This article collects information regarding the conceptualisation of the gameplay of The Mana World
This article is currently only a proposal
The features or design guidelines described in this article are only a proposal made by one or some persons. It has not been evaluated or accepted by the core development team yet. Feel free to add your personal opinion about them or make counter proposals.
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Dynamic quests are quests that are randomly generated. Any number of players can accept a random quest but only one player can solve it and claim the reward. So dynamic quests are a competitive race against other players.
General
Quest givers for dynamic quests will spawn randomly at specific locations (bars, city plazas, shops...). They should hand out the quest with a quest description to anyone who speaks to them until someone solved the quest. From that on they don't give the quest anymore but they stay there to give the one who solved the quest his reward. When they gave the reward to the one who solved the quest they disappear.
Quests can also time out after a few hours when no one solves them.
Script bindings required
- Timers
- NPC removing
- world-global variables (states of dynamic quests)
Kill the monster
"Help! A huge spider roams the forest to the north. I am afraid it will kill me when i go there to collect herbs. Isn't there a hero who can defeat the beast?"
A special monster is created on a near map. The monster is more powerful than a normal monster. When it dies the player who dealt the most damage to it counts as the quest winner. The quest failed for all other people who have taken the quest. "Kill the monster" quests can theoretically be won by someone who hasn't even taken the quest but ran into the monster randomly. In that case the player has to search for the quest giver to claim the quest reward.
The killing of the quest monster itself shouldn't be rewarded with much exp or items. The real reward should be given by the quest giver. The reason for this is to make killing of quest monsters without knowing where the quest giver is unattractive so that most people prefer not to kill a quest monster when they run into one randomly and leave it to the people who have taken the quest.
Variant: There might be not one but a group of monsters that have to be killed. In that case the quest is solved by the one who kills the most of them.
Script bindings required
- Monster spawning on remote maps
- Death listening
- On remote maps
- Communicating the one who killed the being
Invasion
"Your country needs you! The trolls have mobilized an army and are camping one mile to the north. We have to eleminate them before they attack the city. Everyone who helps to deal with this thread will be rewarded."
A large number of agressive monsters is spawned on a nearby map where they usually don't spawn. The players have to go and eleminate all of them. After all monsters have been eleminated everyone who killed at least one of the monsters receives a small reward. The top 5 (10? 20?) players who kill the most monsters receive a special reward for valor in battle.
Possible plots are:
- An invasion of an army of intelligent creatures
- Undeads that raised for unknown reasons
- Magical beings summoned by an insane wizard or a magical phenomenon
Script bindings required
- Same as for "Kill the Monster"
Find item
"I have lost my precious ring in the forest to the southwest when running away from the evil mushrooms living there. Can you please look for it? It is a family heirloom and it is very important to me."
When the quest giver spawns a random item appears on a nearby map. The item is only visible and can only be picked up by players that have accepted the quest from the quest giver (other people who don't look for the item won't notice it). When a player picked the item up the quest is failed for all other people because they can't finish it anymore (Alternative to make it more competive: The one who picked up the item can be attacked and killed by the other questers and when he is killed the item can be looted from him).
The player who has completed the quest might either give the quest item to the quest giver or sell the item to an npc. The npc might pay more for the item than the quest reward is worth. But when the player sells the item, he might become the target of a headhunt quest.
Variant 1: The item might be carried by a monster that looted/swallowed it. So the quest does effectively result in a kill the monster quest.
Variant 2: Instead of the item the player might find a clue pointing to an npc who has taken the item. The consequence is an additional errant quest that has to be solved.
Script bindings required
- Item spawning
- spawning of custom items
- (For Variant 1) manipulating monster drops
- Item spawning
Errand
"Weapon Merchant: Damn, my last delivery of swords is late again. Could you maybe go to Tulimshar and ask the blacksmith why he hasn't delivered them yet?" ... Blacksmith: "Sorry, the swords have been stolen by a bandit. He is hiding somewhere in the desert to the southwest.
The quest giver will ask the players to bring him an item or an information from another npc. Sometimes the other npc will give the information or item for free, sometimes the npc asks the player to solve another quest for him. The quest is solved as soon as the player got the quest item, solved one of the subquests so that other players can't complete the main quest or told the quest giver the desired information.
Script bindings required
- Should already be possible with the current script bindings.
