Question to Players.. quest items

Mermut

When you're doing quests in a persistent world do you prefer
A) loot an item from corpse/chest/whatever and get actual physical quest items that appear in your inventory and get journal update
B ) loot an item from corpse/chest/whatever have it update your journal but not have the item appear in your inventory
C) get flavor text indicating that you looted an item, have the journal update but never have an actual physical item either to loot or in inventory.

If you're willing to share why you prefer which, I'd interested to know.

raz651

I prefer A because getting an item usually means taking it back to give it to the quest giver.

Mermut

raz651 said:

I prefer A because getting an item usually means taking it back to give it to the quest giver.

Makes sense.
I'm deciding how to set up the quests to balance module/code resources, player inventory tetris and player 'comfort'.
I know what is easiest, as a builder, but since I'm building FOR players.. the other two are equally important considerations.

Brabeum

I would much prefer C and not just for quest items. As a player I would love it if monsters just automatically gave me gold and quest items for killing them, no looting involved. Not only would it decrease loot lag, but it would also avoid the annoying looting itself, which is sometimes difficult if the corpse is at the base of a tree or whatever, and when you are in a group you wonder if you are looting too little, looting too much, if others are getting all the good stuff, etc. Managing your terribly small inventory and dealing with encumbrance are annoying issues as well, especially when you have to debate what to drop and keep while the rest of your party wants to move on.

Most worlds make me loot every corpse, collect quest items and everything else I can grab, run back to town, turn them in and sell it just so I can get the same gold, this would just save time and effort and let me keep playing the role I want to. I want to play the role of an adventurer, a hero, to explore and fight monsters. If I wanted to play the role of collecting junk and hauling it away for cash I could get a job as a garbage person or janitor.

Mermut

Brabeum said:

I would much prefer C and not just for quest items. As a player I would love it if monsters just automatically gave me gold and quest items for killing them, no looting involved. Not only would it decrease loot lag, but it would also avoid the annoying looting itself, which is sometimes difficult if the corpse is at the base of a tree or whatever, and when you are in a group you wonder if you are looting too little, looting too much, if others are getting all the good stuff, etc. Managing your terribly small inventory and dealing with encumbrance are annoying issues as well, especially when you have to debate what to drop and keep while the rest of your party wants to move on.

Most worlds make me loot every corpse, collect quest items and everything else I can grab, run back to town, turn them in and sell it just so I can get the same gold, this would just save time and effort and let me keep playing the role I want to. I want to play the role of an adventurer, a hero, to explore and fight monsters. If I wanted to play the role of collecting junk and hauling it away for cash I could get a job as a garbage person or janitor.

For what it's worth, most of my quest items are scripted to go directly into the appropriate characters' inventories. I found that prevents lots of problems... people not picking up bits they need, players not on the quest getting the bits and those that do need them not getting it.. players passing around quest bits to try to 'cheat' the quests..

Except for the few 'I'll pay you for every you bring me' quests, none of the quests I write work JUST off the item. The quest state is equally/more important.

I'm just trying to get a feel for what players find most satisfying. Items in inventory to so they have something 'tangible' to turn in and to go with the quest journal that tells them they have said item(s) or if the flavor text telling them they got such and such an item the quest journal tells them they have is sufficient.