Clear Ideas

[Sinister]

I think a cool quest would be a "defending" quest, but instead of everyone using whatever weapons they have, they would be given a heavy bow and it would be equipped.  The players would be randomly teleported to a wall and then enemies would spawn at a distance.  If more than 4 or 5 enemies got into the stronghold, then the quest is over and everyone loses a lck.  If the fortress is successfully defended, then there would be reward.  There could also be a boss type character that is driving the lower level guys toward the stronghold.  If he is sucessfully killed, the gobbies or lowbie enemies would run away and the quest would be over.  If the lowbies are killed then he runs away.  If he is then killed, there is an additional prize.  If the clear happens, then the prize should be coins because there will be a great need for them.  Not alot, just enough to keep ppl excited about the quest.  After the quest is over, all heavy bows are removed from the players invo.

[Talliun]

ON PREVIOUS POST:

I decided to pull this out of the voting area because it kind of got busy real quick and got buried (see post after this). I think the ideas here should be applied to how we want to make quests a GREATER role in the community. Quests that sort of perhaps follow a loose story that isn't connected quest-to-quest, but something general to feel like your apart of something greater at work.

1A) NEW LIGHT ON QUESTS:

If these quests are taken into new light, it can solve a lot of issues. We can still do some monster upgrades with levels, as LW approached - requiring minimal coding. But that depends on how much time the PCRPG staff is willing to yield for that.

2A) SMALL-SCALE QUESTS & REWARD CONCEPTS:

Its important that new rewards are very parallel to the players, and make sense for their level. As long as the economy is "controlled" so to speak by quest master's rewards - things will have more importance when they are handed out. Administrators and quest masters should avoid stockpiles of money in their banks and items in their storage  rather just hand them out at the time of the quest.

Remember rewards dont have to be physical items either they can be tokens as well. Perhaps giving the person a healing bot, or tank bot. Perhaps it can be four free tokens of teleportation (where an administrator can teleport them to a city). And perhaps, getting into more odd ideas, tokens of death - players could win rare tokens that could have the admins smite their player enemies.

Hey, not saying its a good idea, but you can take this on any stretch of crazy ideas.

These tokens would just be a sheet of paper at the side of the admin's desk that says; "Ya, Billy Bob has two tokens for teleportation". Once again its up to the creativity of each individual admin.

2B) SAMPLE IDEAS FROM PREVIOUS PROJECTS:

LW, you remember "Emerald Distress" and "Old Blades" from KCTRPG right? You participated in one of those.

See, that took on more of a dynamic offering, but once again it was probably too wide in levels (therefore possibly leading to rushing, too much commotion to organize it or carry it out). Emerald Distress concept could be used with maybe 2-3 characters, instead of being a global quest. There are of course, the possibilities of having global quests  but they will be more a special events thing organized and achieved by all the QMs.

GREATER GUILD HALL PARTICIPATION & WORKING SAMPLE:

QMs could also look into the ability of having anyone in a house have more importance behind their guild.

What I mean to say is certain houses could be spawned to a battle ground, where they have to fight for treasure from an NPC or what not.

On KCTRPG we for example had spawned up a war-torn city with broken catapults and scattered debris. At the time we had 5 players representing the two guilds for the conquest-style quest.

Their objective was to fight over the remains of treasure hidden in the city, hidden somewhere in the well-placed debris. The twist? Well, theres also an ogre raiding party in there too; scaled to fit the majority of the players levels. Time to create, 45 minutes  lasts about 20 minutes  but it widely varies.

Want to add some other dynamics to it? Make it cost money to participate (therefore making more uses for money, and ways for administrators to flush money out of the system). Maybe it should cost guild warriors money to be teleported back to the battlefield, instead of just being ported free. Perhaps there are also survivors to rescue in the city, or maybe add a 4th faction; human rogues stealing stuff from the city.

As a part of a greater scheme a roster could be made as a sticky in the forum showing whos in each house. Guild hall chiefs can hold their own battlegrounds tournaments for fun, or coordinate with administrators and QMs.

Maybe the mentioned quest above could gain everyone in the battle afterwards a rank point  or perhaps a special fictitious house point that QMs kept track of once again in the forum roster area.

