Perhaps I can suggest a simple variation: a GM event without need for a GM.
Step 1:
Scatter 'map fragments' throughout the world
These are from an original, and 4-5 copies, of a treasure map. Each is torn into 16 pieces. Some copies of the map were burnt, others faded in the sun, still others torn or damaged. This leaves about 50 viable fragments out of 80. Some will be rarer than others; some will be more valuable because of the clue they contain. These should be unique replacements for 'rare' drops of perception finds.
Step 2:
Scatter statuettes/ornaments throughout the world.
There should be 4-6 of these, though a few might be in pieces, awaiting assembly. They should be found via:
(i) 'unique' replacement of drop by named mob,
(ii) singular replacement for perception find/node or
(iii) hidden in plain sight (e.g. statuette on the mantelpiece behind a named/raid boss as one of a dozen ornaments)
Step 3:
Scattered 'peculiar metal ore' throughout the world.
These would be 'replacements' for rare metal harvestings of certain nodes. It may be limited by region or metal node type. There should be some 200-250 available to be mined. They will not have an obvious crafting use and the unwary may sell them to NPC vendors (where they would be available for any enterprising dumpster-diver). More perceptive players may get a perception hint about them. They can be smelted into a 'small ingot' and, once this has been done, may be used as a substitute for certain metals in crafting recipes. If the game supports a form of 'item deconstruction', then this should be a lossy process, retrieving one fewer 'small ingot' than went into the item.
Events:
1. Scavenger hunt 1: Eventually someone will find the 'X marks the spot' that reveals the entrance to a dungeon.
2. Scavenger hunt 2: Once inside the dungeon, there will be areas that cannot be passed. The statuettes/ornaments will be used to unlock progress. This may be by unlocking a door, raising a portcullis, revealing a hidden passage, dissipating a lethal atmosphere, etc. Once used, this avenue is then opened for any and all. There should be more than one path to the destination - each route needing different ornaments/statuettes. Thus some of these need not be located and brought here - but if needed, progress is halted until they are.
3. Investigation: The destination will have a door made of a peculiar (and particular) metal. Near it should be a hint/direction (perhaps) as to what is next. E.g. scrawled on the wall is text showing that entering beyond the door will expose you to a severe debuff effect.
4. Evaluating/Exploring: Any can enter, but suffer a debuff with a half-life of 1 day. I.e. the debuff will half in dtrength after 24 hours. Staying within gives a further debuff every hour (though perhaps no worse penalty) but stacked debuffs only begin to decay once the previous debuff has progressed 24 hours. This debuff can be mitigated by carrying/wearing an item(s) using the peculiar metal. It takes 3 small item(s) worth (perhaps only 2 for halfling/gnome, and 4 for ogre) to protect any person completely. Carrying less will still reduce any penalty significantly.
5. Diplomacy/Crafting: Obtaining items crafted with the metal, or the ores/ingots, will now be the next step. This will take diplomacy, crafting, dumpster-diving, mining or cash to accomplish. Note that trying to buy a 'useless item' from payers without telling them why is sure to smell fishy!
6. Diplomacy/Raiding: Within will lead to a Raid Boss. It should take a 'pickup' force of 48 or a 'well-trained' force of 36+ to takedown.
Summary:
This is, in effect, a set of linked scavenger hunts. It aims to bring together explorers, crafters and raiders in a unique (per server?) and epic quest.
Evoras, likes the idea of super secret - squirrel quests...
Sounds good Evoras. Yeah it would be good if the items were scattered around randomly per server so you couldn't just get hints and tips on a database site and as someone who is really interested in crafting I like the idea of getting crafters involved as well.
The most important part of something like this is that the developers or the GMs do not announce this publically! Maybe in the patch notes it might just say "New epic quest released - explore for more info" and leave it at that. That way there won't be much cheating going on and only the most dedicated players will start to unlock the secrets of the quest.
