What kind of quests would you like to see more of

[ching]

Well. I get a lot of thank you mails from people about the various bag quests. They are quite popular, but then I just read about other people who think that they are a waste of time. I used to have lesser quests for smaller items (even hovers and tools years ago) but nobody was doing the quests. It seems as if without a 'big prize' most people will not do things just for the fun of it. However all that aside, please specify the kind of quest you would like to actually run in more often (not the prize.) I allowed you to vote for 2 so that we can get a more weighted 2nd favorite average.

[Tarbal]

ok....so one of my votes got dumped into 'other'...and here is my explanation....i like the quests that have a storyline....like TIAMAT is pissed at Tiamat and is going to kill her, so Tiamat has ran to Welmar seeking protection, and Welmar has asked the denziens of JediMUD to help protect her. Meanwhile, TIAMAT has petitioned Asmodeus to go forth with the armies of hell and scour the lands to find and destroy the little imposter. Asmodeus, hearing of Welmar's interference, strikes a deal with..............to be continued......


but you get the point....but dang....this quests are HARD on the IMM side to put together and run....

[Mal]

This is a tough question - and I don't think it can be answered very easily.

Bag quests, recall quests, how much time do you (Ching, Labrat, .. whoever) need to spend setting these up? How often could you run these quests based on the amount of time it takes to set up. Are these quests fun? IMO Yes!

How often could you run an exciting awesome quest such as one that Tarbal just mentioned comparatively? I like a good mix. Ching - and I am naming you specifically - a) because this is your post and b) because you happen to be on when I am on - I love your mini quests, hunt the bag quest, etc. Someone has brought the idea up of Quest-Token or Quest-Points, in which they can cash in these points for something. Giving out a few bags with these tokens - slowly players can collect enough - and get 'something' they deam of value or sell it for cash to someone who is collecting.

This solves the 'small prize issue' - and keeps the fun. You can log on any day, and throw out some bags into the mud for fun (based on the number of people who are playing) and I think that is great. If you were to just become the 'big prize' quest guru which arguably are the most fun quests, you wouldn't run them very often based on the work - and some players will still complain. You can't please everybody. Although having to make sure people play by the rules and only take one bag is not fair. Perhaps there is a need for a new method to set these up so there can be less work on you to keep people in the sandbox playing fair.

I still need to vote.. hmm..

Aaron

[Asdf]

Ching I thank you for any of the quests you and others have run. They are a great devision from normal mudding, regardless of the quest type. I prize every thing I have won, I love the tools and every time I log a character with one I have to rev that puppy up a couple of times. I guess what I am saying, I don't participate in quests for what the prize is, and you cant believe the majority of the other posters here they are just short sighted and spoiled. If they are to uppity to get a +stat rock, they should just go back to morting and leave them all for to me MuHahahah.

Ching keep up the good work and don't listen to the whiners.

ooOOooo that is a good idea for a quest prize, a slice of moldy cheese, to go with the stale waybread. You can give them to the whiners that complain about the other prizes. It can be like a tool but is cursed, !drop, and !donate is a device that has an annoying whining noise coming from it.

By the way, I haven't heard of many GRDN Weasels lately, must not be many new Guardians.

[Iolanthe, your fairy godmother]

Jan 12, 2009 14:13:55 GMT -5 ching said:

Well. I get a lot of thank you mails from people about the various bag quests. They are quite popular, but then I just read about other people who think that they are a waste of time. I used to have lesser quests for smaller items (even hovers and tools years ago) but nobody was doing the quests. It seems as if without a 'big prize' most people will not do things just for the fun of it. However all that aside, please specify the kind of quest you would like to actually run in more often (not the prize.) I allowed you to vote for 2 so that we can get a more weighted 2nd favorite average.

They're not a waste of time. The prizes are overpowered. There's a difference.

