Hey guys, I've spent the last few days asking in game about peoples willingness to help create content for the game. There seems to be enough interest to warrant me writing this post.
First off, wanting to create a piece of writing or quest for PS -IN NO WAY- means you have to join the team (but we could love it if you wanted to try and make a longer term contribution to PS by joining us.) you can do anything you want at any speed you want and take as much as you want to do it. The settings team will be here the whole way to help you from start to finish with creating your idea.
If you are unsure what the Settings Department does let me sum it up. We are responsible for... All the history in game (ancient lore and more recent NPC specific history), all the details to do with any NPC character, the quality and content of all the quests, the quality and content of all the books. Pretty much anything written down in game or anything a player reads in game.
So let me explain what is needed from you if you want to help create a part of the game.
1 - The contributors agreement. http://www.atomicblue.org/prospects_docs/AB_Contribution_License_2006.11.06.pdfThis is the document which all art/rules/books/quests/lore etc are submitted to PS under. It simply gives over the ownership of the piece of work to PS. So you should make sure you don't mind handing it over to PS before you start because if you don't agree we can't use it as official content.
This document also doubles as a NDA, basically if you do end up writing quests we don't want you telling everyone everything about what you write. So please recognize the trust in our part by letting anyone write quests.
2 - What are we looking for?This is easy, anything really.
Books. Stories, folk lore, history (take a point from the history pages of the main web site and flesh it out), poems, religious texts (prayers or explanations of daily life and rituals), cultural books (like the nothrir 'botany of the lower levels' which is referenced in a nolthrir specific quest). There are lots of possible things you could write about.
Quests.Now, this is a little trickier than just writing a book as not only does an idea for a quest need to be created, the dialog for all the steps needs to be created, a flow chart showing how all the steps interact with one another needs to be made, a list of all new items (names, descriptions, weight, size, 3d image, 2d icon) needs to be made. And then all of this needs to be written in a format that the server can understand using the quest specific syntax.
3 - What do you do if you have an idea for something you would like to create for PS.BOOKSIf you would like to try and write a book simply write an overview of the idea down and explain what the content of the book(s) would be and show it to one of the settings Devs (Mordaan or I). We will then look over the idea and give comments as to how it would best fit into the PlaneShift world.
There are certain topics that we suggest you avoid. These include anything that gives spoilers such as books explaining where to find plants or where mines are, books listing spells or what weapon name modifiers do, or things which give away information you can/could/should find out yourself or by talking to people IC in game.
Once the book has been looked at and we (you the author and us the devs) agree that its something that should be added to the game (and as long as someone else isn't already working on the same topic) we will let you go ahead and start writing it. We will likely give you pointers covering things to add and give you or point you to any relevant settings information that you might need to write the book to make sure its content match what is currently 'official settings'.
At this point we will also ask you to sign the contributors agreement. Then once you have finished writing a first draft you give it back to us and we read it and comment on it and send it back to you, this continues for as long as is needed until the book is 'done' at which point it is passed to Taled and once h approves it it will be 'released'. Then we load it onto the server and at the next settings update the book will be 'officially released'. And at this point we all cheer!
Because it can take some time between the book being finished, and the book being released. We have recently added a 'per-release' section to Jayose library where copies of all books which will be released will be placed once finished so that other players can read them. This is so that books can be read by players as soon as possible, and enjoyed by them as well.
QUESTSThe process for quests will be a little different and much longer than writing books, so please only start the process if you have the motivation to see it through.
First, like a book, you need to come up with an idea for a quest. Again there are some topics that we suggest you avoid, like simple carry and run quests we don't really want to add anymore unless there is a good reason for adding one.
I personally love nice settings driven quests that help to explain an aspect of a race, or a religion, or a faction, or part of history, or an NPC (ones that explain an aspect of the IC world in a way not currently done don't necessarily need to be that long, take the nolthrir cultural ones as an example). Some players have written quests like these which I love.
Quests can be as long and as complex as you wish, and you can imagine. They can be filled with lots of exciting elaborate stories and IC options and twists and turns. The more engrossing the story the better.
Once you have an idea, as with the books, you should write up an overview and give it to a settings dev to look over to make sure the story is sensible and that it will work well and that anything you want to do is possible. There is lots possible in quests so please be as imaginative as possible, if you go too far we will let you know, but its very rare that a suggested idea isn't possible. It's unlikely that a quest will be turned down unless the topic has been covered before. But what is very likely to happen though is that we will spend a good amount of time giving you ideas for what is possible and where the story could/should go.
After this you will then be tasked with designing the quest properly this will take you the most time and there are three parts you need to consider.
1 - A flow chart showing all the steps and the branches they lead down and how they all interact and where all the possible endings are. This is as much for us later when we make the quest work on the server as it is for you to make sure you don't end up making any dead ends.
2 - You will need to give us all the dialog for each step, for this you need to give us a two things for each step
A - What the players sees and chooses from "Menu: This is what you see in the click quest button and is what the character doing the quest says IC" "Menu: In this step the player gives NPC_Name X item" or "Menu: In this step the player tells NPC the answer to a question". These are the three choices that you generally get as player and this format is simple so that you don't need to learn the sytnax to write it correctly.
B - What the NPC says in response. This should be in a simple "NPC_Full_Name: Then the text which the NPC says goes here." format.
3 - If any specific quest item is given in a step you should add a note to tell us to give it.
Once you have given us all the information for each step we will read it though and give you comments on it and you edit it and give it back, this will continue until we have a final best version.
THEN!
This is where the Devs get busy, you give us everything; the flow chart showing how all the steps interact with one another, a list of all the new items which need to be created, the dialog for every step, and any other information you think we might need to know. With this we will create the 'quest script' and step up all the steps and design all the locks for you and then we will get it loaded on to the server. We might also tweak the quest or adjust things before loading that we think will improve it. When it comes to rewards that will be up to us and we wont let you know what there is or how to get what there is before we load it, surprises for all.
For the most part you can find us in the #PlaneShift-prospects channel on IRC if you want to talk to someone about something you want to write.
If from this we get a few new books and a few new quests then it will have been worth it as the settings team is very small and we need all the extra help we can to keep new content flowing into the game.
Thanks a lot in advance
Venalan, Mordaan and the Team.
