Questing

I am almost finished with my first game :). I was wondering what type of quests you people lik? Do you like long quests that there ae many places to go and things to do in the quest or do you prefer quests that have a very strait forward do this to complete the quest. Or other ideas. I accept and greatly apreciate any ideas.

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Thanks,
GrahamVH

I think a good game will include both of these aspects, all intertwined with the main plot of the game, revealing little tidbits of it along the way.

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Relative quests meake me feel like i'm not wasting my time...
but on the other hand if they're unrelated quests that yield items/cash that aide/ease my completeion then tthose are fine as long as they aren't mandatory

avoid the quest system in all Zeldas, i mean it...or i'll turn you into a retarded boss in my next game and call him Grammy...
which means no secret seashells, broomsticks,honey combs, flowers

if they're long just turn the whole game into the quest, make it the plot ...good
30+ little sub plots...bad

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Quote

Originally posted by ellrx:
**avoid the quest system in all Zeldas, i mean it...or i'll turn you into a retarded boss in my next game and call him Grammy...
which means no secret seashells, broomsticks,honey combs, flowers
**

This is off topic... but are you chillrx who dissapeared when coldstone was first released?

---REDEEMING POST CONTENT---
GrahamVH, here is my advice on the issue. Most games have a certain feel to them, such as how Breath of Fire III had a sort of rural theme where you would start off in a forest and saved some farm town, and could fish as a mini-game. If your game is a violent bloodbath, you might want to add some arena or violent sport to your game. If it's a puzzle game, you should add a card game or a way of redoing puzzles found in past areas of the game. If it's something that's just indended to be good clean fun, then you may wish to add a minigame that people could use for passing time, gaining rewards for their character, or just something to play instead of the main game itself.

As for side quests, you should strongly separate it from the main plot. I don't really have any knowledgable basis for saying this, but this is what I have noticed in most games that I've played. Generally, it should be something for a player to do when they get bored of the main game, and you should try to have it either accessable early on in the game, or something that would be highly anticipated and must be earned by the player in some way. A mixture of the two also works well.

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Quote

Originally posted by ellrx:
Relative quests make me feel like i'm not wasting my time...
but on the other hand if they're unrelated quests that yield items/cash that aide/ease my completeion then those are fine as long as they aren't mandatory

I agree completely. I like main quests that have a point, and I also like side quests that have nothing at all to do with the main quest. I dislike having a main quest that splinters off into 50 different sub plots, all of which need to be solved before the main quest will continue on.

Another thing I like is choices. I really like to affect the question, "Who am I?" If you cast the player into the role of the dashing knight who's fecal matter has no odor, fine. But if you are casting the player into the role of joe-shmoe who was in the wrong place at the right time and is now trying to save the universe, well, by golly let him choose his own fate!

I like to have splinters in the storyline where the choice you make affects the outcome of the game. Ie, let's say you have a mean 'ol dragon that is terrorizing a village, and the villagers ask you to deal with it. Well, most people would jog on up and slay the dragon, right? Well, how about if the player previously located the babel fish and could thusly speak with the dragon? He could still decide to kill it, or perhaps he strikes a deal with the dragon instead. He gets the dragon to agree to leave the village alone, and in return the player won't kill it and the player lets the dragon munch people from a different village(which the player can then go to and become the saviour of it too, ala. the Sean Connery dragon movie, heh).

Anyways, I like choices. I also like brain teasers. "Point, click, kill." == boring. I like quests that make me think about how they can be solved. I also believe that all puzzles should be solveable within the game. Ie, having a Sphynx ask the player a question like, "What is the capital of Assyria?" is just plain wrong unless somewhere in the game you can find this information. Difficult is good, but unsolveable is bad.

Take it all with a grain of salt. 🙂

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Thanks everyone for your suggestions, they have been very helpfull. Sorry I don't think it will come out soon though, I have decided to have a random map generater in the game. This will take some time to make. If you have any more sugestions please, feel free to keep posting on this form or email me at graham@vhpublications.com

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Thanks,
GrahamVH

(This message has been edited by GrahamVH (edited 11-03-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by GrahamVH:
**Thanks everyone for your suggestions, they have been very helpfull. Sorry I don't think it will come out soon though, I have decided to have a random map generater in the game. This will take some time to make. If you have any more sugestions please, feel free to keep posting on this form or email me at graham@vhpublications.com

**

Aree you going to be using coldStone for that, that seems like it would be quite a feat, and if i were you i would keep it modular so i could reuse it in other games later on, perhaps build an alpha with just the random map system built in, a template.

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Yes, I will be using coldstone for the entire game (Except grafics I will use fireworks for those). It only creates random maps when you create a new character. So save files will work and will be in the game. The random map generater would be too complex to put in a template because all of the maps will be woven into the generater. Sadly because of this people will be unable to put a new map as one of the possible maps to be chosen in the random map generater. Details on how the generator is made will be anounced after the game is made (I want to be able to work all the bugs out of the generater first).

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Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@vhpublications.com