gave up on those because of the nature of the scarcity to begin with but then the chest drop component.</p><p>The collection tomes are another example (some are body drop, some are chest). I have spent ungodly amounts of time in Feerrott and Everfrost trying to locate the last tomes for those collections. I am starting to wonder if they are bugged in the same way there were about 4-5 in Enchanted Lands that simply didnt drop until a few months ago when they fixed those.</p><p>bottom line for me - please make all collection tomes and quest starters body drops.</p>

[Mighty Melvor]

<cite>Valdaglerion wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Agree with the OP -</p><p>All the Lore items which are quest starters and collection updates should be changed to body drops rather than chest drops. Many of those things are too rare to even think about at this point as it is. </p><p>The mentoring system doesnt work for these - I spent over 100 hours mentored in Rivervale looking for the book quest starters and still havent found them and only had that luxury because I was mentoring my alts on a second account. Finding people that want to hunt endlessly for <span style="color: #cc0000">quest starters is just another complexity that prohibits you from enjoying the game.</span> I long since gave up on those because of the nature of the scarcity to begin with but then the chest drop component.</p><p>The collection tomes are another example (some are body drop, some are chest). I have spent ungodly amounts of time in Feerrott and Everfrost trying to locate the last tomes for those collections. I am starting to wonder if they are bugged in the same way there were about 4-5 in Enchanted Lands that simply didnt drop until a few months ago when they fixed those.</p><p>bottom line for me - please make all collection tomes and quest starters body drops.</p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #cc0000">Quest starters is just another complexity that enables me to enjoy the game.</span></p><p>If quest starters were body drops, I would have done them all already....then what? reroll??? zzzzzzzz</p><p>I like the fact that it is difficult to find certain quests.  My goodness, ~99% of the quests are feathered, so you don't even have to look for quests by actually hailing people and conversing with NPCs.</p><p>Keep the ~1% of the quests the way they are.  When I DO find them, I feel a sense of accomplishment.  If they were body drops, it would just be another boring grind. </p>

[BarrowBott]

<p>Double post <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[BarrowBott]

Mighty Melvor wrote: <blockquote><cite>Valdaglerion wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Agree with the OP -</p><p>All the Lore items which are quest starters and collection updates should be changed to body drops rather than chest drops. Many of those things are too rare to even think about at this point as it is. </p><p>The mentoring system doesnt work for these - I spent over 100 hours mentored in Rivervale looking for the book quest starters and still havent found them and only had that luxury because I was mentoring my alts on a second account. Finding people that want to hunt endlessly for <span style="color: #cc0000">quest starters is just another complexity that prohibits you from enjoying the game.</span> I long since gave up on those because of the nature of the scarcity to begin with but then the chest drop component.</p><p>The collection tomes are another example (some are body drop, some are chest). I have spent ungodly amounts of time in Feerrott and Everfrost trying to locate the last tomes for those collections. I am starting to wonder if they are bugged in the same way there were about 4-5 in Enchanted Lands that simply didnt drop until a few months ago when they fixed those.</p><p>bottom line for me - please make all collection tomes and quest starters body drops.</p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #cc0000">Quest starters is just another complexity that enables me to enjoy the game.</span></p><p>If quest starters were body drops, I would have done them all already....then what? reroll??? zzzzzzzz</p><p>I like the fact that it is difficult to find certain quests.  My goodness, ~99% of the quests are feathered, so you don't even have to look for quests by actually hailing people and conversing with NPCs.</p><p>Keep the ~1% of the quests the way they are.  When I DO find them, I feel a sense of accomplishment.  If they were body drops, it would just be another boring grind. </p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #cc0000">Finding people that want to hunt endlessly for quest starters is just another complexity that prohibits you from enjoying the game.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ffffff">He's not complaining about the fact that they are hard to find.  That is something that I, and many others, are willing to deal with.  He is complaining about the fact that it is hard to find a lower level player that will allow us to mentor them for hours on end, while we indulge our obsessive-compulsive need to find every quest, on the stipulation that WE get to keep the ultra-rare quest starter!</span></p><p>We will still consider ourselves "lucky" to find the quests... The drop rates on some of them are abysmal!  How would making the quest-starters body drops a grind, if the drop rates stay at ~1%? </p>

[Webin]

