The Mana World Forums

So far our idea was to have a lot of dynamic quests on TMWServ. There is a wiki article on this:
http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/Dynamic_Quests


But this does of course not replace quests written by humans. Even the best random quest generator is no match for the storytelling power of a human author. Dynamic quests will be mostly filler material.

Crush wrote:So far our idea was to have a lot of dynamic quests on TMWServ. There is a wiki article on this:
http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/Dynamic_Quests

But this does of course not replace quests written by humans. Even the best random quest generator is no match for the storytelling power of a human author. Dynamic quests will be mostly filler material.

True.

And even a weekly quest would be regularly visited by players. "What's this week's quest?" = curiosity. And curiosity is something regular players loose after a while.

This is why i'm not letting this go easily. If spammaster wishes to create quests? Then let's see what we can do to assist.

Recommendation:

• A thread opened for each quest basic outline, barring surprises;
• An Etherpad page created
• Board members can volunteer to contribute work;
• Selected contributors can be PMed the Etherpad link (to ensure secrecy for quest surprises)
• PM the near-final quest to a Dev for review, suggestions and/or finalization.
• Quest is added

This list is open to additional steps.

Galadriel wrote:

• An Etherpad page created

Isn't there free software which provides the same functionality?

Free as in freedom would be perfect, but free as in free beer should be the minimum requirement (etherpad.com wants $8 per user and month when you have more than 3 users).

Crush wrote:

Galadriel wrote:

• An Etherpad page created

Isn't there free software which provides the same functionality?

Free as in freedom would be perfect, but free as in free beer should be the minimum requirement (etherpad.com wants $8 per user and month when you have more than 3 users).

Google Docs work nicely. They don't highlight contribution from each contributor separately, though.

jaxad0127 wrote:

Crush wrote:

Galadriel wrote:

• An Etherpad page created

Isn't there free software which provides the same functionality?

Free as in freedom would be perfect, but free as in free beer should be the minimum requirement (etherpad.com wants $8 per user and month when you have more than 3 users).

Google Docs work nicely. They don't highlight contribution from each contributor separately, though.

Jax: Thanks. Rather than complaining, you found a possible solution.

Crush: you just complained. No cookies for you.

why we should use etherpad:
1st: on a weekly quest, i'd be surprised if contributors actually add up to 3 per quest.

2nd: Didn't I already state: "Selected contributors can be PMed the Etherpad link (to ensure secrecy for quest surprises)". If numbers are an issue (in regards to Etherpad), a reminder to SpamMaster (who claims he'll provide weekly quests -- which i encourage) that he should choose no more than 2 assistants should solve this, no?

3rd: There's an expression: "too many cooks spoil the broth". I don't recommend dozens of contributors per quest. Many minds may gush with creativity, but they can bring a lot of unnecessary, time-consuming arguments about how the quest should develop. Our goal is a quest/week ... not 1 per three years.

4th: As Jax so eloquently put it: "They don't highlight contribution from each contributor separately." Also, Etherpad can keep a history of revisions. If some moronic contributor decides to erase it all and fill the text area with "Spam the Etherpad, Spam the Etherpad", the most recent revision can be recalled by clicking one button.

The contributors could be limited to:
a) a story-line contributor (always encouraging to have someone input fresh ideas), and
b) a code jockey who will take the story and structure it for usage within the game.

Galadriel wrote:4th: As Jax so eloquently put it: "They don't highlight contribution from each contributor separately." Also, Etherpad can keep a history of revisions. If some moronic contributor decides to erase it all and fill the text area with "Spam the Etherpad, Spam the Etherpad", the most recent revision can be recalled by clicking one button.

The contributors could be limited to:
a) a story-line contributor (always encouraging to have someone input fresh ideas), and
b) a code jockey who will take the story and structure it for usage within the game.

If we want revision history, we can use wiki software.

jaxad0127 wrote:

Galadriel wrote:4th: As Jax so eloquently put it: "They don't highlight contribution from each contributor separately." Also, Etherpad can keep a history of revisions. If some moronic contributor decides to erase it all and fill the text area with "Spam the Etherpad, Spam the Etherpad", the most recent revision can be recalled by clicking one button.

The contributors could be limited to:
a) a story-line contributor (always encouraging to have someone input fresh ideas), and
b) a code jockey who will take the story and structure it for usage within the game.

If we want revision history, we can use wiki software.

as long as the links to the quests can only be found by the person designing the quest and not open to general scrutiny. if wiki provides that, fantastic. If not, let's just go with Ether.

Crush wrote:

Galadriel wrote:

• An Etherpad page created

Isn't there free software which provides the same functionality?

Free as in freedom would be perfect, but free as in free beer should be the minimum requirement (etherpad.com wants $8 per user and month when you have more than 3 users).

Here's some news of interest:

Etherpad's Open Source Release

http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/ether ... ce-release

I would vote yes if this would be a proposal

But I would not go for a 'daily' quest. I'd even go as far as saying this event should be random in itself too. Put up several npc's in the world and have a server notice go out with a semi-vague message and have all but 1 npc point to the one that's holding the quest.

Items spent for the quest could be related to the amount of them being present in the world. Like... if there's a large amount of acorns, bug legs and cotton shirts inside all storages it could be a quest asking for those items (ie. 100 acorns, 100 bug legs and 5 cotton shirts) and give a reward that's consumable but wanted (something like a random amount of potions). Make it some sort of a gamble: sometimes you spent lots of time ending up with less value than you started but when you do get more back it's worth all the previous attempts.

Basically you could tinker with the amount of GP in the world (from what I've seen as a long time iRO player" too much money makes players bored; not enough money (gained within a given time periode) would make players annoyed).

If you take the example I used it could also be triggered based on the amount of GP in the world. If it goes above 'x' amount hold a quest and let it last long enough to drain 'y' amount of GP.

It can also be used to have large amount of players go to remote places that are not popular. I have been playing for a couple of days and have seen lots of places with no players at all. It's a waste of space don't you think