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- Jul 13, 2014
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To help keep the game feeling fresh, I propose a procedurally generated mission/quest system that generates new missions for the player in real time while they fly, preferably with branching relationships between missions, so that while everything looks the same, it "feels" different, depending on what the player is called upon to do.
Example:
In one mission, you might be tasked with scanning a cruiser.
In the next, you might be tasked with destroying an enemy strike group that was planning to destroy that cruiser.
Then you might end up taking some cargo (repair equipment, personnel, whatever) and landing inside that cruiser with it.
Finally, you might end up being tasked with destroying the cruiser. In the mean time, you, the player, have developed a "relationship" with this cruiser, thinking and expecting that it will continue on in some way, but shocked to find it so easily discarded.
Another example:
In one mission, you might be called upon to scan a planet by getting within a couple of sectors of it.
After scanning, you receive a new mission: your scan revealed evidence of a civilization on the far side. You will verify by landing at the landing area indicated by some kind of beacon.
After landing, you receive another mission: leave the ship and explore the alien base/city/pyramid/whatever.
After entering the facility or getting wtihin a certain distance of some core/treasure/enemy/whatever, your new mission is to survive the laser spiders or whatever else comes at you.
At this point, survival might mean just destroying the threat, or maybe you are given a more complex mission to simply escape without harming the threat, so that a capture team can be sent, which might kick off another series of missions to protect that capture mission.
Anyway, after surviving, and getting the salvaged log book or alien blood or whatever from the enemy, your new mission is to come back to some station or ship or something with the salvage or treasure so it can be studied.
Branching missions that mess with player expectation (protect, then destroy; or aggro then escape) are a great way to add interest.
To illustrate how missions can branch differently, after scanning the planet, instead of landing and exploring further, your next mission is to rendezvous with an assault cruiser at a nearby sector by simply going there.
The next mission is to simply get back to that planet as fast as you can.
Once you arrive, your next mission is to obliterate the site by annihilating some random number of beacons. The assault cruiser simply follows you.
So maybe a city is only considered adequately assaulted if 9 or 10 random "beacon" blocks are obliterated. It's your choice to surgically strike these beacons to max out the opportunity for salvage, or else wipe the whole site off the face of the planet, while the assault cruiser is simultaneously bombing the site from orbit.
This is just a variation on the many, many, many mission suggestions presented in the past.
Role-play trade stations
Planned - NPC MISSIONS \m/
Read by Council - Fleets vs Formation vs Mission
A quick little idea for how to implement missions
Missions and Quest System
Quests
Lightweight Quest and Event Engine
Basic NPC quest types
Read by Council - Videos to lead to Quest Creation?
Quest creation using Lua
Mission-ideas and CrewExp-ideas including stress-level.
Example:
In one mission, you might be tasked with scanning a cruiser.
In the next, you might be tasked with destroying an enemy strike group that was planning to destroy that cruiser.
Then you might end up taking some cargo (repair equipment, personnel, whatever) and landing inside that cruiser with it.
Finally, you might end up being tasked with destroying the cruiser. In the mean time, you, the player, have developed a "relationship" with this cruiser, thinking and expecting that it will continue on in some way, but shocked to find it so easily discarded.
Another example:
In one mission, you might be called upon to scan a planet by getting within a couple of sectors of it.
After scanning, you receive a new mission: your scan revealed evidence of a civilization on the far side. You will verify by landing at the landing area indicated by some kind of beacon.
After landing, you receive another mission: leave the ship and explore the alien base/city/pyramid/whatever.
After entering the facility or getting wtihin a certain distance of some core/treasure/enemy/whatever, your new mission is to survive the laser spiders or whatever else comes at you.
At this point, survival might mean just destroying the threat, or maybe you are given a more complex mission to simply escape without harming the threat, so that a capture team can be sent, which might kick off another series of missions to protect that capture mission.
Anyway, after surviving, and getting the salvaged log book or alien blood or whatever from the enemy, your new mission is to come back to some station or ship or something with the salvage or treasure so it can be studied.
Branching missions that mess with player expectation (protect, then destroy; or aggro then escape) are a great way to add interest.
To illustrate how missions can branch differently, after scanning the planet, instead of landing and exploring further, your next mission is to rendezvous with an assault cruiser at a nearby sector by simply going there.
The next mission is to simply get back to that planet as fast as you can.
Once you arrive, your next mission is to obliterate the site by annihilating some random number of beacons. The assault cruiser simply follows you.
So maybe a city is only considered adequately assaulted if 9 or 10 random "beacon" blocks are obliterated. It's your choice to surgically strike these beacons to max out the opportunity for salvage, or else wipe the whole site off the face of the planet, while the assault cruiser is simultaneously bombing the site from orbit.
This is just a variation on the many, many, many mission suggestions presented in the past.
Role-play trade stations
Planned - NPC MISSIONS \m/
Read by Council - Fleets vs Formation vs Mission
A quick little idea for how to implement missions
Missions and Quest System
Quests
Lightweight Quest and Event Engine
Basic NPC quest types
Read by Council - Videos to lead to Quest Creation?
Quest creation using Lua
Mission-ideas and CrewExp-ideas including stress-level.
