Maybe I missed it, but I haven't really seen suggestions for quests. The only one I found was from Gator (here: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/4748), but it is quite dated. Still, there are some great ideas in there (okay, maybe a bit too many kill quests).

Not entirely sure how difficult it would be to implement the following, but here goes the suggestion.

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Section 1 - Initial Goals:

1. Improve current quests
2. Add more quests to help guide beginners

Section 1 - Details:

Improve current quests by making them much more clear about what to do. Perhaps some physical barriers such as preventing them from leaving a specific zone until quest is complete. I've seen lots of people forget to turn in the starting area quest and then are unable to return to complete it. You could allow people to return to the Rescue Camp.

If I recall correctly the reason is because Basil is at the Rescue Camp. Vatel could be used instead of Basil because there's no real point in having Basil at the starting zone selling items no one there could possibly buy. If you are trying to show players the many options available to them then this is not a decent way to do so. Wegner, the NPC, has a very good dialogue format if you intend on explaining it via NPC dialogue.

The information that should ideally be available to players in-game via NPC dialogue would be: 1. gate map explanations regarding elevator selection and floor option shifts as well as the various icons and colors, ability to skip tier and its costs, 2. Basil and Vatel's recipe rotation system as well as the two NPC's differences and hints or details for the whereabouts of Basil, crafting details, 3. damage types, armor types, status effects, status resistances, how to interpret the bar graphics for the items (ex. both bars on a weapon with a secondary damage type is not additive), 4. Unique Variant ability ratings (1 rank of ASI = ?%, 1 rank of monster specific damage = ?%), UV type and rating limitations for armor or weapon types, 5. mist regeneration time (13.2min/mist will be ingrained in their heads), what a death means in the clockworks (how much energy per death after each death), and 6. the auction house (10% cut, posting fees, duration, etc).

Ultimately, the above can be separated into tiers of knowledge. Basic, intermediate, advanced. Beginners don't really need to know at day one that a UV of ASI on a weapon has an ability rating limit of 4. Also, basic explanation of something like UV types and ratings could just be limited to saying that the UV text basically does what it says and the ranks increase it's effectiveness. Eventually if they hunger for it they will seek it out on the wiki, forums, or somewhere.

I really have to say that Wegner's dialogue with pictures is really top notch. Really.

Add a quest for tier restrictions after meeting the tier 2/3 gatekeepers. Not critical, but a neat reminder and added polish. That reminds me about players who like to complete every single quest. Creating content for the completionists will give players something else to look forward to.

What we have to get to is a decent way to guide players to the quest objective. I'm sure a lot of people skipped the Rescue Camp elevator because 1. there was no quest for it, and 2. people could just run out of the camp for Haven as soon as they entered. At this point adding a quest that requires players to obtain a certain item down that specific elevator (an artifact maybe?) in order to prove they are strong enough and read to leave the cap for bigger fish would make logical sense. Replicate the pink/purple gate (later white when allowed to pass) from the Morocroft Manor entrance.

Quests like finding the Artifact after defeating the boss or (for the love of all we hold dear) kill quests don't require guidance, but something like where the Rescue Camp exit is and the location of the Rescue Camp elevator would be of great help. Certainly need a marker on the minimap of some sort and some other onscreen method of signaling where to go. All I can come up with is using an arrow pointing to your currently highlighted (or nearest) quest objective or a lit pathway showing the player where to go. We could just damage players if they start moving away from the objective and start healing them when they move closer to that Rescue Camp elevator.

This is kind of embarrassing. Looking for a quest log icon I ran into the Help icon that explains a good deal of what beginners may want to know initially. Still! Make more quests! Immersion is good. And nobody reads the readme.txt anyway!

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Section 2 - Post Wartime (after initial challenges)

1. Quest content for the 3 tiers of content
2. Tiers of quests for each tier
3. Quest rewards

Section 2 - Details

Basically each tier of content increases in difficulty and increases rewards. Quests should also do the same. The key part is that the second half of every tier is harder than the first half (and so are the crowns gained in relation to tier 2.5 and 1.5 to tier 2 and tier 1 respectively).

Types of quests:

- Kill Quests: Yes, lame I know. Still they have their uses. Will expand later.
- Kll Boss Quests: For the quest completionists.
- Collect Quests: Gather and give certain items to NPCs.
- Time Quests: Test of speed.
- Depth Quests: How low can you go?

Quest synergy with environment:

Playing on how the recipe system works. Basically you go lower to get better deals from Basil and it's a daily change. Quests can also follow this same system with a few changes. Quest NPC in Haven that offers a certain quest or quests per day. Quests are turned in at the terminals or at the towns. Quests are based on player accessibility to tier content (basically based on gear) and/or to the depths previously explored (similar to how it costs crowns to skip tiers which would encourage players to do more content to unlock free access to tier 2 and 3 as well as unlocking access to quests for those tiers).

