Mission Generator - Rank Based [Long]

[kanata]

Hey everyone, I'm a new player to the MUD and I've spent a few hours in the game. At this point in time, I only have one major suggestion which is also my only major criticism for the game even though it's sort of a big one Also, there may be a system similar to what I'm suggesting

I feel the game focuses far too much on random combat and grinding of certain mobs over and over to gain levels. I feel that this pretty much goes against everything in the show as well as a 'ninja' aspect in that you're actively seeking irrelevant battles. In the show, we see that there is clearly a mission ranking system for the various levels of ninjas. D-C for Genins, B-A for Chuunins, A-S for Jounins. I think it would add a LOT of immersion and depth to the game if a mission generator was set up like this, only making a new rank (E) for the 20-40 or so levels from start 'til you gain Genin status. With proper balance, I think it would be a more interesting (and fun) way to earn the experience needed to gain levels instead of grinding the same 5 or so mobs endlessly with no real point or purpose .

As for the tech aspect of it, and the type of missions, it could be pretty well varied. Picture a low level E-D rank mission: Garbage Man. When the mission is generated, the player is given a container named "a garbage bag" and told to go to [area] to find 15 pieces of randomly generated pieces of trash. To prevent accidental griefing, abuse, or incompletion of the mission, these items would be flagged as [player-only], [nodrop], and won't disappear until an hour after the mission is given (after the hour, mission is automatically failed). Completion of the mission is giving the quest NPC the full bag of garbage. XP and low Ryo amount reward given.

That's just one example, you could have your usual fetch quest, your track/kill quests, you could have LSC-type quests where you have to spend 5 minutes mopping the floor. Not necessarily consecutively, but 5 minutes total within an hour. You could have escort type missions, exploration type missions, espionage missions where you need to find an NPC and "covertly" overhear a conversation and report back to the quest NPC, etc. I have a ton of ideas for quests of this nature and a LOT of the systems involved in the quests of this type are already in the game.

Of course, I'm not naive and I still realize this is a fairly extensive addition to the game, programming-wise. Not to mention a lot of work involved in the quest creation, testing, and balancing but I still think this is the sort of goal the MUD should strive towards to achieve maximum fun and immersion in the Naturo world.

I dunno, what do you think?

[Gatz]

I like the idea, but you need to go into a lot of depth in the design of how it works, the end results sound great but you need to heavily elaborate on each aspect of this idea.

[kanata]

I'm not sure how in depth you'd like me to go, but in my random travels in MUDding, I've seen random mission generators before. I've seen it used most usefully in a Shadowrun based MUD. Without going into tremendous detail about the Shadowrun universe, assuming you're unfamiliar, it is essentially a futuristic sci-fi version of Naruto in a way - runners get missions from their handlers (usually referred to as Johnsons) in return for money and experience. In MUDing form, they simply integrated that in the form of NPC Johnsons that would give out a large and varied amount of quests of various types based on your level range. The higher level you were, the tougher and longer they were (but the rewards were more lucrative in the end). Rewards varied from money, to items, to experience, or sometimes a combination of all three.

As it pertains to NarutoMUD, a similar style NPC could be set up. One in the newbie area for low level characters giving out perhaps Rank D level missions only if we didn't want to intrude on the show by introducing a new rank. A bunch of varied quests that clearly reflect how weak and small you are:

- Combat mission types could be along the lines of 'There is a rabbit infestation in the Commerce Plaza! Kill them all within 10 minutes and return to me when it's done.' When the quest is initiated, several rabbits would spawn inside the plaza for the quester to kill. To prevent other players from breaking the quest or doing it for someone else, a safety could be written in that these quest rabbits run away for anyone but the quester. They disappear upon the quest's time limit expiration, quest automatically failed.

- The earlier 'Garbage Man' example I gave is another type of interesting quest type that could be made; a small variation of a "fetch" quest, though one I stole from Naruto itself. I seem to remember one of their rank D missions was picking up trash But really, this could expand to the other quests that are already in the game. I've encountered a couple already - the shopkeeper that wants the handle and a stack of bamboo sticks; the longish one on west island where you have to interact with several NPCs to complete the quest, etc.

- The LSC type quest mission I alluded to could be another addition. There's already a system in place to let the player do actions automatically while draining stamina - practicing, the LSC stuff. I think this could be extended to other things; something like a quest where someone wants their house scrubbed clean and you have to spend X amount of ticks doing it. Of course, this should be a TOTAL amount and not a CONSECUTIVE amount, as we don't want to inadvertently automatically fail a newbie for simply not having enough stamina to complete the task.

