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Author Topic: Brainstorming quest ideas  (Read 5493 times)

Thaago

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Brainstorming quest ideas
« on: October 21, 2013, 10:50:05 AM »

Hi! I've put together a framework for adding quests to the game that should work friendly with all mods. I was going to have a bunch of preset quest types so that people who didn't want to work out how to make new ones could still benefit.

Currently implemented I have an escort quest: 4 stages total (starting stage, accept/reject dialog, success stage (when the fleet makes it where they are going), and failure stage).

What quest types would people like to see? So far I've thought up: assassinate, deliver goods, explore, blockade, harass shipping (not sure how I'd implement this one), deliver through a blockade, and clear system (multiple assassinations).

Help me brainstorm more ideas?
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MShadowy

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2013, 11:14:02 AM »

Hmmm... how 'bout a pursue/monitor type of mission, where you're given a target to shadow, that may get wise to you if you're too obvious in following said target?

E:  Oh, and how about smuggling?  Like a delivery mission, except you want to avoid getting too close to the local authorities, as they'll close in on you and demand to check out your cargo, which would be... less than ideal.
« Last Edit: October 21, 2013, 11:17:30 AM by MShadowy »
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Magician

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2013, 11:57:39 AM »

Well, most obvious are:
- searching and extracting some rare loot from certain encounters.
- quests with time limit (just an option for certain quests).
- quests requiring you to pilot only certain ships (for the implementation part it can be done like this: player brings his own or receives stock quest ship, player can't access system where quest leads or start quest if his fleet has other ships).
- quests requiring certain combat actions(for example to use special EMP weapon in battle against enemy flagship).
- I don't know if its even possible(and its probably too much work), but quests where after accepting quest you immediately proceed into combat screen with your flagship, and the rest of the fleet being deployed and controled by AI, without ability to give tactical commands.
- quests where you collect/analyze/trade information. For example after battle with TriTachyon you may receive item/dialogue which states some information about possibility of attack on another faction. Or completing delivery quest as itself may be a valuable information someone will buy, like "I delivered something big to XXX station few days ago, wanna know more?" It probably may even affect diplomacy/what stations spawn or sell. Maybe even buying information about future diplomatic actions or what items someone will sell/buy for a good price. And it will be good, if there is an option to tell lies, which will destroy your connections with certain info traders, but may open path to others. But again it seems complex..
- quests with random encounters (when you are told to do something/explore and enemy fleet spawns and engages you suddenly).
- I don't know if its considered quest/included in your intentions, but general expansion of interaction between player and AI fleets. For example persuading fleet of Buffalo's to pay you for successfull protection. Or having a duel of flagships with enemy Admiral.
- classic quest of choices when quest giver lies about quest contents and reasons, and maybe rewards. And quest target depending on your choices may give you additional quest. Or it is possible that you take neither side and take it yourself what both sides are after (or prevent it?).
- finding certain fleet captains to try and deliver to them message from quest giver. Which may result in battle, additional quest, quest completion.
In general it would be fun if almost every option while questing will create different outcomes. For example taking both XXX0 and  XXX1 items after battle will result in some accident, attack from giant fleet(item had hidden transmitter!!) etc. Or you will have 3 different items to give to quest giver. And every item will result in different outcome, but you will have to guess what is what with vague hints.
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sirboomalot

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2013, 12:54:29 PM »

There could be a quest to defend a fleet shipping goods, where the fleet in question would face forces that would destroy it without intervention, a fetch quest for a certain ship or good, or a scavenger hunt type quest where you have to find which system or station has a certain good that the quest-giver needs.
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Okim

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2013, 03:09:12 AM »

Some simple mini quests like cargo/passenger delivery from A to B, escort duties (making sure that fleet wont die), planetary/asteroid surveys (with the use of skills/items), retrieval of valuable items from certain locations (wrecks), bounties for killing specific faction`s fleets, scouting missions (much like in M&B - go there, go there and there and get back), certain fleet hunts (like 'kill 50% of FP of that fleet before it despawns), stop smuggler (find him, scan him, talk to him), blockade the planet (quarantine) and etc.

