I saw this in the bulletin and went over to check it out and it's a BRILLIANT idea - with no comments in almost 2 months!
"Johnny from Wizards of the Spiral shared his ideas about creating variety in quest design."
Ravenwood Bulletin Dec. 2015
It's about adding a branching system to quests so we choose our own path gaining and excluding other options. I think its an awesome idea! I'd love to see it REALLY matter which choice we made. Like any branching story scheme, but the initial choice leads two totally different TYPES of quest. (One side generally moves to high xp & chances of hidden loot the other to generally better drop rates & more gold. One to more battles & the other to more detailed story. One with special crafting or fishing the other with more hidden bosses or secret ways to get special pets. etc.)
I suppose this work would have to be side quests only - because I'd want the overall quest pattern to be a Fibonacci branching pattern where each other choice on the way lead to whole little different pockets of branches. The makers would have to pre-determine varried points to resolve each pocket of quests (as otherwise it's infinite on any single branch system.) But by making the termination points seem random, there could be much longer and much shorter or more/less complicated paths. (from above a map of the whole system of quests is like a bonsai tree) With a good likelihood that no 7 characters could accidentally reproduce the same quest experience.
When all is said and done having chosen Right might take one character on 100 steps to the end, and another to 45 steps to the end and another to 12 steps to the end. Choosing Left might have done similarly. Sets of choices might have led to relatively easy steps & relatively hard ones - and some to things like Water Works & Winter Tusk. Others to things like Aquila or fun little jaunts to Skull Island & Rise & Destroy, previews of new worlds, a special Crown Emporium where anytime you are able to get back there - you can buy discontinued or immensely rare objects. ETC. Because the risks, rewards and time spent would vary so widely these quests should be repeatable. It would be great if each world could have one in it's style & theme. As side quests they could be added to existing worlds even after the fact.
Re: Add Variety To Quest Design w/ branching patterns
Helenie Nightseer on Jan 2, 2016 wrote:
I saw this in the bulletin and went over to check it out and it's a BRILLIANT idea - with no comments in almost 2 months!
"Johnny from Wizards of the Spiral shared his ideas about creating variety in quest design."
Ravenwood Bulletin Dec. 2015
It's about adding a branching system to quests so we choose our own path gaining and excluding other options. I think its an awesome idea! I'd love to see it REALLY matter which choice we made. Like any branching story scheme, but the initial choice leads two totally different TYPES of quest. (One side generally moves to high xp & chances of hidden loot the other to generally better drop rates & more gold. One to more battles & the other to more detailed story. One with special crafting or fishing the other with more hidden bosses or secret ways to get special pets. etc.)
I suppose this work would have to be side quests only - because I'd want the overall quest pattern to be a Fibonacci branching pattern where each other choice on the way lead to whole little different pockets of branches. The makers would have to pre-determine varried points to resolve each pocket of quests (as otherwise it's infinite on any single branch system.) But by making the termination points seem random, there could be much longer and much shorter or more/less complicated paths. (from above a map of the whole system of quests is like a bonsai tree) With a good likelihood that no 7 characters could accidentally reproduce the same quest experience.
When all is said and done having chosen Right might take one character on 100 steps to the end, and another to 45 steps to the end and another to 12 steps to the end. Choosing Left might have done similarly. Sets of choices might have led to relatively easy steps & relatively hard ones - and some to things like Water Works & Winter Tusk. Others to things like Aquila or fun little jaunts to Skull Island & Rise & Destroy, previews of new worlds, a special Crown Emporium where anytime you are able to get back there - you can buy discontinued or immensely rare objects. ETC. Because the risks, rewards and time spent would vary so widely these quests should be repeatable. It would be great if each world could have one in it's style & theme. As side quests they could be added to existing worlds even after the fact.
this idea would be interesting to see and i would enjoy it but my question about it is would it affect the way we got a normal spells ?
Re: Add Variety To Quest Design w/ branching patterns
King Leo 46 on Jan 4, 2016 wrote:
this idea would be interesting to see and i would enjoy it but my question about it is would it affect the way we got a normal spells ?
I imagine it'd have to be set up as a system of optional side-quests that never became necessary (like how Grizzleheim started out as optional, but later became necessary.) Because the fun is in the mystery created by not knowing where your choices may lead.That means whatever story, spells, unique loot, unique pets, even destinations like portal visits to Skull Island or whatever the center of Rise & Destroy is - or early visits to new worlds etc - might never be discovered by some wizards. OH and a hub of entry to ALL world Shopping Districts.(Like the Bartlby door, but if you've purchased the area with the hub or have a subscription you can go to any of the shopping districts, just no further if you don't own the next area or have a membership.) Nothing on those paths can be important enough to the main game-play that people start setting the message boards aflame with complaints. (See farming Waterworks for the best gear in 30 levels.) Long answer short: I I think NORMAL SPELLS would always need to be set for main-line quests. There are too many people who only do the main-line quests. But there could be spells like the ones from card packs & crafting available as boss drops or treasure chest rewards. There could be crazy cool exclusive fish and fishing chests. Exclusive houses or housing objects. An exclusive line of Silver ...or say Platinum Treasure Chests that have discontinued Crown gear, pets, etc. (Basically people who found them and got lucky would play a game and have chances at content from Throwback Thursdays and other discontinues or very rare stuff.)
KI could stock the chests, ponds, shops, portals & bosses holey backpacks which such great stuff that they charged Crowns to play the branching quests. It could be a permanent purchase or a 24 hour rental. Or it could be included in normal areas that's unlocked after you finish the world. (Would you have to do all quests or just ML to unlock the new set???)
