Quest editor...

[Click]

Still lurking...

I saw it brought up in the design preview thread but it was never really answered. Does anyone know for sure, not speculation or "it makes sense, so of course..." or just guessing, but for sure, what the Quest Editor is for? The design preview mentions a forthcoming Public Release so it seems like it will be available to more than just TG employees to write quests for Horizons. But beyond that all it tells is that it will make quest creation better and faster.

Click.

[Seikojin]

:o
yeah sometime a couple of months ago they ran a quest contest, and alot of people said it in feedback and on these forums that there needs to be a way for player made quests to be added to the game. Eventually the contest ended and the winners got their quests into the game. It was a big success. Well the next step is being done. A tool so we can make the quests ALOT easier.

The quests use an array of if then statements for their triggers, that combined with all the statements and complexity of the arguments, made it really difficult for someone to type the quest up in their format. So the tool will do all the formatting for you, and hopefully will have an easy way to set up the if then statements.

:)

[Click]

Thank you, Seikojin. :)

It's already been discussed a few times on IRC.

And thank you too, Kumu. As it has been said before though, many of us don't visit IRC.

Click.

[Dragonboy]

I like the idea of a quest editor though...

Many people want more quests and have the fantasy to create them...

So why not let them and see the game improve this way...

And maybe the "Unity" players should be able to send them to Tulga aswell.

[imported_Onnidrah]

Some discussions are at www.hzquests.tk about the new tool. I think its a good start to let players organize quests (/ events)

[Dragonboy]

any news about the Quest editor?

[AmonGwareth]

It is waiting for one more pass by Richard. He is currently out of the country visiting his family and when he returns he'll finish it up. I think he is due back in another week or two (I forget which).

- Amon

[Dragonboy]

Thanx for the info Amon! [:D]

Do you have any idea if it is usable by US shards only or do the EU shard players have a chance as well?

If it becomes available for player use of course...

[Bori Grimbattle]

Let us discuss the Quests available in Horizons. Most involve either killing Mob A umpteen enough times,killing Mob B umpteen enough times until it drops a certain item or the Istarian branch of Fed-Ex.
We do all this for what? Not a quest item, but a few silvers and some experience.

Quest is defined as?

The act or an instance of seeking or pursuing something; a search.
An expedition undertaken in medieval romance by a knight in order to perform a prescribed feat: the quest for the Holy Grail.
Archaic. A jury of inquest.
To go on a quest.
To search for game.
v. tr.
To search for; seek.

The Horizons engine seems to lack the ability to manipulate world objects. For example you cannot move a boulder, activate a pressure pad, flip a lever or find a hidden switch to solve a puzzle. We do not even have doors to unlock. That in turn gives us Quests that pale in comparison to what some other games have. I spent a few years in Asherons? Call and the Quests there ran from a single player to a group effort to get through them. Switches had to be pulled; riddles required an answer and traps kept you guessing. Our Guild would get together to run these Quests over and over again not just for the item received in the end but because they were challenging and fun.

However, that does bring us to another point. What are we questing for? To me a Quest involves either searching for knowledge, lore or an artifact of some power or significance. For the Darkstaff quests however, we gain experience points and nothing more. Even the Lore given by Gregory is sparse. In the making of the Darkstaff we do not even get to keep the replica staff that Gregory builds with the pieces we collect.

How can we change the problems?

Tulga made a mistake, in my opinion, to make the SET ITEMS a drop item. They should have been Quest items and available only through quests. Quest items do not have to be more powerful then player crafted objects; they just have to be DIFFERENT. The Regal Weapons were not more powerful but they had unique attributes that cannot be found elsewhere. They too, however, were drop only and now they are no more.

The monster spawn system also does not allow a quest to be built that has any challenge to it. Go to cords xxx/yyy, wait for Mob A to spawn, kill it and collect item, deliver item to NPC. Quest items should be guarded by powerful creatures and should be there when you arrive, or materialize when you activate a certain trigger rather then waiting five minutes for the creature to spawn.

