As a heads up on Quests

[Omni]

I'm going to be changing the way quests work in terms of rewards. Initially the site had no 'quests' - they're totally unnecessary. We added a few to give people ideas of what to write for getting the trust of factions.

None of these quests initially had any rewards other than earning faction approval, which is something you do anyway by writing in a given area. No OM, no items.

Buuut people seem to really like quests, and over time a whole bunch got written and submitted. I hate saying no, so I figured out a rewards system for this that matched what we give for Great and Exemplary rewards. However, it's fundamentally broken, in that you will always get a reward for a quest, no matter the quality of the writing. Eventually quests are going to overtake non-quest writing as a way to get the most rewards, and that's something I've never wanted.

Even after adding a special 'system' to figure out what quest rewards should be, the rewards people wrote were still wildly different from what you'd get from normal writing. Sometimes way higher, sometimes way lower. Approving these is just another level of work for me, or Alex, or higher-level staffers. For what? S'pointless.

So from now on, with the exception of a few official quests, I'm going to be removing OM rewards from quests. Woah now! To be replaced with the normal rewards for writing bonuses! That's the Great/Exemplary you all know. That way, everything is fair and balanced.

This basically reduces quests down to what they're best at - writing prompts! You can take 'em or leave them, and there's no need to figure out an appropriate reward or whatnot. You can still give flavour rewards, and questing will still get you OM and recognition - just as writing normally does. It's just all under the same system now.

I wanted to give a heads up before I do this, and hear out any objections before I go around removing all the OM rewards. What do y'all think about this?

tl;dr: I'm removing quests having individual rewards assigned to them, now they just get graded exactly the same as everything else and you can get Great/Exemplary bonuses.

[Jack Darby]

I think you should leave them on ones like the "Hero this city needs one" for example, as one of them is already in Progress.

[13-Jzall]

The advantages are more free writing and not having to stretch out threads to reach the 10,000 mark. The disadvantage is that I don't really know what I want to do with 13 now since I was planning around the quests. Either way, it's going to have both good and bad effects on this site.

[Gaston]

This makes sense. One thing, though: for the quests that don't give rewards anymore, will they still have a word count? Personally, I'd prefer if the wordcount requirements stayed. For me, it's kind of hard to write long threads without an idea of how long they should be, if that makes sense.

[Omni]

Yeah, I think the word count is a good prompt and a nice goal to shoot for, but it's up to the quest writer.

[Amaterasu]

I presume that quests without OM rewards remain unchanged? E.g. Void Quests, quests rewarding flavor items and such.

Can these quests be submitted for bonus OM alongside the regular reward under this new system, though?

[Omni]

I presume that quests without OM rewards remain unchanged? E.g. Void Quests, quests rewarding flavor items and such.

Can these quests be submitted for bonus OM alongside the regular reward under this new system, though?

Something I'll be discussing with Alex. Bearing in mind that Omni gives you a one-off 1000 OM when you complete them - it still pales in comparison to the potential reward from 20-40k words. I'm kind of leaning towards "yeah, let them get bonuses too".

[Revan Noctis]

When I first joined the site I thought that doing the official quests would be quite an important step in my characters story. I personally am happy to have found that is not the case at all and that truly crafting ones own story is very much a reward no extra OM could replace.

With that said I think having the quests there is still a good decision for prompting as you say including the word count. I think this works as a way to further prompt people to create their own stories as well which is good for adding variety to the sites storytelling. 

In the end I approve of this decision however must admit there will be people that perhaps prefer to stick to premade stories and that's fine however it is true that having them be rewarded for doing so is seemingly wrong.

With the writing bonuses being added as per normal at least people will still put in the work even with the premade quests. I think that doing such a thing is purely just common sense.

Hopefully no problems arise from doing this, although I think it's going to probably be more with people that lack patience it causes a problem with.

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

Being new and all, I clearly have no way of knowing how good or bad quests have been for the site... but I'm not really all that concerned about the extra OM anyway; the main thing I like about them is that they give a clear path towards involving yourself with the local factions, so as long as you're keeping the recognition rewards intact, I'm not really concerned.

