I've sort of hit a roadblock in the development of my map - I can't think of any noob quests to send the player on.

Everything I can think of doesn't really make sense given the setting. The hero I'm working on first is the Knight (zealot), a typical melee warrior which starts out little different from the knights massed by the computer ally. Given that the hero is NOT a god like they tend to be in some rpgs, a "kill [insert bad guy here]" wouldn't make sense, as anything the player could kill could far more easily be defeated by having the NPC simply send in the army. I've considered quests that involve finding certain items, but those tend to be biased against players who have never played the map before and would be difficult to balance (I would need to make it far enough to where the NPC couldn't conveniently grab the item themselves and where the player would feel challenged by the search, but close enough so that the player would have a chance at finding the item before dying several times due to monsters along the way).

The city the Knight starts out in has the following buildings of interest:
A church to the Shiny Light
An empty library (the local Count confiscated the books and sold them to buy more military supplies)
A forge
A shop (I may end up removing this, depending on if I can think of items to be bought)
A castle that the player can't enter until later (the Count will only talk to important people)
A port and dock
And possibly an Alchemists' Guild.


Any ideas?

A Graveyard: Monsters and demons come out
A flooded part of the city to save people: you gotta go and save them
A underground passage that leads deeper down (like in Diablo 1): gives the game interests for a while perhaps a key to the castle after finishing
uhh.. I gave you three here

I'm looking for quest ideas, not location ideas, sorry if I wasn't clear.

(Also, there's already a graveyard in the Evil Swamp to the south.)


Hmm... the underground passage idea might lead to something interesting...
Ah, I has an idea:
The player goes to the library. The librarian wants one of his books replaced that someone from the church had stolen, so the player goes and fetches the book (relatively simple, probably minimal fighting). In return, the librarian reveals the location of a secret passage that the Count doesn't know about (and hence won't send his army into). This passage leads to... uh... a Dark Lord, trapped by a forcefield generated by a nearby wizard. Not knowing that the Dark Lord is, well, a Dark Lord, the player kills the wizard and frees him. The Dark Lord then offers the player an opportunity to join his side (which the player can accept or reject), and organizes the skeletons in the swamp so that they periodically attack the town rather than wander about aimlessly in the swamp. This makes Count DeLorean slightly more concerned over the situation, hence he opens the doors to his castle to anyone willing to offer him military assistance.

... And that's what I've got so far (the Count will likely be able to provide the player with more quests).

Rescue a civilian who the NPCs don't justify sending an army after.

Ah, that would work too... I'm not exactly sure where the civilian would go, though. The only nearby enemies are the Undead, who would have likely killed him rather than taking him prisoner.

Ah, he was imprisoned by the Church (which is why the Count doesn't want to send the army, because the church is a political ally of his)! And the player has to defeat the priest in battle, so that he can rescue the civilian and in the meantime take one of the priests' nearby trinkets (which will give the player powers that regular knights don't have, thus justifying more combat-oriented quests later).


You be a genius!

EDIT: Uh, noob question:
Can P9-12 be detected by "Bring" triggers?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 5 2011, 5:07 pm by Jesusfreak.

-Escort something that can't defend itself.
I've used that as a quest to escort a reaver from a defended position to an overrun village and back (evacuate the village). You had to stay near the reaver, then it walks to his target destination, if you leave it alone, it runs back where it started.

edit:
@question:
yes, p9 and p12 can be detected with bring. P9-P12 just can't run triggers themselves, everything else is ok.

Can mineral fields not be placed with the "create unit" action or moved with the "move unit" action?

I'm trying to use mineral fields as a barrier to prevent players from leaving a certain area once initiating a battle, but I can't seem to either create them or pre-place and move them...

You should be able to create mineral/gas fields for P12/Neutral. Not sure about move, but you can definitely Remove and 95% sure Create, which together should be sufficient.

Mineral fields can be created for players. They will spawn as neutral.

Kill 10 boars.

Find an Engraved Ring of Healing in a barrel. Have a moral episode debating whether to return the ring to it's rightful owner or keep it for yourself. Keeping it for yourself obviously nets you a shiny ring. Handing it back will make itemz cheaper to buy.

SLAY THE SILVER DRAGON OF ABALON.

Is there something special I have to do to create it? I'm trying to create mineral fields (type 3) for player 12 (Neutral) but the triggers don't appear to do anything.

Create for a player and then give to neutral.

Another noob question:
When I give units from one AI to another AI, they appear to want to unburrow (even if both AI players have burrowed researched by default). Or maybe the units simply never burrowed at all, even though I pre-placed them as burrowed units (the triggers happen too quickly for me to see).
It is required that these units be burrowed (they're placed under the units to be killed as a selection system in my conversation w/ npc mechanism, so that a location will cycle around them instead of me having to use a location for each unit in the system).

How do I fix this?

EDIT: Never mind, I just tried disabling the trigger in question, and it appears that they are indeed burrowed at the start of the game. The acting of switching players seems to force them to unburrow. How do I fix this?
EDIT2: Never mind, I just decided to circumvent the issue by using observers (aka, cloaked air unit) instead of burrowed defilers. The system appears to work fine now.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Aug 8 2011, 6:22 pm by Jesusfreak.

The Antidote
- Find Dirania.
- Collect 7 Hyancinth Mushrooms, 4 Moonpetal Lilies and 1 Webwood Ichor.
- Give the antidote to Iverron.
“I was bitten by a spider about an hour ago as I was exploring the spider cave. I’m sure I have been very seriously poisoned. You must help me! Please find Dirania. She lives in a small town, north from here. Please hurry!”
“I’ve always warned her about those spiders! I know of an antidote that should help with the poison. It requires some ingredients though. I’ll need Hyancinth mushrooms. You can find these growing under the bushes where you can find them south from here. I’ll also need Moonpetal lilies, which only grow around watery pools. The last ingredient may prove the most difficult. From the very spiders that poisoned Iverron, collect Webwood Ichor.”
“Thank you for gathering these ingredients so quickly! In just a moment I will have the antidote prepared.”
“The antidote is ready. Please see that Iverron drinks it. There is something you should know; the antidote will only remain viable for 60 seconds. You must get it to him in time. Speed be with you.”
“Oh! I knew Dirania would help me. I’m always getting into trouble and Dirania is always there to help me out of it.”

Indolent Workers
- Wake up 5 sleeping workers.
“Cursed slaves! They should be gathering lumber from the trees of the valley, yet they are always taking naps! I need someone to help keep the slaves in line. You look like the right person for my task. A good beating will get them right back to work. Lousy slacking servants!”
“Thanks for the help. Maybe they’ll think twice before slacking next time.”

A Bundle of Trouble
- Collect 3 bundles of wood for a village person.
“I have a deadline looming for an order of lumber and I’m running out of time. The wolves and bears north of here have chased my workers away from the forest. If you could collect 3 bundles of wood for me, I may just make my deadline.”
“Excellent! Thanks to you, I should be able to complete the order in time. Here’s a reward for your troubles.”

A Baying of Gnolls
- Kill 13 Gnoll Brutes.
“First it was the orcs; now the gnoll brutes! They prowl along the ridge north of my stable, disturbing my horses. If you can get rid of some of those gnolls, my horses and I would be very grateful.”
“Thank you for all your help.”

Haha, I was just about to say that finding ingredients for a person is always a good quest!