[MUD-Dev2] [Design] on the game mechanics of open questing

[Zach Collins Siege]

I've been catching up on a few things, and I figure one good way to
understand a discussion is to design around its topic; in this case,
the ability for players to give quests (which I'll call "open
questing").

I'll use examples from two different games, which themselves are
simply thought exercises. The first I'll call "Hinterlands", the
second, "Technocalypse". This should give a good idea of the themes
behind them, but just for the record: Hinterlands is a fantasy-themed
game designed around a large and ever-changing world where, outside
the NPC-protected player start/training zones, there are several
factions vying for control of the land and influence with each other.
Technocalypse is a cyberpunk-themed game with four major zones of
influence (a corporate-run city-state, a democratically-run
city-state, the "Broken Lands" between and around them, and the
Cybernet); the Corps city is walled off, the Free city only has an
inner wall and whatever other defenses are constructed by players,
there are camps and tent cities in various places over the landscape,
and there are temporary and dedicated servers in the Cybernet. All
these areas have wandering NPCs (including creatures; imagine fighting
off a persistent search spider in the Cybernet so it doesn't
publically index your private server's contents -- and then physically
attacking the corporation that sent it to take their servers offline
and prevent that spider from returning).

Since we can't quite see how quests are formed without some further
background on the game mechanics, here goes:

Player skills have two components: training (player-set levels of
skill, using a fixed number of spendable points, which can be
readjusted at any time and then "flow" into the new priorities over
the following hours in and out of game), and experience (improvement
in a skill for using it repeatedly, which decays slowly over time). So
a player could play a healer, whose training is focused on protection,
surgery, and whatnot, but keep up the character's combat skills by
regularly going out to fight. Player classes are just shorthand for
"this set of training priorities", and thus perfectly fluid; players
can select from the list or set their own priorities.

Players can construct, own, store, and trade items and money. Players
can install, maintain, and destroy most non-terrain features, like
trees (and tree-houses), buildings, campfires, et cetera ad infinitum.
Some terrain features, such as mounds, pits, tunnels and mines, can be
created by players, and also maintained or destroyed (sappers
collapsing an enemy's entrenchments or shutting down a valuable mine
come to mind), while major terrain features involving slopes
(plains/forest, valleys, hills, mountains and ridges, rivers and
streams) are static. Ownership of non-terrain objects is primarily
determined by registered contract (legally binding with in-game
effects), or by who has invested in protecting and maintaining them
(tends to have reputation-based effects). So someone could own a
lean-to in the wilderness, but primarily rely on passing travellers to
maintain it -- the reputation of the owner increases with use of the
object, and the reputation of any passers-by increases with
maintenance or destruction wrought upon it. When an object is
destroyed, its remains are free for the taking, but any foundations
left behind are still owned until the contract expires for whatever
reason (such as failure to pay tax or maintenance costs, or the
complete destruction of the object's foundations and thus its
existence in the world).

Other minor details: There is a day/night cycle. There is also
weather, more or less controlled depending on location. Most buildings
and certain other objects can be set as one's home or usual spawn
point. Paths and roads appear on terrain depending on traffic and
infrastructure investment (such as installing a paved road in a
certain area vs "maintained land" spawning pavement on a
heavily-traveled path).

Now for the economy: Total in-game money and items are based on
resources acquired, trade, and item creation (once the stock of
developer-placed substance has been exhausted). Since the whole game's
wealth is determined by the gathering of resources rather than by
simple faucets, economies really can scale horrendously high unless
certain characters determinedly hoard value, destroy objects, or
otherwise work to wear down and/or sequester the economic product of
the game world. And of course, occasionally a resource will "dry up"
or otherwise lose value (perhaps a new and better alloy is discovered,
which uses different metals from the tin and copper you've been mining
all year).

And now the most complex part: Anything a player can do, an NPC can
do, plus a little bit (mostly reproduction). This means that NPCs have
scripts or AI designed to get them out and doing things like creating
trails through the wilderness, creating camps and buildings for their
comfort, destroying opponents' properties, reproducing in certain
conditions. NPCs have motivations both large and small (I want my
company to complete its latest research ASAP so I can beat any
competition to the product; I want to see the world; I want some food
to help me heal; I want to upgrade my weapon; I need to give a good
reward for this other quest; I need a larger family to help me farm
this area). NPCs also have path-preferences (meaning the path most
likely to be chosen for giving or completing a quest), based on
self-image and the strength of certain likes and dislikes (I am a
hero/independent, so I want to accomplish things for myself; I am the
boss/leader, so I want underlings to do this for me; I am a consummate
healer, so I don't want to fight things myself; I like berries;
trading is fun; boosters are for wimps; this faction/person is my
friend/enemy).

Quests are based on what a character wants others to get for them (I
may be a hero, but I have no skill at mixing up the strength tonic I
want), and are rewarded based on what the character wants to give out
(I have this nifty rock that I know is valuable, but I can't do
anything with it). In order to keep rewards in line with the quests,
there is a minimum value based on the danger of the location the
questor will quest in (how densely populated it is with enemies, and
their median combat value adjusted by mathematical range -- see
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/sets/select/dm_mean_median.html
for definitions), how detrimental achieving the goal will be (are they
carrying a radioactive isotope, or just something that attracts a lot
of attention?), and the rank and relative wealth of the quest-giver.
In other words, you get hazardous-duty pay and a king or corporate
agent are likely to pay better than a peasant or a trash-heap
scavenger -- unless their organization is insolvent and out of goods
to distribute! (Agent Smith says, "Gather these resources, and you'll
get a cut of the profits." or King George of Rumfustian says, "Return
to me with a chest of goblins' gold, and I shall confer upon thee a
stately title.") Note that with wealth comes the question of
preserving it (characters can carry money or deposit it in a bank
which may or may not be accessible outside one's home region), while
with rank comes privelege and responsibility (and there's always the
question of how many nobles or vice-presidents a given leader can
manage, not to mention how others will react to your new reputation).
Rewards can include contracts over time (you now own a building, or a
certain percentage of profit an organization makes over a certain
period of time, or a certain number of items to be disbursed as they
become available, or what have you) as well as orders to other
characters or objects (particularly NPC underlings; and doors, pre-set
traps, and dispensers), and offers of training (add experience to a
particular skill).

The reward *offer* made in a quest is held in escrow by the game, and
a character's reputation is affected by how quickly they pay up when
the quest is completed (orders and contracts are typically distributed
immediately, unless there's a certain active time period specified in
the quest contract or a message requires someone to run it out to the
addressees -- for example, power sources and the Cybernet are
unreliable in the Broken Lands, which among other things causes camps
and eventually villages and towns to spring up simply for the
preservation of Cybernet nodes and the provision of energy to those
nodes and any nearby servers). This includes NPCs all the way up to
the Emperor of the Fiery Mount, whose rewards often include things
like "you may leave my home alive" (meaning that until they leave the
area, the character will not be attacked unless they attack first and
traps will not activate except in special zones like near the treasure
vault, which in any case requires getting past several defensive
guards and opening one or more locked doors while avoiding or
preventing alarm triggers).

As you can see, there are two points here:

1: Theme is not mechanics. You can have any theme you like as long as
the underlying game mechanics are sound.

And 2: the real secrets of open questing are that everyone (including
NPCs) can give a quest ("Hey man U get me gold I give U potion") to
whomever, by several different methods; and that NPCs are motivated by
their personalities much like characters. I know that several folk on
this mailing list are already working on such things, but I think that
a group effort with public results would really help things along.

-- 
Zach Collins (Siege)
"If code can be speech, then software can be art."