Escort
I got some business to do in Sombral. But nowadays there are so many dangerous monsters lurking on the road and I am just a simple merchant. But you look like a strong warrior. Could you escort me there? I will pay you well.
An NPC (slower than an average player) travels from city A to city B. The merchant has bad defence and doesn't attack but aggressive monsters react on him like they react on a player character. The player has to keep him alive on his path. The player should be able to give the NPC simple commands like "wait here" or "run faster". The lack of such commands and the resulting suicidal behavior of the NPC makes escort missions in other games quite frustrating.
Additional suggestion: What if the NPC follows a predetermined path through an area and you have to keep him alive ... he's stupid and will just stick to the path no matter how bad he's being beaten up ... maybe he'll also want to take a break during his walk so he's an easier target for a period of time --Zick 23:42, 16 April 2008 (CEST)
Script bindings required
- NPCs who change maps
- NPCs who can be damaged by monsters (special NPC class?)
Selling Opportunity
"I heard the winter will be very cold this year. But i am too busy to collect firewood myself. Can you help me out? I will pay yo 10 Gold for each log. I still need 137 logs to get through the winter."
The quest giver will offer a unusual high price for a certain common item, but he will make clear that he will only buy up to a specific amount (sometimes only one). The players now have to collect the item and sell it to the npc before someone else does and the npc doesn't buy anymore.
Variant: Reverse dutch auction. When the quest giver requests only one item, he/she might start with a very low price and increase it over the time until someone sells the desired item to him/her.
Suggestion: Perhaps some NPCs that every once a week or something like that ask for a random amount (with a top, of course) of a random item, for a random (though limited) price? A bit hard to get the right balance, but it seems a good idea.
Script bindings required
- Should already be possible with the current script bindings.
PvP Quest: Sabotage
"There is a golden dragon who is laying eggs on the mountain to the west. Everyone knows that golden dragons are an endangered species and don't attack anyone when they aren't attacked. But the king is afraid and wants to send adventurers to kill it. Please! Someone must stop them!"
Sometimes there might be NPCs that want that a quest for another NPC is not completed. In that case they hire people to stop people from completing the quest. People who are doing a sabotage quest are able to attack the people who are doing the normal quest and vice versa. Saboteurs and questers should be marked for other saboteurs and questers so everyone knows who is friend and who is enemy. The saboteurs are successful when the normal quest times out. When this occurs the quest reward is divided between all people who have taken the sabotage quest and attacked at least one quester.
When taking a quest with a corresponding sabotage quest the player should be warned that people might try to kill him. Quests with a sabotage quest should time out faster than other quest because otherwise it would be almost impossible to prevent people from solving it and the sabotage quest should not be given to players when more than half of the timeout time has passed. Otherwise people might take the quest just before it timed out and claim their reward without doing anything.
It should not be possible to take a quest and the quest to sabotage it at the same time.
Script bindings required
- Manipulating PvP rules between two characters
PvP Quest: Bounty Hunt
"-=DarkWizard=- is a traitor and a thief! He promised that he would bring me my precious ring. But now i found out that he just sold it! Go and pay him a lesson and i will reward you."
Bounty Hunt quests are usually triggered when a player fails a quest in a way the quest giver doesn't like (like selling the quest item he should have taken to the quest giver). When a headhunter quest is generated the targeted player should receive a message so that he knows that he has to be careful.
The "target" is marked for the "bounty hunters" who are doing the quest. The target can attack the bounty hunter to defend itself, but the bounty hunters aren't marked, so the target doesn't know who its enemies are.
When the target is killed by a bounty hunter (last hit counts) the quest is solved by the one who did the last hit and the target is save again.
Bounty Hunt quests only time out when the target character is in the game and outside of a pvp protection zone. Otherwise he would be able to log out or hide in a protection zone until the quest timed out to avoid being killed.
Script bindings required
- Manipulating PvP rules between two characters
Comments
This would integrate well with the Bounties proposal. When a dynamic quest is generated, it is automatically registered with the local bounty office. Players that go to the bounty office are directed to the generating NPC for details. This way it's easier to find out what quests are available without having to talk to every NPC in the game. — Jaxad0127 20:08, 23 December 2007 (CET)
- For global quests that only drop a single item (like find the lost ring); keep in mind that their might be players who will choose to keep the item as collectable rather then claiming their reward. There should be some form of time limit after which the item gets discarded.