[ching]

Jan 12, 2009 18:23:27 GMT -5 Iolanthe, your fairy godmother said:

Jan 12, 2009 14:13:55 GMT -5 ching said:

Well. I get a lot of thank you mails from people about the various bag quests. They are quite popular, but then I just read about other people who think that they are a waste of time. I used to have lesser quests for smaller items (even hovers and tools years ago) but nobody was doing the quests. It seems as if without a 'big prize' most people will not do things just for the fun of it. However all that aside, please specify the kind of quest you would like to actually run in more often (not the prize.) I allowed you to vote for 2 so that we can get a more weighted 2nd favorite average.

They're not a waste of time. The prizes are overpowered. There's a difference.

I understand. But then when I used to give out 'lesser prizes' there was next to no participation. I thought the avtr prizes were created so there could be fun non-game busting prizes to hand out on quests. I understand that only a newbie would be really interested in a hover board these days. I am also trying to put out more "treasure" prizes (just gold, not all stat items.) But it is hard to get around the 'equipment inflation' in general.

Do you have any suggestions on what you would expect to get on a hunt the bag or mob quest?

[Mal]

Some ideas...
- Fancy Newbie weapons (each weapon should be usable by one class only)
- Fancy Newbie equipment (rings, etc - again one class only each)
- Bag of potions (sanc, heal, magical vestment, etc)
- As I've asked I don't know how many times for this to be implemented...
Create a new spell (demi+) that gives a player from 1-5 +damall +hitroll depending on level of spell. Then put this 'spell' in canned form into a potion. Make said potion !rent and disallow use of it during gauntlets. Players can quaff it while running xp for a nice 'boost' and it will not throw any fancy eq out of balance, as its short term happiness, once the duration goes its gone. This would solve a lot of problems (token items being given out for hard quests, etc). I've talked a lot about this elsewhere, so I'll leave it at that. I still hope someday it gets implemented.
- a Happy Hour coupon (20% off)
- a resurrect potion
- a very good joke I haven't heard before!

Aaron

[Mal]

Oh forgot to mention

- canned enlightenment

[eniac]

Also another think quest item creators should consider is the use of the !rent flag.

[Mal]

Another point...

Create a new mob that you can use to drop throughout the mud instead of Lag Monsters, something more along the lines of Weeden mobs like Bart the Bartender. Its fun to hunt them down plus its nice experience even if the item is only so-so.

Aaron

[Tarbal]

i know that i like to use different mobs besides the lags....i have used everything from fomorians and voids to giant koofys....i think i even used frogs one time....but yeah...it would be neat if we could make somemore mobs to drop around the world.....

[Iolanthe, your fairy godmother]

Jan 12, 2009 22:30:10 GMT -5 ching said:

Jan 12, 2009 18:23:27 GMT -5 Iolanthe, your fairy godmother said:

They're not a waste of time. The prizes are overpowered. There's a difference.

I understand. But then when I used to give out 'lesser prizes' there was next to no participation. I thought the avtr prizes were created so there could be fun non-game busting prizes to hand out on quests. I understand that only a newbie would be really interested in a hover board these days. I am also trying to put out more "treasure" prizes (just gold, not all stat items.) But it is hard to get around the 'equipment inflation' in general.

Do you have any suggestions on what you would expect to get on a hunt the bag or mob quest?

No doubt, we're talking about equipment inflation. I'm sure all of us have participated in quests with nominal prizes just for the fun of it (I love trivia quests), but you're probably correct that most people won't participate unless the prizes fit closer to the top than the bottom of an ever-steepening inflation curve. What would I expect to get from a bag or mob hunt quest? Honestly? Not much. I don't think most of the mobs people are using in their quests, even if they can't be solo'd, justify giving people a 100% chance of loading gear that's at least as powerful as what takes substantially longer for people to load on their own.