The Quest NPC certainly works for the Spiral Knights (or so we think!) and may be in need of ammunition (obviously not to use against you). The Quest NPC at Haven could offer a quest to turn in one, two, or three (or maybe just a fixed amount like 1 for tier 1, 2 for tier 2, and 3 for tier 3) of any type of consumables (or just pokeballs)(only one type accepted per quest per tier) at each terminal. The idea is you can give up your consumables for a reward, but won't have them for the second half of the tier. It could be any type demand for tier 1, health/poison/fire/curse only demands for tier 2 (hint: jelly boss), strictly health/status (not sure what hurts players most by missing it) for tier 3. The basic idea is up the rewards and up the risk.

Speed quests could be something like giving an antidote to a knight in Morocroft Manor in need. Lots of examples. Or even a challenge to boast your worth as a real Knight by beating certain types of floors in a certain time frame. Players could end up gunning for something like an Arena type speed clear. Oh, here's an evil one: finish a Treasure Vault Room in 45 seconds! Getting a vault floor already stinks and now to add insult to injury if players do (I like this quest, really). Oh, make this quest auto activate when players get a vault floor. This is so evil. Why am I suggesting this. Do it Three Rings!

Depth quests probably shouldn't reward anything really. By going that depth players already make a ton of Crowns, get loads of Materials, and stuff. What depth quests could reward are badges! Badges for how many times they get to that depth? Badges that are tokens? Tokens for, uh, more shiny-er badges! People like to boast. Same idea for having boss kill quests so people can show they've killed that boss.

There should be bad quests and good quests each day. Bad quests being the lame kill quests or not so ideal ones like a speed clear of a vault. Some quests should always be available while others rotate. A certain number of quests should be available at certain tiers.

Quest rewards:

This is without a doubt going to be very tricky to balance. Initially only Crowns, Materials, or maybe (a huge maybe) Crystals came to mind. We could also toss in Minerals (for those wishing to sway the gate construction more), armor/weapons (not sure how to approach this), artifacts (for collectors), small aesthetic items? (like a ribbon or flower on top of the helmet). How about partial/full Mist Tanks? Oh, and tokens.

New item type? Unique Variant Scrolls? Basically strips away the UV on a current item onto a scroll and losing one (or more) ability ratings in order to apply it to another proper item type (armor to armor, weapon to weapon, etc). The idea is not to allow people to easily get the top gear they want, but to give players options. Another thing to consider is if quest rewards should be bound or trade-able.

Another factor is how each item is already naturally obtained within the game and how the quest system will change that and/or have exclusive items only obtained through questing (UV Scrolls?).

Another important thing is the number of quests a player can complete in one day and the maximum potential reward a player can obtain within that day from quests alone. Reward quantities, quality, etc.

Also, multiple choices to choose from. Not all quests should have choices and not all should have that many choices. Players should get some kind of option or variety of rewards from the pool of quests given for that day (if they choose to do all of em including the unfavorable ones).

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Section 3 - Boasting

Just came to mind when I went back and wrote more on the depth quest rewards. I don't really like to pump my ego, but I'm sure many others would like to do so and do so by showing others at a glance that their character is 'hot stuff' with visual instantly recognizable markers. Now lets give them something worthwhile. I can see players wanting to puff up their chest and looking good for the ladies. Great ideas from watching the Discovery show on how males compete for female attention.

General display method idea: basically a yellow-ish icon/decal or numerical value with a black outline in a row under the player name or guild title, below the knight, in a neat square on a corner of the knight, a single column to the left or right of the knight, etc. Basic color gradient is yellow < orange < red.

Types of things to measure. First: Lowest Depth Cleared. Then, how many times.
Display method: Number. 1-7 yellow, 9-17 orange, 19-28 red, at 28 a red star (no, it'll conflict with General rank) or special icon?
Perhaps we can utilize the badge system mentioned above. Turn in badges to activate the yellow badge and so forth. Badges would then need to be floor specific. Oh, or only badges rewarded at the end of each tier.

Types of things to measure. Second: Boss Kills. Then, how many times.
Display method: Mini icon of each boss in an extremely small and cute fashion. Snarbolax = yellow, and so forth. Not sure about how to display the number of kills. Maybe not.

Types of things to measure. Third: Total Number of Monsters Slain.
Display methods: Use something like the military rank icons. Minimum = private icon = 10 total kills. General = 100,000? How about a million kills? Not sure about color increments. A red star for General seems out of place. Yellow seems like a nice standard color for all ranks, but this won't synergize with the others. Perhaps boss kills should always be orange and monster slain always yellow!