[crossfire] Quests, continued

[Mark Wedel]

Nicolas Weeger wrote:
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      Hello.
     
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      I'm not totally satisfied of my quest implementation. It's not general
     
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      enough for many things we could think of, and there are some drawbacks
     
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      (like removing all markers on completion).
     
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      Therefore I suggest we don't use that for now, and think of everything
     
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      we'd want to be able to do.
     
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      What I can think of (some stolen from Daimonin):
     
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      * kill a monster
     
     
  Yes, and if the player is part of a party, and other party members are on teh 
same quest, this should count for them also.

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      * collect n items of something
     
     
  Can you be more specifc on this?  Does this meaning having n items in your 
inventory?  Having picked up that number?  Tkae them someplace?  If the later 
case, I'd suggest that quests should be allowed to be connected to other objects 
to control what happens (eg, you drop the 5 x on the altar, and it activates the 
end quest action because it is linked to that on the same space).  This 
flexibility then allows quests to be controlled in a variety of ways.

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      * go someplace
     
     
  On a basic level, this can be done pretty easily by putting objects on the 
spot they need to go to.  However, on a more abstract level, having something 
like 'go to navar city' could be harder to do, unless you blanket the entire 
town with the appropriate objects, because the player could have numerous ways 
of getting there.  This can be remedied to some extent by being very specific 
where to go (go to town hall help desk, etc).

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      * get an item (from a chest/monster) only if doing quest
     
     
  Doe this mean you can only get the item if you are on the quest, or does it 
mean it only counts for something if you are doing the quest?  If the later, 
that would seem pretty obvious.  This would presumably be basically tied to 
pickup item.

  I'd add:
Converse with someone.  Eg, a quest to go tell xyz abc.  This could be done as 
above - tied to connected objects, so could be tied to a magic ear.


  To me, what seems to be missing is the entire reward structure:
1) Give object.  Some quests (scorn nobility) quest does this, but can 
potentially run out of objects - if done via quests, don't have that problem.

  Also, should have special code to give invisible objects - if player doesn't 
have it, it gives them.  Thus, quests could give out skills and spells. 
Potentially, there should be some fallback (player already has meteor swarm, 
give them 10 potions instead or something).

2) Ability to give exp, and give it into specific skill categories (bring me an 
elven bow and I'll teach you more about bowmaking, etc).

3) Ability to give stat/other bonus, up to racial maximums (just like potion). 
Resistances could be for everyone or maybe just dragons.  Perhaps have some 
constraint (only increase resistance if less than 20 or something).

  Also, from the current quests, I'd say that if the quest is timed but you 
don't complete it in time, you should generally be able to restart it.  Ideally, 
few quests should be timed, but my concern here is that a player perhaps get 
distracted, quests expire, and not player has not chance to redo it.