What type of Quests?

[Unclever title]

Yeah your right this would involve lots of walking.

Theoretically you could more or less do this as you progress through the game so some of the locations don't need to be out of your way. I was thinking these riddles would be hidden in existing dungeons and caves and not necessarily in places set up just for them (excluding the treasure hoard of course) or in towns. It wouldn't make sense for them to be hidden directly near roadways though, so that convenience is out.

Who's to say the riddles won't make you think? I'm not talking about you get to this point and it tells you precisely where to go next, that's too easy, not to mention boring. Of course without the precise location it might lead to more walking...

Personally, I never minded the walking, it was a bit slow at times and I would have appreciated it if dungeons had a quick way out, but once out of them I always quick traveled (If that option were available at the time).

Anyways it's just an idea and something I, at least, would like to see in book II or III.

[devinv]

I think that fetch quests are common in rpgs for the same reason that killing people/monsters is common in many different types of video games -- it's very easy to do! What interaction could be simpler to imagine ( or implement ) than find the guy, shoot/stab that guy, he dies. Even just talking to someone requires significantly more thought to do right. I'm happy to see that on the book2 page quests are described as having cause and effect, which I interpret to mean completing a quest will do more than give you gold/xp. Even though it's a fantasy game, making it a little more like real life is a good thing in this case: errands often have unexpected difficulties or unintended consequences.

sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a wall. I dont enjoy minigames that are go to point X to go to point Y to point Z. I want riddles that pertain to making me think not run walk around endlessly which there was too much of in book1.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a wall. I dont enjoy minigames that are go to point X to go to point Y to point Z. I want riddles that pertain to making me think not run walk around endlessly which there was too much of in book1.

Mongolian,

You may have noted that some people on the board get annoyed with you. You might consider that it has to do with the fact that BW and his team are not designing a game solely for you.

Any sort of side quest that you don't like, you have the option of ignoring. But I wonder how solving a riddle does not make you use your mind, even if the solution gives you the name of a place to walk to? For instance, the six lever in the Whistling Caves in Book I annoyed you because it could be solved by simple trial and error, given enough patience. However, I looked at it and considered the logic used by the designers and how they would likely set the levers. Thus, I flipped the right combination on the second try (I had it reversed the first time). All of the strategies in the game require you to use your brain.

Sure, the bull-in-the-china-shop method can also get you there, but I thought having other options was a good thing. I've seen several people say "why bother learning to pick locks if you can just bash doors down? Well, sleeping in a cabin where you can close the door has seemed, to me, to reduce the number of random encounters while I was sleeping. If I had bashed the door off its hinges, I couldn't have closed the door.

My two cents. I think an extended puzzle/treasure hunt quest can be interesting. Also, you might note that the definition of a quest is "a long, arduous search for something." In other words, go find an item.

Sorry if I sound snippy, but it's been an annoying week.

[devinv]

a few quest ideas:

You could hear about an opportunity to perform a fetch quest or similar, but when you go find the person to ask for it, they've already given it to an NPC. This NPC could be found on his way to complete the quest and...well it's up to you at that point, you could try to bribe him or intimidate him into giving you the quest, follow him at a distance and wait for him to kill the dragon or whatever before stealing the prize away from him, team up with him?

You could have a basic quest presented to you in the form of a dream, maybe if you camp in the right spot in the forest. It could be presented in symbolic form, or simply as a vision of a place or a person you need to find. The dream could change as time goes on to include more detail, if the user isn't able to figure out what to do from the first dream, later dreams gradually provide more detailed information to get them there. Perhaps the entire quest takes place in a dream, you would become disembodied and have until the sun comes up and the dream ends to wander through the night and find something. It could involve finding information that would be otherwise unavailable to you in regular life, for example floating into a locked and otherwise unavailable room and reading from a book that tells a secret about something, or seeing someone do something they shouldn't be doing. When you wake up you 'remember' the dream and use the information to uncover something useful, for example where ol' granny hid the dubloons or how to perform an obscure spell, or how to pressure the magic store owner into giving you a valuable item. There are lots of possibilities depending on how far-reaching you want the consequences to be or how virtuous or nefarious you want to let the player be.

A final idea-- you could give the player a 'film noir' style quest. It could be hiding in the shadows inside a building or near it to see if a woman's husband is cheating on her. Once you find out he is, you report back to her and she gives you the option to kill one or both of them, for vastly greater gold and XP. Of course if you do, or even if you don't, she may attempt to blackmail you or frame you for the murder, which she would hire an NPC to do for her. If you never get involved with the woman in the first place, you might be able to pick up a quest later on to find out who killed the pair and why.

