Players as Quest Targets

https://twitch.tv/videos/905550153

At 17:15 in this interview Steven had yesterday, he confirmed that certain quests will flag certain players (based on Node allegiance, titles etc) as a target.

This seems super interesting. What possibilities or types of quests would you like to see ?

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Songcaller

Assassination.

daveywavey

Neurath wrote: »

Assassination.

Yep. Guild Of Assassins.

George_Black

I love open world PvP, I love the PvP flag and the option to kill a non combatant if I wanna bear the risks.
But this borders true griefing territory.

I can't see a scenario where this is properly implemented to the point where it's meaningful.

An example of meaningless implementation was in ESO.
Kill 20 enemy players for a menial reward.
Kill 100 Dark elves for a meni.... for a nice colour.

Beyond the bounty hunter system I don't see the point.

George_Black

I'd love to see a quest available to the Rogue class.

Kill an enemy lv5 guild leader (to avoid exploits).
Class activities like that would be cool.

Atama

George Black wrote: »

I love open world PvP, I love the PvP flag and the option to kill a non combatant if I wanna bear the risks.
But this borders true griefing territory.

I can't see a scenario where this is properly implemented to the point where it's meaningful.

An example of meaningless implementation was in ESO.
Kill 20 enemy players for a menial reward.
Kill 100 Dark elves for a meni.... for a nice colour.

Beyond the bounty hunter system I don't see the point.

I agree with you. I've played plenty of MMOs which had a "kill X number of enemy players" and generally avoid them. The problem with treating players as if they are NPCs for a quest is that they aren't NPCs. They aren't on spawn tables, you can't go to a place and farm them.

The idea of having to kill a specific player is absolutely ludicrous.

"Hello Thiccboi, I have a task for you. You must seek out and defeat XxGagafanxX who has been terrorizing the countryside. Only then can we feel safe traveling the roads and working our fields."

Then the person who plays XxGagafanxX takes a 2 month vacation in rural Montana and you have a dead quest that you can't complete.

This seems like the sort of thing that a person thinks of while taking a shower and then throws it out there as a "cool thing" without really considering the consequences. I'm guessing there is either a lot more to this than we are considering that will make it more viable, or in testing they figure out this doesn't really work and it gets dropped.

Katak

Atama wrote: »

...
This seems like the sort of thing that a person thinks of while taking a shower and then throws it out there as a "cool thing" without really considering the consequences. I'm guessing there is either a lot more to this than we are considering that will make it more viable, or in testing they figure out this doesn't really work and it gets dropped.

I hear you on that. Hopefully, there will be measures around this, such as automatic completion if a target 'goes missing' in Montana. That doesn't cover circumstances like the assassin and target just playing during different hours of the day, though.

Perhaps, after gathering intel about whereabouts of your target (which could be an interesting mini-game in and of itself), you could attempt to bypass whatever security they put in place before 'logging off' and get the assassination completed while they aren't even online.

Potential targets would have to invest in better security to match the pace of ongoing threats.

In any case, I'd much rather see stuff like this than generic quests, even if they seem daunting to actually complete.

mcstackerson

God forbid there be a quest that you can't complete in 5 minutes.

In the video, they talk about the quest being tied to different titles, like those someone might earn from advancing in a social organization. One would think that either multiple people will be able to hold these titles or if it's a unique one, it would transfer ownership if its owner goes inactive for a period of time.

That aside, I think the focus should be more on making sure there is other content for players to instead of making sure it's something that is 100% doable all the time. It's because of that mentality that quests have become so bland.

Atama

mcstackerson wrote: »

God forbid there be a quest that you can't complete in 5 minutes

Have you ever played The Secret World? If not, you’re probably unfamiliar with how a really good, long, challenging quest in an MMO looks like.

That’s where I’m coming from. There are MMOs where the quests have thoughts behind them and don’t rely on brainless random chance.

Noaani

Atama wrote: »

This seems like the sort of thing that a person thinks of while taking a shower and then throws it out there as a "cool thing" without really considering the consequences. I'm guessing there is either a lot more to this than we are considering that will make it more viable, or in testing they figure out this doesn't really work and it gets dropped.

This is my initial reaction to this as well... it's the family summons all over again.

That said, I've not put as much thought in to this yet, and it may have redeeming qualities.

maouw

I mean, it could also be:
"Intercept the messenger carrying sensitive documents."

And a quest open for other players would be:
"Please deliver this very important document to ________ within 24 hours."

Atama

maouw wrote: »

I mean, it could also be:
"Intercept the messenger carrying sensitive documents."

And a quest open for other players would be:
"Please deliver this very important document to ________ within 24 hours."

If it’s not a specific player but it involves any number of players who have a reason to play the target that would be interesting.

Tyranthraxus

Yours truly would love incentive to collect and save Corruption. I.e. kill 10 players in owPvP without dying, to advance down a Corruption-unlocked storyline. Maybe something like server-unlocks towards lore about the 3 dark gods - or even the option to begin to warp and change one's body to look like the Ancients, who themselves bear the bodies they do after having been warped over time by so much Corruption.

Maezriel

maouw wrote: »

I mean, it could also be:
"Intercept the messenger carrying sensitive documents."

And a quest open for other players would be:
"Please deliver this very important document to ________ within 24 hours."

I would prefer this set up the most.