My suggestion would be to put more care into a cohesive quest theme than teleporting lag monsters and koofies (or whatever) around the mud with AVTR and DEMI items on them. Mob selection and theme has lots to do with quest design, but I think the problem we're talking about here is prizes, too many prizes. So what I'd suggest is using quest tokens that would permit a motivated player to kill as many mobs and gather as many tokens as he can in a single quest to redeem for a prize. The fact that your drop quests permit people to give away the items they find so they can search for another admits that you're already well-aware that people think many of your prizes suck, that there are too many prizes, and that you're at least tacitly agreeing that people really are somehow entitled to pick exactly the quest prize they want from a list.

Why not just let all that go and have multiple Ching Quest Tokens (A yellow/red/green/blue/silver/gold/wooden quest token stamped with the smiling face of Ching sits here waiting to be grabbed up!) that people can save up and redeem for potentially bigger and bigger prizes over the course of multiple quests? Treat it like skeeball so that people who want a Wacky Wall Walker can get one, and people who want to save their tickets for a DEMI sphere or more can do that too. You could have raffles with tokens as the entry fee, or even set up a few assemble items that people can make on their own with a recipe that calls for 50 or 100 Ching Quest Tokens.

And what's wrong with giving out hover boards?

[Mal]

My personal take on Quest Tokens,
- different types of quest tokens should be worth different values
- they should be rentable, and able to be collected over a large number of quests
- the items you can buy with quest tokens should remain limited
- although I like coins with Ching's face plastered on the front, I'd be fun to have a handful of different coins from current and previous gods.. Which leads to the possibility of collecting 10 coins of a particular statue, will grant you a choice of the statues once loadable items. If you don't like what the statue loads, you can instead use the token as a quest token to buy from the AVTR list of equipment.

My personal take on Bag Quests,
- I liked the fact that it is one-per-person, it means as a xp group, we could hunt down 6 of them and split up the loot instead of logging in a boring ranger and racing to hunt down a bunch solo. Also gives opportunities for new players a chance at getting something as its one per player.
- I like bag quests with themes, such as 'Dogs of war' as it makes you think -- Is Ahmad's pet a dog? Is Quagar's pet a dog?
- Keeping players in check isn't fun - is there an easier way to get around having to watch them?


Aaron

[Tarbal]

yeah, i think that i like the quest token idea too....but i think that a small group of people would have to come up with the bartering system for them....maybe 5 people *cimp/other imm/other imm/mort/mort* could put together a value list on each token (100 Labrat tokens = 1 Ching token...etc) and then a prize list that would be available for 'purchase'...hmmm....more thinking to be done....

[Dank]

I'm not sure which version of the quest policeman's uniform Iolanthe woke up in, but I think that the best part of this silly collection of zones is the wacky admin that populate it.

I like the wild hair/ blind chance of landing an AVTR item if a GOD wills it from a bag quest. Why not?

Plus, this post is simply a bald-faced attempt to boost my post count.

[ching]

Part of my thinking in letting people give away the bags, is there are those who do not know enough to find even one bag. Especially after the 'easy ones' go fast. This helps the newbies the most, it has the unfortunate side effect of allowing the lazy to also get something, but what is to be done. Mostly it is my generosity, I like to see everybody have a crack at it. Choosing the mob/clue theme I am trying to get people out, exploring, and looking at things. This is in total a game, so I expect people to be having fun. I know different people get off on different things, but if I do not find them objectionable (for whatever reason) I am usually find with doing them from time to time (talking quests here.) I like all of these ideas, especially new item ideas. Please keep it up. (falling asleep, time to head to bed so I can get up and do all this again tomorrow!)

[Iolanthe, your fairy godmother]

Aug 8, 2069 22:10:32 GMT -5 Dank said:

I'm not sure which version of the quest policeman's uniform Iolanthe woke up in

I wish I got more affects, but the admin won't give us more than 2 per item. I forget the stats on my policeman's uniform, but they're not good.

Dec 31, 1969 19:01:51 GMT -5 Dank said:

Plus, this post is simply a bald-faced attempt to boost my post count.