BW, without giving anything away what kind of quests can we expect?

The storyline is already in place (as it has been for about 3 years) and I have worked out most of what the main quest would include already, but I have zero side quests designed yet. Actually, very little has been done on the production side of Book II yet- we've just been doing conceptual tests and some modifications to the engine. Hopefully we can make an announcement soon to officially confirm that Book II is "in full production". We are working out the last details of that now- ensuring we have the resources to move ahead with production and actually see it through to the end!

And yes, I would love to see some quest ideas here! Most people here know what kind of quests would be possible within the capabilities of the Eschalon engine, so share your ideas!

[devinv]

Another quest idea: You would be facing a threat that grows larger or more powerful as time passes, maybe a creature that reproduces or divides or some such thing. You are not strong enough to kill it right away, but if you wait too long it will become too powerful and be very hard for you to kill. The idea is to follow the middle path and go after it once you have time to gain some skill, but not too much.

And another: you could receive a quest in which you are to go to a spot and deliberately not eat until you get very very hungry, and then have a vision; maybe of the future, or the past, or events taking place in the present. This type of quest could only be undertaken once the character had the skill to make it to the special place and the strength to survive without food for a long time.

And yes, I would love to see some quest ideas here! Most people here know what kind of quests would be possible within the capabilities of the Eschalon engine, so share your ideas!

[Thief]

I really hope to not have so many "hanging quests" in Book II. When designing quests it is very hard sometimes to think about all the possible options that people will want to take during a quest. An example of this (other than the Priest of Aridell situation) is how many people wanted to be able to warn Lilith that some shady guy in Blackwater wanted you to kill her.

Oh, and regarding the Powder Kegs- yes, in Book II you can pick them up and drop them in new locations. It has already been added to the engine and it opens up some interesting strategy options.

That's cool, I just hope they weigh about 50 pounds each so moving them around will not be a trivial matter.

[IJBall]

Thinking back, the kind of quests I really liked back with, say, Ultima IV were the kind of quests where you had to talk to a lot of different people in lots different towns to put it all together.

The Book I equivalent would be someone in Aridell says something about knowing someone in Bordertown who talked about knowing where treasure, or a relic or something, was hidden. You go to Bordertown, find that person there, but they say while they've heard about the relic, they know someone in Blackwater who actually went looking for it. The Blackwater person says they traced the relic trail to Vela, but they couldn't find what they were looking for. Searching Vela one finds a scrap of a note discussing the relic, and a giant in the Giant Village who knows more... Etc.

This could also tie in with the "puzzle" quest mentioned earlier.

But, with really big towns with lots of people, quests like this become a challenge, as they force you to interact with every NPC you can find (and, of course, the guy you're looking for is probably hidden down some forest-y path that's blocked by a conveniently placed barrel!) and really search through towns.

Anyway, that's just my $0.02. But I really like quests that force you to go find a number of hard-to-find people in order to clue together where you need to go to find a relic, or that one rare Alchemy reagent that you really need to make a really cool potion, etc.

[CrazyBernie]

I like the surprise, or accidental quests. For example, you take a simple quest to escort an elderly woman home (her home is outside of town)...

After dispatching some wolves and other minor vermin, CrazyBernie arrives with Angela at her home, seemingly in the middle of the woods. "Why exactly do you live all the way out here?" He inquires. "Surely it would be much safer to just live in town with the rest of the folk."
"Oh, I couldn't do that, my husband and I can't be bothered with all that hustle and bustle. We like our peace and quiet, even if it is a bit on the remote side. Harrold usually accompanies me, but he's been feeling under the weather these past few days. And I usually venture out during daylight hours but was a little slow getting out today." Angela opens the door and waves him inside. "Come on in, just set the bags on the table."
CrazyBernie follows her into her home and deposits the groceries onto the kitchen table ("Some people are just too stubborn for their own good," he thinks to himself). Inside, sitting in a rocking chair is a weathered looking gentleman with with silver hair. When he sees them his eyes light up and he springs up to greet them. "Home so soon, dear? Welcome back!" He creaks in a dry voice, and reaches out to shake hands with a grip that's ironclad. "Looks like this fine young chap escorted you home, is he staying for dinner?"
"Well I'm not particularly hungry at the moment, so I really must decline- wait, didn't you say your husband was ill...?" CrazyBernie turns back toward Angela, trying to free his hand.
"Don't mind him, he always gets that way during dinner-time. And I must insist you stay, because my husband and I are absolutely famished." She grins wickedly, revealing a smile of serrated teeth, as her skin darkens to jet black and her eyes begin to glow yellow. CrazyBernie barely manages to retrieve his hand from Harrold, who is undergoing a similar change.
"Well all right, have it your way. However, don't blame me when you find yourself suffering from serious indigestion." He draws his sword with a flourish, and grins just as devilishly. "Who's the hungriest? I hope you like spicy..."

