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Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 3:22 am
by Jay_H
Okay, I'm going through the planning stages and working out everyone's personalities. I actually think jayhova's idea of multiple paths to the end is what I'm going to go with.

Each storyline will eventually lead to the endgame, and will make use of different NPCs along the way. People who would be friends in one playthrough will become enemies in other ones. Some NPCs are going to be surprised by who is and isn't on their side, and not everyone's going to make it out alive. You may not know the whole truth behind Daggerfall's storyline with one playthrough; only through playing with multiple factions will you get the whole story about everything that happened.
Spoiler!
Emperor questline:
Main NPC: Popudax, head sorceror of Daggerfall court and advisor to Gothryd. Popudax, loyal follower of the Emperor and instated by Lysandus, will be horrified by the gradual revelations of his kingdom's corruption. With his help you can find Medora and lift the curse on her, allowing you to find Lysandus' tomb and get to the bottom of the story.

Sentinel questline:
Main NPC: Queen Akorithi. Lord Provlith, ambassador to the Daggerfall court, has heard too many suspicious things to remain quiet. With his help you'll find the banished Medora, who wants revenge on Daggerfall's corrupt court before you can enlist her help finding Lysandus' tomb.

Gortwog questline:
Main NPC: Gortwog. No one has better information immediately available about the Totem than Gortwog. Aid him, through Wayrest's Princess Elysana, in his nation's bid to become a co-equal to the other forces of the Iliac Bay.

Underking questline:
Main NPC: Lord Vhosek of Sentinel, swayed by Prince Lhotun, who is grateful to the Underking for his help in discovering the missing prince's fate. The Underking will be the figure of justice and fairness, though his retribution against the Septim line may use extreme measures.

King of Worms questline:
Main NPC: King of Worms, introduced through Princess Morgiah. Powerful enough to get the truth straight from Lysandus' mouth, skipping many political ambitions of the living. But what price will you have to pay for his help?
More questlines may be added as I think of them.

The decision of who to side with will follow a few introductory quests, like the Missing Prince and Morgiah's Letter. All questlines will end like the original main quest, with the choice between the various factions and the same final dungeon. Perhaps what you saw in your own faction wasn't very flattering, or perhaps they didn't want to reward you the way you expected, and your final decision goes to a faction you initially didn't like.

Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 5:42 am
by theJF
Hi Jay, maybe it's my browser but the spoiler tags in your posts on page 1 don't work for me although the one in the post above works fine. I am curious to see your new ideas but perhaps it is fate that they are concealed!!

Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 5:48 am
by Jay_H
Same problem for me. The only way to see them is to try to quote my post, and then inside the text box you'll be able to read them :(

Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 6:50 am
by theJF
I think you have to go through Direnni Tower three times, first time to meet Medora, then again to deliver the horn and one more time to collect the dust (the dust itself strikes me as a bit arbitrary, bringing Lysandus a magical personal item, or perhaps the blade that killed him, seems more suitable).

As a quest dungeon it's not bad but I don't want to go through it 3 times in quick succession. You can recall back to Medora but then you're stuck behind the locked puzzle walls.

Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 12:06 pm
by Jay_H
Yes, I expect Direnni Tower to carry "That One Dungeon" status for a lot of people :lol: Depending on the storyline, you'd have to enter once or no times.

I'm bouncing back and forth between making the one single expanded storyline first, or doing the multiple storylines first. I intend to do both of them, but I'm not sure which one to start with. I feel like doing all the work for the multiple version will help me learn everyone's motivations better so I can write the single version well, but it seems more thematically proper to have the single version out first. I'll have to decide with time.

Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 3:54 pm
by jayhova
When writing adventures I find it easiest to define the characters first. Figure out who is involved and what they want both publicly (the persona that wish to project) and privately (their secret goals and motivations). Who servers the Emperor? Who pretends to, but secretly serves themselves? Who is cautiously on your side. Who is looking to betray you. Who will help you, for a price. Once you have the people and their motives down everything else falls into place.

Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:31 am
by CM August
Something I would love to see is the game respond to the way you've built your character - somebody playing as a thief would receive a slightly different quest progression and objectives than a warrior build, for instance. Ideally it would go hand in hand with level design tailored to your particular playstyle. But I recognise there is only so much that can be done within the quest system and DFU in general. :)

Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:53 am
by Jay_H
That is possible in theory. Part of the difficulty is that so many of Daggerfall's skills overlap. Here's an example:

Over 40 Mysticism
Under 40 Long Blade ----> Use Mage path
Under 40 Pickpocketing

Under 40 Mysticism
Over 40 Long Blade ----> Use Warrior path
Under 40 Pickpocketing

Under 40 Mysticism
Under 40 Long Blade ----> Use Thief path
Over 40 Pickpocketing

The problem arises in the multiplicity of skills. If someone chooses Restoration and Blunt Weapon, and they're both equally high, which one should have priority? What about the character that has 11 Mage skills but the highest is Short Blade at 41, on the Thief path? So far we can only track skills by their individual number, not a sum of skill value (that would certainly grant a whole new angle).

Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:27 am
by CM August
Ideally there'd be a tiebreaker in that case, such as offering the player a choice if they're eligible for both paths. I'm not sure how that would be done though :)

Re: Daggerfall Main Quest 2.0

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:28 pm
by Al-Khwarizmi
Just my opinion, but I think one of the greatest strengths of Daggerfall's skill and character creation systems is that they don't pigeonhole characters into neat boxes. Every character is unique and all sorts of hybrids are allowed. So I wouldn't really want quests in the game to pigeonhole characters instead.

Maybe there could just be quests that trigger if you have a certain skill high enough, but without the need of being mutually exclusive or having to break ties.