Frogboy has spoken at length about the power of the quest system, and has even mentioned adding a quest editor to the included mod tools. I really hope this will happen. The quests included in Elemental are very simple and, well, dull, for the most part. There are lots of talented, creative people that would likely create amazing quests for Elemental, but they lack an easy way to do this. A quest editor would take much of the pain out of making new quests, and allow modders to focus their efforts on actually writing and designing quests. I believe that a good quest editor will really unlock the creativity of the community and allow for some amazing things to be created.
The purpose of this thread is to build support for an official, quality, fully-functional quest editor, but also for us to suggest features for inclusion. I am going to go ahead and list a few things, but I'm sure others will have some great ideas also.
Of course, if Stardock can't give us one, maybe some amazing modder can...
Desired Features
1) Determine origin of quest.
- Allow for it to be created like a normal quest, through technology, or also through other means.
- Building a particular building.
- Recruiting / meeting an NPC.
- Reaching a milestone (total population, wealth, etc)
- Elapsed turns
- Completely random
- Placed at start of game
- Determine level (if any) for the quest.
2) Determine placement of quest locations.
- Random
- Random in world
- Random in player territory
- Tied to player building
- Tied to existing notable location
3) Create multiple paths
- Dialogue Trees
- Choose Your Own Adventure selections
4) Check stats
- Check the stats of a Champion to determine success of a sub-task, ie: trying to avoid a trap, check Dexterity or Combat Speed
- Allow player to select Champion from participating stack that will attempt a stat check.
5) Check NPCs
- Check to see if a particular NPC is present in stack. This will allow for story-focused quests, ie: did you bring the NPC that is the sister of a slain warrior, when you confront the murderer? If yes, the quest will branch one way and display dialogue / actions for sister. If not, it will branch a second way where she is not present.
- Allow the quest designer to limit participants to Champions or whole armies. This will allow a quest designer to limit the quest to an adventuring party, or allow an entire army to participate in battles. This will allow for tighter balancing since the designer can focus encounters on a small group of Champions instead of worrying about the Kingdom's entire army possibly joining in.
6) Load other maps (battlefield, dungeons, etc) and determine placement of NPCs, enemies, etc.
7) Determine outcomes
- Gold / Resources
- Experience
- Items
- Special events (launch another quest, change diplomatic relations, etc.)
So that is what I have come up with so far. Please add to the list because I'm sure there are things I haven't thought of. Bottom line is that the Quest Editor needs to be as powerful as possible to allow for maximum creativity. Let us use the Quest Editor to add depth, immersion, storytelling, and other things to the game.
Thanks!
