Treasure hunt at sea in TMW classic

[Wellvin]

Could you comment on this basic idea for a quest:
1) help a captain to repair a broken mast on his ship
2) embark on the ship to search for a treasure
3) get attacked by rival ships
4) loot the treasure on an island

The draft of the first maps for the quest:
1) ship with a broken mast docked at Tulimshar

2) ship interior

3) ship sailing the seas

4) ship being attacked by 2 rival ships

[WildX]

We've always liked naval themes so this is a good idea for a quest. As always the hard (and often demoralising) part of it is the difficulty in implementing such ideas, but don't let that discourage you. Getting things done around here requires a lot of persistence and determination.

The biggest hurdle I see is point 3: get attacked by rival ships. In order to be done well it would require an animated sequence showing the ships attacking, which is probably doable but beyond anything that has been done on tmwAthena.

In general there's a lot of coding required as well as raw dialogue writing and the two things are very different skillsets, someone might write the code perfectly but not be very good at writing a compelling dialogue and coherent story or vice versa. This is why teamwork is required. The one thing we have an advantage on is graphic assets. As you demonstraded with your examples we already have decent assets that can be used so that's one area where less work would be required.

Everything starts with a good idea, so ideas are always welcome. My advice to start with is try to develop those 4 bullet points more into a skeleton of a storyline. The more you can give an idea of the final product the more you'll inspire others to contribute. Who is this captain? How did the ship break? Was he already hunting for treasure? Maybe helping him repair the ship and sail again is how you get invited to the treasure hunting adventure in the first place. Who are the rivals? A good enemy is scary and well organised. Maybe they're a named group of pirates, or rival merchants that your captain friend owes money to. Lots of possibilities!

[Ledmitz]

I like it. Sea faring stuff. We have a lot of pirates in the game, but nothing at sea. I know mounts work in Hercules, but not in TMWA and the only other way to confine a character is with collisions. There are different types of collisions, I believe, on Evol2/Herc. Mobs won't spawn in TMWA on a collision. I think to make this work in TMWA, we'd need to use NPCs to do the attacking for us and we'd be lacking a projectiles effect, but could probably use an NPC to attack a mob in an isolated area(free from collisions, but players can't physically get there) and even have other types of attack animations that are stationary. It would need a ship that suddenly appears. We could maybe do some random movements to simulate the open sea, but the ships would need to be oriented the same way every time, which I don't think is a big deal. In other words(IOW), we could make a collision free area just big enough for the pirate ship to move around a bit, simulating waves. It would be interesting, since the level of a player wouldn't matter at all, unless someone wrote a check for a stat check, but its probably better to just fire at the right moment, like when the ships are aligned a certain way and then initiate the NPC to fire at it. We talk about quests that are more equal between low and high levels, promoting co-op and this is one way it can be done... the more I think of it. ofc, there could also be a plank that drops to connect the ships, but that means either warping to a different map where the ships are stationary, once connected by the plank, allowing for pirates to physically board and raid the targeted ship. Just some ideas and possible problems. I would assume HoraK and ThinkSome are the most capable of doing the server side stuff, but they're also quite busy doing other things. Thios would really liven things up though and would help to make more interesting things to do, other than grind and do the other few co-op battles/quests.

[ThinkSome]

Ship attacks are already implemented in ML

The way it's done seems to involve two maps: one with boat alone at sea and one with two boats + plank between them + scripted pirate assault (016-7 & 016-6).

We were briefly discussing maps today in -dev, and I was told that the code only supports map masks.. so you can show something or hide it. No way to really change maps on the fly, so no moving ships around, no procedurally generated endless maps, no...

1) help a captain to repair a broken mast on his ship

Perhaps the mast could be shown in a mask? Not sure if it can be sent depending on state of quest vars. You could make the ship+part of docs a set of two separate map and choose them on warp, but then two players could go there together and end up on different maps.

2) embark on the ship to search for a treasure
3) get attacked by rival ships

map switching while in transit, like on ML. Kludge, but it is what it is.

4) loot the treasure on an island

Shovels. ML has buried treasure, too...

[AnonDuck]

With a few .xml overrides I used to wear a ship as a hat.
Just make the ships mobs or NPCs tied to the ship sprite. Then they can be made to appear/disappear and move around.

[Wellvin]

Here is a more detailed version of the treasure hunt quest. Rill suggested to use the existing TMW lore by including Cerise and Blanc. Please share your thoughts. Next I'll write the full NPC dialogues.

Back story:
Captain Cerise acquired a treasure map. She and her crew went on an expedition to find the treasure but encounter a violent storm that broke her ship's main mast. She head to Tulimshar for repairs. With no treasure aboard the ship, Cerise and her crew lacked the funds and materials for the repair. Karnor, second in command, suggested shady ways to obtain the funds and materials. This led to tensions between Cerise and Karnor. He started to talk behind Cerise's back to other crew members. His plan crystallized when he poisoned Cerise's meal, stole her treasure map and fled with the crew members he influenced : a mutiny !
Karnor then stole a merchant ship, repurposed it as pirate ship and sailed to the treasure location. He also incorporated Reyma to his plan. Reyma had joined Cerise so she could receive her share of the treasure and pay for her tuition at MIT and accommodations frees. Karnor gave her money to make her his land spy. She must regularly send light signals from MIT tower at night to inform him of merchant ship movements and Cerise's activities.
Unfortunately for Karnor, the map he stole from Cerise was a fake one she drew just in case. After his vain search for the treasure, he met Blanc. Both pirates decided to team up to take Cerise's map, sink her ship and share the treasure. Blanc was happy to take his revenge on Cerise while making money. Karnor needed the help of Blanc to ensure victory against Cerise.

