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silvarilon · 02-05-2010, 02:30 AM

Hey guys,

I'm running Ironclaw Online, and we've got some code written up for quests. But very few quests.

Why? Because we have a lot of trouble thinking of *interesting* quests.

I can think of interesting stories. I like the example of wolves harassing farmers, that's an interesting story. However... what is the quest itself? "Go kill ten wolves"

We're very strongly pushing for a social MUD, so I want quests that enhance politics and player interactions, and I like the idea of potentially using auto-quests to do that. A very simple example might be that we give a quest of "go buy me a green shirt" - but we give that quest to anyone who *doesn't* have the ability to tailor clothing. That forces them to go find another player with tailoring skills, and beg/borrow/steal a green shirt. With a decent list of items, and enough variation in the requests to stop players stockpiling the items they think they'll need, that could drive some fun player interaction.

Then, of course, you run into the problem of them just getting their tailor friend to hand over the items to them without any gameplay between them (which is something we discourage in a social game....)

Even better would be if we could generate quests that drive politics. Hand-coding political quests can be weird, because if the quest is, for example "Let's frame the Bisclavret. They're well known to be savage, so we'll pay a wolf to do a savage beating while wearing a Bisclavret guardsman uniform" - that might be fun as a once-off. (It's a furry mud, hence the wolf.) Someone hires the wolf, arranges the beating... but in the longer term, there's going to be one happy wolf mercenary getting every job, and the players that are Bisclavret members would be very unhappy because they're constantly being accused of the crimes, without a way to stop it. - which means, for political quests like that, we'd need a way to randomize it for at least all of the political factions (or have one quest for each of them) - and a way to alert members to the quest happening, so they can attempt to thwart or respond to it.

Thwarting quests can be difficult, especially since players might not all be online at the same time, but possibly the concept of a quest chain might work. For example, the first quest, about hiring a wolf to do the beating might be available. When that's completed, it might no longer be available, but two new quests are available. One that "continues the plan" (for example, "The Bisclavret are now under suspicion. Arrange to have a Bisclavret member arrested for some crime or other") and one that "thwarts the plan" ("The Bisclavret are under suspicion, find out who did the beating, and give me their name") - obviously different mobs would give the quests (a Bisclavret-supporting mob would give the "find out who did it" quest, and might only give the quest to Bisclavret members) - this way other players doing actions *against* your group actually creates more gameplay for you. As they are successful, it opens up new quests, so you either get the fun of defeating them, or you get the fun of new quests being available.

... but that all brings me back to my initial question - how can I think of interesting quest actions. Forget the story, what actual actions can players go out and do?
They can
- kill something
- fight (but not necessarily) kill something (as in our example)
- collect something

Even if we give specific actions, like "go do this secret ritual" - that's still primarily just typing in the commands to walk to somewhere, then typing in the commands to do the action.

We can put in puzzles, but those would have to be hand-coded. If the system creates the puzzles to a formula, players would be able to figure out the "puzzle elements" and solve it every time without effort.

So.... any ideas for quests actions that players can do that will stay interesting and varying? - my example of needing an item from another player should (hopefully) always stay fresh, because the response of the other player will potentially vary each time. Or getting someone arrested might vary, because there may be different things necessary, depending on that player's actions.

But really, those are my only ideas. Help?

02-05-2010, 02:30 AM	#10
silvarilon Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 144	Re: Autoquests Hey guys, I'm running Ironclaw Online, and we've got some code written up for quests. But very few quests. Why? Because we have a lot of trouble thinking of interesting quests. I can think of interesting stories. I like the example of wolves harassing farmers, that's an interesting story. However... what is the quest itself? "Go kill ten wolves" We're very strongly pushing for a social MUD, so I want quests that enhance politics and player interactions, and I like the idea of potentially using auto-quests to do that. A very simple example might be that we give a quest of "go buy me a green shirt" - but we give that quest to anyone who doesn't have the ability to tailor clothing. That forces them to go find another player with tailoring skills, and beg/borrow/steal a green shirt. With a decent list of items, and enough variation in the requests to stop players stockpiling the items they think they'll need, that could drive some fun player interaction. Then, of course, you run into the problem of them just getting their tailor friend to hand over the items to them without any gameplay between them (which is something we discourage in a social game....) Even better would be if we could generate quests that drive politics. Hand-coding political quests can be weird, because if the quest is, for example "Let's frame the Bisclavret. They're well known to be savage, so we'll pay a wolf to do a savage beating while wearing a Bisclavret guardsman uniform" - that might be fun as a once-off. (It's a furry mud, hence the wolf.) Someone hires the wolf, arranges the beating... but in the longer term, there's going to be one happy wolf mercenary getting every job, and the players that are Bisclavret members would be very unhappy because they're constantly being accused of the crimes, without a way to stop it. - which means, for political quests like that, we'd need a way to randomize it for at least all of the political factions (or have one quest for each of them) - and a way to alert members to the quest happening, so they can attempt to thwart or respond to it. Thwarting quests can be difficult, especially since players might not all be online at the same time, but possibly the concept of a quest chain might work. For example, the first quest, about hiring a wolf to do the beating might be available. When that's completed, it might no longer be available, but two new quests are available. One that "continues the plan" (for example, "The Bisclavret are now under suspicion. Arrange to have a Bisclavret member arrested for some crime or other") and one that "thwarts the plan" ("The Bisclavret are under suspicion, find out who did the beating, and give me their name") - obviously different mobs would give the quests (a Bisclavret-supporting mob would give the "find out who did it" quest, and might only give the quest to Bisclavret members) - this way other players doing actions against your group actually creates more gameplay for you. As they are successful, it opens up new quests, so you either get the fun of defeating them, or you get the fun of new quests being available. ... but that all brings me back to my initial question - how can I think of interesting quest actions. Forget the story, what actual actions can players go out and do? They can - kill something - fight (but not necessarily) kill something (as in our example) - collect something Even if we give specific actions, like "go do this secret ritual" - that's still primarily just typing in the commands to walk to somewhere, then typing in the commands to do the action. We can put in puzzles, but those would have to be hand-coded. If the system creates the puzzles to a formula, players would be able to figure out the "puzzle elements" and solve it every time without effort. So.... any ideas for quests actions that players can do that will stay interesting and varying? - my example of needing an item from another player should (hopefully) always stay fresh, because the response of the other player will potentially vary each time. Or getting someone arrested might vary, because there may be different things necessary, depending on that player's actions. But really, those are my only ideas. Help?