[crossfire] Quests mechanism ideas

[Mark Wedel]

Nicolas Weeger wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> I've dumped at 
> http://wiki.metalforge.net/doku.php/user:ryo:todo#quest_mechanism some ideas 
> for quests mechanisms.
> 
> 
> I'll first just do the low-level tracking mechanism, then I'll see how to 
> handle things.
> 
> 
> Comments and ideas welcome :)

  My quick thoughts:

- Yes, there should be some in game mechanism to see quests I've signed up for. 
  This is purely a convenience function - sure, in real life, there isn't a list 
floating about saying everything I have to do, but this is a game.  If there is 
no such list, then more likely I'll end up having to write stuff down out of 
game, which IMO isn't good.  In the past some folks have said that crossfire 
should be more immersive and played full screen, but if in order to track stuff 
I need to record things out of game, that will remove some of the immersion.

  Note that some of the quests may be more or less explicit in what to do.  I 
could imagine some NPC saying 'if you kill a bunch of orcs, I'll do ...'.  Under 
a quest, that could be listed as something like 'orc bounty', and description is 
to kill a bunch of orcs, but up to player to figure out how to do that, and may 
have to explicitly go back to the quest giver to see if they have done a 
sufficient job.

  I'd note that alchemy currently has this problem - if you find a formula, you 
need to record it out of game, which IMO isn't good.

  - For active quests, probably easiest to only do one active one, if that is 
giving hints (like map locations).  Otherwise, if you are trying to give map 
locations for 3 different ones, you need some way to clarify what hint is for 
what quest.

  OTOH, this could be more a client/interface issue.  The quest information as 
transmitted to the client could contain this map hint, but it is up to the 
client to know how to display it, and if it can display multiple points at once, 
maybe let it do so?

  I guess the question might be whether the server actually cares what the 
active quest is or not.

  - One other note, which isn't listed, but isn't not listed either - multiple 
exclusion quests.  Eg, both the fighter and wizard guild may have a quest to do 
something, but because they are competing interests, should only be possible to 
complete one of them.  What this means:
  - It may be possible to get both of them given to you, but once you complete 
one of them, the other is automatically removed from lists of quests.
  - If you have completed one of them, you can't get assigned the other one.

- Last point:  It may be worthwhile to note if a quest is repeatable or single 
instance.  I'd think most can only be done once, but I could imagine a few where 
you could repeatedly do so.  Maybe this is just a definition of quest states.