These non-server based points are then kept track of by an organized administration team. They could be used to decide between the two strongest of the four guilds for special events based on these collected points. Gathered either from won tournaments, conquest-battles, or capture-based scenarios.

Perhaps if enough of the points are collected by won quests they can cash them in for guild-built cities spawned up; NPC guards, and the like. Perhaps even private dungeons.

Houses could also hold arena tournaments at their QM-built cities between their greatest RL characters, and battle for points or just for fun, and bet. There is so much involvement that the community can do, if they put their noggins together.

The list goes on, and its not even requiring a lot of coding. It just depends where things get too messy to manage, or how many constraints are working against us.

SIDE-BAR QUESTS & OVERCROWDING SOLUTIONS:

You want to probably have a few administrators working with different people at the time. Maybe one quest geared towards melee fighters within the 20-30 range. And perhaps someone working with level 3's in a straightforward quest. The main concept between more involved quests is smaller amount of people, longer quest.

Maybe you see some overcrowding in one of the zones; make a quest on the side, and open it when you deem it ready.

The quests can be built in-game or using a script from notepad and built automatically before your eyes at the click of a binded key. So if you perhaps see overcrowding in Minotaur again on day #3, you can pull out your pre-made quest script and have the people whispered if they want to participate. And to add more effect it can be whispered from the NPC's voice.

====

There are just so many ways these quests can make a bigger role, without actually demanding so much new content and coding.

It all depends on how people want to work as a team, and really getting behind their administrators and show them that they will enjoy this more quest-orientated environment.

People love to build, and people love to participate in new creations. Its like an artist and their observers, like a band and its fans, or like directors and their viewers, or engineers and their separate clients.

And keep in mind, quests is a general word used for a whole slew of different ideas. Ill go into detail later.

Signed,

Talliun

--Anyways, apply some of the tip of the iceberg ideas here LW/Aphex/Snails to the document written below, and sort of put them side-by side to see the general swing we could all aim for

[Talliun]

FROM VOTING AREA

Community,

First off, I don't currently play on the server, but I have previous understandings of how the community becomes flat-water after "X" amount of time.

The biggest importance we need at PCRPG is innovation and coupled with that; a sense of scale, organization, integration and acceleration.

I think the concept of starting over, and ways of making the "goal" of getting to higher levels and remorts needs to be reworked - and it doesnt take much except the community. Currently we have means of only delaying the leveling process by restarts, more EXP required per level, and delaying the remort "god" status.

See one of the main factors behind the RPG in itself, is you just level, and level; occasionally the small things that alter you from this structure are the things people come to enjoy. I dont know if this can be said for everyone, but I think its a bigger factor than expected.

Or it is at least one that is hidden, and isn't approached because it attacks the foundations as a whole.

Are there solutions? Well we can look at these points of interest after a new slate is issued. These are possible remedies to an already complex question.

INNOVATION - The original creators behind the TRPG modification left many areas of the game to be carried on by smaller groups dedicated to this style of gaming. This door was left to carry on the vitality and integrity of the game, long after the initial areas were exhausted (replayability taken into light). So the system in itself is already flawed from the start, without constant appreciation for innovation. Now in order to keeps this small scale instead of massive coding in an already aged and elder community - all which is needed, is creative imaginations.

How?

Administrators, peacekeepers and quest masters need to look at new solutions regarding constantly changing environments. Quests are the answer; and quite a few of them. It doesn't need to become a factory assembly line of "hot-off-the-press" global quests. Quests dotted around week to week, will entice gamers to come out for another round. These quests will require the creative minds behind Particle's administration staff. That is where innovation is the key. Too much of the same, or too much blandness in the quests will be another trouble inside of this one. Quests should be built around the player, not around the administrators or a weekly quota. This brings us to our next point.

SENSE OF SCALE  Its important that the quests and stories are revolving around the players. They should aim to be coherent and have a sense of immersion - drop the player into them. Example; Snails sees a pair of melee combatants, both are paladins and low in level. From there Snails could go ahead and try and mask a quest strictly around them [buildings, background story, quest dialogue, monsters, rewards etc.]. Using all the tricks of the questing books, you could have yourself a very immersive quest. If you want an example after this, I can give one out.

