Possible Additions

I'd be down for this personally as long as the quests remain original and interesting. I'm probably going to be annoyed if there are multiple "Kill x amount of monster y for stationary douchebag z" but if things are kept fresh and fun then sure.

Lol. Yeah. I plan to keep things interesting. I figured these quests could also indirectly further any plots, too, for the characters involved, I mean. Plus, I noticed there are a lot of Wandering Characters than there are Soldiers, so I wanted to make a system that even they could follow. That way, everyone can find something to do, especially if they're bored.

Anyways, more opinions please! :D

Personally, I've always liked the idea of having 'side-quests' in a forum RP. It's always a good idea to see if people either want to team up to take on a quest, or if someone wants to take on a simpler quest all on their own.

Also, nothing wrong with the classic kill x enemy for y reward! Paper and Pen RPs should always stick to the classics!

I agree, there are definitely more 'wandering' type of characters as opposed to people as a part of a single entity. Not to be critical, but I'd blame lack of incentive, really. Maybe I missed it, but I hadn't seen any rewarding difference between choosing a free-character as opposed to someone set into an army. Again, not being critical, but I'm sure there would be more people jumping for the opportunity if there were some sort of incentive. In this case, you can make an incentive with quests! Such as, much more rewarding quests, more avaliable quests, or even being able to take on a few more RPs than a wandering character?

Just throwing that out there! Hope it helps out in some way.

I like your ideas. Glad to see another person approves of this! Anymore opinions? :3

Kind of new here, but I've had some experience with quest systems, so figured I'd throw in my 2 cents.

When thinking of a quest system, It's usually not even the rewards that draw my attention- It's content and presentation.

I have no problem with quests like the described "Kill X of Monster Y"(Alphabet gets more violent as you go down the list), but it typically only serves as a platform to acquaint two characters. While if you threw that same thread at a bunch of characters whom already knew each other, It's likely that little would be truly gained from it(again, not talking about rewards).

What if you took those friendly characters and placed them within a quest that determined the fate of Monster Y and his clan, a bunch of ugly monsters with their own culture, but simply having their territory encroached upon. Quests with this type of content could go very far to shove characters into a position to learn things about themselves, and instead of just going through the normal motions, actually having some redeeming value for the player, instead of a nifty new sword.

For some players a nifty new sword is enough, but I would always prefer to see a character evolve. Change ideals, change their personality, or even cause friction among those whom they took the quest with. Perhaps even spawn a rivalry between characters from how things turn out?

Content like that is why one should do a quest- not strictly for quest credit. But besides having provoking content, the one thing that is even more important is presentation.

Will these quests be ran by the players? A dungeon master? Even if the content is good, if it's delivery is poor it's only going to feel forced and ham-handed with whatever challenge it was making on the characters. Players could have trouble trying to keep the challenge balanced out, sometimes letting themselves get off too easy. But on that otherhand, having a Dungeon Master who is prepared to read into the characters, run the plot, and keep the players on their toes can take time and patience. Does the site currently have the staff-strength to run ALL of the quest threads?

By this point, I'm mostly just trying to throw out food for thought and give some suggestions. Quests are important, but can't over-extend yourself either, otherwise there's the dreaded prospect of 'burning out'. Best thing I think could be possible is to make a system for the quests that determines whether staff is involved in a thread(if you even plan to have them involved in managing/supervising any) or if the objectives, challenges, and NPC's are controlled by the involved players(probably for the lower-end, less-dangerous quests).

Truly, quests can be fun, but it's not easy to get it 'perfect' when trying to balance rewards, content, and the weight it puts on staff to run the quests and rewards.

Lovely input. I definitely agree that a quest should be taken on for more than just reward, but it's always nice to include something here and there. Of course, there will likely be a few quests that don't actually have much of a reward, because realistically, not everyone in this world has something to give. So it would be more like charity work, but as you have stated, people will bond more that way. Honestly, I hope Characters bond regardless of reward or not. My idea for this quest system was to hopefully not only increase RP activity, but maybe even spur a bit of plot, and Character Development.

Anyways, the more input I see, the more my mind churns. I'm going to work to develop a Quest System, and maybe even make some minor changes to the Systems we have in place already. Such as our Gold System, which I am considering making an Experience System, as it makes more sense to me. Then I will incorporate a new Gold System, which is dependent on Rewards from Quests, and other forms of making money in this world. What do you guys think?

Sounds like it might be a bit hard to setup. But, I do agree that it makes much more sense.

The biggest problem right now is for Questing in groups is that our member base (And our Active member base) is extremely low. That is the main problem with it. Quest systems will be much easier achieved once we have a more active member base. There is also a plus to having a small member base though as well. it allows for these members to advance while newer members join (through quests/etc) and thus gives new players a 'goal' per say.