Natch. Game on.

[Mal]

I like the idea of !rent equipment as well..
- a phaser
- a mana regeneration stone holdable (+10mana +10mana regen)
- a hp regeneration stone holdable (+3dam +15hp +perma regen)
- Ching's Cutlass of Chaos (lbolt+1dam+1hitroll ml 20 no class rests)
- Ching's Charity Box +4dam +4hr holdable (bank)
- God's Fury +3dam +3hitroll with 100x charges of disintegrate lvl 30 (!gauntlet !quest etc)
- God's Blessing +3dam +3hitroll holdable with 100x charges of heal lvl 30 (!gauntlet !quest)
- Crown of Command +2dam +2cha perma strength (just because I love Talisman the magical boardgame)

but just a thought.. can a God add !rent flag to any item in game? If so, it would be cool to choose any item you want that a God can load.. and get to play with it until crash/reboot.

A large number of classes can only use dwarven rings (or the like) excluding quest/doom equipment. Creating a set of rings (each ring works for exactly one class) that has an extra hitroll would be a very nice prize. (I think there are some quest items out there that do this - but have very few class rests - could optionally reduce ac too)

Leveling gear:
+1dam +1con light
+1dam +1con rings
+1con +1-2hr necklace
+1str +1con body
+1str +1con leggings
+1str +1con feet
...

I am using constitution, as using int/wis would make this equipment very valuable to spell-casting classes.

Weapons?
- same damage as t-axe(with +2bonus) but +1str +1dex
- same damage as jeweled scimitar(with +2 bonus) but +1con +1int
- same damage as stabber(with bonus) +1str +1dex
- same damage as stabber(with bonus) +1str +1int

Hmm...
- a ticket for hometown change to midgaard (if you can't do that still)
- a ticket that shaves off 1 - 250k xp from your tnl (ml 20)

Aaron

[Rox]

Another idea to attract newbies is to schedule newbie quests in newbie areas.
This will help newbies - real newbies to learn what quest is all about as the progress further.
Even a monthly mini newbie quests for gold will help newbies tremendously.
For example newbie pairs gauntlet with no quests gear allowed and only newly created char can join.

Prize can be anything from:
10K-20K gold per mob to 100K gold for last mob to help newbies get more gold and get quest experience and maybe throw in a loadable eq or two...nothing fancy like stasis/void/moh/enchanted pswor/etc.

The most recent owlery quest I thought was a great idea.

[elveron]

Actually I disagree that hunting the bag, hunting the mob people do I do them even if I know there is no good prizes, just because I enjoy doing it.

As for Quest tokens I have seen this in previous muds:
1)Set a Nominal level turn in for low level prizes, so people who don't do well can still turn in tokens.
2)Start bumping it up after that
3)Whatever you consider highest level token turn in add 50% because there will always be people flying past the rest.

I also Like Labrats idea:
1)100 Tokens of AVT = 1 God Token
2)Make each immortal level token worth a different tier prize.
3)Make Cimp or Imp special prizes only available at that high tier.

Another concent above and beyond quests is the Random Collector Mob:

He would randomly be set on a code to show up in the game, you could even build it that he randomly changes his name and has a command that says Hello I am such and such when a mortal enters the room he is in with.

Upon death the mud rolls a die:
1-50 Nothing
51-75 Low/Mid Level Eq
76-90 Mid Level Eq
91-98 High Level Eq (limited in scope like a Philo yes, Doom NO!!)
99--Kicks off a 1d20 special roller for unique weapon
100--Kicks of 1d20 special roller for unique non-weapon.

So the Mortal enters the room:
"Hi I am the Bone Collector, who are you?"
The Bone Collector goes RIP, as he dies his bag spills out a Philospher Stone on the floor.

It is a lot of time to build one of these, he can be great fun, with random name changing (you could add names at will and retire names) you can't summon him, you can't where him, so you literally have to run into him especially if he can load anywhere, also make him randomly teleport every 60 minutes or so.