Or.... you're on quest to retrieve a valuable heirloom at a house that was recently overrun by goblins...

As CrazyBernie finishes off a small group of incredibly vicious goblins on the front lawn of the mansion when he makes a startling realization. Looking at the corpses, he notes that the flesh is already partially rotted off and several are missing body parts (not including the ones he relieved them of). In addition, they did not seem to react in pain whenever he cut into them. "These buggers are undead! The old man certainly managed to leave that part out... although I suppose he might not have figured that out if he was busy running away." Flipping over one of the corpses with the toe of his boot, he mutters, "Undead goblins, now there's something you don't see every day."
Looking at the mansion up close, he begins to wonder just how long the old man meant when he said "recent." The place was dilapidated... looked like no on had lived there for decades. As soon as he opens the front door he is set upon by three more goblin zombies. "All right, all right already! No need to all rush to greet me at altogether!" He dispatches them with aplomb and proceedes to hack his way to the room that was described as having the chest with the heirloom. Upon arriving, cautiously opens the door, but there does not appear to be any occupants. At the other end of the room he spies the chest, tucked between a bed and a bureau. "Well, ok then, lets get this thing and-" as soon as he steps into the room the rotting floor in front of the doorway gives out, and he goes plummeting down to the darkness below.
"Ow, my head." After regaining consciousness, CrazyBernie extracts himself from the pile of rubble and checks for damage. No broken bones, but a terrible headache and many bruises. "Man, why do I always end up falling somewhere? Somewhere pitch black, no less..." He rummages through his belongings and pulls out a torch. After lighting it, he looks around as the fire pierces the blackness. His eyes slowly widen. "Holy shi..."
The room is full of tables. The tables are full of corpses. Goblin corpses in various stages of dismemberment, most of them with the heads and chests wide open. There were two tables that were not corpse laden; one had a combination of laboratory vials and beakers, and the other what appeared to be medical equipment. There were scalpels, scissors, saws of various shapes, hooks, clamps, etc. On the medical equipment table there was also a notebook, or a journal. Just as CrazyBernie reached and picked up the journal, a door at the other end of the room crashed open, and more "Zomblins" began pouring in. "Zomblins, " he said to himself. "I like that, it has a nice ring to it. I guess the entertainment can wait." He put the journal back down and drew his sword.
"All right old man, let's see what you've been cooking up down here. This cleanup is going to cost quite a bit extra." He moved toward the welcoming party that was dying to greet him.

You get the idea....

[Gesion]

I enjoy the “go kill the rats in the basement” type quests, but sometimes I would like the side quest to be more involved and have a little more impact on the story. Here is the base run down of a quest I would like to see.

Early on in the game when you are being introduced to the main quest have what seems to be a simple little part of the battle lead into a quest for vengeance on your character. The quest giver plots against the main character and uses him\her at the same time to get what he\she wants. The quest giver sends the main character on a series of historical artifact finding quest that prove profitable for all involved. The “artifacts” in question are of worth only to a collector when taken alone, but when combined they are a map and a key to something bigger. In a nut shell the quest giver pays the main character to obtain the artifacts, and then sends him\her on one final quest which in reality is a trap to have the main character killed. The villain then goes on a nice rant of how you ruined his life and you are getting what you deserve and all the money he\she paid you will be paid back to him\her 10 fold when he kills you and takes your stuff. Then a nice battle begins between the main character and the quest giver with his\her loyal guards. Revenge can be sweet.

I just came up with this idea on the way home from work but if you like the idea, Basilisk Games, I can do a more detailed write up for it and email it to you. Or since you don’t know me from Jack, you can just take it and run with it. I enjoyed Book 1 for what it was and what it represents and I am looking forward to a more detailed and longer Book 2.

[BasiliskWrangler]

So did any of these ideas make their way in some form into Eschalon: Book II?

I didn't put any of these quests directly into the game, but they are all inspirational and some of the concepts / elements were definitely the basis for a few quests in Book 2.

[Unclever title]

So did any of these ideas make their way in some form into Eschalon: Book II?

I didn't put any of these quests directly into the game, but they are all inspirational and some of the concepts / elements were definitely the basis for a few quests in Book 2.

Awesome, just the way I like it.