I've been trying to get people to do things like this for years on other forums its just that its a problem with dedication and activity, Its like reading a book, a character can't just randomly disappear and then 3 chapters later come back w/o anything being wrong. I guess small is good though, its easier to gather a small group of active people then a large group. Either way, if anyone is interested in Quests/Plots/Character Development/Character progress. I can be sure to acquaint you, As most of you know i'm on here everyday(except on rare occasion) and i'd be glad to control NPC's and give plots, i have a plethora of information to be used for several plots that i have been trying to get going. (unfortunately every character i try to involve drops off the face of the planet 10 posts in.) >_> so yeah, if your interested, i'm here.

Yay! And everyone can give a hand in creating these quests. Who knows, maybe some of them will go with plots in progress, or even develop new plots! There are so many more pluses than minuses that I'm like... uber psyched. o___o;

Hmm. I've played a lot with the idea of quest systems but money systems are something I usually try to work around, whether than embrace. I think this is mostly because most sites try to implement them the wrong way. Experience points are popular, but mostly because it out-right shows the signs of progression and moving forward, something which isn't guaranteed IRL(kind of why some people get so stuck on WoW). So experience is popular, but there's gotta be an 'cap-out'(char is as experienced as they can get) point on that eventually, right? Not to mention the perks to included with whatever levels are assigned(or if it's just a pseudo-gold currency, ways to spend it) to the experience system.

However, having your character's IC gold be tied in directly to the Player's spending currency feels... wrong. For example, starting off with a char that is the heir to wealthy nobility wouldn't be trudging about the world with no money, nor would a non-profit healer be waltzing about the landscape with 7 bulging coin purses, no matter how many posts their player has made. Then again, there's the problem that comes with everyone trying to make their char not have financial issues while also not having anything close to a job.

I don't have too much opinion on the subject of gold and experience, but I just know the two cardinal rules that I hate seeing broken with currency: Don't tie character and player gold together, and don't allow people to buy demi-god status for their char.

But, to start wrapping this up, if you're going to have both gold and experience, make them at least be interchangeable? If a character has a lot of gold they've earned through quests and don't need any gear, let them spend it on some training to possibly get more experience? And if one char has more experience than they need, maybe they can tutor the brat of some wealthy family for some extra spending-money?

Yeah, I tend to get talkative about this stuff. @_@

Quote :

However, having your character's IC gold be tied in directly to the Player's spending currency feels... wrong. For example, starting off with a char that is the heir to wealthy nobility wouldn't be trudging about the world with no money, nor would a non-profit healer be waltzing about the landscape with 7 bulging coin purses, no matter how many posts their player has made. Then again, there's the problem that comes with everyone trying to make their char not have financial issues while also not having anything close to a job.

This is incorrect, the Gold is simply a means of keeping track of who role plays the most, since the only way to acquire gold is to 1.) Have a Birthday, 2.) Become member of the month 3.) Role Play.

Gold was simply easiest to implement as a use. We could easily change "Gold" to "Experience" and have the same effect.

yes, Training etc will be taken into effect if experience is added.

Ahhh... Very good points. With the ideas I had in mind, Experience would be used to show progress, as you have said, and earn more Techniques and Summons, etc. I might even implement a related system for them to 'rank up' in their profession or something. I'm iffy on that subject. But Gold would be used to purchase new Equipment, and such. However, as I look at all these things that would need to be changed, I'm disliking my original ideas. I still like the idea of a Quest System, but how the systems work on forums, we would likely have to take away said Gold or Experience when trading in for these things for Characters and such, which then doesn't show their progress. Hmm...

If we want professions/progression, we're going to need a whole new system, period. Because you can't monitor Progression/Profession with just the use of Techniques/Summons/Weapons. Obviously their weapons and techniques would improve but a lot of other things would improve as well. How well they handle things, what they've seen and understand, abilities they've learned, obviously everyone can't be the best at everything so we'd have to make an Ability system. Flaws and Bonus's to characters, maybe you got cursed by the great mombo Jumbo beast from Satan's Hell fire, or maybe you were given a wings by an Angel cus you stopped a huge army from destroying a bunch of innocents. I believe its gonna need major tweaking if not completely remodeling.

Avarice. wrote:

The biggest problem right now is for Questing in groups is that our member base (And our Active member base) is extremely low. That is the main problem with it. Quest systems will be much easier achieved once we have a more active member base. There is also a plus to having a small member base though as well. it allows for these members to advance while newer members join (through quests/etc) and thus gives new players a 'goal' per say.