Although... if anyone could post a link to some information on those 'great/exemplary bonuses' Omni mentioned then I'd appreciate it, since this is the first I've heard of those.

[Ebonywood Hellscythe]

@Takanomiya Hijiri: http://omniverse-rpg.com/bonusrewards.php#Bonus_Rewards

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

Thanks Ebony. ^_^

[Handsome Jack]

You're removing the OM rewards, but do the other rewards remain? Ie: Star Piece Quests and the like.

[PepsiYuuka]

This is probably for the best, as it'll make it easier for members to come up with and run their own quest lines, too- without feeling pressured to make them "official" or whatnot. Better for me and my future plans, at least. Because I'm self-centered.

Perhaps instead there could be a thread or somesuch for people to throw ideas back and forth for group quests, and get in contact with people trying to run them? (there might be one of these already but if there is it certainly isn't... active, if it does exist.)

[Omni]

You're removing the OM rewards, but do the other rewards remain? Ie: Star Piece Quests and the like.

Yeah. Artefacts are generally gotten when the quest is a first-come, first-serve thing or if there's a competitive element, since they're primarily PvP 'rewards' but can be lost and stolen.

[Ebonywood Hellscythe]

If Quests are essentially becoming writing prompts (sometimes getting you out of the Underverse/into the void/reputation), would the ones now without a set wordcount be eligible for participation bonuses?

(But the void quests, for example, probably wouldn't qualify since I'd assume you'd keep the way the word count works as it is)

[Jade Harley]

Edit: Btw, I like this update. I like it a lot.

Perhaps instead there could be a thread or somesuch for people to throw ideas back and forth for group quests, and get in contact with people trying to run them? (there might be one of these already but if there is it certainly isn't... active, if it does exist.)

A good place for that would be the Omniverse Discussion forum! Just make a thread with your group storyline idea, recruit peeps, and then when it's all over and done with... submit the thread for a bonus! That's what I usually do, anyway.

[Omni]

If Quests are essentially becoming writing prompts (sometimes getting you out of the Underverse/into the void/reputation), would the ones now without a set wordcount be eligible for participation bonuses?

(But the void quests, for example, probably wouldn't qualify since I'd assume you'd keep the way the word count works as it is)

In both cases, probably yes you'll get those participation bonuses, and the whole confusing reduced word count formula will be replaced with a simpler version. Totally forgot about this, so thanks for reminding me.

[Alex]

Probably a bit redundant to post this in two places, but Quests have been updated.

"old quests" have been moved to the Cry for Help thread and listed as 'writing prompts'

I spoke with Omni, and I do hope/plan to release some timed quests ('timed events') down the road. I have some ideas but nothing concrete yet, so keep an eye out for that.

I'll also be adding faction quests to the Tangled Green, and all existing faction quests will receive an additional 'version' that will grant the writer extra creativity (for those people who want to 'officially' join factions but don't need to rely on no stinking writing prompts to get them there!)

[Strazio Rockwell]

Am I still allowed to offer quests to my faction members?

[Omni]

Bonus rewards page has been updated.

As a heads up, this means previously-completed Void Quests and Underverse Escape quests can now be submitted for grades. Feel free to quote me on that. I'm not going to go around calling every single person who's ever done one, to pile on all the work at once, but certainly if you see this, feel free to call in whoever approved your quest for their opinion on whether you did Great or Exceptional - in fact, it should be easy enough to look at what word count you were approved at, therefore meaning no manual re-grading needed. Ie closer to 20,000 would be Exceptional, closer to 30,000 would be great, closer to 40,000 and probably No Bonus.

Yeah, that's in addition to Omni's 1000 OM gift. Don't say I never did anything nice.

I decided to keep in the rules for reduced word count with parties.

Am I still allowed to offer quests to my faction members?

Yeah, this actually makes that easier because without us having to look over and approve rewards, you can just write and give people prompts.