How to make Missions better

[jfoxp]

what u talking about is polishing the game.. i think before it gets to that the game has to be bug free and balanced only then you can polish things out like quests / rites .. etc

You do realize that there's no such thing as a 100% bug free game, right?
As long as you understand that, and only mean some of the bigger bugs that are breaking major features, then I'll shutup.

[sathla]

@Baldy, I played FFXI for 9 months... Unless you can speak japanese it's gonna be rough especially when you get higher levels since the majority of the players are japanese. The grind is even more worse in FFXI than in this game (there is very little solo xping ability in that game), the crafting system is pretty sad too.

Only thing FFXI has going for it are the high player pops, (I've seen 500+ people in Jeuno at peak hours which is probably more than the total server pop) and the mithrans since they're hawt catgirls

To the topic at hand, I like Vinnyq and Zumwalt's ideas. It'd liven up the missions in this game no doubt. Having missions that you have to have specific jobs and/or number of people on a team would add some variety to them too.

[vinnyq]

what u talking about is polishing the game.. i think before it gets to that the game has to be bug free and balanced only then you can polish things out like quests / rites .. etc

Nah ... the engine is already in place, all it takes is a little extra text. Work on the bugs, of course, but bringing in a team to "polish" up the mission shouldn't take away from the bug time. Heck, I'll even volunteer to do it for free

Now ok, something like zum suggested might require a bit more coding and would probably take longer, but adding text/conversation choices/a few more random npc dialogues, and bingo, we have a more lively world.

[josephm]

@Baldy, I played FFXI for 9 months... Unless you can speak japanese it's gonna be rough especially when you get higher levels since the majority of the players are japanese. The grind is even more worse in FFXI than in this game (there is very little solo xping ability in that game), the crafting system is pretty sad too.

Only thing FFXI has going for it are the high player pops, (I've seen 500+ people in Jeuno at peak hours which is probably more than the total server pop) and the mithrans since they're hawt catgirls

To the topic at hand, I like Vinnyq and Zumwalt's ideas. It'd liven up the missions in this game no doubt. Having missions that you have to have specific jobs and/or number of people on a team would add some variety to them too.

I don't plan on playing it forever. I want something more competitive. Right now the only thing we can work to on this game is bragging or flaming each other. I can watch the storyline there etc.

Like I said there's some high level people that can get us onto the server or something. Supposed to be super high people crafting good eq or something. I'd like to see the cut scenes etc. I'm also a huge fan of FF. Yeah the grind is going to be bad....but what do we do in ryzom all day long? grind grind grind. I'm not saying I'd leave forever. just until there's some stuff here.

Besides look at it this way, they can't even get 4 rites working after they've already punched in the other rites. My doubts also lend themselves to the fact that long after the creation of this game they began to think about the content. the rites are problably implemented purely as code mods and nothing with the original code involves content development. Remember: they've broken several different ways for several different people.

If they're running and changing code constantly then that explains why new things break at such a rapid rate. I've experienced it where I work and on MUDs. So games and real life. I can't say for sure, but I have a strong suspicion about this. Beautiful vision, poor implementation. The game still has potential though, and I love the idea.

[vinnyq]

ooo missed this comment from the previous page.

i agree that the missions could be a bit better but they're a grind for fame and nothing more. it's also a way for us to lvl up without making it see like a grind

But they don't have to be!

People will do the missions just "to do the mission", if they're fun, and having the fame be affected from the missions or getting rewards would just be a minor factor.

i.e. if your (or the devs) attitude is that missions are for grind, then you (or the devs) so got it azz backward.

[splatula]

Good ideas Zumwalt.

Even if she didn't run off, but told you to accompany one of her "guards" it would allow others to do this mission at the same time.

One thing I would like is maybe riddles or something to tell you more of where to go to finish missions. Telling me to find Mr. X in Frahar Towers involves a LOT of running around back and forth, back and forth. Especially when you consider many NPCs in the wilderness actually walk around. Like the harvesting missions, maybe some vague notion of where to find these things other than the general area you are standing in would help.

Give some higher level players a chance to actually affect the game more through RPing and advanced status, not quite like a GM but more politics and strategy components. It would be nice to have a "Governor of Pyr" that was actually a player and could direct guards to specific areas that are under attack. Maybe a player quest board or general message board posted somewhere in towns, so you could say things like, "Looking for 150 Q200 Supreme Oath Bark, will pay the highest dapper around" or "Will pay 40k dapper bounty on DoubleTaps head." Although, then we would need a reward for PvP combat, like an ear or something with the dead players name on it. No offense DT, just you are someone familiar to most peeps here When I played UO you were seeing the developers themselves playing on a semi-regular basis and they helped make the game more interesting all the time, not just helping players that somehow spawned into a wall.

[lariva]

Bah... ofcourse not; there will always be bugs it is the volume and the types that are scary.

I have 3 bugs that has been around since beta and i know for a fact they were reported far more then once.

You do realize that there's no such thing as a 100% bug free game, right?
As long as you understand that, and only mean some of the bigger bugs that are breaking major features, then I'll shutup.

[marct]

After success, each person in the team gets some sort of medal or something automatically in there inventory, Wannabe cheers and thanks you, then stands there for a timed minute or two before going back to town, which your team has to again, escort him to town.

Once in town, he has more dialogue with the Leader and his armor changes to that of the warriors in town.

Now his name becomes Jena Hasbeen.

8 real hours later, Jena Hasbeen returns to being Jena Wannabe and the mission can be ran again.

