Re: CF: Unique quests

[Mark Wedel <>]

Scott Wedel wrote:
> 
> I think a basic problem with unique quests is that it is a bit
> of an oxymoron in a multiplayer game that refreshes it's maps.
> Either the quest maps should have a PERMAQUEST attribute which
> means once they have been played then they are done or they get
> refreshed and people can play them again.

 An alternative, which you can not do with the current code, would be cyclical
quest maps.

 For example, you have A->B->C->A

 Once A is done but resets B.  You go to B, complete it, and it resets quest C. 
You do quest C, complete it, and it resets quest A.

 Presuming a good storyline, this cyclical nature would make sense for some
quests.

 But I agree - having things never reset, or truely unique items in which only
one person can ever have that item doesn't work out really well in a multiplayer
game.  There has to be some way for other players to respawn those quests or get
those items back into the game.

> 
> I believe the best way to prevent players from repeating a quest
> is to greatly reduce the reward at the end.  Or to be more specific,
> have very little random treasure at the end of a quest.  Thus, a
> player can repeat a quest with the expectation to acquire what
> they have already acquired.

 Agree.  But related to this, too many quests have the items which are clearly
suprerior to anything else in the game (ie, you would be stupid to use any
shield other than XXX, or weapon ZZZZ is the one you want).  There has been past
discussions on that also.

 I would think that in a party format, having one copy at the end of a quest and
a reasonable long reset time on that map would somewhat force players to see
other maps and alternative items.


> And personally, I have no problem with the idea that the only
> treasure for a particular quest is a key that opens the front door
> to some other quest.  The game gets too easy as one advances and
> part of that problem is that there is too much frigging treasure
> at the end of quests and in advanced maps in general.  A perfectly
> balanced quest would destroy much of the player's gear and have
> the player thinking it was worth it only if they played it well.

 Unfortunately, gear almost never gets destroyed.  Save for cancellation (rare
attack form) and acid (which most players will try very quickly to protect
themselves against and run like hell when they see an acid monster if not
protected), there is no way items can be damaged.   The problem is that even if
you change it so that items in a players inventory can get damaged, many items
are made out of invulnerable material types, which was really meant as
artifacts.  Perhaps also the idea of artifacts should be examined - I have no
problem necessarily with the abilities of a darkblade, but as there is, there
are many items like that that are listed as artifacts and thus invulnerable to
any damage.  Perhaps that should really be trimmed down - the abilities could be
the same but these are no longer artifacts, just very good items with nice
abilities.
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