One of the better Quests was the one involved in recalling the Dryads. The boards were abuzz with people discussing solutions. Yet that one too involved killing a Mob until it dropped a wand and collecting a set of wands. Since that Quest could only be done ONCE by ONE person, it led to camping of the mobs for the wands and bitter arguments over who got to finish the quest.

Now in literature, the Quest for the Grail was performed by all the Knights but only one was able to gain the reward. The Knights however were questing out of a belief and Lore where we quest for fun. All who participate should gain something more then silver and a few experience points.

If experience points are to be given as a reward for a quest the amount granted should be commensurate with the time taken to do the task. For example, if it takes me an hour to run around gathering items the reward should at least grant me the same experience that hunting would have given me in that same hour. That is why granting an item is far superior to granting experience for quest completions.

So do I have an idea for one? I have a few, yet they are shackled by the existing world model and game engine. However, there are ways around this problem.

While harvesting a resource a crafter notices a strange object buried in the ground.(or an adventurer finds one on a creature he just killed.) After digging it out he finds out it is a scroll case which upon opening gives some instructions on how to create a crystal or orb of recall. It is replete with Lore describing how the creation of these items was lost shortly after the Age of the Gods ended. To gain the material for this item he has to travel deep into the western dead lands to the destroyed Temple to the Gods. Once there he finds a large crystalline mass where the altar used to be. However, as he starts chipping away at it a Guardian materializes and kills him. Perhaps he should have brought along someone to protect him?

If his Protector kills the Guardian, the crafter can continue chipping away at the crystal. After getting a piece of the crystal and one for his Protector friend, (he strangely discovers he can only hold one in inventory) he goes to recall out and finds out he cannot. He re-reads the scroll and finds out that unless blessed by the Gods the item prevents both recall and the use of portals. He also reads there is an ancient Dragon somewhere in Chiconis who can craft this raw crystal into a gem or an orb. Then the gem or orb, once crafted has to be dipped into a pure spring across the Bridge of Hues.

So he must walk all the way to Chiconis. Once he finds the Ancient, the Dragon upon inspecting the crystal asks if he would wish an orb or a gem made from it. Being a crafter and reading the scroll he selects gem while his adventure companion decides on an orb. Then they are off on another long walk to the Bridge of Hues. If either should die with the unblessed item in their possession they would find they are unable to respawn and must await a resurrection on the spot. After the item is dipped into the spring across the Bridge of Hues they would once more be able to recall or portal.

Now that the item has been blessed, what does it do? Nothing yet. It requires charging.
The scroll tells them they must journey to the Spiral near Dalimond and place the item in the Sacred Flame there. The number of charges would be based on either Crafter or Adventure ratings to a maximum of 100 charges. It can be recharged as many times as needed. Once it is placed in the Flame you would receive messages such as ?The Gem starts to vibrate ever so slightly, the Gems vibrating is now a buzz,? to a point where it states, ?The gems vibration turns into a gentle rhythmic beat as if it were alive?. The recharge times are a random number from 2 to 15 minutes and if the message goes beyond to ?The Gem begins to vibrate wildly? you have gone too far and ruined the gem for shortly after it would ?Explode in a violent burst of energy? This is to prevent people from walking away from their computer until the item is charged. So now that it is cut and blessed and charged, what does it do?

For crafters, it fits into a ?SOCKETED? cargo disc, which would allow them to recall to their disc. For an adventurer the orb would be placed on a ?SOCKETED? battle standard that could be ?PLANTED? where they are doing battle enabling a quick return to the fight if there was nobody nearby with a resurrection spell. (Equipping the standard in the cargo disc slot on the battle scene would allow a ?Return to Battle? to the cords registered when equipped and the graphics would display a Battle Standard rather then a cargo disc. It would default to ?grounded?) It is attuned to whoever ?Blessed? the item and only one completed gem or orb can be in your possession. It cannot be placed in any storage structure. This is to make it futile for one person to ?farm? them and sell them for profit.