I'm all for beating dead horses. I was recently questing in Nek on an alt, just to level him up, when I realized that even the easier quests from early in EQ2's life are ridiculously painful in difficulty and accessibility.  Go go Gadget Klerron's Ring! On my main, I'm a quest-a-holic like no other (ranked 194th worldwide).  At 2185 completed, I'm running out of things to do.  There's maybe 100 tome collections left to track down the no-drops, maybe 30 regular collections, 20 "end-game" quests, a dozen broken quests, and maybe 50 other random quests I haven't tracked down yet (all very rough guesses).  I'm even on my fifth deity just so I could get the quests.  I'm running out of questy things to do and it will only get worse until RoK comes out (which will hold me for another 6-8 months). But if I could gain access to the low-level quest starters in all those zones I never had a chance to visit when they were green (If you're only level 15 for 3 days, how could you possibly find all the quest starters in all those zones).... If I could get all those quest starters... I'd have a couple hundred (at least?) more quests to keep me entertained until RoK. Maybe we aren't meant to get "all" the quests.  Maybe they are just in the game to add a little spice to the game should we stumble upon one (I remember the Fly-bitten Farmer's Hat in TS very well).  But I say that as questers, we WANT all of them. It's how we play the game, and there's no end to the frustration in trying to get these quest starters (let alone trying to complete some). Grab your quest-bats everyone.  We need to beat this horse some more.

[Lilj]

Well, sometimes we need to beat the poor horse to glue. I would also like to see chest quest-starters moved to body drop.

[Caethre]

<p><span style="color: #ff9900">OOC.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff9900">I also agree with the OP.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff9900">I would like to see all quest-starting items be made body-drops.</span></p>

[BarrowBott]

<p>Do the devs still post in this forum?</p><p> I remember back in the old days they used to, but I haven't seen a red post in this forum in ages.</p>

[Balic]

<p>Another solution would be to not make most of them NO-TRADE or LORE, thereby creating a marketplace for quest starters.  This would also have the effect to not having to camp mains to loot chests.</p>

[yadi]

<p>I have been saying the same thing for well over a year...</p><p>Moving them all to be body-drop would be the best solution as I already pointed out in a thread back in Feb/March 2006...</p><p> The no-trade tag being removed could also be a good move... It would create a market for these quest starters which would be nice...</p><p>Been hitting that horse for a long time! <img src="/smilies/136dd33cba83140c7ce38db096d05aed.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[BarrowBott]

<cite>yadi wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I have been saying the same thing for well over a year...</p><p>Moving them all to be body-drop would be the best solution as I already pointed out in a thread back in Feb/March 2006...</p><p> The no-trade tag being removed could also be a good move... It would create a market for these quest starters which would be nice...</p><p>Been hitting that horse for a long time! <img src="/smilies/136dd33cba83140c7ce38db096d05aed.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p></blockquote> I would like to say that the first developer who posts in this thread, even just saying "Hey, I read this.", will not only get a personalized .wav file of my three year old son saying that they are a super-hero, but I will also show them my pokemans.

[Captain Apple Darkberry]

<span style="color: #ff3300">This is one of those things that cause you to wonder why it hasn't been done yet... I'm on a PvP server...   ...the option of mentoring isn't an option; well not a safe option anyway. Quest starters should be body loot. </span>

[CenyanaErinyes]

I whole-heartedly agree - even though I have never turned on my adventure xp - I still level too fast to really get all the quest starters before they turn grey. Body-drops would be awesome.

[CenyanaErinyes]

I whole-heartedly agree - even though I have never turned on my adventure xp - I still level too fast to really get all the quest starters before they turn grey. Body-drops would be awesome.

[Tikku Lilledrum]

Agree.

[yadi]

<p>Too bad we never got any reply from a Dev on this... even when I posted last year about it... <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>They can just send me the work that needs to be done for this to go live and I'll do it... <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Finora]

<cite>Liljna wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well, sometimes we need to beat the poor horse to glue. I would also like to see chest quest-starters moved to body drop. </blockquote><p> I whole-heartedly agree. I do LOVE some quests. Even when coming up at the proper levels to get some of the dropped quests (particularly book ones) you will often (at least I did) end up with people who roll on everything whether they are really interested in it or not. </p><p>I missed out on several book quests I saw drop because of people like that. Not only that when they got the item they are like " Oh [Removed for Content]! another stupid book quest. Just going to destroy this." Meanwhile I'm foaming at the mouth because the twit rolled on something no trade they didn't even want, while at least a couple people in the group were drooling over it.</p><p>Whether they make them body drops or just remove the no-trade/lore flags I don't care. I just want to be able to get my hands on those quests.</p>

[Garnaf]

Agreed, particularly quests that reward books, me likey book quests.  I'm at the point where I have to PAY people to let me mentor them in zones so I can loot quest starters (45 gold later, I still have no quest starters for the books).  Body drop please!

