Game Mechanics Better categorisation of Quests

Main Quests and Side Quests
The story Wynncraft tries to tell is quite obscure. The player is fetching quests left and right: Finding ingrediënts for a cake, robbing the bank and stopping the creature high up in the Eldrich Outlook. Which is actively following the story and which is doing something off to the side?

There are some definite quests that feel like they're main quests and there are side quests that feel like main quests. Since there is no seperation between the two and every quest is literally labled as "Quest". By making this simple change of dividing the quests into the two labels, it effectively tells the player immediately which quests actively tell the story and which quests fill up the world to make said world to be more interesting.


What does Main Quest mean?
Main quests are quests centered around telling the story the world of Wynncraft tries to tell. The story of the corruption spreading through the continent, the path the hero took, the plague that Gavel can't rid itself off and the journey to the Eldritch Outlook in the Silent Expanse.

What do side quests mean?
Side quests are quests designed to fill up the world and to make the world more interesting. Side quests often tell another story more focused around the world and those who live in it. There are often way more side quests then Main Quests.

Example
I mentioned the Silent Expanse. The first quest that leads to the Silent Expanse would be considered a Main Quest. The journey into the Silent Expanse is another Main Quest. However once you get inside Lutho and accept the quest: "Point of no return", following the story of the last Lutho citizen not having let go of their spirit, you're on a quest that fills the world and make said world more interesting, yet the quest does strafe from the original story. So it's considered a Side Quest.

Spoiler: Pro's & Cons

Pro's:
-Easier to follow and to tell the story of Wynncraft (for players and developers).
-The player can differentiate the importance between quests and what they're trying to tell (Main story or trivia about the world and it's inhabitants)
-If Quests are getting labeled, it makes it easier for the devs to see where their original story is lacking when exploring the world.

Cons:
-Way more side quests than main quests.
-There can be a huge gap from Main Quest to Main Quest (Imagine being lvl20 and not getting a main quest until lvl35, it dulls the experience. Not sure if this is the case. This is to provide an example).
-Unneccassary or not what the developers of Wynncraft want to have. The way it is now might be their intention.
-Too much work to implement or how things currently stand, Wynncraft might can't do it, yet.

Spoiler: I tried to create a list of side and main quests but...

By trying to list them in those different categories, it becomes apparant that a lot of quests are actually side quests. Especially at the beginning of the game. Also quests that feel like side quests are main quests (Maltics well gives you an important item)

Lvl1: King's Recruit & Enzan's Brother
Lvl6: Tunnel Trouble
Lvl13: Stable Story
Lvl15: Creeper Infiltration
Lvl16: Maltics Well

Those are 5 "Main" Quests. While you have 5 "Main" Quests, there are from lvl1 through lvl16, 9 "Side" Quests. Basically the Quests labeled as "Main" don't have an apparant connection until much later, which can break a players experience.

That said, it hasn't been Wynncraft's strong side to convey a story through it's quests in such a strong way. Which, to me, is a weird choice, especially at the beginning of the game where you WANT To try to get players invested in your world and story. Not fetching ingrediënts for a cake or solving someone's problem. That's fun to do, later.

Bookmarks
Another idea I've are Bookmarks. The province of Gavel tells a different story then the province of Wynn. In the Quest Book, there could be multiple bookmarkings organising each quest done in each BIG area: Wynn, Gavel, Silent Expanse and in the future, the province of Fruma.

The different markers will clearly differentiate the quests done in Wynn and the quests you will be doing in Gavel. The quests simply intertwine and it isn't clear at all what is what until you're doing them. Since they're both major provinces, I feel like this is a much needed addition. This will also make it more clear to the player, that there is more to the world that meets the eye. There are even surprises in your quest book! This page will unlock at the same time, you get your first quest that leads to Gavel (or Silent Expanse). Here's a (quite awful) representation of what I'm trying to tell:



Click on the bookmarking to go to that provinces page. There will still be a main page that combines ALL quests.

Something the Wiki already does, is categorizing between Normal Quests, Dungeon Quests, Event Quests and Special Quest.


What do you think?

 

i feel that labeling quests "main" and "side" is kind of pointless currently, as there's not much of a way to differentiate between them. most quests in wynn are side quests. though - i do like your idea of having "bookmarks" for each region, that's a cool idea

 

The quests I can come up with that follow the 'main story' of The War of The Realms are
Some corruption related quest(s) in Wynn
Worm Holes
Taproot
Headless History
Memory Paranoia
Finding the Light
Realm of Light
One Thousand Meters Under (barely because it doesn't really explain The Void)
Journey Beyond
Journey Further
Hunter's Calling

 

You may notice in my writing aswel, especially the spoiler.

I do wish we had more coherent storytelling instead of bits and pieces. They don't have to spoil massive secrets, they do have to make it more obvious what you're trying to reveal playing through Wynncraft. Thanks for listing, a list.

 

I mean you can tell what significance a quest has just by doing it really, adding a clear cut distinction would just make the world feel less... real? I don't know if I'm explaining this well but with the current system it actually feels more like you're just a soldier going around looking for jobs, and if that ends up pulling you into something really important then that's what happens, if it was all split into 'silly side quests' and 'important storyline' it would feel less like you were exploring the world and more like you were having the story told to you with some occasional fun hijinks on the side.
I think something AJB kind of does well is that before you even start it there's some sense of build up, you're doing the first lv 100 quest and you have to go all the way back to Detlas for it, it suggests that something's gonna go down, but there's no obvious confirmation that it will, for all you know this might be another "fetch some milk" quest, all of the buildup is implicit in just the way it's presented not because of anything being told to you, and that sense of buildup means your more open to what the game is going to show for the final questline but also that there's some uncertainty to it, so then when they drop the silent expanse on you it's kind of shocking (assuming you didn't get spoiled by the SE being on the map). A lot of that would be lost if you just had something clearly showing you that this was an "important quest".

Also there isn't really a clear cut distinction you could make of 'just the important ones' and the 'filler side quests', The Sewers of Ragni, The Fortuneteller, Purple and Blue, A Grave Mistake, Point of no Return, are they important quests? They're all very important for what storyline they're a part of, some of them have some level of general importance to the story, but you couldn't really categorize Purple and Blue as a 'main story quest' could you?