- Espionage type missions would be a really neat addition I think. We're all ninjas, so having one where we're actually be ninja-y would be fun A low-level mission example could be following a dog "covertly" to find out where he hides his master's forehead protector and then taking it when it leaves. Another type could be "overhearing" a conversation between two NPCs about a certain topic and listen to the whole conversation but first you'd have to find out where they meet (room could be selected from say 1 of 5 predetermined choices).

- Exploration type missions, which would be in the form of a delivery quest. Deliver a [no drop] package to a certain NPC - no time limit, but the quester can not take a new quest until he finishes or voluntarily quits the quest (like saying 'I have failed the quest' to the quest NPC).

Some notes and thoughts about the questing system...
- Only one quest at a time, obviously
- Ability to 'fail' any quest voluntarily before a time limit, if there is one, is up
- Perhaps a fun statistic in score that tracks how many quests you've completed/failed
- Perhaps a certain amount of quests would need to be done before you could become a Genin/Chuunin/Jounin
- Perhaps the only way to get reward items would be to do high end quests
- Perhaps some quests that are given only when there are 2 or 3 man "teams" (grouped) that apply for a quest. Much tougher quests with rarer rewards? All members of the team could not have another quest active; any member of the team could fail the quest if desired.
- Perhaps a penalty for repeated quest failures to prevent people from farming the "best" or more "lucrative" quests. After one quest failure, you'd have to come back in 30 minutes to get another. Fail two in a row, you have to wait an hour before your third. Fail three in a row, you have to wait two hours. Fail four in a row, you have to wait four hours, etc.

This is all I can think of for now, feel free to comment on any areas you'd like elaborated or add to 'em!

[Gatz]

Well, you are mentioning specific things but not how they'd actually work. Random Mission Generator needs to figure out this stuff and not have it pre-scripted like our current missions. You need to go into gory detail about how a mission can even be set up. Like, I go to a mission office and then...what does it do to figure out the mission you need to do?

The usual quest system I've seen is just to randomly pick an NPC to go out and kill, then go back to the quest master for a reward, pretty lame but fairly easy to setup. Anything more complex will need a hefty design, not that I dislike the ideas but from a game logic stand-point it needs a lot more fleshing out.

[kanata]

Ah, I think I see what you mean. Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer nor have I ever worked on MUD code, so I guess I won't have a real clue on what's possible or not, but that's what you're here for.

I would think that you go to a mission office, talk to the NPC. The NPC would do a check on your level and compare it to a database of missions that are flagged from min to max - kind of like an area list on most MUDs are... something like [005|010][GarbageMan], where one value holds the min-max value of a quest which is assigned upon creation by the creator, followed by the database name for the quest. I'm assuming from there, the details can be generated upon the loading of the quest.

Though I sit here and I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to integrate a quest editor into the MUD that's similar to an area editor. One that lets you create quests based on type using certain pre-programmed functions. Clearly, at first, the editor would be simply and allow for simple quest types, but expanding on it would let quests be more creative as functions are added. Like an area editor, you can add details like:

- Level range for the quest, i.e. [min|max]
- Rank for the quest, i.e. [D|C|B|A|S]
- Database name for the quest, i.e. [quest_name]. This could be applied to the player so NPCs can see the flag and the proper scripted sequences can initiate?
- Mission name for the quest that the user sees, i.e. [garbage detail]; compounding on this, we could make it so that the quest NPC says the same intro, "Hi [user], we judge from your file that you're a Rank [rank] ninja. We need someone to do... [Mission Name]. Will you accept? [y/n]"
- Any items that need to be given to the user upon quest start, i.e. [garbage_bag], or [envelope]
- Any items that need to be given to quest NPCs to complete the quest
- A script editor for scripted scenes like dialog for NPCs related to the quest.
- Rewards for the quest.

So basically, a database of quests that are sorted by the level range. The questing NPC looks at the player's level when the player says 'I need a job' or whatever. The NPC randomly selects a mission from the quests that meet the level range requirement. NPC gives the quest, the game launches the details of the quest upon quest acceptance, the player is flagged internally with which quest he's performing, the player performs the quest, the player completes/fails the quest, the game rewards/penalizes as necessary, removes internal flag.

Is this more what you were expecting?