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Hi all,

I was kind of wondering, if i were to implement a quest system ( browser based, text ) what would be the best way to implement this? Actually writing out like 100s of quests, each different then another, or should i randomly generate quests based on a players level/experience/class/wahtsoever?

It`s kind of tricky, because if i decide to randomly create the quests, the content would not be limited, however, it would mean that quests will start to look a lot like the previous one, not to mention the language would be crap since all quests need to be based on some sort of syntax. This goes for the dialogs too. Any thoughts? Also, how would this work if the system was multilingual?

i should have my quest tutorials out very soon. There are some posts here as well. May have to search for them however.

It is a trade-off. Obviously you are going to be able to quickly generate more random quests than pre-written, and it will provide players a never-ending stream of "stuff to do". But they are going to look quite generic and it will take your average players about 20 minutes to figure out they are randomized.

On the other hand, the human-touch of written quests mean that you can inject interest, back-story, and character development into the quest text. The downside is the time and effort to create them. Have you ever tried even writing 100 quests? It is mind-numbing, and very hard to keep yourself pushing forward. The first 10 are fun, the second 10 are tolerable, third 10 are a drag, and you want to quit by about the fourth 10 and on.

You could always use a mix of each, where random quests are repeatable quests which will be randomized each time they are picked up, and written quests would be single-run quests. In that situation the random quests would be there to fill in the cracks left by the limited number of written quests.

There is also the consideration of players actually reading the quest text. At least in graphical games, the majority of players do not read quest text, which is why all modern MMOs now give summaries of the quest separately from the actual blob of quest text. The player merely wants the reward for completing it.

EDIT: And no idea for it being multilingual except that you would likely need to limit the variables to only nouns, and every language has the same concept on nouns and the system could likely process them in the same way. The same could likely not be said about verbs, and definitely not dynamically making sentences.