[axl_2baz]

<p>And why not simply put these quest starters tradable ?</p><p>We could either buying them to low lvls adn exchange them for our alts ... I never understood why people can't give to somenone this crappy book with soooo many missing page to somenone willing to complete it.</p>

[Belaythien]

That's a great idea. Please turn quest starters into body drops. New zones hardly have any dropped quests and old zones are devoid of players anyway. Nobody would be affected by high levels killing low level mobs in the Thundering Steps, Blackburrow and so on. In fact it would revive the zones because of players going there to find quests <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[liveja]

<p><span style="color: #00cc00"><b>I agree with the OP.</b></span></p>

[miguelillo]

<p>I think the best way could be not body drop and continue with chest drops, but instead of no-trade would be better tradeable quest starters and of course something in the broker to find quest starters.</p><p> I think this could be good for low lvls, because they can get a lot of money for high lvls quest-coholics who are going to pay a lot of money for this quest starters and of course for alcoholics for not been days grinding the same mobs to get them.</p>

[Midgarn]

<cite>miguelillo wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I think the best way could be not body drop and continue with chest drops, but instead of no-trade would be better tradeable quest starters and of course something in the broker to find quest starters.</p><p> I think this could be good for low lvls, because they can get a lot of money for high lvls quest-coholics who are going to pay a lot of money for this quest starters and of course for alcoholics for not been days grinding the same mobs to get them.</p></blockquote> Sadly, we know that SoE does -not- want this to be the case. With GU #37, laa remaining item quest starters have been changed to Lore and Notrade -- and will not even drop from those who have completed that quest already. This infers that either SoE chose to make this change: "No, we do not want you exchanging quest starter items." Or, that there is an even-more-vocal set of players, who didn't post here in forums, but perhaps through /feedback: "We're sick of getting all these trash quest-starter items. No one is ever here in X zone when I'm grinding through mods for exp to join my guildies in raiding. And especially when the quest is not repeatable, what's the deal in handing out 'Chickenbane' starters like candy?"

[Hellswrath]

Agree with OP.  Besides, no reason that they have to change the current system of no-trade.  They just need to make them into body drops.

[yadi]

Today's patch notes are a slap in the face on this issue... <img src="/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Hellswrath]

Not necessarily.  This actually makes it easier for them to consider allowing these to drop off gray mobs.  After all, the only people who will get the quests are ones who will be doing them.  Now they just need to follow up with it and allow the starters to be body drops.

[yadi]

Agree with you on that point... <img src="/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Devilsbane]

Hellswrath@Blackburrow wrote: <blockquote>Not necessarily.  This actually makes it easier for them to consider allowing these to drop off gray mobs.  After all, the only people who will get the quests are ones who will be doing them.  Now they just need to follow up with it and allow the starters to be body drops. </blockquote><p>It would have been better to first add body drops then make everything NO-TRADE! <img src="/smilies/136dd33cba83140c7ce38db096d05aed.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>We now have to wait another month before we get any sort of reply. If we have any more GUs before RoK is released. <img src="/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>On a side note Berik's Revenge is open to all classes now (or at least to Furies). </p><p><img src="http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/8823/eq2000067bk0.jpg" border="0"> </p>

[Aurel]

Personally, I don't mind mentoring... then again, at the moment I mentor at 35, so maybe I don't understand how hard it is to get the really, really early-on quests.  I'm just after book-quest starters.  What I feel should be changed is the rarity of the drops... I've been killing mobs in RoV for months on and off, sometimes for a full day, but I usually get discouraged after straight hours of nothing.  I keep tabs on the level chats for anyone who is heading to RoV so I can tag along or whatnot.  Nothing.  Pretty much all of my undead kills are from RoV.  Not to mention what I have to look forward to: Rivervale, Runnyeye, Obelisk of Lost Souls (admittedly, that one will be okay, I like the zone), Permafost... the last one makes me shudder.  There's a whole lot of books in there, but the odds they'll drop?  I'm guessing slim. Don't make them body-drops, I say, but don't keep them once-in-a-[Removed for Content]-blue-moon drops.  That's what drives me crazy, anyway.

