Joining a quest in progress

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Kamilar
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Joining a quest in progress

Post by Kamilar »

I propose that when a quest is taking place, players wishing to join can have the option to warp to the quest location.
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Jupiter
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Jupiter »

how?
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Matron
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Matron »

I think she means for GM-chars to summon the players to the position (will not work with unsupported player-quests of course).
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Jupiter
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Jupiter »

Send a !gm in that case. It is up to the GM who runs the quest wether he sees it fitting that people who wasn't there in the beginnig can appear now.
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Achae Eanstray
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Achae Eanstray »

The same option that allows a player to go to a new player to help can't also allow a player, when clicked to join a quest in progress?

It may be possible to have more players there and also decrease the confusion of "where is the quest" to new players if that option pops up for quests that just begin and for anyone that signs into the game while the quest is in progress.

1. Go to the existing quest now.
2. Ignore the current quest.

Would be pretty fancy if it even had a link or said what that current quest was. :D
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Kamilar
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Kamilar »

Achae has the idea exactly. I'm hoping that the way we are given the choice to warp to new players can be expanded to make joining quests smoother. Wouldn't that be fun? :D
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Matron
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Matron »

Unless it is a Cadomyrian audience for example and Galmairians can use it to just warp into the throne room all at once. :D
The idea is kewl but requires lots of planning, I guess.
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Kamilar
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Kamilar »

Matron makes a good point. I'm thinking to prevent that kind of misuse, a faction filter can be applied. Quests are set up in the planner either for a certain faction or for everybody. Maybe the warp invitation could be sent according to the way the quest is set up.
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Jupiter
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Jupiter »

While the quest information from the quest planer are also saved in the database, there is currently no method to access those information and i cannot say how much work it would be to enable that.
However, there are also other problems. Even if that was possible, we would lack necessary information. Members of what factions can join (The |Faction> tag is just part of the name. It just stays the location/host not that it is only limited to peopel of thatfaction)? During what time range can you join? I am quite sure that there are a lot of moments where it would be simple bad to allow players who wasn't there earlier to join. Those information are not there in the questplaner right now. And even if they were: A fixed time range is a problem. How should a GM no how they players will reatc before the quest? So he hardly can select proper time range in which joining is allowed (if it is not a quest were joining is always okay). Same problem with the location. The starting point of a quest may not be the place where the action stays. Expedition and stuff.

In short:
- we currently lack a way to access quest planer information
- the information which there are now are insufficient
- the time range of allowed joining and the location would be too static

But is there no other way? There is.
We could create a tool that allows Gms to enable such quest warping. They would have to hand over all the necessary information. And they could deactivate the quest warping as soon as they think they reache a point in the quest where it is not reasonable to let others join, or update the infirmation e.g. location.
However, I don't really like this. It would create more bureaucracy for the GMs. Especially when they have to deactiavte or update the wapring while being in the middle of the quest.

And I am still unsure why !gm is not sufficient.
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Kamilar
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Kamilar »

That's too bad. :(

Alternately, maybe some work could be made on the quest page instead? Right now the quest information is rather vague to my mind. If it's up to the players to figure out where and when to meet, more detail would be helpful. For example, "quest starts soon" could be replaced with "quest starts in xx hours/minutes." A precise location would be good too. Think of the new players or the less adventurous characters that may need better direction and all the different time zones we have. It shouldn't be a lot of work on the player end to join in.

The !GM might be sufficient to manage this but I have personally not used it so I don't know. If a quest isn't clear, I don't bother. Probably, I'm not the only one.
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Lord Arcia
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Lord Arcia »

You're totally not the only one who skips out on quests because you don't know where they are. Finding out in IRC isn't really the best way of knowing.
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Achae Eanstray
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Achae Eanstray »

Perhaps at a later date some type of quest request can be worked on.. like others I am hesitant to interrupt a quest to ask a GM for a ride there.

Knowing where it is and who can join when, would be very nice.. some would assume that if a quest is on the main page that any char would be welcome also. Most anyone comes to the Galmairian meetings, if that isn't the case with others perhaps they need to list what citizens are in order to help the newer players?
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Sammy Goldlieb
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Sammy Goldlieb »

Mayhaps if you plan a quest, you should add some ooc information like: Meeting at blabla bla ((going to blablabla)). That could be a way for people to follow.
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Velisai
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Velisai »

There are guidelines for posting quests which require the writer of a quest entry to supply a location. One of my own entries has been held back until I corrected it to be very clear on that point. Is this not enforced anymore? Do these guidelines need an update? I haven't been very active the last couple months, but I've never had any issues finding a quest I wanted to join before and GMs have been pretty good at telling us where the action is through in game broadcasts too.
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Kamilar
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Kamilar »

The problem is that the quest location information is either missing or is too vague if it's there. Admittedly I'm not the most adventurous player but I've been playing pretty actively in the VBU game for 6 months and a lot of the locations when I read them in the planner, I haven't a clue where they are. Or sometimes I know exactly where they are and I think, "Yeah ... I'm not walking through that enormous wall of monsters to get to that spot." Or sometimes there's no location listed at all. My overall impression is of a system that is unwelcoming and unfriendly.

In another thread I suggested adding quest points to encourage more participation and interaction. Rewarding players for joining quests and for running them might stimulate some game growth. At the very least, it certainly wouldn't hurt. The interface is already there for the rock finding quest. It might be adaptable to give a different set of higher rewards for quest participation.

Since we have the ability to run player quests, it would be good to be able to support them better. I would really like to see more quest support added because the biggest thing Illarion is missing right now is something to do when we log in.
Mr.Oldie
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Re: Joining a quest in progress

Post by Mr.Oldie »

not sure if this can be implemented but here goes.. Feel free to change any part of it.

1.
a. While creating a new quest an option for linking it to a character ingame should be asked.
b. Quest starting time (This is already there)

2.
GM/CM enables the link inside the game while giving the "green light".
GM enabling should again contain
a. Character to link (Step 1)
b. Starting quest time in illarion hours as mentioned in step 1.

3.
Anyone logging in with that linked character (step 2a) be it Player/GM can use !q command to toggle it on.
The toggling should only be allowed from half hr (RL) equivalent of illarion time before the quest time (step 2b).
Toggling opens up a dialog box for the linked character to enter the events name/purpose(better to enter the same name as the quest name in website)

4.
Any character other than the linked character using !q after step 3 should get a dialog box containing the quest name.
(or an empty one if no quest has been toggled )(or a message saying no quests are happening right now)etc etc..
Dialog box is needed in case there are multiple quests going on at the same time.
Clicking on the appropraite quest name sends a request to the linked character of that particular quest.

5.
Each time step 4 is used, the linked character should get a reverse warping mechanism as used in the new player.
dialog box pops open with options:
a. Allow <character name> to warp(Character name will allow the linked character to determine the warp or not if its faction specific)
b. request denied
c. not for this session/ Time elapsed (using this option would stop any further usage of step 3)(or you can use the step 7 here itself)

6.
Warp the character from step 4. to a specific distance from the linked character.
This would allow the character to "accidentally" find the quest group.
Furthermore a temparory quest marker placing the linked character on the map (If that is possible)
Or a message to the character : You hear a noise to the 'Direction of the linked character compared to that of the warped in charcter'

7.
Linked character uses !q again to toggle off after the quest is finished effectively removing himself and quest name from the GM enabled list
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