New GC Content
Posted: Tue May 30, 2017 2:09 pm
if it's for offline only, I would love to see a quest that has a bunch of NPC's in it, in the sense of Central Dome Fire Swirl, where there are a bunch of NPC's that you can interact with.
I once had an idea where a number of the well known players, at that time, would be NPC's in a long quest that went over the entirety of the play locations on Ragol. I asked someone who made quests back then how many NPC's could be put into a quest, and was advised, perhaps incorrectly so, that there could be up to three NPC's per area, due to a four player limit, which might even possibly be condensed into per room. If that is that case, you could, most likely, stick every damn player from Schthack Server GC portion from the past three years into the quest, and really have something that people would love to download, just to see themselves and how they are represented, even if they don't play the game anymore.
Of course, it would be a pain to make, most likely, since people would have to go into the character building screen and find which model choices make up their main characters, and then submit them for use. Dialog could be an issue, too, since it might be difficult to simply come up with that much for the NPC's to say. Although, it could be turned into a communication type thing, where NPC1A wants to get a message to NPC3Y, or something, and you, as a player, have to go through the areas, perhaps trying to find out where NPC3Y is, or something. A quest like that, switching the focus from a killing standpoint to one of communication and teamwork with NPC's while still featuring monsters to kill so people don't get upset about experience loss, could really be a game changer. I also don't intend that this would be like Cryo's quest, where he was virtually cussing players out for not being as cool and hip and poppin fresh as he felt himself to be.
My original idea about this, when I asked about it those many years ago, was to build a quest based on the stupid tutorials I used to make: where WORKS was facing off against Black Paper and the Army of the Ten Nations, or whatever it was. Were you a member of WORKS, Black Paper, or were you a spy for one of them getting information about the other? I didn't think it would so much work as an online quest, because it was single player only, in order to shove more NPCs into each area for people to talk to or get information from. However, having it as an online quest could have been cool, too, for the simple reason that the online portion had the lobby, where players could discuss the quests, and what they found there. Central Dome Fire Swirl showed that there could be more than three NPCs in each larger area, and I really wanted to follow through with building the quest for people to enjoy seeing themselves as a pivotal figure in the game.
So, if you were on the opposing side from an NPC, let's say that you could target the NPC, and fight against them, or something. That would be a great way to determine who a spy was in hyour own organization, if the quest build allowed for a player to choose a side, or something. Or, perhaps there would simply be two versions of the quest: WORKS, or Black Paper. A third version of the quest for a spy might have you able to target NPC's of either side, or perhaps neither side. Dialog, and quest specifics would change between the different versions, as the two sides would work at cross purposes, anyway. Honestly, that's simply asking for too many quest spots.
Having the quest span the entirety of either episode could be an issue, too, these days. People don't have the attention span that they used to, and, like Scthack's Spring Cleaning quest, if it truly involved an entire episode of area in one go, I don't see a lot of people completing it. Because of that, splitting it up could be a good idea. I don't know if I'd ever use the Beta areas of Episode 2 as a part of the quest, simply because the Temple area is boring as can be. It does, however, offer an entire maze for NPC's to be hiding out in, although that might simply lead to frustration on a player's part, if they have some difficulty finding someone. I could see using the Spaceship, though, because I like the look and layout, although, as has been stated, some of the rooms are bugged for drops.
There are times when I come to this site, and see people who are still interested in this game, or are excited about a new find, or a new friend made, that make me wish I'd spent more time trying to learn how to build quests. Newer players missed so much when this game had a good number of people playing on it. Putting those old players into a quest, I thought, would be a great way to introduce newer people to the fun that was, and still could be, Phantasy Star Online.
I once had an idea where a number of the well known players, at that time, would be NPC's in a long quest that went over the entirety of the play locations on Ragol. I asked someone who made quests back then how many NPC's could be put into a quest, and was advised, perhaps incorrectly so, that there could be up to three NPC's per area, due to a four player limit, which might even possibly be condensed into per room. If that is that case, you could, most likely, stick every damn player from Schthack Server GC portion from the past three years into the quest, and really have something that people would love to download, just to see themselves and how they are represented, even if they don't play the game anymore.
Of course, it would be a pain to make, most likely, since people would have to go into the character building screen and find which model choices make up their main characters, and then submit them for use. Dialog could be an issue, too, since it might be difficult to simply come up with that much for the NPC's to say. Although, it could be turned into a communication type thing, where NPC1A wants to get a message to NPC3Y, or something, and you, as a player, have to go through the areas, perhaps trying to find out where NPC3Y is, or something. A quest like that, switching the focus from a killing standpoint to one of communication and teamwork with NPC's while still featuring monsters to kill so people don't get upset about experience loss, could really be a game changer. I also don't intend that this would be like Cryo's quest, where he was virtually cussing players out for not being as cool and hip and poppin fresh as he felt himself to be.
My original idea about this, when I asked about it those many years ago, was to build a quest based on the stupid tutorials I used to make: where WORKS was facing off against Black Paper and the Army of the Ten Nations, or whatever it was. Were you a member of WORKS, Black Paper, or were you a spy for one of them getting information about the other? I didn't think it would so much work as an online quest, because it was single player only, in order to shove more NPCs into each area for people to talk to or get information from. However, having it as an online quest could have been cool, too, for the simple reason that the online portion had the lobby, where players could discuss the quests, and what they found there. Central Dome Fire Swirl showed that there could be more than three NPCs in each larger area, and I really wanted to follow through with building the quest for people to enjoy seeing themselves as a pivotal figure in the game.
So, if you were on the opposing side from an NPC, let's say that you could target the NPC, and fight against them, or something. That would be a great way to determine who a spy was in hyour own organization, if the quest build allowed for a player to choose a side, or something. Or, perhaps there would simply be two versions of the quest: WORKS, or Black Paper. A third version of the quest for a spy might have you able to target NPC's of either side, or perhaps neither side. Dialog, and quest specifics would change between the different versions, as the two sides would work at cross purposes, anyway. Honestly, that's simply asking for too many quest spots.
Having the quest span the entirety of either episode could be an issue, too, these days. People don't have the attention span that they used to, and, like Scthack's Spring Cleaning quest, if it truly involved an entire episode of area in one go, I don't see a lot of people completing it. Because of that, splitting it up could be a good idea. I don't know if I'd ever use the Beta areas of Episode 2 as a part of the quest, simply because the Temple area is boring as can be. It does, however, offer an entire maze for NPC's to be hiding out in, although that might simply lead to frustration on a player's part, if they have some difficulty finding someone. I could see using the Spaceship, though, because I like the look and layout, although, as has been stated, some of the rooms are bugged for drops.
There are times when I come to this site, and see people who are still interested in this game, or are excited about a new find, or a new friend made, that make me wish I'd spent more time trying to learn how to build quests. Newer players missed so much when this game had a good number of people playing on it. Putting those old players into a quest, I thought, would be a great way to introduce newer people to the fun that was, and still could be, Phantasy Star Online.