Beginner quests

I also had no idea I had to hunt for the stuff to cook (had to ask in Help chat), and still haven't quite figured out how the aura quests work even though I think I've done two of them now. Can't comment on the stone since I did that part before levels were rebalanced, and I also had terrible luck crafting one of the copper tools, so I had the right level when I needed it.

I agree wholeheartedly with Wicky. I was halfway through the tutorials when the update on the actions and level requirements happened. Consequently, I was left half-hanging on the quest that I was doing halfway (smithing quest) simply because the level requirements are way higher than the state I was in. Consequently, the quests have been shelved (they are still undone today). My take is that if the tutorial is meant to give the players a flavour of the skills and how the game works, there should be smooth progression along the quests, and not requiring the players to grind on each skills for a while before allowing them to progress to the next stage.

It should be noted that you would not have had the same grind if you had done the quests entirely before the switch (when the required levels were lower) or entirely after the switch (since the experience is higher).

Problem is I didn't join BEFORE levels were fixed ;) So that has nothing to do with why a tutorial quest is harder than it should be...Tutorials are meant to help players learn things, this doesn't help you learn a thing except aggrivation and levels shouldn't have ANYTHING to do with tutorials because well, you're learning about the game and shouldn't have to earn 10 levels in anything before doing tutorials, lol...Something I even brought up in Alpha, but apparently that didn't get thought through enough :(

As a thought about the randomness, if the smithing quest is currently designed to require mining due to failures, and the rest of the mining (or smithing) quest line relies on the exp from that, this should probably be rethought to take into account the 1 in 10 players who'll get their whatever made on the first go and not even use up the copper ore allotted them at the start of the quest. This can be done without changing the exp curve or number of quest actions by awarding more exp at the end of each quest: enough exp that even the luckiest players won't have too much of a grind for the next part.

That said, I'd personally prefer more long-term quests that might require a grind before they can be done (like the hardwood grind for the farm quest), but can be done at the player's leisure. These should be separate from the tutorial quests, which as Vanquish rightly comments should flow smoothly and give players a quick, captivating idea of how the game works.

Also, we do plan on adding several other quests like Lorinthar is talking about that do require you to "grind" or prove yourself in different skills. But these won't be part of the tutorial. Any grinding needed in the tutorial will be fixed.