Finding a hidden dungeon is exactly the kind of thing that I had in mind when I started this thread. It could also have some unique looking weapons or armour which would make it even more sought after instead of having cosmetic items which I don't really like the idea of. That way people who look really cool will be respected because everyone else will know that they found something really exclusive in the game.
Edit: Oh and having an entire server working together to unlock the secrets of a single quest sounds awesome especially if that quest was different for different servers. I can imagine there would be a lot of discussion on the server forums about quests like that which would get the community working together.
Evoras said:Events:
1. Scavenger hunt 1: Eventually someone will find the 'X marks the spot' that reveals the entrance to a dungeon.
aims to bring together explorers
Think you have the right idea Evoras.
Also forgot to mention ,in zelda revealing the entrance to a dungeon was fun part of exploration too.
Sometimes a key was misisng to open the dungeon
other times the entrance became visible after the waterfall stopped
Or you had to fight a dragon turtle,use a flying rooster to get up high ,a pet had to eat away the poisonous flowers in the swamp etc
Kinda reminds me of this: https://www.killping.com/blog/players-spawn-rarest-world-boss-in-wow-legion/
Being involved in an event that discovers a never-before-seen boss or dungeon that goes down in history would be a truly unforgettable moment. I hope we have plenty of opportunities to create priceless moments like that in Pantheon. And I don't mean just being the first person to reach a certain zone during Pre-Alpha. As cool as that is too, everyone knows the best ones are those that are intentionally hidden and you almost have to stumble upon them accidentally because they are so secretive, the process to unearthing them is so complicated. No, not everyone would have the privilege of being a part of that, but I think that sense of awe and wonder is more important.
edit: sp
Cromulent said:Some of the questing in EQ and Vanguard was great but what I'd love to see is some secret quests. Quests that maybe 99% of the population won't even know exist or that one player randomly finds in the middle of nowhere. Imagine you are in the depths of a zone and there are no paths anywhere near you and you just see a small ground spawn. You walk over to it and it turns out to be a book on a 7 day spawn counter (so even if other players know about it finding it actually spawned will be next to impossible). Inside the book is the start to a huge epic quest that takes you all over the world and once completed gives you a pretty good piece of armour. It doesn't have to be an actual epic quest just a very long quest that takes a long time to complete.
Or maybe you find a corpse in a cave which has a hidden entrance that you have to walk through a fake wall that is off in an area that is no where near where players would go normally. Only the most dedicated explorers would find the cave in the first place and only those that explore the cave will find the corpse which starts off a quest.
These hidden or secret quests could give you an extra special reward because a) they are extremely hard to find in the first place and b) beacuse they could start a really long epic quest line that takes hours / days / weeks to complete.
What does everyone else think? Would you like quests to exist that are almost impossible to find for the vast majority of players?
I like the Idea very much. The fact that is is well off the beaten path and would take an explorer type to discover it is very cool and the most important part of the idea in my opinion. Maybe the book could spawn every 7 days but have 20 random locations that it could spawn in. That would make it pretty rare. Then they could have a couple dozen items that act just like that book in the game and exploration would be the better for it.
If a quest is triggered by something which exists within the game world on its own, waiting for you to stumble across it, etc, if will only ever be secret the first few times. Then, as it has been mentioned time and time again, the entire quest will be posted online and poof...everyone who wants to complete it will complete it. That is the nature of the world today.
I really like the idea of rare quests, but how do you not only make it rare but also keep it rare? Long-duration spawn timers is just a lazy solution. No, I think the answer is this: Complexity. I look at the Coldain Prayer Shawl and Coldain Ring quests as prime examples. Both were complex, taking many many steps (8 and 10 respectively), requiring mulitple groups for some portions, and lots of tradeskills.
But, you might say, the epic weapon quests were long and complex and nearly 99.99% of players completed theirs. The epics though were class defining, providing huge benefits to your class. The Coldain quests not so much. Yes their rewards were good, but not as powerful as the epics.
