Official Quest System

So if the player wants to free roam/explore, then they can't trigger a new quest if they're currently working on one?

Haven't had a chance to look at the code yet, what are the challenges to making a list of active quests instead of a single one? Could we not just have a concept of Quest ID and have an array/list of active ones? Apologies if this is already documented in the code.

How about CompletionDialogue instead of WinDialogue and IncompleteDialogue instead of LoseDialogue?

 

I agree, it might be valuable to be able to run several quests in parallel.

Actually I am trying to figure out if it would be possible to have a quest where the aim is to complete the quest from another NPC first with only one quest active + some dialogue system.

Example:
1. Talk to NPC1: I need a piece of ginger to finish the dish for my son, NPC2 have some spare ones could you ask him to give me 1 piece, please?
2. Talk to NPC2: Sure, but a Slime Critter is blocking the access to my storeroom where I am storing ginger. He is just behind me, could you help me to get rid of him, please?
3. Kill the slime critter (a new step type?)
4. Get Ginger from NPC2
5. Give Ginger to NPC1
6. Get Frying Pan from NPC1! Yeah quest done!

 

I would argue that the above example is simply one quest with many steps and would certainly be possible.

 

Going for the single active quest system would mean designing a system to prevent additional quests from starting if the Player is already busy with one. Let's say that there are 2 characters giving out quests: A and B.

• Player gets their quest from A.
• Quest A activates.
• Player talks to B before completing A.

What should happen?

 

Ah, indeed. Now I understand also treivize's post, thanks. And sorry, I should have read the whole thing more carefully.

Back to the topic, I feel like this might end up being more complex than a multi-quest tracking system because it requires steps to be aware of each-other state.
Perhaps there is a way to keep it simple, I'll give it a thought

 

If they are not connected, how can you tell when you need to start the new quest when talking to NPC B ?

I was thinking that we could add a "Requirement" in the Scriptable Object(SO) definition for the Quest. This requirement would reference another SO with a method returning a bool -> very much like the "ConditionSO" inside the stateMachine system.

That way, we could add a "IsQuestFinished" requirementSO (or ConditionSO) referencing another Quest SO, but we also could easily swap the requirement to something else, like "HasFryingPan".

Or is this too complicated/generic for the current objective ?

 

That means if Quest A is currently running, then QuestManager will have a currentQuest variable QuestA.

If player talks, interacts or any other way of starting QuestB, it would not start until QuestA has been completed.

This also results in if player wants to do another Quest, he would/will have to finish the current Quest or may have to end current Quest

 

Does this mean it is the same sequence of quests every time? I fear nobody would want to play the game a third time then, if he learned the second time it is all the same...

Also, if the player is currently e.g. down on the beach, how does he know the next quest is e.g. on the mountain path? Do we expect the player walks around all over the map until he finally finds the NPC that has his next quest? If there were 3 potential quests to start, the player would find his next quest easier.

I understand that some quests can only be fulfilled successfully after having obtained necessary recipies, utensils or ingredients in former quests. But if for the next quest e.g. 3 different things are needed, it doesn't matter in which order they were obtained. Also if we want to give the player a hint (like "bard hare has been asking about you""Have you ever been on the mountain? You have a great view from there.") at the end of a quest where his next quest is, it doesn't need to be the same all the time - we could have the hint stored with the next quest.

We could for example have quest groups (containing 1 or more quests, the tutorial and final winning quest could be the only one in their group). The quest groups will be activated strictly in sequence but within the group the quests could be activated either in random order or triggered by the player's behaviour (walking into a trigger?).

 

I thinks quests shouldn't be linear, they should be un-ordered, the player would choose whether he wants to start QuestC or QuestB after QuestA.
But one solution to this would be to make Quests interdependent. This means that QuestB would require an item, and that item is the reward of completing QuestA.

But still there some be a degree of freedom to start QuestE after QuestC (in some cases, where the is no dependency of item between E and C).

 

But this would require the player knows which reward he will get. If we would make quest groups and put quest B in your example is in a later group than quest A, then it would be taken care of without the player knowing. Nonetheless the player has the freedom to execute the quests in one group in any order he desires.

 

I think, being a vertical slice, we should focus less on side quests. If the system is made right, adding those should be fairly simple. For now, we just have one questline, the main one of course, and it makes sense that when you finish a quest in a questline, you'll immediately receive or get directed towards the next one. That's common in most games.

So based on that and on what @ChemaDmk has said, what she's calling the Quest Manager, I'd rename it to Questline.
-A Questline has a list of quests.
-Each quest has some steps.
-Each step can be linked to a different Character (Actor)
-etc...

Then we can make a QuestlineManager that can listen to when a questline becomes active, when a quest in that questline is completed or failed, and when the questline is over. Initially, the manager would simply be there to hook up the UI. Then it can be further extended to perform orchestrations; enable and disable quests based on the state of the game, what items the character has, what quests have been completed, etc. But that's probably outside of the scope of the project. But besides that, it's just making the quests and questlines, but the system doesn't really have to care whether there's only one or 5000.

This should really be reconsidered. Perhaps not some UI in the middle of the screen, but at least a Journal you can open up if you feel lost is always necessary.

 

I don't mean some dull quest log that's like,

But rather something more like a Journal or a Diary, saying things along the lines of,

I don't think that would break immersion, while at the same time it helps players that are feeling lost. Not everyone likes reading dialogs, not everyone plays every day so they might need a reminder of what they were doing, and having to talk to every townsfolk to see which one has a dialog that could be a quest seems to me like a tedious task. Having to remember who needs what and where they are, especially if we are going to allow for multiple questlines running in parallel, is also something not everyone likes or even can easily do.

Edit: This might be a separate discussion though so I'll drop it. It's also a lower priority, once the system and some quests are ready we can test if we need it or not, and if we do then it's just setting up the UI for it .

 

Yes, I think it's a fun idea but can also be implemented as an add-on. After all, you only need an additional line in each Quest (or Quest Step) and then send it to this journal once the quest/step is done.

 

In my recent project I implemented parallel and serial objectives simply using a flat dependency list. It sort of avoids the need for complex nested structures

I also allowed for conditions for whether the objective should be activated (although I guess this could also have been merged in as a “Objective Completed” condition)

To represent the following scenario:

• A starts and finishes
  
  
• B, C(1&2) and optional D can now begin
  
  
• C2 requires C1 to be finished first
  
  
• B and C must be finished before E can start (D is optional)
  
  
• E must be finished before F can start

This can be represented as a flat list with dependencies as per the sticky note image below

when an objective is completed, you have the other objectives check their dependencies to see if they’ve been satisfied by the completion event

Hope that’s useful anyway

 

Hi ChemaDmk, Please help us with a short-form video of setting up the current quest pipeline system in video form. starting inputting the Dialogue System and assigning it to the characters preparing recipes to add them to the cooking menu. the current video - the 6th episode of the journey doesn't go in-depth into the system showing us step by step how to set up everything in the unity editor. l have been following the project since it started and l know the team was still developing the systems but you have to update the videos to be more focused on the whole current quest system. Please help and awesome job l am learning a lot.

 

Any methods created or in works for saving the game to allow for coming back later to finish?

Any methods for having doors or pathways blocked, that require certain items to open and get through?

Any methods for "Destroying" an NPC after certain items are gathered to allow for a "battle" to happen?

 

I developped a complete one for my apps and works like a charm, the i just discovered this topic.
Can this quest system be accessed/downloaded from somewhere ?