Forum :: Lounge :: Xercules server and quest idea's

 Hello EO fan's!!  (this will probly be lengthy-sorry)

    My name is Xercules (pronounced zerk-you-leez). I enjoy these private servers very much. I work graveyard. That means when YOU are sleeping at night....I am working at my job :)
While at work, I have a lot of time because I dont have a ton of work to do. So for most of the time, I will type this stuff out, put it in word pad, then copy/paste it on to the forums. So thats why they turn out to be long. But I promise, I will do my best to be entertaining! :)

   Alright,....get to the point Xerc!   Alright, I have decided to use this thread as my release toward a creative end. I will put server idea's, quest idea's, general idea's and thought's, and maybe some non-sense here :) Now, before I even start, I want to explain a few things, just so there clear. I cannot code, pixal or map! I cannot write quests in the eo in-game method either. Mouse or Tree sent me a link down load once for eo quest writing,....but I AM A PROGRAM ILLITERATE FOOL!!! (and even spell words wrong now and then). I want to learn, and I am considering downloading whatever I need to so I can create my own server, and learn how to do every aspect of making that happen. Its a long term goal though.

   Also, Anything I put here on this thread is available for anyone to use!!! See something you like? Use it!! just drop a note on here and let me know, so I can come to your server and check it out!!

    Ok, down to busness. Something I see on just about every server I have played around on, is the lack of direction. Sometimes, the owner will name it something cool, like Eo darkness, or Titian. This is cool because it catches the eye, on the server list. So we create an acct, and jump in, only to find out its basically a sandbox aspect. EO Sandbox!! Just name them that!  You know what I mean. We run around and kill stuff for exp. Or do some form of harvesting, endlessly........

    A great eye catching name, in my opinion, is a good idea. It helps the server stand out, and be remembered. If you were looking at the server list, wanting to check out a new server to try out, which would you pick?  Pinkies EO, or Armagedon Now?  These are just examples! I have no idea if these names are actually taken lol. However, the idea shouldnt end there! Sadly it does most of the time.

   Its a process, or at least, a complex thought. Lets work this out. Lets say someone is creating their own game. They come up with a name, say,..........Primal Origin, (Lol, PO-EO). Primal Origin could mean the very beginning. So Apply that to your game. Have your town, mining, fishing and woodcutting, if you want those things, but use a quest line to tell a story about the Primal Origin of your game. Not EO, its primal origin is Vult-r and his crew. I mean YOUR private server, Your game.

  In your first town, place an NPC, who might explain something like this. (It should be a hook, to get players interested). "Hello hero! Welcome to Isits, The town of eternal sunshine (w/e). If you begin exploring, you will soon find that many monsters populate this world. They are everywere, and seem to come in many forms! Well, long ago, a mean poopy face came and began manipulating the dna of our animals, to create these monsters! He now uses them as an army to do his bidding. We cant get rid of him (the mean poopy face). He is very powerful, so our attempts to destroy him are always foiled! We need a hero/champion, to save us".

  This is very basic, but the idea is explained. Whats the primal origin? Well, the primal origin of the monsters is that a mean poopy face put them there! Now, The player feels like they have a purpose in your game. To save the world. This simple idea opens multitudes of quest ideas. You now have a central quest line. A direction to send your players, and a direction to apply your creative talents and build your game around.

  This should bring to realization: you will need an end Boss, or ultimate boss. (The poopy face!") Ug, right? Use Apozan! Ok, that will work, but .....boring!! Its been done. Plus, I am under the understanding that vult-r and his dude that did all the pixaling for eo dosent care if people use their stuff, but must show that they are trying to change things to more original aspects. So, if you are creating your own server, use your talents and PIXAL out your own stuff,.....including your Main Boss.

