More details on new quest tracker feature

A new set of updates have been released into the patch 3.3 PTR recently and one thing caught my eye more than the other things listed. It seems like the new Quest Tracker feature which was supposed to come out in patch 3.2 will finally make it in patch 3.3. it didn’t make it before because there were some problems with it at the time and it just wasn’t ready for release. Better to have something come out late but working rather than early but broken right?

quest log

Basically this new Quest Tracker feature will change the current user interface to be more helpful to players when doing quests. To put things simply, it will pretty much be the game’s built in version of the Quest Helper addon that a lot of players have been using. Right now the default UI will only show you the quest log and the progress of said quest (how many more creatures you need to kill, items to gather etc) and show if you completed everything you need to turn the quest in. The new Quest Tracker will be able to show you a lot more than that, making questing a lot easier for players.

Below is a comprehensive list of things that the Quest Tracker will be able to do taken from the PTR patch notes. But the basic thing is that this feature will be able to help you with your quests by showing you where to go on the map for whatever quest you need to do. If you’re in a particular zone where you have quests to be done, it will also show you all the quests that you can do in that zone using a numerical system from your quest log. The days of having to keep looking at your enlarged map while questing should be gone with the new shrunken map feature.

Quest Tracker entry from the patch 3.3 PTR notes:

# Players can now track quest objectives on the map (‘M’ key).
# Quest Log

* A Show Map button has been added to the Quest Log. Selecting a quest and pressing this button will open the map for the zone in which the quest objective is located displaying the associated area of interest. Any other active quests in a player’s Quest Log for that zone will also be displayed.

# Map

* The map interface has been separated into four separate panes: a map pane (left), a pane listing active quest names for the zone being viewed (right), a pane listing the full quest text for any highlighted quest (bottom left), and a pane listing the quest rewards for any highlighted quest (bottom right).
* All active quests listed in the right pane for the zone being viewed on the map will be assigned a number. These numbers will be displayed on the map according to the areas of interest for each quest.
* Highlighting a quest name in the right pane will highlight the corresponding area of interest on the map in the left pane, show its quest text in the lower left pane, and list the quest rewards in the lower right pane.
* Given that some quest objectives can be achieved in multiple locations within a given zone, highlighting such a quest will highlight an area of interest closest in proximity to the character’s current location.
* This feature can be disabled by un-checking the Show Quest Objectives box in the bottom right corner of the new map interface, restoring the map to its standard full-screen display.
* Clicking on the arrow in the top right corner of the new map interface will hide all but the map pane, bringing the map out of full-screen mode and allowing players to leave it open while navigating a zone or engaging in combat.

# Objectives Tracking

* This frame has been improved to offer new functionality and can be used with the new shrunken map option.
* The Objectives frame is now docked below the mini-map next to the right 2 action bars and will track up to 12 quests for a zone.
* Numbers have been added next to each quest name and objective corresponding with those areas of interest displayed on the map.
* If a quest objective has been completed, the number will be replaced with a yellow question mark symbol.
* The arrow button in the top right corner of the Objectives frame can be used to toggle between minimizing and maximizing the quest objective display.

# Quest Difficulty Tracking

* This feature is off by default and can be enabled in the Objectives window from the Interface Options menu. Turning this feature on will color-code all quest names displayed in the map interface according to difficulty (grey, green, yellow, orange, and red).