Namakemono
Member
I am currently working on a quest. An April Fools quest. Now you might be wondering how in the ever loving world is that going to work? I did some thinking, I thought about the community and the mindset of most players in terms of how they play. I am currently striving to get as much content into the quest as possible, but at the moment, I want to see if this sort of style of quest would be acceptable. I don't think anyone's ever made an entire quest based on an April Fools prank, so I felt the need to make it a suggestion thread as opposed to directly submitting it to Matt and the higher ups.
It's just a prank, bro?
There is indeed a "prank" to be had, but it's not all revolved around psyching the player. I feel like if there's a quest out there that has absolutely no purpose and just exists to troll the players, it's not fun. Maybe funny, but not fun. What I've done with the quest is implemented an array of jokes ranging from inside jokes to double entendres that's all Ephinea/community related. Some might be cringy, others may make you genuinely laugh, but I'm working on the scripts for my very "HUmarous" jokes! See what I did there? Because the HUmar class and... never mind. In addition, the quest should prove to be fun enough to play. There are monsters to kill. But we'll get more into that later.
The Main Objective
The main quest is quite simple. The principal has created a simulation and you are sent off into the field to slay dudes and you get a score based off of how many kills you get. But stop right there. The twist here is that when you kill monsters, you get a negative score. Running through the quest without getting a single kill is the main objective. Now I know what you're thinking, this sounds like anti-fun, but keep listening to me. There is a reason behind the next things you're about to hear me say. Upon completing the quest successfully, and by successfully, I mean killing absolutely nothing, you will get AF Points (April Fools Points). Depending on the difficulty, you will get X amount of points. These points can then be turned into an NPC (located within the same quest) in exchange for items. These items are a work in progress, see Quest Rewards below for more information.
The Side Objective
Now here's the real kicker. I know people have a bad habit of skipping dialogue and getting right into the quest, so I'm going to take advantage of that. That sounds terrible, but not as terrible as you think. What I'm doing here is a simple prediction. What I predict that is going to happen is that most players are going to skip through Tyrell's words, or at least skim through it and not read between the lines, and ignore all NPCs in Pioneer 2. This general mindset is what will cause you to get a negative score on the main objective. With the way that I have the quest set up, I feel that there are far too many clues or hints for you to not at least scratch your head and say "Hey, there's something wrong going on here. Where are my points? Let's investigate by actually reading things." This one simple gesture will be the enlightening factor to most players, I feel. It will be at that point that they will read what Tyrell and Irene has to say, and even read some of the mid-quest dialogue, getting a clue that you're not suppose to kill anything. But that's not the side objective, that's the main objective. The side objective actually requires just a bit more investigation, but not a whole lot.
The NPCs on Pioneer 2 are in plain sight. If people are looking for points or rewards, they're going to be looking around. What I have in store for players is a simple NPC that unlocks a side quest. That quest becomes as clear as daylight scars the moment you begin reading what NPCs have to say. These NPCs will make it extremely clear to you for what you must look for and do. It is at this point where kill count is no longer a concern. You can kill enemies, skip enemies, do what you wish. The main objective has absolutely no bearings on this side objective that will clearly be more fun than what you were originally doing. Once you reach the designated area, you will face a hoard of difficult mobs. Not spammy, simply difficult. Once you clear the area, you must report back to the NPCs and Tyrell (doesn't matter what order). The NPC in question will give you further instructions, and Tyrell will deduct points from you due to your poor performance and you will fail the quest. That is right, he will take away the AF Points you worked hard for via pacifist runs. In fact, the minimum of total AF Points acquired is not limited to 0, it can fall into the negatives. THIS is what you want. What you're going to what to do with your negative points is actually spend them on another NPC who also sells items for negative AF Points. He will not bargain with you if your AF Points is greater than or equal to 0, but he WILL be interested in your business if you've sabotaged the quest enough to fall into the negatives. To be more clear about this, here's an example. If you have -100 AF Points and there is an item on sale for -20 points, your amount of AF Points will be increased to -80 AF Points. In retrospect, this seems like a gain, but if you are spending negative points, this is a loss in exchange for an item.