[BarrowBott]

Aurelis@The Bazaar wrote: <blockquote>Personally, I don't mind mentoring... then again, at the moment I mentor at 35, so maybe I don't understand how hard it is to get the really, really early-on quests.  I'm just after book-quest starters.  What I feel should be changed is the rarity of the drops... I've been killing mobs in RoV for months on and off, sometimes for a full day, but I usually get discouraged after straight hours of nothing.  I keep tabs on the level chats for anyone who is heading to RoV so I can tag along or whatnot.  Nothing.  Pretty much all of my undead kills are from RoV.  Not to mention what I have to look forward to: Rivervale, Runnyeye, Obelisk of Lost Souls (admittedly, that one will be okay, I like the zone), Permafost... the last one makes me shudder.  There's a whole lot of books in there, but the odds they'll drop?  I'm guessing slim. Don't make them body-drops, I say, but don't keep them once-in-a-[Removed for Content]-blue-moon drops.  That's what drives me crazy, anyway.</blockquote> Incindentally, I have been horsing around in RoV for weeks, killing mobs that con to me, and I have not seen <b>one</b> book drop.  Does anyone have any idea which mobs drop Varsoon Collection 2 thru 5, or is it anything in the zone... Making me one unlucky fella.

[Kaycerzan]

To toss in my less than .000001% of the community value opinion, I too would like to see these be body drops.  Leave them NoDrop NoTrade NoAnything Use it within 10 seconds of looting it or this message will self destruct, whatever you want... Just please put them somewhere where they and their .0000000000000000000000000000001% drop rate is tangible to people who don't want to lock their level and farm them.

[Danrok423]

This cannot possibly be a good idea.There are many times when there are so many people in certain areas it is hard to find a mob to kill,Now at a bunch of 70's clearing an entire zone in 3 minutes....to search for a level 12 quest starter.The only way,IMO, is to make them trade allowed so higher levels may purchase them.

[BarrowBott]

<cite>Danrok423 wrote:</cite><blockquote>This cannot possibly be a good idea.There are many times when there are so many people in certain areas it is hard to find a mob to kill,Now at a bunch of 70's clearing an entire zone in 3 minutes....to search for a level 12 quest starter.The only way,IMO, is to make them trade allowed so higher levels may purchase them.</blockquote> Unless you are talking about GFAY or Darklight, I have no idea what you are talking about.  At peak time, in Serpent Sewer, you're lucky to see one lone quester, and they invariably have already greyed out the zone.  Much of the old world content is being ignored in favor of the new world content, and the new world content doesn't have near as many drop triggered quests.  This was the developer arguement <i>3 years ago</i>.  It simply doesn't hold water anymore.

[Webin]

As BB said, the mechanics, ideals, and questing policies have changed significantly since the original zones were designed.  You can actually SEE and FEEL those changes if you try to level up characters in the old world zones.  It's utter tedium compared to EoF.  SOE has learned a lot in the last three years, but haven't incorporated all of it into the original content (favoring instead to produce new content).  Since most players are looking for "new and fun" adventures, they gravitate to EoF, KoS, and even still DoF to some extent.  The old world becomes more and more desolate as more content is added.  (Thankfully, they have been sprucing things up a bit, though not enough (IMO) to keep them exciting.) As for Danrok's claim that "a bunch of 70's" will be clearing zones... yes, it will happen to some extent if we have to kill mobs for the quest starters, but no where near the scale you predict.  There simply aren't enough uber-questers to blanket a zone.  Maybe if they all coordinated to all work in one zone, but not as it is. By the way, my vote is for making them tradable.  I feel that "clearing" zones for hours on end to look for a single rare drop is still pretty dang tedious.

[Jaradcel]

I am in complete agreement with the op. I spend countless hours rolling around in "dead" zones like the Tower of the Drafling etc completing grey quests and hunting for that hopeful drop - never happens. I'd really like to be able to find these things - the suggestion to make em tradeable is the best idea ever. Perhaps one way around the fear of tradeable book quests is to attune them if you start them? That way, people who don't want it won't attune and can trade it, while those who DO can then start on the quest, making that item tuned to them from now on. Thoughts? 