Mostly b/c even "Kill a leader of a powerful guild" is too easily broken by someone just staying on an alt or never leaving a safe haven.

Noaani

Atama wrote: »

maouw wrote: »

I mean, it could also be:
"Intercept the messenger carrying sensitive documents."

And a quest open for other players would be:
"Please deliver this very important document to ________ within 24 hours."

If it’s not a specific player but it involves any number of players who have a reason to play the target that would be interesting.

Yeah, it absolutely can't be a single player as the target.

That is too easy for said target to grief the other player.

It would honestly need to be at least 5 people if those people are not directly connected, or a dozen or more if they are.

Asgerr

In case some of you might not have watched the video, Steven made the following example:

Find X player, who is flagged cause his title is "Mayor of XYZ" (or leader of JKL faction) and steal some specific item. From how I understand it, the quest is created if said player is currently playing.

You then find him or track him down, and you get a prompt to steal from him. The item you steal is not something they actually posses. The target player is merely a trigger for a quest item drop. He's likely unaware he even is a target, and might just wonder why so many people seem to be coming up to him at that time.

I doubt there will be assassination quests, although they could be fun and interesting for the killer, not so much the target.
It would however weave a player experience into a lore element of conflict between different NPC organisations that we might join (Thieves Guild, University etc)

Songcaller

I would laugh so hard if quests are like:

'Dance with Mr Blobby.'
'Wave to Mr Blobby.'
'Blow a kiss to Mr Blobby.'

daveywavey

Atama wrote: »

"Hello Thiccboi, I have a task for you. You must seek out and defeat XxGagafanxX who has been terrorizing the countryside. Only then can we feel safe traveling the roads and working our fields."

I'll pay good money to have anyone killed who has that sort of name.

Atama wrote: »

This seems like the sort of thing that a person thinks of while taking a shower and then throws it out there as a "cool thing" without really considering the consequences. I'm guessing there is either a lot more to this than we are considering that will make it more viable, or in testing they figure out this doesn't really work and it gets dropped.

I sometimes wonder, when I watch the streams, how much is thought up on the spot to answer specific questions, and if that's why sometimes Jeff looks like he's never heard it discussed before! I'd be quite happy to hear a "We haven't yet discussed that in the Design Meetings, but we'll come to it in time", rather than have a quick, spur-of-the-moment answer make its way in-game cos it's been said on a live stream!

mcstackerson

Atama wrote: »

mcstackerson wrote: »

God forbid there be a quest that you can't complete in 5 minutes

Have you ever played The Secret World? If not, you’re probably unfamiliar with how a really good, long, challenging quest in an MMO looks like.

That’s where I’m coming from. There are MMOs where the quests have thoughts behind them and don’t rely on brainless random chance.

Oh, my bad. So we can't have compelling pvp quests because people can go offline. All pvp quests have to be super generic so they are easy to do. it's not like the presence of this kind of quest means all quests will be like this or there can't be other pve quests with the level of thought put in them as secret world's quests.

That said, what about the system sounds brainless? Yes, sometimes there might be issues with when the quest is available but is that really that bad. Yes, that would suck if the only thing you could do is this quest but that isn't the case. You have other things you can do while you figure out how you will accomplish this quest.

Noaani

Asgerr wrote: »

In case some of you might not have watched the video, Steven made the following example:

Find X player, who is flagged cause his title is "Mayor of XYZ" (or leader of JKL faction) and steal some specific item. From how I understand it, the quest is created if said player is currently playing.

You then find him or track him down, and you get a prompt to steal from him. The item you steal is not something they actually posses. The target player is merely a trigger for a quest item drop. He's likely unaware he even is a target, and might just wonder why so many people seem to be coming up to him at that time.

I doubt there will be assassination quests, although they could be fun and interesting for the killer, not so much the target.
It would however weave a player experience into a lore element of conflict between different NPC organisations that we might join (Thieves Guild, University etc)

That player will know they are the target of a quest.

If they are mayor/leader, they know the possibility will be there. If the quests given are for opposing nodes/organizations, and progress them, that player that is the target of the quests could very easily poss a lot of people off by just staying in their house.

On the other hand, if it is for their node/organization, they could just afk near the quest giver.

All up, sounds like a shower idea to me.

maouw

daveywavey wrote: »

Atama wrote: »

"Hello Thiccboi, I have a task for you. You must seek out and defeat XxGagafanxX who has been terrorizing the countryside. Only then can we feel safe traveling the roads and working our fields."

I'll pay good money to have anyone killed who has that sort of name.

Atama wrote: »

This seems like the sort of thing that a person thinks of while taking a shower and then throws it out there as a "cool thing" without really considering the consequences. I'm guessing there is either a lot more to this than we are considering that will make it more viable, or in testing they figure out this doesn't really work and it gets dropped.

I sometimes wonder, when I watch the streams, how much is thought up on the spot to answer specific questions, and if that's why sometimes Jeff looks like he's never heard it discussed before! I'd be quite happy to hear a "We haven't yet discussed that in the Design Meetings, but we'll come to it in time", rather than have a quick, spur-of-the-moment answer make its way in-game cos it's been said on a live stream!

I think it's a combination of Jeff having really animated expressions, together with moments when he remembers what Steven is talking about since his head space probably spends a lot of time buried in methodologies/discussions with the backend team.

I think he's a good candidate for memeing. Dunno if he wants to be memefied though. Maybe a question for the next QnA hahaha

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