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Lack of Promotion Quests

AuthorMessage
Ensign
Aug 26, 2009
5
So at level 70 I discovered that both Catbeard and Gracie get there first promotion and i was very disappointed to discover that they are only promoted with gold, a treatment usually reserved for Crowns shop and secondary companions. Both Catbeard and Gracie are primary characters and i was wondering why it is that they did not get promotion Quests like the Predisio 5?

Developer
mugustuster on Jun 17, 2016 wrote:
So at level 70 I discovered that both Catbeard and Gracie get there first promotion and i was very disappointed to discover that they are only promoted with gold, a treatment usually reserved for Crowns shop and secondary companions. Both Catbeard and Gracie are primary characters and i was wondering why it is that they did not get promotion Quests like the Predisio 5?
There's a simple but hard answer here: promotion quests are the hardest quests for us to do - they're the longest to write and implement, and they're also special events that by their very nature demand special environments and characters. They're tough, and take up the resources of a whole chain of side quests. But there's more - as the number of primary characters has increased, the future burden for their promotion quest increased along with it.

A long time ago we made a rule that any talking crew member would promote with a quest. We made that rule back when there were only less than twenty main talking crew members. There are thrity now. Looking forward, if we stick to that rule it means that either the promotions will happen much less frequently, or they could delay future updates. I also don't want to stop giving primary crew because I'm worried about being able to promote them. It pained us to make the decision, but it was the best compromise to make.

We did, however, draw the line at only doing this with characters who haven't promoted yet. And some of the main crew may still get quests going forward, but I can't promise that at this time.

Dread Pirate
Jun 13, 2011
2037
mugustuster on Jun 17, 2016 wrote:
So at level 70 I discovered that both Catbeard and Gracie get there first promotion and i was very disappointed to discover that they are only promoted with gold, a treatment usually reserved for Crowns shop and secondary companions. Both Catbeard and Gracie are primary characters and i was wondering why it is that they did not get promotion Quests like the Predisio 5?
Yeah. Gracie Conrad and Catbeard having paid promotions... that totally destroys the purpose of main story companions properly having promotion quests in later Books. While they looked amazing on Test, I hoped they wouldn't make it to Live, yet, they did. That's completely breaking the structures on how Companions should have promotion quests.

I still feel Book 15's too soon to promote Gracie & Catbeard, along with some other companions. Why did KI decide to promote them for gold in Book 15? We know it's too soon without giving them proper promotion quests.

Ensign
May 01, 2012
34
Because of the cut and a lack of time, the developers decided to just add in a bunch of promotions with no quests at level 70, unfortunately for Catbeard and Gracie. It is possible that they are in the process of creating quests and these are merely placeholders, but maybe not. On the bright side, a lot of companions do get promotions which will make them more valuable to your team, here's a list of all known promos:

  • Presidio 5: Level 67
  • Private Mills: Level 68
  • Lt. Springer: Level 68
  • Gracie Conrad: Level 70
  • Catbeard: Level 70
  • Bagha Khan: Level 70
  • Mustang Sally: Level 68
  • Kzinti Singh: Level 70
  • Bosun Budd: Level 70
  • Doctor Noh: Level 70

Petty Officer
Dec 31, 2009
61
I like promoting for gold, those promotions quests just run you all over the spiral and seem like so much busy work to me, just my opinion, but I am happy about it.

Dread Pirate
Jun 13, 2011
2037
Blind Mew on Jun 17, 2016 wrote:
There's a simple but hard answer here: promotion quests are the hardest quests for us to do - they're the longest to write and implement, and they're also special events that by their very nature demand special environments and characters. They're tough, and take up the resources of a whole chain of side quests. But there's more - as the number of primary characters has increased, the future burden for their promotion quest increased along with it.

A long time ago we made a rule that any talking crew member would promote with a quest. We made that rule back when there were only less than twenty main talking crew members. There are thrity now. Looking forward, if we stick to that rule it means that either the promotions will happen much less frequently, or they could delay future updates. I also don't want to stop giving primary crew because I'm worried about being able to promote them. It pained us to make the decision, but it was the best compromise to make.

We did, however, draw the line at only doing this with characters who haven't promoted yet. And some of the main crew may still get quests going forward, but I can't promise that at this time.
So... to place it in short... the more new universally granted companions are added, main story & side quests, the more it'll be tough to add in new promo quests to them & old companions in later Books to later updates? The previous rule about main story companions having promo quests in Books had promise, yet, that placed some hindrances to later story updates, even this.

Guess that explains some things.

Can't say I'm surprised & disappointed, Blind Mew. The paid promotions to main companions, though, won't they be temporary placeholders until their promo quests are properly ready? I really like the promotion quests, & I don't want them to stop completely. Even I still would like to see promo quests to universally granted side companions, like Shiruku Neko.

That said, are you & the team gonna take it easy on them for the moment being until a more coherent & better process can be accepted towards later promo quests? If later promo quests tend to be long, I don't want to push KI to their strongest limits they can't go to yet. I'm very sorry about that decision, though. Hope things may get properly settled about the promo quests soon. I was very excited to see more companion tales being told through them.

Ensign
Nov 28, 2012
12
It's understandable. Might I offer a different solution then? Since promotion quests are essentially side quests anyways, maybe you can try adding them instead of/reducing regular, standard, side quests? Seems like a better idea since promotion quests have the added bonus of serving as character development for our main companions. Also the added bonus of characters who don't get much screen time/speaking lines in the main quest to get their share of the spotlight. The experience and gold we get during side quests could be added at the end of promotion quests.

Gunner's Mate
May 17, 2015
209
Might I suggest we just remove their promotions out of the game, it's too early to worry about their promotions at this point anyway

Remove their promotions and worry about an actual quest for the next update

Ensign
May 01, 2011
28
Blind Mew on Jun 17, 2016 wrote:
There's a simple but hard answer here: promotion quests are the hardest quests for us to do - they're the longest to write and implement, and they're also special events that by their very nature demand special environments and characters. They're tough, and take up the resources of a whole chain of side quests. But there's more - as the number of primary characters has increased, the future burden for their promotion quest increased along with it.

A long time ago we made a rule that any talking crew member would promote with a quest. We made that rule back when there were only less than twenty main talking crew members. There are thrity now. Looking forward, if we stick to that rule it means that either the promotions will happen much less frequently, or they could delay future updates. I also don't want to stop giving primary crew because I'm worried about being able to promote them. It pained us to make the decision, but it was the best compromise to make.

We did, however, draw the line at only doing this with characters who haven't promoted yet. And some of the main crew may still get quests going forward, but I can't promise that at this time.
so it means they will be left without the quest or we may hope for their promo quest to appear in he future?

Lieutenant
Jun 20, 2013
163
A quick question:

Can Companions form the Bundles HAve CONFIRMED Valencia 2 promotions?