[Bursck]

Well, just to add my 2 copper to the discussion, I'd love to see some way for us quest-addict high level characters to get old quest drops.  I think making all quest starters body drops would be the best.  I used to camp areas with my lower level alts, but today's update notes seem to imply that will no longer be possible. I'm ranked in the top 100 world in quests completed and this is the major enjoyment of the game to me.  I want to experience every bit of content I possibly can and quests are the one thing that I have the opportunity to actually excel at.  I like to see what the developers wrote and what the plot of a quest are, so even the most silly quests are fun for me.  Everyone has their own bit of EQ2 that drives them to play. All I want is a way to get a hold of old quests.  As some others have stated, the old zones are rarely populated now so even mentoring isn't truly an option.  How many people go to Blackburrow anymore that you could mentor to get a drop you missed?  Even with the addition of the new character slot a while back, most users have blasted through the levels with them and the game is very top heavy, level wise, at the moment. I just hate to see my options for quest hunting dwindling.  The hunt for quests is what keeps me logged in for long periods of time... - Bursck Burgundybeard

[Rhuarc222]

<p>Get up horsie!</p><p>I always thought it was fine that quest starters were chest drops, but if they won't let those drops decay normally after the timer wears off, then its time to switch them to body drops...</p><p>Prove you don't hate questers SOE, oh, and open up lower level writs to be shareable while you are at it.</p><p> Thanks <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Wyrmypops]

I seriously have trouble believing this was intended, like this at least. The ramifications are clear going by the content of these threads. Quests are harder to get, and that's surely a bad thing, especially considering that name of the game. I think I'm in denial. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[BarrowBott]

<cite>Wyrmypops wrote:</cite><blockquote>I seriously have trouble believing this was intended, like this at least. The ramifications are clear going by the content of these threads. Quests are harder to get, and that's surely a bad thing, especially considering that name of the game. I think I'm in denial. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></blockquote><p> I think the most frustrating thing is the silence from the developer/designer camp.</p><p>If they would come out and say this was intentional, then we grumble and get on with our lives.  If was unintentional,  then it would be nice to know that a fix is being investigated (or acknowledged).</p>

[BarrowBott]

<p>So I created an Arasai on a lark last night, and started in Darklight Woods.</p><p>I'll be damned if I didn't get a quest starter (or 2... can't remember... it was late) as a body drop rather than in a chest!</p><p>Are the rest of the dropped quests in Darklight the same way?  Is that the new standard?  If it is, what will it take to retrofit the old world zones?</p>

[troodon]

I agree with the OP.  With the current system, there are many quests (especially book quests, which I am particularly interested in) that I will simply never have the opportunity to do.  I can't even find lower level groups on my alts these days, let alone ones for me to waste hours mentoring just for the chance to get a book starter I'm missing.

[Wardyn]

<p>It really would revitalize some of the older and basically empty zones in the game if quest pieces became body drops. Perhaps the mechanics of making this happen are too difficult? I don't know. However, some great zones (like Edgewater Drains) are barely accessed anymore. Kind of sad.</p><p> Another thing that makes me shrug my shoulders when people complain about SOE upping the level cap. Most newbie zones in the game are now vacant. Why do some people insist on more and more of them being added? I can see adding a new city for a new race, or reintroducing a racial home for race, with corresponding newbie areas (like Nek). However, with one expansion a year, they had better continue to increase the cap.</p><p> Sorry for wandering off topic.</p>

[BarrowBott]

<p>Follow the link!</p><p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=377130�" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...377130�</a></p><p>Please be sure to thank the Devs for the upcoming changes!</p>

[Srukin]

<cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Follow the link!</p><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=377130�" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...377130</a></p><p>Please be sure to thank the Devs for the upcoming changes!</p></blockquote>I was totally about to do this <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[BarrowBott]

<cite>Srukin wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Follow the link!</p><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=377130�" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...377130</a></p><p>Please be sure to thank the Devs for the upcoming changes!</p></blockquote>I was totally about to do this <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /></blockquote>I am so stoked, I beat you to it <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Mighty Melvor]

<cite>Srukin wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Follow the link!</p><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=377130�" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...377130</a></p><p>Please be sure to thank the Devs for the upcoming changes!</p></blockquote>I was totally about to do this <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /></blockquote><p>And I imagining things or did a developer respond to a quest post??? <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Perhaps Domino's <TS Dev> approach is starting to rub off <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />  We can only hope!</p>

[Webin]

So....  does this make the horse undead?  Perhaps a zombie horse, lusting for our quest-filled brains?

[Srukin]

<cite>WebinKaltani wrote:</cite><blockquote>So....  does this make the horse undead?  Perhaps a zombie horse, lusting for our quest-filled brains?</blockquote>It means that if you beat a horse enough, you eventually get tasty, tasty horse burgers that everyone can enjoy <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Webin]

Mmmm... horse burgers...   I can almost taste the glue.But I don't care, because I'm so thrilled I won't have to spend my days mentoring alts to find quest starter drops.

