Snake Quest Re-Work

No item that shows up on collection quests is missing from the game. They are rare, yes, but still can be found naturally through hunting, rescouting, and explore encounters. I had to hunt for an alligator carcass from an explore encounter myself, and when I got it I was ecstatic! I suggest looking for collection items in swamp, coniferous forest, and taiga, as these three biomes have two explore encounters that offer collection quest items. Rescouting is also an option, though I find it's less reliable.

I'd also like to clear up some misinformation—a new player would not be able to find a very rare item on their first day, because collection quests source from the biome that you live in. Moving to a biome before your wolves can comfortably hunt is not the fault of the collection quest, because you really could find these large carcasses if your wolves could hunt large trails! But the problem is that the memberbase as a whole does not have the stats currently to comfortably hunt in higher level biomes (which I could start a whole rant about how the stats required for biomes are completely bonkers, but I will refrain). This leads to a very few number of these carcasses in the game. 

I support the idea that snake skulls do not give you the exact same items/quest. I've gotten a 6 hunt quest right after trying to reset a 5 hunt quest before, and it does not feel good. However, I do not support the idea of not being able to find rare (less than 100) carcasses for the snake, as I use the collection quest to both farm these carcasses and sell them on the TC for a good amount, and would be bummed if all I could find was elk bulls when the rarer carcasses are way cooler. Alternatively, I suggest that collection quests are only allowed one super cool rare item, rather than, god forbid, all three. I have a collection quest currently active, and I'll admit, RNG is not on my side this time! But I will continue to try.

I do believe the argument "not everyone has the time to look for quest items" is a very poor argument. Quests, by nature, are designed so that you invest your time into Wolvden. You can only complete one quest daily because Wolvden wants you to keep coming back. Quests are not designed to be completed by buying items on the TC and getting the SC in 5 minutes, and honestly I prefer the challenge, hence why I'm not super in agreement with this. I do think quests need tweaks, though—just not such a drastic change.

The quest snake needs a serious rework. I got a slay 3 mustelids quest. Snake skulled that, got a 6 successful hunts, after I just replaced my finisher, and my other team isn't successful in the spring, let alone winter. Tried to complete, got 1 successful hunt, all day. Snake skull, and got 5 successful hunts, so another snake skull. 5 successful hunts, again, so once more snake skull. I'm sure you can guess the results of that skull. Yep! 5 successful hunts. Three times in a row!

Please, fix the snake. We can't afford these ridiculous quests and their screwy rng.

I think that one would be an issue with hunting, not the snake

The snake skull definitely needs a rework, if anything. It's terrible, not to mention changing the quest costs more than the actual quest itself sometimes...

I think certainly mostly all of us can agree that the snake skull is a bit,,,, rough, to say the least. I don't think I need to explain more lmao, as all of us have had our own issues with it.

But greahound, what you said about not everyone has time to look for quest items is certainly valid! I mean yeah, the whole point of quests is so you spend time in the game, I can certainly agree with that! I can also agree with liking quests to be challenging. Certainly when my hunters are at their game, I don't mind getting an 8 hunting quest, or even 3, but it gets frustrating when I just rearranged my hunters and it's winter, or getting (like my example), two rare, large carcasses. Having that fear makes me not want to do my daily quests. I do really agree and like the idea someone else had, that you can have a chance to choose easy, medium or hard quests each day- perhaps not being able to take all three in a day, but choosing one that then locks the others until you finish the quest and waiting for the next day.

And I do have to agree, that rescouting and encounters can be very useful when you get that rng luck, but unfortunately, the swamp is pretty hard to unlock (I've been at it for about a month now with my one scout, and I'm only just now close to unlocking it), and I don't explore in the desert so I don't really know the chances of running into the lizard(?), but I do often explore in the mountains and both woodlands, and I don't often run into the snake. Now that could just very well be my bad rng (and probably likely is!), but it's still frustrating nonetheless!


As for Derpy- back when I still was in the mountains, I had a 100 synergy and prof hunting party that would still slip up on critter trails. Yeah, it happens sometimes, parties have a bad day. However, it is still a problem with the snake to spend about 300+ SC on a two snake skulls, just to get the same three quests in a row, when you're not even guaranteed to make 150 SC back.

Sorry for the long response, my brain is in brrr mode sfdghsdfg

Oh I just thought of something that could perhaps be used as a compromise! The explore encounters will still give you quest items when you need it, but when you don't have quest items needed (say for battle quests or hunting quests), they'll give you a random, rare (under 100 in game) item. Cuz from what I've seen and experienced, explore encounters don't give you anything unless you have item quests, which makes them essentially useless unless you have the quests. Just an idea tho, brain still going brrrrrrrr

Item quests demanding rare carcasses - for some users it's a curse, for other ones it's an opportunity. Once the quest is active, the items are available during re-scouting and exploring. The most active users can grind on those items and obtain more than needed for the quest. The excess of rare carcasses can be exploited by selling on TC for a great sum of cones. Rare carcasses have been sold for 2 GC. Some might think it's too high, but it can be too low compared to 150 SC cost of snake skull from raccoon shop. The carcass ensures completion of quest if it's the only item missing, while the skull re-rolls the quest without guarantee that the next quest will be easier than the current one.

I agree that snake skull is very expensive. I prefer waiting 2 days for quest to be forfeited than buying snake skull for a reset. Even if it was guaranteed the next quest would be easier to complete, the price is still questionable because it's just reward subtraction in the most optimistic scenario that quest is completed. The price should be definitely lower because snake skulls can't exploited anyway as it's just a penalty cost for not completing the current quest and demanding another one potentially to be reset again for accumulated penalty cost.

The snake should clarify that if you're having trouble hunting a specific quest item, you should send scouts to explore and maybe they'll bring one back. Otherwise quests for rare carcasses will be a riddle for players who have yet to unlock rescouting or players who aren't using rescouting because they're dedicating all their scouts to exploring undiscovered areas.

Support.

I've often had to completely give up quests and wait for them to expire on their own because I simply 

1) do not have the time to do it (hunt quests, battle quests, rarer item fetches)

2) could not complete it despite effort given (rng on hunts were mostly failures, could not find animals for battle quests, scouts/item encounters not giving me the quest items i need ever)

And then there's the wasted SC when using a snake skull only to get the very same or a very similar quest you can't complete and thus was the reason you used the snake skull in the first place.

It'd be nice if the snake skull was more refined so that it's guaranteed to let you get what you need for it within a reasonable time. The hunt quests aren't a huge problem now, what with how you don't have to do so many and you can get your next quest immediately if it overlaps a day.

But there should be an awareness to not request the same type of quest when using the skull or maybe having some sort of limit on the kinds of items it will ask for with certain quests.