I've been trying to get people to do things like this for years on other forums its just that its a problem with dedication and activity, Its like reading a book, a character can't just randomly disappear and then 3 chapters later come back w/o anything being wrong. I guess small is good though, its easier to gather a small group of active people then a large group. Either way, if anyone is interested in Quests/Plots/Character Development/Character progress. I can be sure to acquaint you, As most of you know i'm on here everyday(except on rare occasion) and i'd be glad to control NPC's and give plots, i have a plethora of information to be used for several plots that i have been trying to get going. (unfortunately every character i try to involve drops off the face of the planet 10 posts in.) >_> so yeah, if your interested, i'm here.

This happens with a lot of sites. A lot of people won't join a site unless there's an big active member-base, but you can't get that if no one joins. I still prefer the smaller sites myself, as most sites I've been on had a member base of 50 or less, and only about 20 of them being highly active. I'll probably be contributing some to the IC post count soon, depending on whether I can get a couple people for my plot(Shameless plug).

I think having 20 active members would be wonderful honestly. 4 group of 5 or 2 groups of 10 or several small groups. It allows for mixing and matching and the addition of more players should they arrive.

Avarice. wrote:

If we want professions/progression, we're going to need a whole new system, period. Because you can't monitor Progression/Profession with just the use of Techniques/Summons/Weapons. Obviously their weapons and techniques would improve but a lot of other things would improve as well. How well they handle things, what they've seen and understand, abilities they've learned, obviously everyone can't be the best at everything so we'd have to make an Ability system. Flaws and Bonus's to characters, maybe you got cursed by the great mombo Jumbo beast from Satan's Hell fire, or maybe you were given a wings by an Angel cus you stopped a huge army from destroying a bunch of innocents. I believe its gonna need major tweaking if not completely remodeling.

Exactly. And I don't think a complete remodel would be good, as many mistakes can be made in the process, which results in upset members, etc. Plus, it would be a shame to scrap a system that has been working so well for us already, even as simple as it is.

Avarice. wrote:

Quote :

However, having your character's IC gold be tied in directly to the Player's spending currency feels... wrong. For example, starting off with a char that is the heir to wealthy nobility wouldn't be trudging about the world with no money, nor would a non-profit healer be waltzing about the landscape with 7 bulging coin purses, no matter how many posts their player has made. Then again, there's the problem that comes with everyone trying to make their char not have financial issues while also not having anything close to a job.

This is incorrect, the Gold is simply a means of keeping track of who role plays the most, since the only way to acquire gold is to 1.) Have a Birthday, 2.) Become member of the month 3.) Role Play.

Gold was simply easiest to implement as a use. We could easily change "Gold" to "Experience" and have the same effect.

yes, Training etc will be taken into effect if experience is added.

Well, in the case of keeping track of a member's activity, experience sounds more fitting, if not just watching the IC post count.

Avarice. wrote:

If we want professions/progression, we're going to need a whole new system, period. Because you can't monitor Progression/Profession with just the use of Techniques/Summons/Weapons. Obviously their weapons and techniques would improve but a lot of other things would improve as well. How well they handle things, what they've seen and understand, abilities they've learned, obviously everyone can't be the best at everything so we'd have to make an Ability system. Flaws and Bonus's to characters, maybe you got cursed by the great mombo Jumbo beast from Satan's Hell fire, or maybe you were given a wings by an Angel cus you stopped a huge army from destroying a bunch of innocents. I believe its gonna need major tweaking if not completely remodeling.

Could involve a 'Journal system'. Someone completes a thread/quest, adds it to their own journal thread, and PM's an admin, DM, moderator to have it reviewed. Ties in with the quest system and can be used as a means to show updates on a character, which thread they acquired an item in, etc.

You have excellent ideas. Journals would be a perfect way of keeping track of everything, as well as a way for Members to reflect on their Character's progress. .o.

Let's try not to do too much is all I'll say on this matter. To keep it short: Quests are great ways to get people to RP together. Exp/Gold rewards are an optional addon. Jobs/professions could just be another way someone can do a quest, or even meet a requirement before taking on a quest.

I think that's simple enough? Though, I have to admit, I am a bir skeptical about implementing a job system, but it would be interesting to see.

EDIT

Wow, I'm about 3 posts too late. Lol

This is what happens when Megan overwhelms herself... She thinks too much, freaks out, and talks in third person. .___.

So long as Megan doesn't go for the knives. =X

A lot of these ideas are nice, but they do take time to implement. Don't burn yourself out. @_@

Okay, guys... Any suggestions at all? What would you like to see? What would get you more interested and active here on One Sky? Because honestly, the world isn't changing like I had hoped, and it's rather disappointing to me to put so much work into something that just didn't work out the way I had in mind... I'm kinda contemplating shutting this idea down, and starting anew... I'm not entirely sure, and that's why I want your feedback. .x.

It would be nice if we had a few more people, and a nice SL that includes everyone would be good. What exactly did you have planned, as far as changes? I like it here, but it's mostly because of the people, so if you do decide to start anew, please tell me!

I'm not entirely sure of anything... That's why I'm asking you, the members.