Randomized Miniature Quests, Secret Rooms and more

Count me in! :D

I'd say that this would be a great addition to the game, and considering the harsh and cruel nature of Wraeclast there would be countless opportunities for randomized quests:
- npc X had to run away from a monster and lost an item of great personal value, go kill the monster and get the item back
- monster Y attacked a group of survivors and abducted a child, go kill the monster and find out what happened to the child
- food supplies in town Z are running thin, go to area A and harvest some bags of fruits from the trees there while killing every monster you encounter there
- npc B has gotten infected by a vile disease and the healer of town C asks you to go out and find the rare magical herb D that will cure B

Of course the individual types of quests themselves would be limited (e.g. harvest food, find lost item, find lost NPC, find item required for <stuff>, help defeat monster, etc.) but the actual quest construction would be randomized. In one instance you have to go to the Fetid Pool to find the missing item, another time you find it in the Submerged Passage, and so on.

That combined with randomization of encountered monster types would really improve the replay value of PoE far beyond simple grinding.

Bump for great justice!! I definitely support the ideas in this thread, more specifically the randomized monsters, more randomized areas (with less static entrances/exits) and the idea of random quests! I truly hope players see this thread and give it the support it needs, that way we can get a dev response!

I'm one of those players who play games for the exploration aspect. I am also, unfortunately, the type to go in full force in my endeavors and one I've seen everything once, I'm done. Replay enjoyment = zero. I am really pushing myself to play my chars in Cruel.
Random points of interest will go a long way in hooking your players that are wired like me.

Fess up, who didn't love finding secret buttons and switches in Dungeon Siege and seeing the "You found a secret area!" message?

i would have to say that so far it feels like there is very little actual Questing in PoE

and im a big fan of Questing, even in ARPG style genres.

theres a bit here and there but most are go-fetch quests which get old quickly on successive playthroughs. currently my characters are exploring areas for loot, and sometimes i'm heading to certain areas as i really like the atmosphere (Church Dungeons for example) but knowing there's not going to be any new or interesting event means these areas are just places to farm.

and i'd like that to change, and wholeheartedly support the OP ideas.

all of these things could be done and they dont have to impaact the main quest line, so as to not interfere with people that want to zerg through the areas, or those that just want the action part of the rpg experience.

- secret areas in instances would be extremely cool. maybe the entrances are triggered by levers, and maybe some levers you find are trapped. perhaps there are audio cues, or visual cues like flickering torches as mentioned previously. perhaps theres a rare Detect Secret Doors skill gem you can find. or theres clues within a level (or preferably outside of the area) that hint at how to enter these zones. maybe certain elemental effects trigger walls to collapse or tree roots to part, or floors to fall away.

- NPCs in the instances would also be a welcome change. there's one right at the start of the game on the beach and aside form the talky stuff with the bandits and captain whats-his-name thats about it. i'd like to see randomly appearing NPC characters and perhaps even mini-mob bosses that tell you information, give you stuff, ask you to do things, perhaps even request an item that you can choose to do or otherwise ignore. i realise many players wont want to do this, hell enough have problems reading the existing quest outlines eg. "what do i do with the glyph wall?" so this could be problematic. but i for one would enjoy this sort of thing.

- unique/rare keys and events would also be cool. similar to the amulet quest, what if there were fragments of a scroll or key that you could encounter during the multiple playthroughs of PoE. what if a portal appears once you have all the scroll fragments in your possession and right-click it? do you go through? either to a new area or a different level random zone similar to torchlight. perhaps it freezes the entire party when it appears and a hoarde of new enemies invades. who knows. but it would be fun to collect these parts with the hope of triggering some unique event.
in the dungeons you might come across some strange obelisk which vibrates with an ominous hum when you melee it, maybe theres two or more of these in an instance, and if you simultaneously strike them (via spread out party members) some crazy boss spawns somwehere. what if the striking of the obelisk can be synced between differnt instances much like the miracle resonance indicators in Dark Souls. i mean.. this is an online game right? lets leverage it to create a cool experience.

- lots more possibilities!

+1

Random quests is a very nice feature.

Plus additional areas (possible random as well) that are accessible through one of many areas... something like "fetid Poll" being accessible through "Mud Flats' or "Rocky Climb" etc.