Let's talk about Quests. I've always felt like this is one major thing that was missing from UO.
Now I'm not necessarily talking about modern MMO style quests. In WoW for example, you go to a camp and you get 20-30 quests with dialogue that you don't read or care about. You're only doing the quests to level up and you probably hate it, despite the entire game revolving around it. The modern MMO has really destroyed the quality of questing that we used to see in the Everquest days. And I hate it.
I think UOF is the perfect place to start making use of that Quest Log on the paperdoll window.
You can even make your own quest log gump for UOF, I know how you love your gumps! (so do I) I know that OSI eventually added an actual quest engine to the game but I've never seen it or have any idea how it works. But in theory the quest log would allow you to track your quests and their objectives. I believe talking to quest NPCs should have its own gump as well where dialogue takes place. Thinking of Morrowind, there would be clickable keywords that continues the dialogue or simply used for gathering information.
Let's discuss the different types of quests.
Daily or Weekly Quests - Quests like these can only be accepted once within a certain time frame. Example: a weekly quest for Factions where you receive a bonus Faction currency reward for killing 10 opposing Faction members. Or the same thing for murderers for killing other players (different reward obviously). Quests don't just have to be for PVE!
Kill 30 Pigs Quests - This is the most common quest, at least in the modern MMO. Example: at least make the quest useful - make it 30 common tameable animals (great harts, bulls) so aspiring tamers can have normal skill requirement tameables to train on? For something harder, make it high tier dungeon monsters.
Repeatable - An infinitely repeatable quest. Typically should have a crappy reward, depending on the objectives.
Long and Story driven - This is what questing is all about. Lots of dialogue with NPCs, with lore and backstories, tales of deception, murder, mercy, liberty, honor, you name it. NPCs with families, lovers, agendas. All sorts of objectives - delivery, fetch, kill 30 pigs, kill rare spawns or boss monsters and NPCs, etc. etc. This is where some of the best rewards come from.
Class Quests - I'm not sure if this can or should fit into UO, but it is a quest type that both tests your ability as your class, and rewards your class in some way, whether it is an ability or equipment. In this case, templates of course.
Key Quests - They're usually very hard or grindy in some way, and requires group effort. A key quest will unlock a super hard area or dungeon for you, so you can test your mettle even more!
PVP Quests - Back to this, there can be quests for any sort of PVP engagement or objectives. Not just for Factions but murderers too. There might be a female red NPC that doesn't like men and wants the heads of 5 of them... Hmm.
Escort Quests - Sure would stink if that new escort NPC couldn't enter moongates and you had to walk him all the way somewhere, while random baddies spawned on you along the way...
Deliver Quests - An NPC wants you deliver an item to another NPC on the other side of the planet. I suggest making the item disappear if the holder casts Recall.
Fetch Quests - Sometimes instead of delivering an item, they want you to go BRING them an item. Maybe the item comes from deep dungeons. Maybe the item is a rare drop from monsters. Or maybe that old lady just wants you to bring her a watermelon.
You get the picture, and I'm sure there are others you can think of. Now let's talk about the rewards. It's important to make sure that the reward equates with the objectives, both so you're not making it too easy for players to get good things, and also so they don't feel they're spending too much time to gain too little. With non-repeatable quests it is sometimes OK for the reward to be better than usual, since players can never do the quest again (there is the issue of multiple characters and accounts though). I think Platinum would probably be a pretty common quest reward on UOF. But it'd also be super cool to see cosmetic or decoration items that can't be gotten elsewhere. Perhaps some decent weapons and armor here and there. Quests with a pool of random rewards can be fun too, especially when you're trying for a specific one.
I am by no means suggesting we fill UO with quests - that completely demeans the entire system. You don't want your game revolving around 1 type of system, that's one of the beauties of UO, and in particular UOF. But I think we should start on some. While recently working on the wiki and making maps for it, I've been running all over the world and I noticed a lot of empty buildings that would make the perfect homes for some quest NPCs.
Now I have some questions.
Is it possible to:
1.) add another NPC name hue, specifically for quest NPCs? I know that there is the yellow one, but it's honestly pretty common and this would make the quest NPCs stand out more.
2.) make an item drop from a mob only if you have the quest flagged?
3.) make quest items go straight into your inventory when killing a mob?
4.) add placeholder mobs that when killed, have a chance to respawn as a rare or boss monster?
5.) cause mobs to randomly spawn on you while walking around?
I'll probably think of more. Anywho, thanks for reading. I'm interested to know what the general UOF populace thinks of quests.