[yadi]

<p>I was gone all week-end so I just saw that... woot! <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/49869fe8223507d7223db3451e5321aa.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>This is the best news of the month... and I waited 2 years for that... yay!</p>

[Tikku Lilledrum]

Only one response:<div align="center"><span style="font-size: large;color: #0099ff;">Yeesss!!!</span></div>

[Thanriyon Arkhelt]

<p> Woo!</p><p>  No more strongarmin-- errr, blackmaili-- err, volunteering Guildies and other victims of my quest fixation for mentoring duty..</p><p> But, the most important thing of all.. </p><p> When does it go live? <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </p>

[MadLuna]

Wee!!!! <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Rutabegah]

My response = BOOOO!!!This is a slap in the face for us real questers who were dedicated, putting in the hundreds of hours necessary to find all these drop items.  Now any lvl 70 noob can just slaughter greys until the item drops.  What fun is it when Sony takes away every little part of the game that can make you special .... that you can claim having accomplished.

[BarrowBott]

<cite>Rutabegah wrote:</cite><blockquote>My response = BOOOO!!!This is a slap in the face for us real questers who were dedicated, putting in the hundreds of hours necessary to find all these drop items.  Now any lvl 70 noob can just slaughter greys until the item drops.  What fun is it when Sony takes away every little part of the game that can make you special .... that you can claim having accomplished.</blockquote><p>I don't follow your logic.  You are still going to have to get that super-rare starter to drop, you just won't have to jump through hoops with alts (which doesn't work anymore) or finding people to mentor for days at a time to get the drop.  You can still feel special, you still accomplish getting the starter.  </p><p>I thought you of all people would be excited by this change, not insulting those of us that are made happy by it, insuinuating that we aren't "real questers".  How rude.  Honestly...</p>

[Webin]

I agree with BB.... any real quester, at least one to challenge how "special" you feel, will get these quests regardless of which hoops they have to jump through.  If you are indeed "truly dedicated", these changes should help you track down each and every quest you're missing, and you'll still be ahead of those that aren't as dedicated.

[Mighty Melvor]

<cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rutabegah wrote:</cite><blockquote>My response = BOOOO!!!This is a slap in the face for us real questers who were dedicated, putting in the hundreds of hours necessary to find all these drop items.  Now any lvl 70 noob can just slaughter greys until the item drops.  What fun is it when Sony takes away every little part of the game that can make you special .... that you can claim having accomplished.</blockquote><p>I don't follow your logic.  You are still going to have to get that <span style="color: #0033ff;">super-rare starter </span>to drop, you just won't have to jump through hoops with alts (which doesn't work anymore) or finding people to mentor for days at a time to get the drop.  You can still feel special, you still accomplish getting the starter.  </p><p>I thought you of all people would be excited by this change, not insulting those of us that are made happy by it, insuinuating that we aren't "real questers".  How rude.  Honestly...</p></blockquote><p>Who said they would be super-rare?  Remember what they did with the book pages?  They are more common than dirt in most cases.  Even if they did make them super-rare, everyone can get these items now by killing grey mobs.</p><p>I'm on the side of Rutabegah here.  I don't want the best-of-the-best boards showing 154 people with the exact same number of quests completed. BOOOOOO!!!</p>

[BarrowBott]

<cite>Mighty Melvor wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rutabegah wrote:</cite><blockquote>My response = BOOOO!!!This is a slap in the face for us real questers who were dedicated, putting in the hundreds of hours necessary to find all these drop items.  Now any lvl 70 noob can just slaughter greys until the item drops.  What fun is it when Sony takes away every little part of the game that can make you special .... that you can claim having accomplished.</blockquote><p>I don't follow your logic.  You are still going to have to get that <span style="color: #0033ff;">super-rare starter </span>to drop, you just won't have to jump through hoops with alts (which doesn't work anymore) or finding people to mentor for days at a time to get the drop.  You can still feel special, you still accomplish getting the starter.  </p><p>I thought you of all people would be excited by this change, not insulting those of us that are made happy by it, insuinuating that we aren't "real questers".  How rude.  Honestly...</p></blockquote><p>Who said they would be super-rare?  Remember what they did with the book pages?  They are more common than dirt in most cases.  Even if they did make them super-rare, everyone can get these items now by killing grey mobs.</p><p>I'm on the side of Rutabegah here.  I don't want the best-of-the-best boards showing 154 people with the exact same number of quests completed. BOOOOOO!!!</p></blockquote><p>I guess we will see how rare they are, and how many people will actually take the time to grind out the grey quests.  My guess is that the numbers in the Top 100 won't change that drastically (after all, it takes very careful planning to maximize your quest count).   If there are 100+ people with the same number of quests on the leaderboards in a few months, I will concede that you were correct.  </p><p>In my approximation, questers are questers.  This change won't attract that many new people, it will just help the people out who would be camping these drops anyway.</p>

