Hi everyone,
So I wanted to let you all know about a quest helper system I'm in the middle of making. The quest chains we have now function well, and we have tried to make it as easy as possible to pass along the main chains without having to search for the next quest blindly. This was done by adding dialogue at the end of quests suggesting which NPC to see next. If some of these dialogues are not clear please let us know so we can fix them, we get some comments about this which we improve but without being told what could be better we can't make it better.
However, recently a comment was made by a player that it may actually be finding starter quests that could be hard for a new player to do and therefore put them off PlaneShift. A few weeks earlier I had started planning a system where players could be pointed towards open quests to help them find new quests. So I've done two things. The first is I've added a book on the noticeboard in the tutorial which tells players who the NPCs are that start the main chains for all the factions/associations which should help get new players started. This is similar to the welcome letter players are given but is much more succinct and direct and is about as easy as possible to get them started. This I hope should make it easier to get stuck into PlaneShift and then hopefully a few more players might stick around.
The second is my idea to make barkeeps a central point of gossip (and quests) in a city. Once the system is complete you will be able to go to Alleia, Belcor, Jarda or Brado (I'm also thinking about making someone equivalent do this at the fortress) and ask them to tell you about gossip and they will respond with dialogue designed to point you towards an open quest.
Now, this dialogue WILL NOT be the holy grail of quest info. I want it to be useful, but also as IC as I can make it. It will point you to most but NOT ALL quests. For example, Way quests will not be pointed to, thieve/baddie/sewer quests will not be pointed to, quests outside of cities will not be pointed to, and not every quests in a city will be pointed to. The idea I have for this system is that it is designed to help new players get into PlaneShift, and it will also benefit infrequent players by helping them find quests quickly when they do play by giving them help finding possible quests. It is not designed to help players find every possible quest from every possible NPC, so there will still be plenty of times when help from other players or just asking NPCs will reveal quests.
I hope you all think this idea will prove as useful and will improve playability as much as I do.