Now I'm not necessarily talking about modern MMO style quests. In WoW for example, you go to a camp and you get 20-30 quests with dialogue that you don't read or care about. You're only doing the quests to level up and you probably hate it, despite the entire game revolving around it. The modern MMO has really destroyed the quality of questing that we used to see in the Everquest days. And I hate it.
I think UOF is the perfect place to start making use of that Quest Log on the paperdoll window.
You can even make your own quest log gump for UOF, I know how you love your gumps! (so do I) I know that OSI eventually added an actual quest engine to the game but I've never seen it or have any idea how it works. But in theory the quest log would allow you to track your quests and their objectives. I believe talking to quest NPCs should have its own gump as well where dialogue takes place. Thinking of Morrowind, there would be clickable keywords that continues the dialogue or simply used for gathering information.Let's discuss the different types of quests.
Daily or Weekly Quests - Quests like these can only be accepted once within a certain time frame. Example: a weekly quest for Factions where you receive a bonus Faction currency reward for killing 10 opposing Faction members. Or the same thing for murderers for killing other players (different reward obviously). Quests don't just have to be for PVE!
Kill 30 Pigs Quests - This is the most common quest, at least in the modern MMO. Example: at least make the quest useful - make it 30 common tameable animals (great harts, bulls) so aspiring tamers can have normal skill requirement tameables to train on? For something harder, make it high tier dungeon monsters.
Repeatable - An infinitely repeatable quest. Typically should have a crappy reward, depending on the objectives.
Long and Story driven - This is what questing is all about. Lots of dialogue with NPCs, with lore and backstories, tales of deception, murder, mercy, liberty, honor, you name it. NPCs with families, lovers, agendas. All sorts of objectives - delivery, fetch, kill 30 pigs, kill rare spawns or boss monsters and NPCs, etc. etc. This is where some of the best rewards come from.
Class Quests - I'm not sure if this can or should fit into UO, but it is a quest type that both tests your ability as your class, and rewards your class in some way, whether it is an ability or equipment. In this case, templates of course.
Key Quests - They're usually very hard or grindy in some way, and requires group effort. A key quest will unlock a super hard area or dungeon for you, so you can test your mettle even more!
PVP Quests - Back to this, there can be quests for any sort of PVP engagement or objectives. Not just for Factions but murderers too. There might be a female red NPC that doesn't like men and wants the heads of 5 of them... Hmm.
Escort Quests - Sure would stink if that new escort NPC couldn't enter moongates and you had to walk him all the way somewhere, while random baddies spawned on you along the way...
Deliver Quests - An NPC wants you deliver an item to another NPC on the other side of the planet. I suggest making the item disappear if the holder casts Recall.
Fetch Quests - Sometimes instead of delivering an item, they want you to go BRING them an item. Maybe the item comes from deep dungeons. Maybe the item is a rare drop from monsters. Or maybe that old lady just wants you to bring her a watermelon.
You get the picture, and I'm sure there are others you can think of. Now let's talk about the rewards. It's important to make sure that the reward equates with the objectives, both so you're not making it too easy for players to get good things, and also so they don't feel they're spending too much time to gain too little. With non-repeatable quests it is sometimes OK for the reward to be better than usual, since players can never do the quest again (there is the issue of multiple characters and accounts though). I think Platinum would probably be a pretty common quest reward on UOF. But it'd also be super cool to see cosmetic or decoration items that can't be gotten elsewhere. Perhaps some decent weapons and armor here and there. Quests with a pool of random rewards can be fun too, especially when you're trying for a specific one.
I am by no means suggesting we fill UO with quests - that completely demeans the entire system. You don't want your game revolving around 1 type of system, that's one of the beauties of UO, and in particular UOF. But I think we should start on some. While recently working on the wiki and making maps for it, I've been running all over the world and I noticed a lot of empty buildings that would make the perfect homes for some quest NPCs.
Now I have some questions.
Is it possible to:
1.) add another NPC name hue, specifically for quest NPCs? I know that there is the yellow one, but it's honestly pretty common and this would make the quest NPCs stand out more.
2.) make an item drop from a mob only if you have the quest flagged?
3.) make quest items go straight into your inventory when killing a mob?
4.) add placeholder mobs that when killed, have a chance to respawn as a rare or boss monster?
5.) cause mobs to randomly spawn on you while walking around?
I'll probably think of more. Anywho, thanks for reading. I'm interested to know what the general UOF populace thinks of quests.
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