Quest Rewards
As you would expect, AF Points are rewarded for clearing the quest. To gain points, you must get an S rank. Clearing the side quest reduces the amount of points you have. Below is a listing of the amount of AF Points you can gain with each condition:
At its very core, the idea of the reward system is to... well, reward players for their work. Personally, I do not care what the rewards are. I'm a very modest guy when it comes to rewards, especially when it comes to a server. I can create a simple list of rewards if that's suitable. But there is something in specific about the rewards that I wish to do. Two things to be exact:
1) AF Point reset. Seeing as how this quest's point system is a double edged sword, you'll be "hurt" in terms of what you can purchase because you actually have the ability to purchase items with positive AND negative points. What I wish for most importantly is a way to reset these points back to 0. The first way is through the positive points. Let's say you fell for the quest's trick, and you actually have a decent amount of positive points on hand. There will be an option to exchange all points for Meseta. Just as an example, you do one run of Ultimate Mode and get an S Rank. You have 8 points. Take those 8 points and multiply it by 1000. You have 8000. That will be how much Meseta you gain. On the other hand, the NPC with the negative AF Points shop will do the opposite. For example, you do one run of Ultimate Mode and do the side quest. That's -40 points. Takes those -40 points and multiply it by only 100 this time, as negative values are easier to get. You get -4000. Multiply that by -1 and you convert it to 4000, a positive number. You have 4000. That will be how much Meseta you gain.
2) Baiting with prize list. Even though everyone is clearly aware that this quest is suppose to be a "joke", there's a chance that they might dismiss everything you see. I feel that the rewards you obtain for positive points are to be good, yet not so good. To explain, let's say you have a Red Sword. Everyone likes Red Sword, right? And surprisingly enough, the milestone for Red Sword isn't that far off for a grind... But once you buy it, you find that it has negative percents. This is merely an example, does not need to be in this exact format, or even this exact weapon, but it would be lovely to trick people into buying something that is sub par, but at the same time I would like to balance this by not making them completely regret ever playing this quest or buying from the shops. Perhaps in the end, it's not so bad, and you could collect everything and keep these weapons as souvenirs or what. Maybe even at a lower level, it would still be okay to use, just not in Ultimate Mode. On the other hand, the shop that accepts negative points won't be prize bait at all. While you certainly won't see any rares with negative percents in their shop, you'll see basic essentials that can improve the quality of life for hunters... Such as materials or what have you. Unlike the positive shop, the negative shop is suppose to be a secret, and the negative shop should be something that everyone wants and thinks is fun grinding for.
What should be kept secret from the community?
Like any master prankster, some secrets shouldn't be disclosed to prepare that big climactic setup. I think most of this would be common sense, but let's go over everything that I feel should be hidden from the community.
Side Quest: Obviously, disclosing the side quest would be too big of a hint for the community. The idea here is that when you're making a prank, you have to predict what your targets are going to do. I'm counting on people to miss the side quest the first time, catch a hint or two during or after playing the quest, then re-evaluating everything in that quest. Then eventually, hopefully, they come to a point where they are provoked into talking to NPCs other than Tyrell and Irene. I would say it is okay to disclose the main quest, because that's what the quest is all about. The players think they're doing the right thing, but once you explore just a little bit, you kind of start dancing on ludonarrative dissonance, where what the event says you should do isn't really what you're necessarily suppose to do.
Quest Rewards: I believe that the quest rewards should not be disclosed. For one, when purchasing an item from the AF shop, you're only told the brand name, but none of the specifics. It makes them not question what they go for, then once they're in, got 'em. That's only for the positive AF shop, however. The negative AF shop should also not be disclosed either, but none of it should be a prank. The fact that you had to actually run off and do a secret side quest and intentionally fail the main quest, getting a reduction in points, should be enough convincing that this quest is ass backwards and you'll indeed be rewarded for failure.
Closing Thoughts
I really like my own idea and I feel like it would be a nice twist and change to come for April 1st, granted we don't troll the community TOO hard. There are also some miscellaneous questions I'd like to ask, such as... What quest flag should I use? I know you guys don't like to use up your precious resources, thus using max attack quest flags for a point system, but just in case, for those oddball April Fools idea, what should I use for a quest flag? Right now, I have it set to 16 (10 in Hex) but I can easily go back and change it. I would just like to have a number before I go in and add an array of items, because if I do that first, I'll have some monotonous work on hand to do consisting of changing values. But... I suppose I wouldn't mind either way.
P.S. I apologize for that massive read. But I suppose such evils are necessary. If you pulled through with reading all of this, I salute you, good sir.
It's just a prank, bro?