This example brought to you by someone who has done a crap load of missions that require escorts (aka EQ, the maze, the gnome and the dragon, a few others)

I agree Whole heartedly and I will add my comments here so hopefully they will do some good. I had a 3 hour discussion with Basic in in-game chat about this same subject just before this post hit. (scary, btw)

Here are my thoughts and I will try to be concise.
1. I agree with everynotion that zumwalt said. In addition, it would be nice for missions to open up the availability of other missions. At the end of completing a mission the original mission giver should tell you of the next mission(s) that are now available to you.

2. Tell me why I am doing a mission. Give me some story or value to it. Make it immersive.

3. Make the missions tell me why it is good to do it, and the benefits and/or consequences of doing it. Feed the storyline, the splitting of Karavan/Kami as well as the differences in races. This should all be feed to you in game as well as an understanding of what your choices of missions/etc are doing to your position in the game.

4. Make mission availability dependent on other missions being completed. i.e. Maybe the captains in Davae do not have any kill tribes missions available unless they get the orders. If you talk to them, they would have a couple of other dialogues beside the standard who am I. You could choose what you want to know about. i.e. "I currently have no ... missions available, I am awaiting orders from the scouts in ..." Or "I am awaiting notes from the messenger in Yrk, he is in ... part of the city."

5. Let the players have more of a role in how things go along. I have spent a whole bunch of time in Tower bridge lately digging. However the Kinchers are camping on my sap that I want. I would think that I could do somethings to assist the guards at the Matisian Border guards in a similar fashion to the last major event, allowing them to create guard groups to defend the area. I would think talking to the guard chief there should tell me about it and what I would have to do to make that happen. Re-spawning guard populations is not conducive to giving me a reason to fight the fight. If I showed up one day and almost all of the guards were gone, and the torbaks are twice the normal population, and only 20m from camp, do you think I would call for help and get a raiding party to beat them back? Of course! Then I could enlist the asistance of the foragers and crafters I know to help re-build the guard population. As the population grows, maybe they provide protection further away from the outpost. And btw, the mobs should realise and not get close. At least the intelligent mobs... you get the idea.

6. Allow NPC's to be wiped out, or to run to another town for safety until order is restored. This ties in with the entry above, and also with PvP, etc. Why can't I go to Zora and wipe out the Merchants if I can get to them? Maybe they do not come back for 10 or 20 many ingame days. This would add a lot to the story line. Now maybe the story isn't that I hate the Zorai, but maybe the Kami have more of a role, and I can wipe out the Kami Guardian, and now you can't TP to that location. If an area get's overrun like in the invasion, why would the NPC's still be there? Why didn't they leave the outpost? Or get killed by the Kitins? Why do enemy guards not try and kill me as I head for the front gates of a town?


7. Please make fame more important, and tell me as it changes what the consequences are. Shoudln't the NPC merchant have a dialogue option that tells me why they are trading with me at the prices that they are, and what I can do to change my prices? Shouldn't a city welcomer tell me I am not Welcome as I walk by them if I am not? (A text bubble that only I can see) I could talk to them and they could tell me why I am not welcome, and What i could do to change it.

8. Make the world persistent. It makes no sense for a server re-start or patch to change the way things were 20 seconds before the patch or failure. It would seem that every, I Repeat EVERY, NPC, and mob, and everyhting else, resources, etc. should be "saved" just like I am, and on a server restart the "living world" that I have been promised returns to EXACTLY where it was right before that happened.

9. Having roaming, and speaking NPC's. The happenings if communicated to them through messages, notes, orders should be available for people near them to hear about. Why don't NPC's do any chatter? Maybe a 5m radius or 10m and you hear it. If I deliver news from Fleeting Garden of an increase in Aggro Mobs, shouldn't the Guard chief or City Welcomer in Davae be worried and be screaming for help before they come closer to the city? They could direct you to the guard chief (and tell you their location). You pick up the mission which gives a general area of where the mobs were discoverd, and you go quest some mobs up.

10. I would like to be able to asisst and team with NPC tribes, and even heal them, etc. What do these roaming tribes do, just roam? And please make them be aggroed by aggro mobs. If I am fighting nearby, and they see me, wouldn't they volunteer to assist me if my fame is high level with them.

11. If I walk within a 5m radius of a roaming NPC, please please make them stop and look at me.


On a happy note, I saw my first seriously migrating group of Mobs the other day and I was in Awe!!! There must have been 100 Arma's traveling in Knoll of Dissent, for 1000's of meters in 2 parallel paths. I walked with them for a while, it was so moving(hehe)! Nostalgic even, like seeing a herd of Buffalo in the Midwest would be for an American. On this note, the extinction or near extinction of mobs would be a cool feature. If the aggro's got out of hand, they could dessimate the herbivore population. It could take in-game years for the population to recover given the right caring. (Seems like some awesome mission potential to me.)

Well, I know it wasn't short, but I could write another 30 points here. We all want SoR to become more and better. Please listen to us, it is an effort to make things better for us, new users, and you at Nevrax of course.

Thanks.

[vinnyq]

Hey wait a minute ...

If SoR is being developed on an open source engine, would it be possible one day for players to make in game scripted missions/events?

[marct]

Hey wait a minute ...

If SoR is being developed on an open source engine, would it be possible one day for players to make in game scripted missions/events?

I do not believe so, It is the underlying engine that is open source, not the implementation of SoR on that engine.

Sorry