[MUD-Dev] Resets, repops and quests

[Alex Oren]

[Adam:]
} [Alex:]
} > } > The question that was left unanswered is: How can a mud have a working que
} > } > system without some kind of resets?
} > 
} > Ling, Jeff (using some vaguely english-like language)
} 
} Heh.  I thought maybe I was just turning dyslexic when I read his posts.

My problem with this is that English is my third language so sometimes I have to
scratch my head pretty heavily when I encounter this "style".
What's wrong with spell checkers, anyway?  I use one (and I won't tell you what
weird replacement suggestions I got when it choked on your names...)

<snip snap>

} I don't like quests.  This is one reason I've never taken to LPs.  They
} are too linear - and before you argue, you'll never get a quest randomized
} enough or with enough built-in paths to make it non-linear enough for me.

Oh, but I like to argue.

Consider the following quest:
Your guild leader says "Bring me a shrub^H^H^H^H^Hgolden egg".

The golden egg is actually a holy item of the orcs, possessed by the orcish
shaman, who usually sits in his hut, in the middle of a medium sized orcish
village.

The player in question has to determine the egg's location in whatever
(non-linear) way he fancies.
Then he has to (non-linearly) arrive at the shaman's present location, persuade
him (in a less than linear way) to part with the egg, etc.

This may involve hacking the whole village apart or just casting a few spells in
a creative way.

As ChrisL demonstrated in an earlier post, it can be creatively done.

} Boffo wanders out into the plains.  It gets dark, and he stupidly forgot his
} torch.  He accidentally wanders over the edge of a cliff.
} 
} Buffy, riding by on her horse, hears cries for help.  Investigates and
} finds Boffa lying with a broken leg, wailing like a baby, at the bottom
} of a cliff.
} 
} Boom - quest.

Well, not as such.
A quest usually presents problems of comparable difficulty to different players.

<interesting story snipped>

The problem is when Buffy tells Biffy of her incredible adventure and Biffy
exclaims "Posh! I'd have handled it much better", she has practically no way of
proving it (apart from dragging Boffo, screaming and kicking, to the same cliff,
tossing him down and finally offering to heal him).

} > I can think of several quests that seem to be immune to most scenarios:
} > * Guild initiation rites.
} 
} Sure.  This would qualify as a simple goal.  It gets complex when the player
} is actually an assassin that has been paid a large amount of money to take
} out the guild leader.  He finds that the keep is impregnable, so decides
} to try to join the guild in order to get closer to the leader.  Does
} this require extra code on the part of the guild creator, or creation of
} a special 'quest' beyond someone desiring the guild leader dead?  Nope.

Exactly my point.

} > * Teleporting a player into an extra-dimentional dungeon.
} 
} What, you're just walking down the street munching on a snack and suddenly
} you're thrown into some dugeon?  I dislike highly random events, as a player.
} It's fine if they *seem* random, but there should be something underneath.
} Ie, you find out that that spiffy looking ring that you found on the ground
} and slipped on your finger actually belongs to an other-worldly demon
} who summoned you to his plane to retrieve it.

I meant that an extra-dimentional dungeon can be tamper-proof and reset-safe
because one can argue that there can be an infinite number of identical
dungeons.
Of course a trigger is needed.  Random events are a pain.
It could be your ring, or even a dream-quest.

Anyways, ChrisL's orc scenario demonstrates that reset-less quests are viable.
I consider my question answered and will nag you with others.  Stay tuned...


Have fun,
Alex.