Hazelnut wrote: ↑Thu Oct 08, 2020 3:59 pm
Why not leave it as a quest item, or does that require that the quest is never finished?
When I create a quest item in quest 1, this item vanishes when quest 1 ends, so I can't use it in quests 2 ... n. So quest 1 would indeed have be a never-ending quest (and this only if I really could check in quest 2 ... n for quest items created in quest 1 -- aren't they too restricted to quest 1?)
But I already have a few never-ending quests which I use for newspaper items. These are parchment items with message. In these messages I include names of NPCs, places and the player character (like the player name is written as author, whereas NPC and location names are mentioned in the newspaper texts). These items are already done by nearly infinite quests (27 years... maybe I reduce that to 1 year. I guess that is enough for the player to take note of the item and read them several times, so maybe they can be destroyed after that time). I do this because otherwise the NPC/location/player names could not be part of the texts (can't be reference in permanent custom books), and this would be not immersive.
So, as I already use this not-so-elegant solution a few times, I want to avoid to use it for another item.
For my particular "press pass" item, the idea is as follows:
The player does the first 4 chained quests. In the end, he is awarded with the press pass, indicating that he is reporter for the Black Horse Courier. I intended to use that one in lots of other quests to check if the player is reporter or not. Depending on the result of this check, the quests play out differently.
For example, in one quest the player witnesses a bank robbery. While the robbery itself is the same and the Black Horse Courier will publish an article about the robbery, the text of the article is completely different if the player is regarded as reporter or not. He will also get a payment from the Black Horse Courier if the player is reporting, whereas he won't get payment if the article is not written by him, but by some NPC.
Finally, if the player is reporter, other quests get started than if he is not reporter.
So it's all quite complex, because quests are chained in multiple ways, multiple paths and multiple endings.
That's why I now go with a global variable. It's much easier and painless, and I want to focus on the content, not the programming.