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mrmiffmiff -> Complete Spreadsheet Guide to AQ Content (1/28/2018 0:15:11)
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The actual content here is in the spreadsheet here. You can open it, make a copy, and use it to your heart's content. The purpose of this thread will be to explain what this is and why I made it. It's not worth converting the spreadsheet into a pure text format to put in this thread; it works much better in its current format. I hope that will be okay.
It has been noticed several times over the years that it can be difficult to know how to start and how to progress through AdventureQuest's content. All Artix Entertainment games suffer from this to some extent, but AdventureQuest (AQ) has it the worst of all because there is no in-game guidance on the matter like the other games have to some degree (actually I'm not sure whether MechQuest does or not, but I'm relatively certain it's better than what AQ does). When you also figure in all of AQ's out-of-game content from before, during, and even a little after the Devourer Saga, it's very difficult to figure out how to see all the content.
Some people have tried to remedy this in the past. I give the credit to Archmagus Orodalf and James Lu's guide on Recommended play order, storyline, and timeline for shaping much of my spreadsheet. However, even that guide did not quite go into the depth that I wanted. I realized that the guide I wanted didn't exist. So, my options were to be confused and not have it... or to make it myself. I chose the latter.
Using the above guide in conjunction with the Release History, I set about constructing a spreadsheet that would list all AQ content from beginning to end in the most logical possible progression. Mind you, this wasn't just story quests, but also unimportant quests, locations, Falerin's novellas and short stories, the roleplay/ARG-like forum posts from the mid-2000s, and the logs of the IRC roleplays that took place throughout the Devourer Saga. I believe I have made the best possible order here. I included unimportant quests because even if they are unimportant, it can still be said that they take place, and from my perspective that means they're worth having there, if not outright playing. The story quests are, of course, in their proper order given either in-game or on the Storyline order guide. The Recommended Play Order above became especially important for a lot of the quests that came out soon after the Devourer Saga's conclusion, as many different storylines were releasing at once, but not necessarily in the proper order in relation to each other. The forum and IRC logs I found on various websites dedicated to recording the Seekers' findings back in the day. The novellas and short stories I've linked to either on the AQ wiki or on the forums.
I do believe I have some unnecessary entries, as at some point I started copying just about everything from the Release History, which included stuff that wasn't actual content, such as engine updates and GGB updates. I realize now this was a mistake, and in the near future I will likely be going to purge such entries. Additionally, where updates of quests exist, I have listed all releases of the quest at their proper times. In most cases, the actual content of the quest wasn't changed enough to warrant replacing the entry entirely, so it was okay to record the old release date and then the newer one much further down the sheet. One notable exception is the New Player Quest: Because all new players are forced to play this quest on first login, it was necessary for me to place the most recent version of this quest at the top of the spreadsheet.
It is also possible that some people will disagree with parts of my ordering. If at any point you are one such individual, I urge you to contact me, either here in the thread or via PM, and we can discuss the logic behind both my ordering and your proposed change. Should I be convinced, I will gladly change the spreadsheet.
I will be periodically making updates to this public release, both for the purpose of the aforementioned purges and to keep the spreadsheet up to date. Of course, individuals who make their own copy will need to be responsible for copying over these changes. I will always note if I make any changes at an earlier point in the spreadsheet that wouldn't be immediately obvious.
I hope that this project of mine will help someone out. It'll certainly be helping me for quite a while, but I'm sure there's someone else out there who wanted something like this. Again, any questions, comments, or concerns, I'm here. I'll link to the spreadsheet again below, in bigger text, just to make sure it's seen.
Mods, feel free to let me know if there's something wrong with this thread.
Edit: It occurred to me that there were a few things I didn't explain very well, so I'll do so now.
Some of the early stuff was really hard to find, so while I record its existence I can't really link to it. If anyone knows what these things are (it'll be obvious which ones I'm talking about), please let me know.
Also, it's possible I made some mistakes and that there are some inaccuracies. Let me know of those too.
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