The above is possible with the current engine. The Crystalline lump in the Temple would be a resource node, the Guardian a MoB, the Dragon of course a dragon, the Blessed Spring and the Holy Flame an NPC with just different graphics. After all there is a Spirit in both the water and flame that would impart Lore on you as you wait. The Lore is the part that is critical to all Quests for without it the quest loses its flavor.

So the above Quest has what it needs. Lore, and plenty of it; a reward that is useable by anyone and would be desired by anyone; the need to, in certain cases, require a group to complete it; is repeatable (the charging and re-charging portion).

I do not know if the Quest Engine will allow the creation of something like this but the main thing the Quest Engine lacks is TG developed Lore for the quests. A Quest without Lore is not a quest but a task.

Sorry about the length of this but it is important to me and is my view on the situation.

[Valornyx]

Nice quest Bori - I'd enjoy doing that one

[refuse]

Very nice.

[imported_Frith-Rae]

very nice- only really could see a few issues or changes :) but otherwise looks like a fun quest - and you get something very worthwhile at the end - for all that running around (lots of running....)

1-make sure dragons can harvest that item out of the destroyed temple too :) (i.e. dragon ingenuity has a use again!)

If either should die with the unblessed item in their possession they would find they are unable to respawn and must await a resurrection on the spot. After the item is dipped into the spring across the Bridge of Hues they would once more be able to recall or portal.

I only see an issue with this due to the low population on the servers. One could be literally waiting hours, if not days, for that "rez on the spot". I would suggest some other bothersome thing (as in perhaps having to return all the way back to chiconis and get the item again if you died - thus having to start the journey over again), rather than having to wait on other players to rez one's butt :).

For crafters, it fits into a ?SOCKETED? cargo disc, which would allow them to recall to their disc. For an adventurer the orb would be placed on a ?SOCKETED? battle standard that could be ?PLANTED? where they are doing battle enabling a quick return to the fight if there was nobody nearby with a resurrection spell.

I see this applying just fine to dragon crafters (we can use socketed cargo disks right?). But dragons don't have battle standards - unless of course, they were made for dragons :). But yes adventure dragons would love this, as not a single dragon has a rez in game and no way to get one. This could be a way for dragons to be able to at least rez themselves.

Good idea, hope that quest editor comes out soon for you to submit it! :)

[refuse]

My take at a series of Quests for blood mage.

Only did T2-T4


Quest Arc



Tier 2 (Blood Mages start at 20)
The meaning of the Blood Mage

Talk to the blood mage trainer, He explains that now that you are a blood mage, you should understand the path the Blood Mage walks, and the rewarding future blood mages have.

He goes on to describe the seperation of blood mage from spiritist, and how blood mages choose to use less blight, and more spirit, and how they use that focus to focus their powers.

He tells you that to understand this difference you must first understand the other's point of view, so go out and talk to the spiritist trainers, and the shamans, to understand the power of spirit and the influences of blight.

NPC to talk to:
Shaman Trainer in Sslanis
He explains how the power of blight can be combined with the power of nature, to create a powerful combonation that is part of life. The decay as well as growth is part of nature.

Spiritist Trainer in Kirascenct
He explains that you should know the power of the spiritst, and that it is in the combining of spirit and blight, the ability to attack the very spirit of the target with blight and use the targets own spirit against them.