Vandraad said:If a quest is triggered by something which exists within the game world on its own, waiting for you to stumble across it, etc, if will only ever be secret the first few times. Then, as it has been mentioned time and time again, the entire quest will be posted online and poof...everyone who wants to complete it will complete it. That is the nature of the world today.
I really like the idea of rare quests, but how do you not only make it rare but also keep it rare? Long-duration spawn timers is just a lazy solution. No, I think the answer is this: Complexity. I look at the Coldain Prayer Shawl and Coldain Ring quests as prime examples. Both were complex, taking many many steps (8 and 10 respectively), requiring mulitple groups for some portions, and lots of tradeskills.
But, you might say, the epic weapon quests were long and complex and nearly 99.99% of players completed theirs. The epics though were class defining, providing huge benefits to your class. The Coldain quests not so much. Yes their rewards were good, but not as powerful as the epics.
Yeah but if you couple long spawn times with very random and hidden spawn locations in the world then it does little good to know it exists when you'd have to check all corners of the world for it.
Iksar said:Vandraad said:If a quest is triggered by something which exists within the game world on its own, waiting for you to stumble across it, etc, if will only ever be secret the first few times. Then, as it has been mentioned time and time again, the entire quest will be posted online and poof...everyone who wants to complete it will complete it. That is the nature of the world today.
I really like the idea of rare quests, but how do you not only make it rare but also keep it rare? Long-duration spawn timers is just a lazy solution. No, I think the answer is this: Complexity. I look at the Coldain Prayer Shawl and Coldain Ring quests as prime examples. Both were complex, taking many many steps (8 and 10 respectively), requiring mulitple groups for some portions, and lots of tradeskills.
But, you might say, the epic weapon quests were long and complex and nearly 99.99% of players completed theirs. The epics though were class defining, providing huge benefits to your class. The Coldain quests not so much. Yes their rewards were good, but not as powerful as the epics.
Yeah but if you couple long spawn times with very random and hidden spawn locations in the world then it does little good to know it exists when you'd have to check all corners of the world for it.
Exactly. I mentioned a few times that randomness was essential to combat that problem.
Iirc, In eq they had these xmas type events that would only happen during that time frame. im not sure about this but I think that santug would appear in (semi ) random zones and walk around for a bit and despawn to respawn somewhere else.
i like the idea of randomness. So perhaps some random npc could pop up somewhere and give this quest to the first 5 or so people and then gate to appear somewhere else randomly. Or a different person or gender with a different name but with the same quest.( random name/gender/race generator ?) perhaps tied in with the perception system?
I like it. Good ideas here!
I wanted to ressurect this query to also include, intentionally deep coded "quests" or perhaps more specifically events or world events. The first thing that comes to mind is the "sleeper" event in old EQ, which was good and bad in that it prevented those nice avatar weapons frome ever being available again but was neat because it was a deep coded event. Another thing that comes to mind from old EQ was those Dark elf portals that it was believed- through lore- might be an alternate way about the world instead of druid rings or wizzy ports. But I am wondering if the Devs have two or 5 such deeply coded events or things embedded in pantheon that only the ultra rich or famous might be able to tempt out a hint of them from the devs in the later years like for national security, or something.
I think Pantheon can make this work and I am pretty confident they will in fact have secret quests.
The reason I say this is when this game was first announced they said they were going to stick with chatbox based text dialogue for NPC's. However, recently they said they are working on getting NPC text bubbles implemented. I can't imagine they would abandon text-based quest (which are already in game and working).
I suspect that by talking to NPC's that you may get hints about certain things you can go and say to other NPC's to trigger secret quest. I cannot fathom that they would have epic quest pop up in a text dialogue box for you to click on. What's epic about that?
While I love hidden quests and mysteries that you solve outside of a quest journal I don't really care how many there are if any. If a paladin lets the right bandit go then that npc comes back later on. it is a cool idea, but eventually everyone finds out that in order to get title x or a certain ability, you must let people surrender in an area or execute people pleading for their lives.
My exploration drive would be fed more by journals / short stories with no reward. Hell I would collect them for my house. I love the stuff like the fallout journal entries.