[MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

[Vincent Archer]

According to Madrona Tree:

> Well, not fire beetle eyes.  But i think for the NoDrop quest-items,
> yeah.  And then if somebody is *on* the quest, and has set the flag,
> it shouldn't take them 50 avocet kills to find an aviak charm.  It

I'll probably step here and justify this. Not agree, mind you, but
justify.

Basically, one of the design rules on all equipment in EQ's world is
its "rarity". That is, the rate at which that equipment enters the
world. It ranges from fairly common (several drops on lots of mobs,
like bronze armor) to fairly rare. Venril Sathir, for example, is the
only owner of greaves (for all classes), and spawns only once a week,
so you have a guarantee that at most one of these greaves enter the
world per week (well, he might drop two for two different classes).

Quest follow the same sets of rules. The drop rate is for the quest
items themselves, not the reward, but it boils down to the same.  Lord
Grimrot may spawn in South Karanas every 3 hours and 20mn, and he has
about 20% chance of being there, you need two items off him...  The
"normal" rate for that quest is thus of one reward every 33h.

Another poster commented on why a camp/quest should take 12h, and
could be broken in twelve 1h steps to make it reachable by the casual
gamer. If you follow that design goal, you can't. 12 separate 1h steps
means that the rate at which the quest can be done is 1 per hour, not
two per day.

EQ's quest engine is not very complicated. But it can be used
creatively and make some quests very entertaining and challenging.
The best example of it is the Coldain Ring quest. It is a 8-step quest
(with progressive rewards), and involves triggered battles and all
that, and is probably one of the most fun quests I've ever seen.

--
Vincent Archer                                         Email: archer at nevrax.com

Nevrax France.                              Off on the yellow brick road we go!
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev