Daily quests in Aeon?

We already have a dwarf that gives a quest for the ants .. (which i cant do with my apparently too high a level character) but, what would be the chances of creating a half a dozen quests that he can give.. and it changes every reset. collecting an item from somewhere, killing a boss, I think sometimes we just cant think of a good reason to go anywhere dangerous, and having an NPC give us a reason to form a group and go out somewhere, without having the need for a DM to make a reason would be good, also a small bit of quest xp will make it more rewarding at the end.. like.. 200 - 500 xp or something.

What do you think?

Cheers

Jamoise

As a persistent world, we need quests, I know it is not something that can just be created over night, but this fear of people gaining levels is silly now. There are a lot high levels and some can just gain it from pointless grinding, but this is where a line exists. We are a heavy roleplay module and roleplayers can only create so many stories, sometimes there is just a need for quests, for when the server is low population and you just want to do a couple of quests for some XP.

Repeatable quests are not instantly bad and can do a lot to create a world and bring players to it. Not saying have them forever repeatable, but they are necessary.

Hino is threating to play world of warcraft!!

You ratted me out...I called you friend!

Its on your msn display message....

Stay on topic you thread derailer....

Too slow, I mentioned I'd work on more scripted quests this morning for existing 'boss' creatures that don't have one yet . Randomised quests are also possible but the trick would be how they work - is there only one per reset? Is there only one per character per reset? Is there a total limit? Are they completely random or based on level (slightly harder)? Are they just going to be one creature or a group? Set locations or randomised.

I'll have a think over the weekend.

P.S. There shouldn't be a level restriction on the ants quest afaik??

not on the quest, but theres a level limit on the spawning of the queen, as far as i can tell anyway.

I was thinking.. one per person per reset, its the same quest available for everyone (but its a random quest every reset), the quest expires if its not handed in before the reset (or perhaps a time period) so people cant save them up, but I havent had any thoughts on how to relay completion of the quest, if its an item, does everyone in the party need it? or if they have accepted the quest, if one person hands it in (in the same party), do they get the xp and quest completion flagged ect.

anyway just my thoughts.

Still having a bit of a think about some of the mechanics issues (more beneficial at this stage than trying to type things one handed). Good point about non-persistence over resets (which is easy to do with local variables rather than DB ones) and then the other key is the party deal - in theory party would be better but would then probably need a lower reward structure if a group of 5 or 6 end up doing 5 or 6 quests all together (especially if the bounties are spawned at the acceptance of the quest and might not be scaleable to party size, making them possibly too easy for a group).

Other trick I need to test is whether I can get creatures to random walk across areas (and without despawning - making them "one spawn only" might help with this though I guess)....

Back in Mysty the quests I remember most have to be the Hutakaan key quests with the riddles. Because they actually required some thought and innovation rather than just collecting heads of whichever creature is too close to the town.

Aeon does need some more stuff to do when noone else is on though. Even something like there used to be collecting stuff for Urlik in Mysty. Having stuff to do also keeps people on so there are others on when people check the server instead of everyone logging on, getting bored and logging off, rinse repeat with the next person.

oh, that potion women on the outskirts of aran of or perhaps another npc like the apocathary guy in stormhaven, It would be good if any creature had a random chance of dropping something they want, and perhaps they give a small reward for handing it in to them... like.. potions or medkits.. or.. something else *shrugs* the possibilities are limitless also the woman in aran isn't exactly forthcoming about what she would actually want to trade..

Well youjust need to carry around some odds and ends and she'll figure it out for you - need to check though as one of the only recipes I did figure out didn't seem to work on the new Aeon - might just be that an item tag has changed though, or there are multiple items with different tags.

backpack full of junk, still haven't found any that she will trade for... lol

Theres been plenty of chat on DM/builders forums about various things including more NPC driven quests.

Its just about getting the time to build and get them on the server.

Amongst the balancing of real life etc. Knowing that our main players are all good rpers and will look for originality actually makes it harder. Fetch, serch and destroy, collect ... all easy to do with generic quest giver npcs. But I think we al lsit there and look for more interesting things that involves more difficult scripting etc.

All excuses at the end of the day!

However, there are several things in the mix, just bare with us and hopefully they will come to fruition.

I always saw Aeon as more of a party-based PW with a DM about which works better when a lot of the non lair areas are fairly empty and are a blank canvas for the DM to fill as required. That was one of the main reasons why I preferred planned gatherings so that it was more likely for a group of 4 or 5 would all be on together and a DM might see enough incentive to at least tag along and add in some extra dynamic tweaks to enhance RP between PCs or give additional one-off quests. 85% blank areas worked really well for Marie's campaign that a few of us were involved in where she had created an entire word without any scripts or conversations apart from some merchants and only a few basic NPCs. The rest she just filled in and possessed as she went - great for RPers that don't want to be restricted to scripted responsess and basic quests with limited ways of completing them.