[Typhonian]

<cite>Rutabegah wrote:</cite><blockquote>My response = BOOOO!!!This is a slap in the face for us real questers who were dedicated, putting in the hundreds of hours necessary to find all these drop items.  Now any lvl 70 noob can just slaughter greys until the item drops.  What fun is it when Sony takes away every little part of the game that can make you special .... that you can claim having accomplished.</blockquote>*groans*Let me guess, you had to quest for 25 hours a day, in a snowstorm, uphill both ways, whilst having going to bed after you get up?

[Webin]

<cite>Typhonian wrote:</cite><cite></cite><blockquote>Let me guess, you had to quest for 25 hours a day, in a snowstorm, uphill both ways, whilst having going to bed after you get up?</blockquote>Ah... I love that sketch:   <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo </a>      "The world is also worse for me."

[Draco the Grey]

<cite>Rutabegah wrote:</cite><blockquote>This is a slap in the face for us real questers who were dedicated, putting in the hundreds of hours necessary to find all these drop items.</blockquote>*Slaps Rutabegah in the face* (for added effect.)All I can say is THANK GOD! (or Autenil, as it may be.)  Finding someone to mentor, in order to mass slaughter mobs for hours on end in search of rare quest starters is a pain in the rear.  Running a second instance of EQ2 on my computer and having a noob on autofollow is almost as bad.  I spent a lifetime in places like OOLS and CT hunting for books and quest starters while leveling up (with combat xp disabled) and am still missing quite a few.  If the fact that the random number generator favored you in some cases makes you feel special, allow me to not care.Look, the rare drops will still be rare.  You'll still have to kill things for hours at times to find the drop you're looking for.  Sure you'll increase your odds slightly by being able to kill the mobs faster, though to be honest I still obliterated low level mobs in seconds even when mentored down.  Being a hardcore quester will still require dedication and patience.  All they're removing is the tedium of finding some lackey to follow you around on your ever exciting hunt for quest starters.

[Tikku Lilledrum]

I totally agree. I think this change only makes it better for die-hard questers, most other players would not think about killing 132 flesh draped knights in the hope of one single quest starter they have missed out on. This is, and always will be, for the truly insane. ehh...I mean..dedicated.

[Belaythien]

<cite>Tikku Lilledrum wrote:</cite><blockquote>This is, and always will be, for the truly insane. ehh...I mean..dedicated.</blockquote>This is so going to be the title reward for 5 years of Everquest 2: ", the Truly Insane" <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />On a side note: yay for this change!!!!1one

[yadi]

<p>I soooo can't wait for this to go live... should be in the next LU... <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>The fun will start... will destroy thousands of grey mobs for quests starters... but at least when a chest drop off one, we'll know it's a quest item! <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/49869fe8223507d7223db3451e5321aa.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Yay! I guess 2 years of waiting for this was worth it... just wish they would have done it faster... heheh...</p>

[Suta]

<cite>Rutabegah wrote:</cite><blockquote>My response = BOOOO!!!This is a slap in the face for us real questers who were dedicated, putting in the hundreds of hours necessary to find all these drop items.  Now any lvl 70 noob can just slaughter greys until the item drops.  What fun is it when Sony takes away every little part of the game that can make you special .... that you can claim having accomplished.</blockquote><p>Yeah because standing around in zones yelling out offering to pay newbs to loot their chests is what makes a "real quester" huh?</p><p>As No 2 on my server I'm glad others will have a chance to compete with me.</p>

[Suta]

