Originally posted by
HoboForEternity:
Hi, i have been following you guys for several months, but it wasnt untill last 2 weeks i begin watching most of your updates videos.
A: Glad to know someone's watching them! Hey Nic, we should keep making them!
Originally posted by
HoboForEternity:
1. Concerning questing, i know there are the 5 type of quests thomas included in the game. I am asking concerning the choices you can make in these quests. For example you have to fetch a magic hat from a crazy wizard lair. Can you have multiple ways of doing it? Like either you sneak it, or blasting the tower with fireball tovget your awesome hat?
A:
When I said there are 5 quest types i meant, after a lot of study and analysis, all rpgs only have 5 quest types. Wow probably has 1,000 quests but they are all different variations of the 5 types. I don't want to imply Archmage is limited, in fact it is understanding the essence of the 5 quest types that I think will allow us to make truly enjoyable quests.
As for multiple ways to complete a quest, yes. Since the quests are dynamically generated by the AI GM all it cares about is checking to see if the end condition is met. If you are to retrieve a hat and you have the hat, then it's a success. So invisibility and sound muffle to walk in and take it, or fireballs to kill everyone and take it are both perfectly acceptable.
Originally posted by
HoboForEternity:
2. Still pertaining to the first question, is there an investigation mechanic in the game? Like a guy approached you and ask "help! My daughter is kidnapped! But i dont know where she is! She is last seen on this place" so the quest involve you asking around where she could be and who kidnap her instead of just your ordinary go to x find y quest with "let me mark your location on your map". Does the simulation allow this? Because i generally dislike those kind go to x do y place with no context or options.
A: Yes I agree with you. This isn't Diablo where yer there just to kill stuff and quests are excuses to kill stuff (not that i don't enjoy that from time to time). Yes we have been working on allowing the player to do some detective work. So if a person is missing (and the quest giver has no clue where they are, cuz they went missing!) you have to track down where they went by following footsteps or putting 2+2 together. So if the hex they were travelling in has a high goblin population, and goblins are known for taking prisoners, there is a high probability the person was kidnapped by goblins. Now you need to find the goblin lair. This involves survival checks to track goblin movement and narrow down where they are coming from (or hire a tracker). Once you are in the lair you can fight/sneak your way in and see if the missing person is there or not. If they are, you free them - but now they are your prisoner. Do you keep them as a slave to work your fields, or do you sell them to a slave trader, or do you return them to their family? That's all your choice, as with any quest item you find. You have total freedom on how you do it because the world is simulated correctly to handle whatever you do (for the most part).
The quest system is the hardest part of the game to build, it may take us several iterations to get it right, but getting it right is the most important job after getting the world to simulate correctly.
Originally posted by
HoboForEternity:
3. How much story can the simulation generate? I have been curious since the passion and NPC update. The meat of a story is conflict, and conflict can comes from conflicting motivations. Can an NPC motivations conflict with yours?
A:Yes. The NPCs have thier own passoins/motivations and they follow them. If you are opposed to their motives & goals then that is the conflict. This could be political like becoming head of the Conclave, or romantic like wooing the same girl.
There are NPC adventurers in the game. They do the quests that you aren't and they do compete with you for quest completion. I haven't yet built the NPC Adventurer interaction for the player. Like the ability to join them. I hadn't thought of that as an option.
Originally posted by
HoboForEternity:
If the simulation allow for that kind of thing, then yes, you have the best role playing game ever made.
A:We're working hard at it!
Originally posted by
HoboForEternity:
I also want to talk about death, which i didnt find you talking much about that, since the game is based on your character's lifetime, so it decide when your game end.
1. What are cause of death? Outside of combat ofc. Can you get sick, not treated then die? Can you get assassinated while sleeping? Can you die of childbirth? Aging seems pretty obvious
A: The #1 cause of death is fishing.
OK i'm kidding. The #1 cause of death is old age. Death comes to us all, NPC and player alike. When you, or anyone is born, your time of death is set. You will only live so long so every moment matters. There are in game hints as you get older and closer to your death. Like in a board game with 5 rounds it is very clear when you are on the last round and have to make your final decisions.
Other ways to die include:
- Illness (disease/plague)
- Bleeding to death
- Imprisonment until you die of natural causes
- Execution by authorities
- Renouncing magic (there isn't anything to do in a mage simulator if you won't be a mage)
In a permadeath game we are being very careful the player never dies without choosing to do so. So if you get poisoned, well you chose not to carry and antidote and chose not to go to a healer and so died. Same thing with encountering a giant when you first start out: you should RUN. If you choose to stay and fight and get smushed, well that's on you.
Things like dying in childbirth, while highly realistic, interesting, never done before, falls into that "unfair" camp like "hey you rolled bad and died and lost all your progress". Cool and interesting from a design perspective if it happens to others, but no fun to have it happen to you.
Nic is very against "bad roll = death". I'm a touch more lenient towards it. So maybe i'll sneak in a 1 in 1,000 chance of dying in childbirth.
Originally posted by
HoboForEternity:
2. Can you find a way to cheat death? You already said if you have a loyal protege, they can revive you if you died in battle, so the question is can you trick time? Find the lost fountain of youth? Become an undead lich? A vampire? Find a way to transfer your soul into a younger body?
A: Undead lichdom, vampirism is a DLC as outlined here:
http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2016/10/3/design-qa-will-there-be-vampires-and-werewolves
Originally posted by
HoboForEternity:
Sorry for heavy questions. I havent played the pre alpha, so sorry if these are actually included in the game already.
A:No prob! Most of this isn't covered in the pre-alpha. We were more concerned about getting something working to show people HOW it will play (it doesn't play like Skyrim or Final Fantasy at all).
The current build we are working on (11) has much more of the world simulation aspects working, but there is still much to go.