Delivery missions officially are lame.

[lazarus]

I enjoy the missions from the NPCs. I like the fact that I can go to an NPC, get a mission, go and do it and that's it. Yes it would be nice if there were missions that were a little more involved, but surely that's what the rites are for? After all, they have multiple steps and give history and fill out elements of the back story.

I know you can't please everyone all the time, but the fact that there are quick and simple missions and the more involved rites seems a good way of trying to accomplish that. It would be nice if there were more rites, but I know more are on the way and I know I havn't completed all the ones that are currently available, so I'm content to wait for a bit for them.

As far as finding the NPCs, sometimes they're quite out of the way and can be in places that are hard to reach and/or surrounded by aggro mobs, but that simply adds a little spice to the whole thing. As already mentioned, it encourages people to actually keep their eyes open when travelling and it's no trouble to mark them on your map for future reference, same applies for mission mats. All of my maps are littered with flags denoting regular sources, mission mats and NPCs, and if there's something I need I don't have, it's usually not difficult to find where it is either by asking around or checking out some of the fine player made info sites.

One thing I will say it that it would be nice to get a little more info when looking for stuff as already mentioned - perhaps nothing more than "you might want to start by looking near place X", but I certainly wouldn't want to be lead around by the nose, cos that really would be lame.

[jackmor]

I enjoy the missions from the NPCs. I like the fact that I can go to an NPC, get a mission, go and do it and that's it. Yes it would be nice if there were missions that were a little more involved, but surely that's what the rites are for? After all, they have multiple steps and give history and fill out elements of the back story.

I know you can't please everyone all the time, but the fact that there are quick and simple missions and the more involved rites seems a good way of trying to accomplish that. It would be nice if there were more rites, but I know more are on the way and I know I havn't completed all the ones that are currently available, so I'm content to wait for a bit for them.

As far as finding the NPCs, sometimes they're quite out of the way and can be in places that are hard to reach and/or surrounded by aggro mobs, but that simply adds a little spice to the whole thing. As already mentioned, it encourages people to actually keep their eyes open when travelling and it's no trouble to mark them on your map for future reference, same applies for mission mats. All of my maps are littered with flags denoting regular sources, mission mats and NPCs, and if there's something I need I don't have, it's usually not difficult to find where it is either by asking around or checking out some of the fine player made info sites.

One thing I will say it that it would be nice to get a little more info when looking for stuff as already mentioned - perhaps nothing more than "you might want to start by looking near place X", but I certainly wouldn't want to be lead around by the nose, cos that really would be lame.

Well they do tell you to look in the imperial dunes or pyr or where ever. Yup that is a broad search but, not too bad.
The rites are disjointed also. They are each on their own and not related to each other like all the missions are.
They are not connected to each other in a story line. Just a general outline but no real connection to each other. For instance do this so that that may happen.

[jackmor]

I just spent three hours running around the city looking for the guy I was suppossed to deliver some orders to. Imperial Plains i think? Anyway I'm new to the game and am trying to get through the starting set of missions you get to get the amber of wisdom.

So I go to this guy who's hanging out buy a fountain and I take a mission that say deliver this to Ather Apopac(sp)....

That's it.

No directions... no he hangs out in this neighborhood... nothing like that at all...

So I start wandering the town looking for the guy, and it is a freeking needle in a haystack! I see a bunch of people with his last name, but I can't click on them to ask then if they've seen my guy.

I just have to wander around town and hope I bump into the guy....

I spent three hours trying to find him! THREE HOURS. And I know i was in the right city, I double checked. THere really should be a way to get impressions of the direction the guy is in. Like I find some one with the same last name, I should be able to click on him as ask hey, where's your cousin? I can get an 'I don't know' or 'I thoght I saw him over in Cheapside market'

But wandering around a silent city like a chicken with my head cut off was very lame.

Does anyone have any advice more making delivery missions possible?