Spiritist trainer outside dalimond
He has a more esoteric take on spirist, and explains that spiritist is the opposite of the life/nature branch. Where life is the embodyment of the body, and nature that of creation, the spiritist is the power of the spirit, and the power of entropy. He further tells you that there is a difference between spirit and mind, and mind is the intent of the spirit, while the spirit is the power of the mind. Perhaps the sorcerer trainer can explain that better.
+Additional task to talk to the sorcerer trainer

Sorcerer Trainer in Kirascenct
He explains that the mind, is the portion between the body and the spirit. It is the part that uses the spirits energy to move the body, and that his school focuses on confusing, or weakening that link. For every aspect of Istaria there are three parts. The Power, the body and the control. In the casting schools this is the Spirit, the healers and the Arcane. Where spiritists and blood mages focus on the spirit power of living things, the very force that keeps the blighted forces alive. The body is the nature and life of things. And the arcane, the schools that seek to control the elements of mind, energy, ice, fire.

The quester now returns to the blood mage trainer and gets the Blood Mage edge

Blood Mage Edge
Non-Masterable
+10 spirit
+1 spirit damage

(it is a prestigue class so adds more spirit even if they have spiritist edge, as the spiritist gets 10 Blight and 10 Spirit, the prestige class of blood mage will end up with 11 pts per level.)


Tier 3
The power of the Blood Mage

The Blood Mage trainer welcomes you back, and at your new found powers and mastery of the Spirit and adhearence to the pricipals of the Blood Mage school. He discusses the difficult of being a blood mage, and the importance of following the path of the blood mage. He describes the blood bolt and the powers gained since the initiation into blood mage. The Concentrate blood ability focusing the power of your own blood, the Blood Doll ability to store you health in a container for later use. The ability of area syphon, stop blood, and how these powers will grow over time.

He then asks if you are ready to expand your powers through a trial. He cautions that this isn't a quest, but a series of tasks meant to challenge your abilities, and to look at the races of Istaria who use vicious attacks to weaken their opponents, much as a blood mage.

Talk to a Reaver
The Blood Mage Trainer indicates the reaver class is master of increasing the physical damage through the manipulation of the target's Spirit.

The Reaver trainer explains that the focusing of the Reaver's spirit along the weapon allows the physical attack of the reaver to be multiplied upon impact by the spirit force. The trainer explains how the Reaver class differs from the spiritist and blood mage through the use of weaponry to enhance their damage instead of relying on pure Spirit damage.
Task: + Talk to a reaver trainer

Gem Golems
Golems use a series of attacks that can throw their opponent off balance. Their ability to cause a wound to continue bleeding is a model of the Blood Mage offensive ability. This bleed ability is vicious and can cause an opponent to quickly fall in battle.
Task: + Kill 5 T3 golems (can't remember their names)

Wolves
He tells you of the wolves of Istaria, and their vicious attacks that are meant to weaken their opponent. They hunt in packs and will unleash a devistating series of attacks that are meant to leave the victim bleeding or dead. Kill 5 of them so you can see their tactics, and how the bleeding of an opponent can render them helpless.
[b]Task: + Kill 5 Desert Wolves

Blights
The animated forms of the Withered Ages are terrible to behold, and the meat blights are the spiritless creatures that are the horror that the Withered Ages Would unleash upon Istaria. To understand the horror of the Wither Ages, you must go and kill 5 meat blights, creatures who do no possess any of the bleeding attacks the other oponents use, but who instead attack you with the very blight a Blood Mage must master during their path. You must master the ability to detoxify your body, and cleanse yourself of the blight they weild against you.
Task: + Kill 10 Meat Blights


Upon returning the Blood Mage trainer assures you that the bleed abilities of the istarian creatures shows that the use of spirit is pure, and it is the weilding of the blight the Blood Mage must understand. Using the enemies very force against them is a powerful tool, but the blood Mage must understand that they too could be consumed by the very blight the wish to weild.

