05-28-2009, 03:12 PM
Incidentally, another "living world" advantage is that you shouldn't have to design any static quests. Static quests wouldn't make any sense in a living world.
The quest system would have to be equally dynamic. Like the camp boss wants 5 dwarf beards, because they're at war with some nearby dwarves. If they were at war with elves, he'd want elf heads. Ideally, camps would have their own little internal economies. They may want food, which helps them create a stockpile and grow the camp faster, or wood because they want to upgrade the barracks and train troops faster, or iron because they want more armor (or they may simply buy armor from you and then go wear it, if you make armor).
Sounds a little pie-in-the-sky but I can visualize how to do it, and it's all pretty simple. Programatically, "camps" are just a table of needs and desires with values adjusted based on what the NPCs can actually do. Orc Camp A wants "100 food" in the stockpile so they literally trek out to a farm, mill around for a while and cart 1 food back home. If the stockpile is too low, they "want" some and will offer players incentives to bring them some. If the stockpile is high, they aren't interested.
You wouldn't necessarily generate "quests", per se, but rather, the NPCs in town can easily tell you what they want and you can negotiate from there what you want in exchange. (They would always be happy to give you faction in exchange but may also trade you money or goods depending on what they have an excess of.)
The quest system would have to be equally dynamic. Like the camp boss wants 5 dwarf beards, because they're at war with some nearby dwarves. If they were at war with elves, he'd want elf heads. Ideally, camps would have their own little internal economies. They may want food, which helps them create a stockpile and grow the camp faster, or wood because they want to upgrade the barracks and train troops faster, or iron because they want more armor (or they may simply buy armor from you and then go wear it, if you make armor).
Sounds a little pie-in-the-sky but I can visualize how to do it, and it's all pretty simple. Programatically, "camps" are just a table of needs and desires with values adjusted based on what the NPCs can actually do. Orc Camp A wants "100 food" in the stockpile so they literally trek out to a farm, mill around for a while and cart 1 food back home. If the stockpile is too low, they "want" some and will offer players incentives to bring them some. If the stockpile is high, they aren't interested.
You wouldn't necessarily generate "quests", per se, but rather, the NPCs in town can easily tell you what they want and you can negotiate from there what you want in exchange. (They would always be happy to give you faction in exchange but may also trade you money or goods depending on what they have an excess of.)