If you use your map those first missions flag the guy your sapose to see.

[madnak]

Wandering NPCs usually have two locations at which they can be found. Learn both locations and you're set. City NPCs are usually in pretty predictable places. Delivery missions are easy when you know how they work (but hardly worth the effort when you can just kill a few kipees for a greater reward).

Forage missions, on the other hand, are virtually impossible. Lazarus, you've suggested three things. Ask someone who has already done the mission, go to spoiler sites, or mark your map when you find mission mats so that you can do the particular missions related to those mats.

None of these solutions actually helps you to complete a mission. The first two are using spoiler information to solve the mission, and the third involves finding the mats before they've even been requested of you. All three use information from outside the context of the mission. Actually solving the mission involves a ludicrous level of tedium.

[vinnyq]

I think if you're a high enough level digger, you can get some pretty large distance tracking stanza combined with specialized prospecting for specific mats. Maybe that's where the fun comes in 8)

[milesb]

Too bad the NPCs don't give out information about the surroundings. Like areas to forage or places to find other NPCs. A good misson might have 3 or 4 NPCs giving different information, when compiled together would give enough details to help accomplish the mission.

Rusal
Tryker of All Trades

[usinuk]

I think if you're a high enough level digger, you can get some pretty large distance tracking stanza combined with specialized prospecting for specific mats. Maybe that's where the fun comes in 8)

Oh, finding a specific crafting mat isn't hard at all once you have all the minor/major stanzas and 500m deposit tracking (takes something like 150-175 levels of harvesting sps to pay for it.)

The problem is that you never get any stanzas for mission mats. At level 200, you're still searching for mission mats the way you did at level 10. So, no, that's not fun at all, and means that it doesn't matter how good your prospecting is, and is something that needs to be fixed.

As far as delivery missions, I just wish they'd be consistent and activate the compass for all of them, and not just the random rite mission or two.

Crafting missions and pricing need to be fixed, but I've been saying that since patch 1 was on ATS.

[vinnyq]

The problem is that you never get any stanzas for mission mats. At level 200, you're still searching for mission mats the way you did at level 10. So, no, that's not fun at all, and means that it doesn't matter how good your prospecting is, and is something that needs to be fixed.

I thought I saw some missions mats stanza for prosepecting you can get at the trainers, i.e. Preservatives, or Foods, or Building Materials.

I will have to double check.

[neofreak]

I thought I saw some missions mats stanza for prosepecting you can get at the trainers, i.e. Preservatives, or Foods, or Building Materials.

I will have to double check.

Sorry, none available.
Funny thing is that once searching for excellent resin, it did bring me to some preservative(same mat icon, but it's a mission mat).

Funny thing is that even though I have 279 levels (167 desert + 82(132 PR) + 13(63Forest) + 17(67Jungle)) of harvesting combined, I have maybe came accross and marked 50-60 mission mats. That's a lot of mission mats that I never found out there, and I normally run like a nut all over the place to look for some new foraging spots/resources, not just stay at dyron/thesos and popular PR spots. I do have to say I did come accross more mission mats in PR than in the Fyros lands.

[lyrah68]

I have recently taken up TWO betas, both games are a bit kiddie, designed that way for one of them (age they are aiming at is called the "tweenies" preteen to teens, evidently it is a HUGE market in the far east, and they figure why not aim at the NA/euro english speakers too); both of them have a map coordinates, one of them you loc is PERMANENTLY displayed on the map.

Uses for the map coordinates, not limited TO this list, I am SURE you can come up with YOUR list as well:
Rez request info, group meet up, mapping a safer route to travel, mapping material nodes, noting the locations of NPC's tribes, mobs etc.

This lack of a loc system is just another straw on the "this game is NOT explorer friendly" camel back for me.

oh but lyrah, the rites do give some pretty decent rewards.

Agreed that a coord system would be nice. Hit a hot key and it gives you a coord.

Awesome for res call and group meet up.