The Blood mage trainer tells the initiate they should return with 10 uncut golem gems (T3 golem gems of one type), 4 Wolf fangs, and 4 Blight bindings.
Task: return with 10 uncut T3 gems, 4 wolf fangs, 4 blight bindings

The Blood Mage Trainer gives the aspiring Blood Mage a choice of tools:

Spirit
Dagger of the Blood Mage
Blood Mage only
Automatically attuned when given to the Blood Mage
+20 Spirit
+10 Etheral Armor
+10 Spirit ward
+1 Spirit Damage

Blight
Knife of the Blood Mage
Blood Mage only
Automatically attuned when given to the Blood Mage
+20 Blight
+10 Etheral Armor
+10 blight ward
+1 blight Damage

The quest can only be done once, and the weapon is meant to be a good weapon from T3-T4. (so the +20 is T4 ish)



Tier 4
The armor of the Blood Mage
The Blood Mage Trainer welcomes the Blood Mage back and compliments him on their progression, and depth of knowledge as a blood mage.
He explains that the power of the spirit, allows a blood mage to increase their resistances to damage (wards), and that mastering this ability will help the Blood mage avoid the attacks of the enemy, while their spells drain their enemies of their lives.

To this end, the Blood Mage Trainer tells the student that additional depth of understanding must be gained. And that he should first talk to a Monk Trainer, to understand the masterery of ones body.
Task: + Talk to a Monk Trainer

The monk trainer explains how monks master the art of evasion and dodge, while they learn the ability "mind over body", the ability to heal. But the extension of that into the ability to ward off damage isn't that different. The monk trainer explains that the ability to "Dismiss" damage, or to allow your body to ignore the damage is in part the master of the spirit that the Blood Mage is studing.

Upon returning the the Blood Mage Trainer the blood mage trainer indicates that the initiate needs to test their strength of spirit by experiencing the pain of combat with creatures that are masters of dealing damage.

Spiders
The Blood Mage trainer explains that spiders in istaria are masters of dodging the incomming attacks, while unleashing their attacks against their opponents. The ability of the Blood Mage to master their body, will prevent the spider's poison from entering their body, and if it does enter their body, their master to detoxify themselves will be tested.
Task: + Kill 10 T4 spiders (probably outside Aug

Flies
The flies work together as a single opponent. Their ability to swarm their opponent an overwhelm their armor is another good test for the Blood Mage's master. As the flies will strike at the armor's weak points, overwhelming their armor, only the blood mage's master of their self, will prevent the damage of the flies. To this end, they must study the attacks of flies, and their blighted attacks, all the while focusing on mastering themselves.
Task: + Kill 10 T4 Flies

When the Blood Mage returns the trainer will congratulate them on the lessons learned and their new found understanding of their own spirit. To this end, he will offer to make a tunic for the Blood Mage.

(NOTE: At level 60 the blood mage will only have 480 AU, so this suit will not have any AU requirement)
The Blood Mage trainer indicates the Blood Mage should acquire some unspun silk (enough for a tunic), and indicates the spiders they fought earlier defend this silk.
They Blood mage should also bring back 4 Fly wings from the T4 flies they killed earlier.
They are told once they have aquired this, they should return.

Task: Return with 40 unspun silk
Task: Return with 4 T4 Fly wings

The Blood Mage trainer gives the Blood Mage a choice of Blight or spirit.

Spirit
Padded Silk Tunic of the Blood Mage
Blood Mage only
Automatically attuned when given to the Blood Mage
+20 Spirit
+15 to Blood Mage Wards (all the wards the blood mage normally has)
+1 Spirit Damage
+ Armor as per Padded Silk
(no AU requirement)

Blight
Silk Tunic of the Blood Mage
Blood Mage only
Automatically attuned when given to the Blood Mage
+20 Blight
+20 to Evasion and magic evasion
+1 blight Damage
+ Armor as per Silk
(no AU requirement)

Quest can only be done once.


The idea is that the blood mage gets items as he raises levels, they can choose to use these, and they have good advantages, possibly better then their tier, but probably not quite the combonation the blood mage may want. They do get choices in their progression (blight/Spirit), and there is a bit of lore with each portion of the quest, as well as a pay off for killing the mobs requested (though probably not enough to get the components required to make the items).