» Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:49 am
Hi everyone, I have a suggestion for how quests should be executed in an MMO. As you all know, even the most famous MMO, World of Warcraft, has weak quests. They are usually along the lines of, kill X amount of things, collect X amount of things or escort. Even fallout 3 has similar quests, that have not satisfied me.
I have played all three fallouts and have enjoyed all of them, but one thing that I liked in fallout 2, was the quests were immersive.
Here is an example of a quest that I believe would be enjoyable and memorable than most quests found in fallout 3 and today’s MMOs.
Backstory: This quest would be played early on in the game, and would probably be the first chance the player would get to use Power Armour. It starts like this, the government has issued two sister vaults with similar conditions. Vault 34 is overstocked with ammunition and not provided with a key, and contains average humans. Vault 35 has the same conditions as Vault 34, except that about a quarter of the dwellers are decommissioned officers or ex-officers. The test was to see whether the two vaults would have similar endings. If both vaults managed to survive another test would be made to see whether they would turn on each other. In between the vaults was a special weapons cache, disguised as a vault but without a number. This vault would contain dangerous weapons, like miniguns and rocket launchers, and two fully functional sets of Power Armour. The vault is locked with two passwords and one is given to each of the overseers. If the vaults co-operated with each other, they would be given access to very powerful weapons to protect themselves in the wasteland.
Location: Both vaults would be in the Grand Canyon, with the weapons cache in between them.
When the player arrives: The player will have two vaults that they can enter. Entering vault 34, the player finds that two factions are in control of one half of the vault, and the player can’t enter without getting hit by bullets. (The two halves aren’t in constant war and they don’t have explosives, but when a person appears both sides open fire for fear of losing control)
The player would have to exit the vault at this point in time. If the player checks the weapons cache, they would not be granted entrance. (Lack of passwords)
Entering vault 35 the player finds one faction of people fully in control. The military training that some people had has provided successful in controlling the dwellers. However, before control was established, more than half the vault had perished, and this has caused the dwellers to realise that to survive they would need to make contact with vault 34 and make a community on the surface. (And limit the weaponry)
The overseer in Vault 35 has full communications with Vault 34 and asks the player to attempt to end the battle going on in Vault 34 by eliminating one of the factions (through negotiations or force.) As for a prize, if the player has knowledge on the weapons cache, they could ask for one of the passwords. (To find out about the weapons cache they could check the unnamed vault entrance computer, or they can use a computer in Vault 35 to try and communicate with the weapons cache. Since no one’s there this would build curiosity on what this “vault” was.) When communicating with vault 34 (Only one of the factions has access to computers) the faction would promise not to open fire, so that the player could attempt to run in. The player could also ask the overseer for schematics of the vault and then notice a secret passage. Using common sense, the player would realise that Vault 34 has the same passage and that would allow them access, unharmed.
When the player enters Vault 34, they are introduced to a different faction, one more aggressive. The leader of this faction does not know the password, but he is very arrogant and power hungry. He tells the player that they are not going out until it is safe and the other faction is dead. This is the first obstacle, if the player destroys the other faction and lets vault 34 and 35 out, this leader will have a power struggle with the leader of 35 and end up firing on him, leading to a quick and bloody end to this quest. With a very high speech, the player would be able to convince the leader to resign. Talking to the other dwellers, the player finds that they are not really fond of the leader, and if he dies in secrecy they would appoint a calmer leader. That means the player has a chance to assassinate, when the leader is asleep.
Now comes the battle with the other faction. If the player keeps the old leader alive, he will offer to go with the player and help destroy the faction, he is very good at combat. (Note: in the other faction there are people who will not open fire right away as they want peace too, the player will have a chance to convert them with a speech check, or kill them. If the old leader is with the player, he immediately executes them. If the leader is dead the battle is harder, but as the battle goes on the player will have more people backing him up.
When the player reaches the end of the second faction’s half, they will find a cave. This would mean that they know about the cache and are attempting to dig into it. At the end of the cave the player finds out that they made it in, but because of the bad digging job, part of the weapons cache has caved in. The faction’s digging has only given them access to one set of Power Armour, and the leader of that faction has it.
Here is the boss battle, the boss will be in the suit of Power Armour, and assuming that Power Armour really makes a person into a tank, rather than like in fallout 3, this is a battle the player can't do alone. To make things worse, the boss has his own people backing him up. After a fierce battle the boss goes down. Finally, if the new leader is in place, the player can tell him to meet Vault 35 outside. The player has to tell Vault 35 to meet Vault 34 at this point too.
Outside the two Vaults meet, the overseer of Vault 35 gains control since he has better leadership skills and they start building a community. Finally, the overseer tells the player the password. To get the last password, the player has to return to Vault 34 and break into the now empty overseer room and hack the Overseers computer. (Note: the Vault 34 overseer has been dead a long time and has never appointed a new one so his computer is locked. The leader of one of the factions was only using it as a base of operations.) When the player hacks the computer, they are given the password.
The player now enters the weapon’s cache ad collects various weapons, including a set of Power Armour. This finishes the quest. (Adv. Power Armour is for a later quest)
As a note, this quest is to be immersive. That means all the leaders have to have personalities. The player has to feel like the vault 35 leader is wise, and that the leader of Vault 34 is arrogant, and somewhat of a tyrant. The boss also has to be met before hand. The quest could also have periodic attacks on Vault 34, where the boss is inaccessible, but he taunts the player, so that the player can realise that this guy is a heartless monster.
This quest should also have a bit of everything in it. Thinking, exploring the two Vaults. It should NOT have checkpoints (The notebook thing in fallout 3 that says “now I have this, and now I have to do this.” I expect the player to have common sense and to be able to figure things out on their own, as long as they explore. Finally, it will have a gunfight.
ENDINGS:
1. The player tells both Vaults to go out, and they end up killing each other.
2. The player exterminates either Vault, since they both depend on each other, they both die out.
3. The player is sneaky and gets both passwords with stealth, hacking and speech. They get a free set out Armour without doing much. (This should be hard to accomplish)
4. The player kills the faction they first meet and makes contact with the second faction. (A new line could be made)
5. The new leader is in place, the two vaults meet and they build a community.
There are probably more endings that can be made.
As for karma, use basic sense. Killing is bad, negative karma. Negotiation about peace is good, positive karma.
This quest will be like an instance and other players will not appear, unless partied with the player.
So, what do you guys think?