Just a thought.
Steven

[Rox]

I've always enjoyed hidden bags on mobs and laggies that carry bags but I like Elv's ideas since the thought being able to just come in run exp and also be able to kill quest mobs that are similar in procs with minotaur that loads doom key is nice.

Going around looking for em and potentially explore new areas and get tokens that builds up to getting something bigger quest eq. Tokens would need to be rentable until ready to be exchanged and we could color code where rarer drops have higher points.

That would add additional zing to the game instead of waiting for quest to happen where this is a perpetual quest. I know you are probably going to say why not run quest eq like avenger, ephod etc....the difference is mobs that load different quest flags has the effect of opening christmas presents on christmas morning where you will never know what flag if any will drop.

[Mal]

How the minotaur and the uni wagon load are exactly the same as far as I can tell. Having a mob load similar to this would not be a hunt at all even if the name changed. It would require regular updates to keep the name different, and the drop points different, every reset - like DOOM, this would never happen. Even this would not be much of a challenge.

If you wanted to automate this, you'd need to have something run and modify the zone files etc after every crash to select a random 30 or so locations, randomly select a name from a long list, etc. (each drop point could have a series of names generated too) but this is not possible at this time. I've tried.

I'd also much rather encourage grouping - as having a bunch of rangers hunting for this mob constantly, doesn't appeal to me at all. Having the emphasis on grouping is far more attractive.

Now if you wanted to get something really going, you could do something like this:
1. randomly select 50 mobs to load bone collector on death (high leveler = higher chance of being chosen) WHEN there time comes
2. once a mob has been found as a bone collector (it died and loaded a bone collector), it will never be a bone collector again
3. there will be say 3-5 bone collectors 'actively' waiting to be found, the rest of the mobs (even if chosen) will not load bone collector on death, and are not found when killed because they did not load the bone collector.
4. Once all 50 bone collector mobs are found, there will be no more until next crash/reset/etc. Finding all 50 would very difficult though.
5. When a bone collector is killed, a new one (from the remaining in the pile of 50) will now be actively waiting to be found. So a mob you killed previous trying to find a bonecollector could be a bonecollector now.

Groups tend to kill stronger mobs, this would tend towards benefiting groups - but not entirely excluding rangers from running the tougher mobs that they can kill. This would not be 'easy', like trying to find the minotaur in one of its dozen spots. It would encourage exploration (and hunting) of other zones with higher level mobs in it - not just the few zones selected. You cannot 'where' the mob etc. In this case though, I'd increase the ratio of getting 'something'. This mob should be worth a fair bit of xp too - to benefit those in exp groups.

A good portion of this can be done with the tools we have now, the finding 50 mobs to select however, and doing a query (for higher level mobs), and all the other jazz that would need to be done, is not possible at this time. I've tried. Same issue with automation as previously mentioned.

Lets keep the good ideas coming!

Aaron

[Tarbal]

yeah....the minotaur load method would be a little predictable....HOWEVER...there is a way that we can have a mob load in any one of a hundred or so rooms.....just use (with permision, of course) the method that is used for the holliday mobs.....would have to speak with some higher ups as to exactly how to make it work....but i am sure it would do the job

[ching]

Jan 21, 2009 22:13:18 GMT -5 Tarbal said:

yeah....the minotaur load method would be a little predictable....HOWEVER...there is a way that we can have a mob load in any one of a hundred or so rooms.....just use (with permission, of course) the method that is used for the holiday mobs.....would have to speak with some higher ups as to exactly how to make it work....but i am sure it would do the job

They all load a the top of a 'tree' (branching rooms.) You have to have wandering mobiles for it to work.

[Tarbal]

yeah....i think that a quest mob should be wandering anyways....does this zone stay in the game? or is it only in during the quests when needed? i think that using that zone it would be WAY too easy to implement some kind of quest mob......what are the chances of something along these lines being approved?