In game:
The player see a ship with a broken mast docked at Tulimshar port (map1). He/She can climb aboard the ship (map2). Cerise is unconscious in the captain's room, poison particle effect shows up near her head. NPC crew members worry about her and tell some part of the back story to the player. (We need names for the crew loyal to Cerise. If you know some, please share.)

When the player bring a [Slow Poison Potion] to Cerise, she wakes up and tell the full story. She explains that Karnor stole a fake map. She ask the player to bring the following materials to repair her ship: 250 [Raw Log], 150 [Cotton Cloth] and 10 [Iron Ingot]. In exchange for the repair, she'll share the treasure with the players and ask that at least 5 braves players joins. Any player in Cerise's ship inside room will be included in the crew if he/she wears one of the following hat: [Bandanna], [Pirate Hat], [Sailor Hat], [Captain's Hat], [Corsair Hat], [Eyepatch]. Once the quest starts, the players can wear any hat they want. The idea here is to create a visual effect where the player crew look like an actual group of pirates

Cerise ask all the crew (NPCs and players) to go on the upper deck to maneuver the ship (map3). She then retrieves the true map from inside the ship and join them on the upper deck. After a short time at sea, 2 ships approach hers from the West: Karnor attacks her rear and Blanc attacks her North side.

Karnor: It was a real pleasure to steal the map from you.
Cerise: You'll rot in prison for that ! And for your mutiny !
Karnor: Your fake map mad me lose a lot of time at sea but I met a good acquaintance of yours.
Blanc: Ah poor Cerise. Most of your crew left you. How unfortunate.
Cerise: Blanc, you're were behind this mutiny from the start.
Blanc: Humm... I wish.
Karnor: It's now time to handover the real map. I'll enjoy searching you again if you resit.

Once the attacking ships are in place (map4), the players fight the troupes coming from both ships.

After the players won the fight, Blanc sails away but Karnor can't move from his attacking position.

Karnor: Blanc ! We had a deal !
Blanc: You're not fit for piracy.

Cerise captures Karnor and his crew. She attaches Karnor's stolen ship to hers and reaches the treasure island. They can be some weak monsters on the island. The players then open the treasure and each player receives 200 [Coin Bag]s, 30 boss points and 33% daily points. Giving players coin bags aims to create a more tangible reward that getting gp directly.

Back at Tulimshar, Karnor and his crew are sent to prison. (We probably need a prison map).

Reyma hears about her patron beings in prison. As she'll need money, she tries to fund her studies herself. She ask the player to bring her 250 [Shadow Herb]s for her research. One week later (real server time), she finds a way to alter the concentration potion. She then sells [Dark concentration potion] for 100gp + 1 [Concentration potion] + 1 [Shadow Herb] + one of the following [Candy Cane], [Candy], [Xmas Candy Cane] or [Decor Candy] (the burned sugar smell has to come from something).
Reyma's quest can be postponed to when the developers feel comfortable introducing the dark concentration potion.

[Ledmitz]

I hope MIT stands for the Magic Institute of Tulimshar.
I like the lore stuff, but why would Blanc leave when he has extra help and maybe access to a real map? Its okay if their ship goes down. He'd prob respawn somewhere later. It is TMW, afterall.

As for Dark Con Pot... c'mon... who's pushing that? We limited its availability because of the PVP advantage. Why not make rum? I wanted Angus or a similar NPC to have a use. I was thinking building a still would allow characters the ability to make limited quantities. That has every normal effect, without the boost that dark con pots give and rum was introduced for a related past event. ??

[Wellvin]

Yes, MIT stands for the Magic Institute of Tulimshar.

Why would Blanc leave when he has extra help and maybe access to a real map?

Because the players are about to win the naval battle. He prefers to flee and let Karnor get captured.

I wanted Reyma to do potion alteration as source of income. The recent introduction of the Shadow Herb in the game and the descriptions of the potions made me come up with the idea of the Dark concentration potion. But any new potion would be fine or the Dark concentration potion using revised effects. Altered potions could also add a negative effect like "inflict 300 damages to the user".

[Ledmitz]

Dark con pots do have a negative effect; Poison. With a slow poison pot on top though, most effects are negated. There used to be a spell to make con pots and if you failed, you got a light or dark one. This item keeps coming back, no matter how hard or how many times it gets pushed away and reg game use of it would be yet another nightmare to resolve. No TY from me.

[Wellvin]

We can leave out Reyma potion alterations. Karnor has a land spy but we won't expand on it.