Re: CF: one time solving quests

["Doug wilder" <doug_wilder@hotmail.com>]

>From: Scott Wedel <scott@campy.tymnet.com>
>Reply-To: Scott Wedel <scott@campy.tymnet.com>
>To: crossfire@ifi.uio.no, mtx93@informatik.uni-bremen.de
>Subject: Re: CF: one time solving quests
>Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 22:57:49 -0600 (MDT)
>
>One time solving quests are very difficult to implement in a
>multi player game because it just creates an incentive to find
>a way to bypass that checkpoint or avoid completely winning the
>quest.  Such checkpoints detract from gameplay because there is
>no obvious reason why doing something is prohibited for one
>character, but not others.
>
>I recall playing some auto demolition game which was pretty fun
>as I was building up the car and increasing driver skill.  The
>game allowed the player to purchase clones which were basically
>a legit way to save the driver in case he got killed.  Then near
>the end you got a cargo which would win the game, but as they
>handed it to you they said your clone was killed and you cannot
>make another again.  Well, I won the game, but there was no way
>for me within the game to continue playing (the number of bad guys
>increased as the game progressed so it would be a reasonable
>challenge to not be ending up with a weaker and weaker vehicle)
>and so I quit playing.  Anyway, CF is meant to be an opened ended
>game and the ideal playbalance equilibrium would be if the result
>of creating a truly powerful char was an even greater challenge of
>maintaining the character.
>
>I think the biggest problem regarding repeating quests is that
>the finishing rooms of a quest refresh way too quickly.  I think
>there should be CF config file which allows specifying the refresh
>frequency for any map.  An entry would be a line of the pathname to
>the map relative to the top of the maps directory and the desired
>refresh delay.  That way it is easy to make treasure rooms refresh
>much less often depending on the preferences of the DM.  That way
>a DM could also decide that one quest is being done too much and
>make the key rooms refresh only rarely.
>
>
>-


I can see the reason for this and it might well work. There could be a timer 
saying that 1st level for a dungeon would reset after 4 hours but the 5th 
level would reset once a day. EverQuest uses something like this when the 
respawn creatures that carry different items at different times. The one 
problem i see is that even though there are a lot of maps with places to go 
they tend not to be organized like a standard game. In the usual game you 
proceed along a path of progressingly harder quests and paths to get to some 
specified goal (save the kingdom, rescue the princess). Here though because 
its open ended the quests and dungeons are spreadout and User knowledge is 
used to pick where and what you do. Just getting out of Scorn can be a 
problem to the NUBIE who has never played before if you dont have sombody 
helping you.
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