Making a quest / random event editor

What I would do

from Elemental Forums

I wrote many, if not most of the quests in the Elemental games. And I did it with notepad. The system, is pretty arcane.  I've asked for quest editors to be made internally but the problem boils down to - I'm free and I make quests so they can't justify budgeting a quest editor for me.

But being painfully familiar with the XML structure of quests, my suggestion would be to ignore the way the XML is made and instead focus on what types of quests you want.

So I'd set it up as a wizard of some kind.

  1. What is the name of your quest?
  2. What image do you want to use to represent your quest?
  3. What is the description of the quest?
  4. What do you want to be the reward for completing the quest?
  5. What triggers the quest (Turn Number or a specific Quest location)
  6. If Turn Number, what is the earliest turn it can be triggered?
  7. If quest location, what tile design do you want to use?
  8. What are the odds of this quest coming up during the game (or turn)?
  9. What is the text for accepting the quest?
  10. What is the text for rejecting the quest?
  11. What is the response you want the player to get for accepting
  12. What is the response you want the player to get for rejecting?
  13. IF they accept...
  14. What tile design do you want to use for the quest destination?
  15. How far away should the quest destination be?
  16. What image should be used to represent the quest destination?
  17. What text should be used when they arrive at the destination?
  18. What text should be used to describe entering the quest destination?
  19. What text should be used to describe aborting the quest?
  20. What monsters should be at the quest destination? (provide names)
  21. Upon winning this encounter, should the quest be considered complete?
  22. IF No
  23. What is the description of the next step in the quest?
  24. GOTO 9

Once you have this working, which handles the typical quest, you can expand on it.

But this is the way I'd recommend handling it. I wouldn't try to make it a sophisticated tool because you'll never satisfy those who are really into making hard core quests.  But if you make something relatively simple where people just choose pictures and loot and monsters to fight then you can end up with a lot of users and an incentive to keep making it better and better.

 

8,062 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

This is very helpful.  I think the thing that has hung me up so many times is trying to accommodate all the variations and advanced quests.

 

I'll try to take your advice and simplify a little bit.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

If someone rejects a quest, can the quest be made to stay on the map to be done later? It doesn't seem possible with the current system.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm going to ask questions here and hope we get Frogboy's responses:

 

Is <TriggerOrigin>EventLocation</TriggerOrigin> required.  Looks like sometimes we have it and sometimes not.   If required, when is it required?

Also, Internal name on the treasures, is it required?  Only on the top level treasures?

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Does the TotalPopulation trigger work?

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top


Just a curiousity, is it possible to set the chance of a random event be tied to unrest of a particular city? Also, is it possible to have a variable chance per turn tied to a particular stat in the game.

For example, a chance of spawning angry mobs around a city with an unrest of more than 50% or more.

More specifically can a random event be tied to the unrest of a city. Say these angry mobs have a chance of spawning around the city with a .25 * (unrest of city) chance per turn. I'm not sure if this is possible with the current code. I think this would be an appropriate event for the game at present.

Similarly, can there be a random event tied to gold, large amounts give a higher chance of spawning bandits around the kingdom with the chance changing depending on the gold of the previous of the turn.

Or give a higher chance of disgruntle warriors spawning around your capital, if your gold is negative.

Anyone is welcome to these ideas for the game, if it is indeed possible in the current build of the game. (Would like to see them in the vanilla game itself.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

No, no, and no. We can only tie events to totalpopulation right now (as in: chance to happen after you have x or more population). Frogboy hinted that there would be a way to link them to turns in the future (as in: chance to happen after turn x).

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 8
No, no, and no. We can only tie events to totalpopulation right now (as in: chance to happen after you have x or more population). Frogboy hinted that there would be a way to link them to turns in the future (as in: chance to happen after turn x).
End of Heavenfall's quote

 

Has thou no ingenuity? *_*

 

There is some hope that after release we will get more "triggers" for starting events and quests. For now you can unlock shop items from a city building. That item can start a quest of your choosing. So any time you are able to give an item to a hero or Sov, you can start an event or quest. The obvious problem is getting the AI to buy and or use an item. At the very least the human player can use them while we wait for new triggers from the powers that be.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

How can we cause something to happen if someone rejects a quest?  Is there an example of this?  

ie. -

Will you go kill the rats?

No Way!!!

Poof!  An army of rats appears on the map.

Reply #10 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

I do this all the time.  I've got some (I think) pretty funny responses to rejected quests.

 

Reply #11 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

Just think of the XML as a really convoluted IF THEN structure.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top


I have a few quests where failing to save the world means the world gets filled with demons or vampires or sinks or creates another cataclysm. You just need to add a gamemodifier to the failure result.

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

But just saying no (not failing the quest), doesn't have a failure result does it?   Maybe I am just looking in the wrong place is there a current quest that does this?

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top


I haven't found a specific quest to where you immediately deny the quest something happens. But in the middle of a quest you can definitely do this see the three sons quest. Spend 100 mana to heal the woman. That could easily be your deny and poof something happens.

I think to get your effect, from the current system you are looking at is to egg the player to investigate beyond the initial investigation of the quest.

"You see a man with a multitude of little bites around his ankles and he's limping this way."

"Greet the man"

"Oh, I know a bad quest when I see one... (Run Away)"

Then after that you can definitely spawn monsters, if the person says no.

I don't know, if they set-up the questing system to immediately have an effect on the initial accept or deny, but it appears that no quests do what you are asking.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

There used to be a quest that spawned lots of spider armies on the map, but I havent seen it for months.

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

Don't make it a deny text, make it a choosable quest objective that ends the quest. Then you can put the spawn modifiers in that objective.

Also some quests have modifiers outside any objectives, you could also try putting them there and see if they are triggered even if I deny something. I have noticed that events, which have no deny options, actually on occasion use their modifiers before the event screen appears for the user.