   Look at Elevations game. He did this with Kamashi. DO NOT rip off Kamashi from him. lol. Thats tacky, plus it'll piss him off, and I dont know what he could legally do. But He showed it could be done. It shouldnt be that hard anyway, to do your own. I'm guessing you can take the game imprint of apozan and erase his pixaling, then draw or pixal a new boss over apo's imprint. Sorry if I used terminalogy that is wrong. It just seems logical in my head. Imprint? is that the right word?

   And a cool name is important. If you name him Slippy, Bonzo or Poopy Face, People will be turned off. Kamashi is a cool name, and I have no idea were Ele got it. But, come on, Its not that hard. I'm gonna go out right now, and smoke a ciggy. When I come back, I will list all the names I come up with in that time.

  Ok, back. Not that you would know lol. Now I came up with these names:  Pron, Memzaz, Ornalek, Samsapeel, Lorgon, Ekrog, Photraliel, Trauzazel. Kamashi?....psh lol.

Now that you have a Main boss, you can build even more story line into your quest line. Say,....lets use Pron,.....is taking over the world. You already have his armies,....the monsters all over the world. But now you can say he needs some commanders for his troops. Put Pron in his lair. make it a cool map, fitting for the end game boss. A Deep cave, or a massive castle, or a high tower. Idk w/e. Then place the commanders in their own lairs. Of course they wont be as strong as Pron, but you could use them as bosses the player must kill to level up on, and progress the story line.

   Maybe a diffrent NPC might say, "Pron is in his lair! You are not strong enough to face him yet warrior, but His commanders are spread out through the world, The closest one is in a cave to the south of here. You must make it through the marshes to get to him". In the marshes place monsters so the player can level up on the way. Or train in them awhile. or place a quest for the marsh area's. You know how the mechanics of eo works. So Spread out the commanders on the exp scale to make it a progression.

  With this basic structure, players arnt just running around aimlessly. I know some players like quest, others dont. However, you can hook them into questing. How? Well an easy example goes like this.  Aoe weapons. In trying to cater to all your players, create an aoe weapon they can obtain easily. A noob store, or a noob craft. w/e. Then For the quest line, give an early quest reward in the form of an aoe weapon, but make it a bit stronger than the one players can get in the pervious method. In essance, Make your quest rewards better than the stuff players can get just training (drops), and crafting. If you want to get players to do the quests, anyway.

  I personally think you should have equal gear prepared for those who like questing, and those who dont. Your goal, is to just have people playing your server, so why not make completly sepreate things for drops, crafts and quest rewards. This way players must do all of it in order to get all the gear available. Players will have plenty to do in your game, keeping them busy, and PLAYING.

  Dont make your game way to hard for the new char. This discourages players, and creates bordom. Bordom is NOT your friend. If your players get bored, they quit. Give them plenty to do, make it difficult, but not super hard, and provide a purpose to them. I myself stopped playing a couple servers because I couldnt kill anything, or had to harvest for weeks to get an upgrade to my gear. One server, I realized I was level 55 and still was trying to aquire noob gear. lol.

  Anyway, back to quest idea's. I am one who thinks you can't have enough quests. Main story line quests.....side quests,.......completely random, stand alone quests. Hell, through them all in there. Again, to stress the point,.....a busy player.......is a staying player!!! If you had a quest for every map,....ok every other map?.....lol, realistically though,.....you get the idea.

  Aside from story line questing,......you can use quests to get people to play all aspects of your game. NPC might say,"OH NO!!! a huge monster destroyed my house!! Please bring me 250 logs so I can rebuild". You are now making the player woodcut. Well, for them to finish that quest, you are. And if the reward is the best armor in the game,.....you can be certain they will go woodcutting. This method can be used hand in hand with any main storyline quest you got going.

  Sure, you have a lot of work to do mapping out the stuff needed for the main storyline. Also, pixaling, and coding, but maybe you want a nice full world. The idea being, yes over there, is were Pron  is located, but all around is a world that lives on, well until Pron takes over that is. So players could go explore places in your game that have nothing to do with the main story line. Well, other than the monsters,......you have established that the reason their there is because Pron put them there. But variaty is good.