<cite>Mighty Melvor wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rutabegah wrote:</cite><blockquote>My response = BOOOO!!!This is a slap in the face for us real questers who were dedicated, putting in the hundreds of hours necessary to find all these drop items.  Now any lvl 70 noob can just slaughter greys until the item drops.  What fun is it when Sony takes away every little part of the game that can make you special .... that you can claim having accomplished.</blockquote><p>I don't follow your logic.  You are still going to have to get that <span style="color: #0033ff;">super-rare starter </span>to drop, you just won't have to jump through hoops with alts (which doesn't work anymore) or finding people to mentor for days at a time to get the drop.  You can still feel special, you still accomplish getting the starter.  </p><p>I thought you of all people would be excited by this change, not insulting those of us that are made happy by it, insuinuating that we aren't "real questers".  How rude.  Honestly...</p></blockquote><p>Who said they would be super-rare?  Remember what they did with the book pages?  They are more common than dirt in most cases.  Even if they did make them super-rare, everyone can get these items now by killing grey mobs.</p><p>I'm on the side of Rutabegah here.  I don't want the best-of-the-best boards showing 154 people with the exact same number of quests completed. BOOOOOO!!!</p></blockquote>More common that dirt?  I spent a combined 16 hours of killing grey undead nagas in Shimmering Citadel for the last few pages of those tomes.

[Kaiser Sigma]

Not to necro a thread but..I spent about 2 hours last night in Obelisk killing mobs to get the book I'm missing and during that time frame I didn't see one single quest starter drop. To run one last test before calling it a night I did one of the two ring events at the bottom of the Obelisk because, iirc, the named always had a 100% chance to drop the quest starter for Vestibule Access. He did not drop a thing.Can anyone confirm that this change is working?

[Rokaab]

I got two quest starters in Fallen Gate last night, they dropped in chests - yes, the mobs were very grey to me, and the only thing in the chests were the quest starters.

[Daniscoox2]

After looking at these changes and seeing that grey mobs now drop chests it will make it a lot easier for the majority of questers interested in getting dropped items to drop.  I'm interested in starting up a compiled list of all the quest item drops in game and simply saying which mob they dropped off of, and which quest they start.  I didn't make very much progress last night I just completed the sunken city drops, and started working on the graveyard and the sprawl, but sometime hopefully in the near future I'm hoping to start a list and everyone will be able to contribute to it, if this sounds like a good idea, please give some feedback.  Thanks my fellow questers.-Xarrith

[yadi]

I tried for about 15-20 minutes in Crypt of Betrayal last night to see... and not one chest... I know it's a very short timed test but I was so looking for one to drop... <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Webin]

<cite>Daniscoox2 wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm interested in starting up a compiled list of all the quest item drops in game and simply saying which mob they dropped off of, and which quest they start.  I didn't make very much progress last night I just completed the sunken city drops, and started working on the graveyard and the sprawl, but sometime hopefully in the near future I'm hoping to start a list and everyone will be able to contribute to it, if this sounds like a good idea, please give some feedback.  </blockquote>I think that sounds like a decent idea.  I was doing the same thing for my own needs... listing each "drop" quest I needed in which zone and which mobs to target to get them.... crabs in sunken city, for instance.  Then a fellow quester and I would spend evenings in those zones mentoring alts (on her other account).   We were making decent progress until we heard of the drop changes, when we decided hang tight.I keep track of my quests in Fluffy (eq2.fluffy.dk), so I would just go through the various zone listings, see which uncompleted quests were started from loot drop, then look the quest up on Wikia or Allakhazam to find what mob dropped it.

[Angelann]

<p>This is a reply to Karel's last post....</p><p>As far as I know, quest starters will now only drop if you have not already done the quest.  Therefore, if you are looking for only one quest starter in a zone to drop, i.e. your one book that you haven't gotten yet, then it's most likely going to take a very long time to get it to drop (without a whole lot of luck).</p><p>Likewise, if you already completed the Access quest to the Vestibule, you would not have seen the quest starter drop when you killed the ring event.</p><p>I may be wrong on this, but it seemed to be working this way for me last night in Obelisk where I got 4 books to drop that I hadn't received yet.</p>

[Mystfit]

<cite>Karel@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote>Not to necro a thread but..I spent about 2 hours last night in Obelisk killing mobs to get the book I'm missing and during that time frame I didn't see one single quest starter drop. To run one last test before calling it a night I did one of the two ring events at the bottom of the Obelisk because, iirc, the named always had a 100% chance to drop the quest starter for Vestibule Access. He did not drop a thing.Can anyone confirm that this change is working?</blockquote>I went to OLS and did the ring event tonight and got the quest starter and was able to run the quest though ro the pet quest reward without any troubles.