Quest Tracking Feature We're making several improvements to the user interface for tracking quest objectives in our 3.3 content update. These new features will serve to improve the questing experience for players through a multitude of new tracking options.
Quest Log
We've added a new "Show Map" button on the Quest Log. The "Show Map" feature highlights any quest in the log and will pull up the map for the zone in which the corresponding quest objectives are located.
Map
When viewing the large zone map ('M' key), players will notice that all quests they have for that zone will be automatically tracked. In addition, this large map is now separated into four separate interface panes.
To the right of the map, all active quests for that zone will be listed by name and be represented with a number. These numbers will be placed on the map highlighting areas of interest for each quest.
A third panel below the zone map will give players the full quest text for any highlighted quest, while the fourth pane will display the quest reward. The quest map tracking feature is enabled by default. Players can disable this feature and restore the map to its original state by un-checking the "Show Quest Objectives" box in the lower right corner.
Areas of Interest
All areas of interest in a zone will be represented with a number corresponding to the number assigned to each active quest in that particular zone. When highlighting a specific quest, the corresponding number on the zone map will be highlighted as well.
If the area of interest is large, for example, and a player needs to kill a number of quest creatures or collect quest items found within a large area on the map, the entire questing area of interest around the number on the map will be shaded blue.
If quest objectives can be accomplished in multiple areas of the zone; for example, certain creatures need to be killed for a quest and have several different locations, the map will automatically display the nearest area of interest in proximity to the player.
Shrunken Map and Objectives Tracking
When viewing the large zone map ('M' key), players can click the arrow in the top right corner to bring the zone map out of full-screen mode.
The map will show all areas of interest for the zone; however the other three interface panes will be removed so players can still view their character, spells, and abilities with the map open. The standard quest objectives window has been improved and will now show numbers next to each quest displayed, or a gold question mark if the quest has been completed.
The objectives window is now docked below the mini-map, next to the right two action bars and can display up to ten active quests in the zone. Players can toggle between minimizing and maximizing this quest objectives window at any time by clicking on the red arrow in the top right corner of the objectives frame.
Quest Difficulty Tracking
This feature is turned off by default and players can choose "Color Quest Difficulty" under Objectives in the Interface Options menu to enable it. Enabling this option will color-code all quest names in the new map interface according to the player's level (grey, green, yellow, orange, and red).
This new feature has been built to work with nearly every quest in World of Warcraft with only a few exceptions. For example, if a quest requires that a player turns in some sort of cloth or other trade goods that can be purchased from other players, the map will not display an area of interest for where these items can be found.
All other quests, whether they require players to slay groups of creatures, gather some type of quest object, or hunt down a single specific target, will be tracked on the map, provided that the player is viewing the map of the zone in which these objectives can be completed.