There is indeed a "prank" to be had, but it's not all revolved around psyching the player. I feel like if there's a quest out there that has absolutely no purpose and just exists to troll the players, it's not fun. Maybe funny, but not fun. What I've done with the quest is implemented an array of jokes ranging from inside jokes to double entendres that's all Ephinea/community related. Some might be cringy, others may make you genuinely laugh, but I'm working on the scripts for my very "HUmarous" jokes! See what I did there? Because the HUmar class and... never mind. In addition, the quest should prove to be fun enough to play. There are monsters to kill. But we'll get more into that later.
The Main Objective
The main quest is quite simple. The principal has created a simulation and you are sent off into the field to slay dudes and you get a score based off of how many kills you get. But stop right there. The twist here is that when you kill monsters, you get a negative score. Running through the quest without getting a single kill is the main objective. Now I know what you're thinking, this sounds like anti-fun, but keep listening to me. There is a reason behind the next things you're about to hear me say. Upon completing the quest successfully, and by successfully, I mean killing absolutely nothing, you will get AF Points (April Fools Points). Depending on the difficulty, you will get X amount of points. These points can then be turned into an NPC (located within the same quest) in exchange for items. These items are a work in progress, see Quest Rewards below for more information.
The Side Objective
Now here's the real kicker. I know people have a bad habit of skipping dialogue and getting right into the quest, so I'm going to take advantage of that. That sounds terrible, but not as terrible as you think. What I'm doing here is a simple prediction. What I predict that is going to happen is that most players are going to skip through Tyrell's words, or at least skim through it and not read between the lines, and ignore all NPCs in Pioneer 2. This general mindset is what will cause you to get a negative score on the main objective. With the way that I have the quest set up, I feel that there are far too many clues or hints for you to not at least scratch your head and say "Hey, there's something wrong going on here. Where are my points? Let's investigate by actually reading things." This one simple gesture will be the enlightening factor to most players, I feel. It will be at that point that they will read what Tyrell and Irene has to say, and even read some of the mid-quest dialogue, getting a clue that you're not suppose to kill anything. But that's not the side objective, that's the main objective. The side objective actually requires just a bit more investigation, but not a whole lot.
The NPCs on Pioneer 2 are in plain sight. If people are looking for points or rewards, they're going to be looking around. What I have in store for players is a simple NPC that unlocks a side quest. That quest becomes as clear as daylight scars the moment you begin reading what NPCs have to say. These NPCs will make it extremely clear to you for what you must look for and do. It is at this point where kill count is no longer a concern. You can kill enemies, skip enemies, do what you wish. The main objective has absolutely no bearings on this side objective that will clearly be more fun than what you were originally doing. Once you reach the designated area, you will face a hoard of difficult mobs. Not spammy, simply difficult. Once you clear the area, you must report back to the NPCs and Tyrell (doesn't matter what order). The NPC in question will give you further instructions, and Tyrell will deduct points from you due to your poor performance and you will fail the quest. That is right, he will take away the AF Points you worked hard for via pacifist runs. In fact, the minimum of total AF Points acquired is not limited to 0, it can fall into the negatives. THIS is what you want. What you're going to what to do with your negative points is actually spend them on another NPC who also sells items for negative AF Points. He will not bargain with you if your AF Points is greater than or equal to 0, but he WILL be interested in your business if you've sabotaged the quest enough to fall into the negatives. To be more clear about this, here's an example. If you have -100 AF Points and there is an item on sale for -20 points, your amount of AF Points will be increased to -80 AF Points. In retrospect, this seems like a gain, but if you are spending negative points, this is a loss in exchange for an item.
Quest Rewards
As you would expect, AF Points are rewarded for clearing the quest. To gain points, you must get an S rank. Clearing the side quest reduces the amount of points you have. Below is a listing of the amount of AF Points you can gain with each condition:
Normal Mode
- Clear: AF Points +1
- Fail: AF Points -5
- Clear: AF Points +2
- Fail: AF Points -10
- Clear: AF Points +4
- Fail: AF Points -20
- Clear: AF Points +8
- Fail: AF Points -40
At its very core, the idea of the reward system is to... well, reward players for their work. Personally, I do not care what the rewards are. I'm a very modest guy when it comes to rewards, especially when it comes to a server. I can create a simple list of rewards if that's suitable. But there is something in specific about the rewards that I wish to do. Two things to be exact:
1) AF Point reset. Seeing as how this quest's point system is a double edged sword, you'll be "hurt" in terms of what you can purchase because you actually have the ability to purchase items with positive AND negative points. What I wish for most importantly is a way to reset these points back to 0. The first way is through the positive points. Let's say you fell for the quest's trick, and you actually have a decent amount of positive points on hand. There will be an option to exchange all points for Meseta. Just as an example, you do one run of Ultimate Mode and get an S Rank. You have 8 points. Take those 8 points and multiply it by 1000. You have 8000. That will be how much Meseta you gain. On the other hand, the NPC with the negative AF Points shop will do the opposite. For example, you do one run of Ultimate Mode and do the side quest. That's -40 points. Takes those -40 points and multiply it by only 100 this time, as negative values are easier to get. You get -4000. Multiply that by -1 and you convert it to 4000, a positive number. You have 4000. That will be how much Meseta you gain.