The main importance is making sure that the quest masters are getting to individuals needs and niche, as opposed to just getting their job done. The goal isnt to do quests when requested by need or want, but to make an observation and decide what is best. Quest masters are also encouraged to enter themselves even into the quest, as either NPC or one of the quest bearers.

But it then borders confusing at such levels of customization. How can we possibly keep track of so many iotas?

ORGANIZATION Task managing such a demanding community is no easy task, and quest masters will have themselves in a strenuous state. A game is no fun when it becomes a task, rather than a digital escape. People apart of the administration team should look into ways of organizing amongst themselves in a manner that is practical and reasonable to carry out quests (and all their inner workings such as world events, player-built quests, tournaments, fun games etc.). Such resolutions could be the use of this board and outside messengers. In addition, having a microphone chat installed to discuss things in real-time as the server evolves is another likelihood.

Administrators should get in the concept of working peer-to-peer with their buddies to reason out some fresh ideas. Working together to make a network of tangible and workable schedules helps others apart of the team feel like theyre involved for a good cause. The people apart of this system should feel like theyre truly working to enhance the community. They will be the sparks that continue to ignite the ongoing bonfire.

But we want to hold that sense of perspective and balance between the administrators and the folks comprising the server  so it doesnt ever seem like there are two spheres of influence going on  but in theory a single nexus. This moves us into point # 4

INTEGRATION We need to make sure that both levels of the server are inter-meshed into a living and breathing apparatus. Whats that mean?

We want to make sure that the administrators are apart of their own creations and stories  and we also want the players to take a stride into bringing back to the origin new ideas, an appreciation, and a feeling of correspondence.

We want to have a parallel world, where the administrators are really the people, and the people are really the administrators. Holy hell, does this even make sense?

Strongly YES, and strongly NO it depends on YOU!

This has to do with continual feedback from everyone (administration and players) to improve the constant innovation in swing. The sense of integration is further boosted when the administrators dont use their powers to break this sense of unity. Administration players should try and level alongside their buddies in the server. Quests should be honoring the communities server economy, therefore keeping equilibrium amongst all rank of players. Quest rewards should also take into consideration areas of relation between the quest and the players stats. Once again it directly falls back on other points mentioned. Furthermore this is all said and done with the community, and how it acts. This then brings us to our finale insight of this observation.

ACCELERATION People are waiting, they always have ideas, people are always giving critiques, and people are always observing and lurking with new ways of improvement. Administrators are always contemplating what should be done, who to listen to or where to turn. There is always a system at work here. But what we fail to do sometimes is act on it.

What we need is to work on the basis that the community needs to act or move forward to new grounds. Are there flaws with the servers? Yes and no. Are there solutions? Yes and no. But are we moving to meet these questions? Maybe.

And thats my final point. There are many directions this can be taken, but which one are we ultimately accelerating too?

We can start fresh with some new ideas and of course the continued development of the community  but we need to bring into life a new sense of innovation and co-existence.

No one said this was going to be straightforward at first  but it can be.

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Closing Statements & Others Concerns:
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On God System and Dust Quest  these are fine and offer some other mechanics, as long as they are joined with the other hand of these servers  the quests. Of course in a balanced economy, and rewards that dont corrupt the community too quickly, these quests will be fine in the long-run. People who become high-in-remort should have ways of becoming involved through quests and the community  other than continually leveling. Even with all the quests and this system people will eventually get to the same end of the road in the leveling. There are many options for these people too, that can become involved with even the lower remorts in many unique ways. Just ask if you want some ideas out of the hat. One is using those houses/guilds.
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Signed,

Talliun

PS: If we dont think PCRPG of Tribes I is salvageable, perhaps we can keep this in mind for new beginnings with PCRPG in T:V

[LastWish]

Great ideas..  I especially like the idea of getting rid of dusting, but I think a better idea would be to make it so you can't dust till level 140 or so, because after that, leveling becomes rediculously hard with the EXP curve the way it is.  Then, if people want those extra few levels for a mining boost, or for whatever purpose, they can do it--and it will also be hard to dust from there because it will cost so much money.