P.S.: that`s what i think to add to Ironclads at some point.

maximilianyuen

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2013, 09:17:10 AM »

in additional to the "single" quest, can it be like a chain quests? say it's like a branch, some advance and high level quest would need to be kinda unlock by you successfully did some other quests before hand.

and bound it to a fraction might make things even more interesting.

but then some factor to drive you off the fraction would be great too, like magician's idea of:

 classic quest of choices when quest giver lies about quest contents and reasons, and maybe rewards. And quest target depending on your choices may give you additional quest. Or it is possible that you take neither side and take it yourself what both sides are after (or prevent it?).

could be great. Say if you are to assassinate somebody and you are in obvious upper hand, the communicate dialogue could be he make a handsome offer for his life but at a cost of your employer got a 25% chance to find out and make you a assassinate target...

a bit off topic but hope that could be considered in some place
« Last Edit: October 23, 2013, 09:21:48 AM by maximilianyuen »
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Trylobot

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2013, 01:35:18 PM »

Thaago, I'm very interested in contributing to this mod; you say you have implemented some things. Would you mind putting up a Github repository for the code? I'll fork you and contribute happily. It sounds like some really good quest ideas have been presented.

I speculate that "Quest Lib" would be a utility mod, sort of like Lazy Lib; and that we could also create a concrete mod that actually uses the lib and adds quests of all sort to the game, to serve as a semi-practical example of how to do it in specific mods but also to stand alone as a mod unto itself, while still being separate from the re-useable lib.

If you do put up the Github repo, post a link; I'm at https://github.com/Trylobot
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Thaago

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2013, 02:12:42 PM »

Wow, thanks for all the great ideas everyone! I think almost all are possible with varying amounts of work, so keep up the creativity.

in additional to the "single" quest, can it be like a chain quests? say it's like a branch, some advance and high level quest would need to be kinda unlock by you successfully did some other quests before hand.

...

Absolutely. The way the quests are set up is that each quest is a collection of quest stages (labeled by number) that can lead to each other. So you can make the stage structure as complicated as you like. Also, each stage has conditions that are evaluated to see if you go to it (can be as simple as did the player click accept, or more complicated things like did the ship deliver the goods) so it would also be easy to set the condition as 'did the player complete quest X'. I modeled the design after how oblivion/skyrim do their quests. So its totally doable to have unique story quests in addition to reproducible generic quests.

Thaago, I'm very interested in contributing to this mod; you say you have implemented some things. Would you mind putting up a Github repository for the code? I'll fork you and contribute happily. It sounds like some really good quest ideas have been presented.

I speculate that "Quest Lib" would be a utility mod, sort of like Lazy Lib; and that we could also create a concrete mod that actually uses the lib and adds quests of all sort to the game, to serve as a semi-practical example of how to do it in specific mods but also to stand alone as a mod unto itself, while still being separate from the re-useable lib.

If you do put up the Github repo, post a link; I'm at https://github.com/Trylobot

Cool! I would be glad to share. At the moment the "core" files are done and I'm testing them with an implementation of an escort mission. There's currently a null error when the player rejects or fails the quest, so something isn't being cleaned up quite right - I hope to have time to track that down tomorrow (attack of real life :P). I'll also have to learn to use gitHub... to my unending shame as a coder I've never used it before (svn for past projects). So I'll get a github set up in a few days :P.
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etherealblade

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2013, 03:58:16 AM »

space monster hunting quests?

I'm up for creating space monster sprites if your up for making quests for slaying them...8D
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Trylobot

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2013, 07:13:17 AM »

They have a great client http://windows.github.com/
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Thaago

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Re: Brainstorming quest ideas
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2013, 10:57:17 PM »

Ok, that was harrowing  :-\. Two deleted repositories later and needing to recreate my netbeans project, I've finally got it up on gitHub without all those pesky extra project and build files. Have at!

https://github.com/Thaago/QuestExtension

The 'src' folder is the mod folder - move into mods and rename if you desire. I wasn't sure how git and having the actual code files in a different location so just put it in the netbeans project... but then I had to have the code folder named src. Haven't figured out how to change that yet, don't think I will.

At the moment the mod will, 10 seconds after a new game, spawn a new independent fleet near Corvus II (? upper right planet) with an escort quest registered. Clicking on it will pull up an ugly accept/reject dialog. Accepting nets you 100 credits, and a further 1000 when it successful gets to the station. Rejecting or it dying after you accept will fail the quest.

I'm not entirely happy with the core code's structure atm due to changing some decision and not properly cleaning up after myself. Such is coding.
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