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Post by Loudent2 on Jan 14, 2009 15:56:24 GMT -5
If you just want to be a player, and left in the dark about mechanics, it's best you close this thread and move on. If you're interested in creating quests for the world, then proceed. Quests are defined by with some basic information and 1...n goals. Some info is required and some is optional. Basic Information (* - denotest optional. Quest Title - This is the title you see in your question journal Quest Description* - This will fill the early part of the journal entry. If nothing is specified it will generate a description from the goals. Quest ID - This is 0 for standard repeatable quests. For achievment quests it is a unique number. this will almost always have to be set by me although we might set up some reserved ranges for content creators. Experience/Gold - pretty evident this is the experience and gold that you recieve upon completion. R ecomended Level* - this is the recomended level for the quest Group* - Indicatess that this quest may require a group to complete at the recomended Level. Loot Bucket* - if this is left blank the lootbucket will be set to the quest object. Otherwise this indicates the store that contains the items that can be rewarded from the quest. Goals: This is a list of goals that must be met for completion of the questGoal Type - there are currently 11 goal types defined. More can be added as needed, but currently we have These determine the text that is retrieved/displayed as well as certain other behavior. They also match event types in the world (determines the difference betwen speaking to so and so and killing them) Goal Object - this is the goal of the object. for all types except for collect this specifies the object that you need to interact with. It can specify a type, faction, specific name and special indicators set as a local variable. Creature - This can be left blank (I usually set it to the same vaoue as the goal object) unless it's a collect quest. With collections you have to indicate which creature drops it. This is the value that is checked during those types of quests and the goal object is just used for display. Amount - This is the number of types you must do the goal. Chance - Mostly for collections this returns the chance of a particular item dropping. You can optionally set only one of those values and it will fill in the other to achieve a 50 kill per quest completion. There are also special values you can set in here to determine a change in the text to display (i.e. a -1 in the chance could mean you use a "the" <critter name> instead of "a" <critter name>. I will go into detail on this later. Location* - this is an optional location value that will tell you where to find the object. At this time it's used for display only but it may be used to check validity at a later date.
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Post by Loudent2 on Jan 14, 2009 16:00:08 GMT -5
Q: Why are you telling us this? A: Because I have built a Quest Creation Plugin (as well as a stand alone version) that was originally intended to ease my own quest creation (setting local vars on an object is exhausting) that will be downloadable so all of you can create quests for the server.
Q: How do I link a quest to objects in the game? A: If you reference existing objects the quest will update and work automatically since it's wired into the system.
Q: What if I want a new NPC/Critter to be involved in a quest? A: than that object will have to be created, you can create the object in a .erf and send it to me or request me to create the object in-game.
Q: How do I specify loot rewards
A: the plugin version will allow you (eventually) to select items form the item palette) otherwise you can reference an existing bucket (will follow up with current buckets at a later time).
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Post by nicethugbert on Jan 14, 2009 16:20:10 GMT -5
NEAT! + AWESOME! Finally, I can do something about my bright ideas.
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Post by mammothtruk on Jan 14, 2009 16:55:05 GMT -5
I would like a huge list of WP strings to make referencing them easier if you would sir.
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Post by Loudent2 on Jan 14, 2009 17:57:31 GMT -5
An early version of the Quest Creator can be downloaded from the vault page. This one is a Stand-alone version that can be used outside of the toolset.
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Post by Loudent2 on Jan 16, 2009 16:54:07 GMT -5
There are special settings used to specify if things are individual, named, or specific.
How does this work (and why)
First off, this only kicks in when the "amount" is 1. Which makes sense since you don't have 37 "Bob the Trapper"s
It breakds down like this:
If chance type is 100 or -300 it defaults to "a". As in "A pristine carapace"
The difference is that 100 automatically denotes a quest with no "creature" component, while -300 denotes the existance of a creature componant
if the chance is 0 or -200 it defaults to "The", the difference is, again, 0 denotes a quest with just an object and -200 denotes a quest with both an object and creature componant
-100 indicates no prefix at all. This is for unique targets (such as Oswald Tiberius Farnsworth I).
It should be noted that 100, 0 and -100 all pretty much mean the same thing 100 percent chance for success on the object alone (which is usually a creature, but sometimes a place or thing)
-200 and -300 also indicates 100 percent success, but, in addition, it says to use the creature entry in the question.
These are the only special values and they go in they chance entry. They affect both the quest description generation as well as the didsplay when the quest updates.
Again, this only works if the "amount" is 1. If not it usually displays the number required and the chance column is ignored.
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Post by Loudent2 on Jan 18, 2009 2:21:09 GMT -5
Enabled the "Preview" button so you can see how the quest will read in the journal.