All in all, if we implement only a minimal amount of these ideas, another clear won't have to happen for a long time, or even never.  This will keep people from getting 4 and 5 remorts in a day, utltimately making the gameplay experience more enjoyable--no more people 50 remorts above you PKing you.  Things will be more even, which will also make joining houses more appealing..  you will have a chance to fight back instead of running all the time.

We're also trying to get people to start guilds--so far I see 2 groups of people already in the planning stages of well designed guilds.  I'm sure more will come, and eventually we will have a good 4 or 5 guilds to interact with eachother.

If we play our cards right, this clear will definately better the server more than anything we've ever done before!

[Razore]

Gah, I think the game would be 1000x more fun if you didnt stand behind a wall endlessly hitting monsters with autoswing. Make minos OPEN so we have to run around, and it takes SKILL to fight. Instead of standing still and owning everything with the press of a button.

It would be good to re-work all the zones and make them "Stand-behind-corner-and-own" proof. I think I would enjoy uber more if we actually had to fight like if it were a REAL LIFE RPG o_o

[LastWish]

Well if we implement what Aphex suggested (random setvelocities on bots), then that could be easily worked around.  Also, as players you can avoid this easily..  if you see people doing it, get out there and mix it up a little!  If the people standing behind corners are AFK, they won't get experience, or they will die if the bot gets around.

I was playing the other day, leveling at the Travellers Den, and instead of sitting there swinging I was moving around avoiding the damage..  someone actually called me a newbie because of it!  A newbie, because I was avoiding taking damage by dodging the bot..  rediculous o_O  I think we are heading in the right direction, though.

[BlAcK-IcE]

I'll come back if you clear. And talliun nice ideas there.  

[LastWish]

Entropy suggested employing a dev team, which I think is the best idea yet.  More importantly, a dev team where at least one of them has FTP access to the server.  We won't want to be bugging particle every time we need to make a small change!

If anyone has the ability to code some of Talliun's ideas, and is willing, please PM me!

Please -eViL-! >_<

[Aphex]

I was playing the other day, leveling at the Travellers Den, and instead of sitting there swinging I was moving around avoiding the damage.. someone actually called me a newbie because of it! A newbie, because I was avoiding taking damage by dodging the bot.. rediculous o_O I think we are heading in the right direction, though.

Yeah I realized that the only place you take actualy damage instead ofjust avoiding the mosters is the mines. It's still possible tho. At yolnda you stand on the end of the opening, so you take no dmg.  At the crypt you stand on the ramp.  at the ruins, you stand in the houses. And elven you stand on the ramp. At the den you can stand on the edge and they fall off.  Mino, behind a wall.  Uber, behind a wall. Centruia, on the rocks on up on the ledge.

So really there is no effort in game play. you just stand around while you take no damage and get all theexp. I would like to see that totally taken out.

I would like to see people have to put in effort to actuall lvl.

[Razore]

So, Fix up the maps, and put together a team that will find ANY crack/slot to stand on, then fix it

[LastWish]

Random Setvelocity

[WH-Lightning]

I'm definately for the clear, by all means. Great ideas, my only request is that we stop talking about it and do it... leveling feels all pointless with 2 pages of talk on the forum about a clear  

[LastWish]

Just waiting on Particle..  we have to implement a few of the changes before we start the server back up--the major ones can come after the clear (after people get a foothold).

[KoRo]

Hey people, I sent a huge list of Quest ideas to pecker about a year ago, and I may still have it. No one got a chance to see it except her, and she said they sounded excellent. Anyone interested? Dev teams/admins?

[Talliun]

Aye, lets see some of the concepts you had in mind KoRo. Put 'em up.

And a lot of the ideas mentioned in my previous posts dont revolve heavy coding, or coding at all. Most of it is just using in-game admin commands or using a pencil and paper on the side.

If you want greater details on certain things mentioned, just let me know. I'd be more than happy to explain the workings.

Signed,

Talliun

PS: On a side note, how involved are you admins wiling to be with some of the new ideas mentioned? We want to make sure we dont just do a clear and only a few things are changed - we want to make sure a new approach is brought about (not really changes, but involvement of the community). Otherwise, we just repeat history, just at a slower rate.