Also, just in case anyone looks at the quest's script in the future, I can vouch that the code is working fine. Typically, there's no actual way to dynamically reward Meseta with registers, because pl_add_meseta2 is a non-register OPCode. So with a bit of manipulating, take_slot_meseta, ironically, can "give" Meseta if you place in negative values. Additionally, when multiplying the amount of AF Points you have by the exchange rate, it doubles what you really want. So for example, 8 x 1000 isn't 8000, but 16000. To fix this, I set the register carrying the exchange rate to half of this, i.e. 500, and then it rewards the correct value. So even though this makes no sense whatsoever, it's how qedit thinks and we must obey its coding logic.
2) Baiting with prize list. Even though everyone is clearly aware that this quest is suppose to be a "joke", there's a chance that they might dismiss everything you see. I feel that the rewards you obtain for positive points are to be good, yet not so good. To explain, let's say you have a Red Sword. Everyone likes Red Sword, right? And surprisingly enough, the milestone for Red Sword isn't that far off for a grind... But once you buy it, you find that it has negative percents. This is merely an example, does not need to be in this exact format, or even this exact weapon, but it would be lovely to trick people into buying something that is sub par, but at the same time I would like to balance this by not making them completely regret ever playing this quest or buying from the shops. Perhaps in the end, it's not so bad, and you could collect everything and keep these weapons as souvenirs or what. Maybe even at a lower level, it would still be okay to use, just not in Ultimate Mode. On the other hand, the shop that accepts negative points won't be prize bait at all. While you certainly won't see any rares with negative percents in their shop, you'll see basic essentials that can improve the quality of life for hunters... Such as materials or what have you. Unlike the positive shop, the negative shop is suppose to be a secret, and the negative shop should be something that everyone wants and thinks is fun grinding for.
What should be kept secret from the community?
Like any master prankster, some secrets shouldn't be disclosed to prepare that big climactic setup. I think most of this would be common sense, but let's go over everything that I feel should be hidden from the community.
Side Quest: Obviously, disclosing the side quest would be too big of a hint for the community. The idea here is that when you're making a prank, you have to predict what your targets are going to do. I'm counting on people to miss the side quest the first time, catch a hint or two during or after playing the quest, then re-evaluating everything in that quest. Then eventually, hopefully, they come to a point where they are provoked into talking to NPCs other than Tyrell and Irene. I would say it is okay to disclose the main quest, because that's what the quest is all about. The players think they're doing the right thing, but once you explore just a little bit, you kind of start dancing on ludonarrative dissonance, where what the event says you should do isn't really what you're necessarily suppose to do.
Quest Rewards: I believe that the quest rewards should not be disclosed. For one, when purchasing an item from the AF shop, you're only told the brand name, but none of the specifics. It makes them not question what they go for, then once they're in, got 'em. That's only for the positive AF shop, however. The negative AF shop should also not be disclosed either, but none of it should be a prank. The fact that you had to actually run off and do a secret side quest and intentionally fail the main quest, getting a reduction in points, should be enough convincing that this quest is ass backwards and you'll indeed be rewarded for failure.
Closing Thoughts
I really like my own idea and I feel like it would be a nice twist and change to come for April 1st, granted we don't troll the community TOO hard. There are also some miscellaneous questions I'd like to ask, such as... What quest flag should I use? I know you guys don't like to use up your precious resources, thus using max attack quest flags for a point system, but just in case, for those oddball April Fools idea, what should I use for a quest flag? Right now, I have it set to 16 (10 in Hex) but I can easily go back and change it. I would just like to have a number before I go in and add an array of items, because if I do that first, I'll have some monotonous work on hand to do consisting of changing values. But... I suppose I wouldn't mind either way.
P.S. I apologize for that massive read. But I suppose such evils are necessary. If you pulled through with reading all of this, I salute you, good sir.