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Post by nicethugbert on Jan 18, 2009 10:09:41 GMT -5
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Post by Loudent2 on Jan 18, 2009 12:44:05 GMT -5
When I finish the plugin version I'll post the .qst files of some of the more notorious quests to use as examples.
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Post by Loudent2 on Jan 23, 2009 13:37:07 GMT -5
[There are special settings used to specify if things are individual, named, or specific.] Q: Why all these special settings, why not just a simple identifier that tells you what type of quest
A: Because the Quest system has grown since the world went live. Changing the quest structure format would invalidate all current quests. It was easider just tacking on a special value was easier. At some point' I'll refactor the quest code and make it a little cleaner.
As it stands, I'll see about updating the quest creator to make it a little easier to use. As it stands you can play around with it and use the "preview" button to see how it will pan out in the journal.
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Post by mammothtruk on Jan 23, 2009 14:31:57 GMT -5
as you explained it to me the chance numbers are grouped into 1-100 sets and each is a %. For purposes of the program could the 1 and 100 % of each number group be set to read what that group is set for?
examples
100-1 "A" no creature 0--99 "The" no creature -100--199 no prefix -199--200 "The" creature -299--300 "A" Creature
It wouldnt effect the .qst file it would just display for the program so its easier for people to understand.
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Post by Loudent2 on Jan 23, 2009 15:28:26 GMT -5
No, the percentage chance is JUST the percentage chance for the quest to be updated when the object event, whatever it is, is fired. For example if the chance is 50%, it doesn't matter what kind of quest it is, only half the time will the update fire.
In practice, though, this means that only collect quests are really going to use this. It wouldn't for example, make sense to have a quest to kill 25 goblins and then have the chance be 50, becuase that really means kill 50 goblins. However, if only half the goblins are going to drop "ears" then you make it a collect quest and set the chance to 50%.
In any situation where there is any quantity above one the "display" is always the number in the journal and "a" when updated. If you think about it:
Kill 37 thingamobabs , or Collect 15 widgets from thingamabobs
You would never say collect the widgets or kill the thingamabobs because "the" denotes singular so it always the number, then when you're being updated it says "You have killed a thinkamabob or you have collected a widget (again, not "the")
The quest system started out as only a generic, semi-random collect quest and has morphed into my primary quest system, so when I was creating the "Liberate the lower outpost" I didn't want the quest to say "Kill a Lower outpost marauder. I wanted it to say "Kill THE lower outpost marauder.
So I said to myself: "why not use 0 chance to denote something specific. Because 0% chance is meaningless so, put in code that says: If the chance is 0, it really means 100% but displays differently.
Then, the next question (when I was making the Unrest 2 quiestion) is: How do I denote a proper name? You don't want to say get the papers from the Oswald Farnsworth" or "Get the papers from a Oswald Farnsworth". You want to say: Get the papers from Oswald Farnsworth"
so I chose another meaningless number (-100) to mean, don't use any prefix in the quest descriptoin or update.
However, I realized a basic issue that collect type quests and all other quests displayed differently and I was using the chance as double duty in determining whether or not it was a collect from something or a direct action on sometrhing. So I added other special meaningless chance values to distinguish
Again, this is only if the "amount" is 1. if it's any other number the chance just means the percentage chance that the upate will fire. Nothing more. All other meaningless chances in any rage are just meaningless just 1-100 is valid, anything else will be ignored)
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Post by mammothtruk on Jan 23, 2009 15:53:40 GMT -5
so a simple break down here as I understand it now
amount must be = to 1 for the chance field to matter at all as anything but a % chance otherwise its used to denote the target of the quest such as the following.
defaults to "A" 100 = no "creature" component 0 = "The" - object -100 = no prefix - unique target -200 = "The - both an object and creature componant -300 = "A" - creature componant
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Post by Loudent2 on Jan 23, 2009 16:21:22 GMT -5
the easist way may be to break down the the update message will say (should add that the preview button)
100 = You have <actioned> a <Object> (<object> can be a creature, it's whatever you fill in the Object section for this goal, must match something in the game) -300 = You have <actioned> a <Object> from a <Creature> (in this case <Creature> must match something in the game while <object> is used for display purposes only.
0 - You have <actioned> the <Object> (same as 100) -200 - You have <actioned> <Object> from the <Creature> (same as -300) (Have to doulbe check this because I think there are 2 scenaries, depending on whether <Object > is unique)
-100 - "You have <actioned> <Object>
where <action> corresponds to the goal in the quest generatior, <object> correspons to Object in the grid and <Creature> corresponds to the creature column in the grid. and the numbers go in the chance column with the amount column being 1.
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Post by nicethugbert on Jan 23, 2009 17:59:25 GMT -5
How would you donate something gold or items? At first I though of using collect, but, it doesn't sound right in the journal maybe.
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