    Maybe with some mini quests you could re-direct focus. Like, maybe an NPC off in the world says,...".My husband gets robbed by the bandits evey time he goes to town! Please kill them!" lol. Now, the player takes a break from the main story, and deals with this poor ladies cry for help. Stuff like that could be placed all over as well.

  So we have a name for our game, Primal Origin. We have a main Boss, Pron, we have a central quest line to give the players purpose and direction. And stand alone quests to add content. If I saw this game on the server list, I would check it out. If I started the main quest, I would be drawn in. And then, when I checked out the rest of the world, and found more stuff to do, I would be happy.

  Now it would depend on other aspects of the game (as to wether I would stay). Items, gear, exp rates, and economy. These need to all be ballanced out. These things I am not that great at working out. But I can give some thoughts. Items, this is a very broad term. I like it when "stuff" is sellable to a merchant or vendor. I dont mind woodcutting, or mining or fishing....but I get bored very quickly if It is to difficult to get to whatever goal is set for me in-game.....through these forms of harvesting.

  Gear, I like the drop method. It promotes farming. Farming to me is better than harvesting, because, i'm getting drops, plus exp for my regular leveling. I love it when crafting involves drops instead of harvesting, because then I am training as well as workin on a craft. Not just raising my harvest level,....which helps nothing for my ability to kill bosses. Exp rates,....I dont care if I get high exp or low exp,.......as long as its ballanced out. If it takes me an hour to kill a goat, as a new player,.......i'm done with that server. If I'm lvl 50 and am still workin on noob gear,......well, you get the idea.

   Bad Economy's irritates me quickly. A server's economy is for the most part dictated by the players. Sometimes players dont see eye to eye. lol. But game owners do have the power to turn the economy in their game at any time. This is a tricky busness though. Economy is difficult to talk about like this. You all have seen good and bad economies. Sorry that was so terribly worded.

    Through mapping, you can also force questing. And thus, force rewards. Look, if you map a dungeon that ends with a portal, you can dictate direction by placing a boss, or task there that must be defeated or done before the players can go on. If a quest is tied to it,......then you can hand out stuff to your players by making them do the quest. If its a main story line quest, and map path, then  cool gear/items could easily be placed here. Example. Say Pron is beyond this point in the game, but in order to reach him, the players must obtain pieces of something to craft a key, to unlock a door, that leads to the boss. Its the potentcial for a cool puzzel. The puzzel can be as complex or as simple as you want.

   An actual application for this method goes like this.  Say you want your player to have certain gear and/or items, before they fight some certain boss, but dont want to just give them these items. Build your map that leads to the boss, like this. If you want your players to Have 3 items, before they face the boss, then place a portal that they must go through to get to the boss, on the path. Make them fight a lesser champion, by means of a quest, then reward them with what you wanted them to have. Then they can continue on, only to repeat that 2 more times, on their way to the boss. Each time aquiring what you wanted them to have. (Be advised,....I wrote that to be as complicated as I could to undrstand :)

   It is difficult trying to come up with specific examples, of vague descriptions.

   I will leave off with this: the "save the world from the evil bad guy", is not the only main quest idea out there. It is the most used, when one is actually used. Next time I will give some examples of other main quest idea's.  There is a realization when it comes to this thought process. The eo game is set up a certain way. The only way to change it is through re-codeing. This is a diffecult thing to do, or else we would see monsters and bosses with spell attacks, as well as physical attacks. Status effects like being poisoned, slowed, blinded, ect.....these must be coded into the client. But it is a difficult task, as I said.

  So, in order to change gameplay, we must change the perspective presented. If I showed you an item, and named it to you, then you would see it as such. But say I should you the same item, but named it something else, would you beleive it to be diffrent?  Stay tuned........next: changing perspective.