Thinking of the game's adventures in terms of quests limits the conversation. It's not so much that there are dynamically generated objectives to complete and get rewards from, like Elder Scroll's Radiant AI, as there are events and circumstances the game puts you in to advance the story.

Contracts are the closest things in the game to "quests", but they're not quests in the traditional sense. They're a way of enforcing player and non-player-character agreements. The important parts aren't the contracts themselves but how they affect your relationship with the other people in the world. The genius of having a contract system in this game is that it allows players to trust one another and set up terms of agreement in the traditionally hostile MMO environment, not that it allows you to tell someone to go find you 12 bear asses.

Quests have been for the most part been replaced with contracts, which seem to be business transactions on the micro-scale which may or may not affect the overlying story line.

Example to explain my view on it: You as a player will interact with other players/NPCS/OPCS/etc. in order to gain supplies and a source of income in the short term. You will prob work (for income) in an area where you enjoy and attempt to make a living out of it (blacksmithing, preaching, exploring, etc.). You may also do tasks in order to increase favor with those in your community, like NPC parents.

Now, there is a greater story that encompasses 10 years, which various players will stumble on and off of depending of the circumstances. For example, while going out to hunt ore, you may find an undead skeleton (remember this isn't high fantasy so you would most likely get killed) and accidentally trigger the "Third Lich Invasion" or you may not. You can also influence where your story goes by acting in a certain way, such as killing everyone in a town because you REALLY want to be a lich yourself.

TL; DR: Questing in this game will basically be like business transactions or open ended questions that you will have to decide to pursue or not by choice or by chance.

Yes contracts are going to be the base of player generated quests, but job offers do not limit them-self to supply fetching quests.

You'll see transport requests, exploration/cartography requests, prospection requests, bounty requests and search and kill requests..... and so much more.

every thing that needs to be done and that you will not do yourself will need to be done by someone else and for that you'll use contract and that need will be someone else's quest.

I do think most contracts on offer will be rather mundane. For me, the dynamic world makes mundane quests more interesting. I find it frustrating to be asked to kill five wolves to protect the village, and see that since they respawn infinitely, I have not actually changed the wolf population, and the next player who comes along will also be asked to kill five wolves. The fact that killing five wolves will actually reduce the wolf population and change the circumstances in the village in Chronicles of Elyria means that even though it is the exact same task, it is unlikely to bore me as much as it does in other games.

As a scribe/bookseller, I expect that I will regularly be looking to buy paper and ink. But I won't have infinite gold to buy infinite amounts of paper and ink at a set price from anyone who wants to make a little quick cash. I will only be looking to buy more supplies when I've used up most of what I had or if I am offered something particularly rare or unusual, and market prices will change so I'll have to keep an eye on that, too. I will be doing the same mundane "quest" over and over, but I don't expect to have the same experience every time.

That said, in addition to the world story adding in unique and interesting quests, players will be offering contracts as well. Players who can ask for literally anything they want (within the limits of the game mechanics), and can offer whatever they want in return. I'm sure some players will get very creative with their contracts. That might actually give them an edge over their competitors, since players are often looking for unique experiences that also earn them a profit, so offering unique contracts may make them more likely to accept, or accept for a lower price. Since NPC's can offer contracts, but not agree to player created contracts, it's likely that a significant portion of the mundane contracts will be fulfilled by NPC's, leaving the more unique contracts to be fulfilled by players.

Posted By CommonlyQuixotic at 07:22 AM - Sun Aug 06 2017

I do think most contracts on offer will be rather mundane. For me, the dynamic world makes mundane quests more interesting. I find it frustrating to be asked to kill five wolves to protect the village, and see that since they respawn infinitely, I have not actually changed the wolf population, and the next player who comes along will also be asked to kill five wolves. The fact that killing five wolves will actually reduce the wolf population and change the circumstances in the village in Chronicles of Elyria means that even though it is the exact same task, it is unlikely to bore me as much as it does in other games.

As a scribe/bookseller, I expect that I will regularly be looking to buy paper and ink. But I won't have infinite gold to buy infinite amounts of paper and ink at a set price from anyone who wants to make a little quick cash. I will only be looking to buy more supplies when I've used up most of what I had or if I am offered something particularly rare or unusual, and market prices will change so I'll have to keep an eye on that, too. I will be doing the same mundane "quest" over and over, but I don't expect to have the same experience every time.

That said, in addition to the world story adding in unique and interesting quests, players will be offering contracts as well. Players who can ask for literally anything they want (within the limits of the game mechanics), and can offer whatever they want in return. I'm sure some players will get very creative with their contracts. That might actually give them an edge over their competitors, since players are often looking for unique experiences that also earn them a profit, so offering unique contracts may make them more likely to accept, or accept for a lower price. Since NPC's can offer contracts, but not agree to player created contracts, it's likely that a significant portion of the mundane contracts will be fulfilled by NPC's, leaving the more unique contracts to be fulfilled by players.

That's a pretty detailed explanation right there, thanks. I wonder what'll happen if a village is lacking in interesting requests though. Wouldn't really be fun to see whole towns emptied due to lack of activity.