Randomized Miniature Quests, Secret Rooms and more

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Wega52 wrote:

Yep, had the same thing in D2, I just HAD to explore the whole map before I went on...

I often found myself hating to backtrack all the way to the beginning, because I didn't explore a corner, but it turned out to be a small room, or a small extension of the area and then of course a random enemy I'd kill would drop some sweet gear, making up for having to trek so far back.

Im for random quest. Also would be nice to have some small random events on map, like if you open chess skeletons rising from ground and suraounding you. Camps in act 2 could have a small unique boss commander that is guarded by his soldiers. They would be position in formation like in bandit quest. Some little things, that would make exploring more interesting.

I'd also like to see more areas like Tidewater Island, or Fetid Pool.

They wouldn't really need to have a real reason to go there, unless a random quest told us to, anyways just more side areas to explore and plunder.

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Wega52 wrote:

Yep, had the same thing in D2, I just HAD to explore the whole map before I went on...

And getting disappointed every time since D2 was/is "random" in the same way a trip in to town is for me.
Sure, there might be some construction work ongoing and some other cars and pedestrians, but it's pretty much the same roads and buildings as yesterday. :)

D1 was square levels yet still felt more random than D2.

If it wasn't for the ASCII graphics, I'd still be playing Angband/Rogue-like games. ;)

Fully support this.Maybe an NPC at town that gives you a quests like: kill a X boss mob in X area (or just look for as you go) would be awesome.

i back this.
i also made a thread similar.

I love your idea. You seem to put a lot of thought and time into thinking and typing it. I also love the idea of random quest generators. I first saw it in skyrim. It adds infinite re-playability. Not just on an alternate character but allows for re-playability on any one character. Say, youve beaten the game on one character but want to keep playing that character simply out of preference; The random quest generator would allow you to do this and continue to gain rewards.

As for rewards, they would be miniscule compared to the difficulty of the quest. The top being an extremely random level 1 unique skill gem, while the least would be like 1-5 scrolls of wisdom/portal.

However, this would create difficulties in coding. You would have to figure the game would only generate 1 random quest per day as each character completes the "daily quest" they receive the reward but have to wait again til tomorrow to do another one or one of a higher difficulty. Having only one quest per day would retain the party system to be used, as people are all on the same quest and dont have the confusion of where to go or what to do/kill.

But all-in-all I love these ideas. keep them coming!

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Shadowe wrote:

As for rewards, they would be miniscule compared to the difficulty of the quest. The top being an extremely random level 1 unique skill gem, while the least would be like 1-5 scrolls of wisdom/portal.

However, this would create difficulties in coding. You would have to figure the game would only generate 1 random quest per day as each character completes the "daily quest" they receive the reward but have to wait again til tomorrow to do another one or one of a higher difficulty. Having only one quest per day would retain the party system to be used, as people are all on the same quest and dont have the confusion of where to go or what to do/kill.

But all-in-all I love these ideas. keep them coming!

All in all, there needn't be a real reward from the quest as in "reward given by the quest giver". The reward would be whatever you uncover in that area or whatever loot the mini-boss drops. That's why I call them "miniature": Because a quest giver shouldn't be needed (though in some cases having him could be part of the quest: You scamper about, and find the quest NPC fighting off mobs. Help him, and he offers the quest). But a turn-in should be out, since, as you said: Rewarding those quests with other things than "ordinary drops" could be problematic.
So it's less of a "hand-holding from town to quest location and back" and more of "go out, explore, see what you find!"

I don't see a problem with scripting it so they're only available once a day or so: Since instances are persistent for 15 minutes, they cannot be reset ad infinitum (afaik - or am I wrong?). And since the quests get randomly chosen there's no way to farm them, either.

Lastly, two tiny updates:
- You could even add small "decisions" into those quests. While nothing permanent should be able to change, that would add flavour. Will you release the ghost of a grandmother so she can finally be at peace? To do so, you'll have to obtain a McGuffin from somewhere on the map, but forgo fighting her. If you chose to fight her, you may get the same loot (and quicker), but forgo the trip to the second objective (and pass on that loot, since obviously the McGuffin is guarded).
- I noticed that there are indeed already "special structures" in place in many zones, but without purpose beyond "looking cool/different" at this time. Just seeing them makes my inner writer want to reach for a clean sheet of paper and a Biro.

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Avireyn wrote:

You could even add small "decisions" into those quests.

Keep in mind that this is supposed to be an Action RPG... too many "classic" RPG-elements would change the gameplay and people would not get what they expect. Imho, if you want to make decisions, you should play Mass Effect or the like instead of an ARPG.

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iRrational wrote:

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Avireyn wrote:

You could even add small "decisions" into those quests.

Keep in mind that this is supposed to be an Action RPG... too many "classic" RPG-elements would change the gameplay and people would not get what they expect. Imho, if you want to make decisions, you should play Mass Effect or the like instead of an ARPG.

Can't comment on that as I would like (NDA and all that), but let's just say that not only "classic" RPGs have them. It's all about the scope.