Anyway as I used to try ad do, people can't always be on all the time and it is better to have quality time on the server with a group of PCs and a DM or two spicing things up, than single PCs on for long periods doing cookiecutter quests and soloing monsters (and thus gaining xp faster and making soloing even more pointless ).

So anyway, that is just some of my thoughts on how to best make se of the Aeon world. There is still room fo a few standard quests for when ther are no DMS, or as mentioned ay yjr dtart, some slightly more randomised quests, but in the end something like Aeon with the players that are around works better when you get a group together like mini 1-2 might campaigns where things aren't pre-programmed.

Yeah but Marie's campaign was a campaign, not a PW. There was always going to be a party and a DM on at the same time.

It's frequent to be on a PW without any DMs and/or other players, so you need something to do to keep you hanging around until someone does log on.

I figured that the women on the outskirts of aran that wants to trade.. would probably want more of what she had out front of the house, fenberries, garlic, ironbark... found a fenberry.. nope.... when I get a chance ill try garlic, but not sure about iron bark, haven't really seen any ironbark apart from next to her house. is there a good chance that her check script has been borked by some change in item labels ect?

Semi random Fed-Ex quests (take this there or get me that) are fairly easy, as are semi-random bounty hunter quests (go kill an 'x' at 'y', plus code to ensure the 'x' spawns when you get to 'y'). Seen one PW that had players doing mail runs as reoccurring quests.

Quests that actually provide a challenge to the player (ie riddles and puzzles) are a lot harder to code and are a lot less re-playable.

Jamoise wrote:

I figured that the women on the outskirts of aran that wants to trade.. would probably want more of what she had out front of the house, fenberries, garlic, ironbark... found a fenberry.. nope.... when I get a chance ill try garlic, but not sure about iron bark, haven't really seen any ironbark apart from next to her house. is there a good chance that her check script has been borked by some change in item labels ect?

Yes I think these might have issues as I couldn't get them to start working again either (and it used to be a good source of some basic potions too ). I'll have a look when I get a chance (looks like Wed and Fri are the only free ones this week for me).

Charity wrote:

Yeah but Marie's campaign was a campaign, not a PW. There was always going to be a party and a DM on at the same time.

It's frequent to be on a PW without any DMs and/or other players, so you need something to do to keep you hanging around until someone does log on.

Or you could put a thread to organise a time when other players/DMs will be on and thus have more quality RP time than quantity of time. This type of PW is great for campaign style play wiith players/DMs that are creative RPers, as said the issue is just getting people on at the same time .

As mentioned, the trick is finding what to do when you are online alone waiting for others to possibly show up. XP/cash reward quests are only going to go so far in a world where the xp rate is fairly low. I guess the thing that Mykael mentioned is that the more interesting the scripted activities, the more complicated (and possibly more restrictive RP) they are to solve, especially repetitiously. The goblin forest was good in that you could be doing the jobs IC but I'm sure enough players did it just long enough to raise cash for semi-decent equipment making it into more of a beginners levelling area (for those not adverse to a bit of risk ). Then there is the other side where the OCD players can't help cleaning the woods and forget the RP with other characters .

I'll still look into some of the randomised quest parts, but it is just a matter of trying to keep things interesting enough and repeatable that they don't feel like rinse and repeat quests.

Andy B wrote:

Or you could put a thread to organise a time
when other players/DMs will be on and thus have more quality RP time
than quantity of time. This type of PW is great for campaign style play
wiith players/DMs that are creative RPers, as said the issue is just
getting people on at the same time .

As Andy says, using threads to organise things are a great way to get players and DM's online, just because I don't reply to a thread doesn't mean I won't make it, I 4 times out of 5 make it to posted events in one form or another although sometimes simply watch and add a few minor placables. Some of the players know I take minor requests to get something happening, or to help out with a player lead plot so long as it isn't simply to give the player new gear, while other times I sometimes listen to ideas players think would be cool so long as they're very vague about it so that I can change the way it plays out very simply.

Jimmy.

Whereas the last time someone posted an event on the forum they accompanied it with how much they hated having to put it on forums and how everyone should just get in game. You can't win. XD

Of couse not I'd still rather log on knowing there are likely going to be some extras that can make it rather than going off having to solo or just sit in town waiting to fill in time to find that noone was going to log on anyway