I am trying to figure out what kind of quest system to implement…
I want the player to travel around and do what they want. If they run into a locked door, it is up-to the player to figure a way to open the door, search for the key type of thing.
I want puzzles throughout and the player has to figure out what to do to advance. However, I also want to implement “side-quests”. The player can stumble upon things not important to the story line and chose to help or not.
I would make your quest system be as fluid and open-ended as possible. This is what I try to do, at least. Of course you can’t plan for everything, but going this way may allow you to reuse old code or not have to change so much in case you change your mind.
I would have a quest object, which holds objections. Then, in your level, objections can be added/removed whenever you wish. I’m not sure if your example is exactly what you want or not: do you think the game needs to tell you “find a key!” when you try to open a door? That sounds like a personal quest instead of an official one, but that’s just to me. You can do all sorts of things with a quest system like this, and how you want to design it is up to you: you could have a hardwritten set of effects and functions a quest can do “kill these animals, etc” or you could simply attach a “complete objection” node to wherever you wish. Or something in between.
Just a few ideas, sounds like your quest system idea is sort of close to mine.
Do you want the player to actually receive a “find the key to the door” quest item in their journal/log, or do you just want the player to figure it out?
It sounds like most of what you want comes from the physics and gameplay engine, not any particular “quest” system as such. The door is coded to require the player to carry an item tagged “green keycard” or whatever. Some object found in the world can be tagged “green keycard.” Done. Think “open world physics/gameplay sandbox” rather than “experience on rails.”
If you want to present the status of the quests, then you’ll need to add a trigger to the door that sets a flag that this item is missing, and another flag when the item is found, to first add the item, and then change its color to show that it’s now “completable.” Think of this more as “annotations” than as “managed quests.”
Designing all of this and keeping it all straight (without accidentally locking the player into unwinnable situations) will be a significant challenge if you pile it on heavy…
, I want to be able to do both. The non-essential or “side-quests” are not going to be logged. Example: The door has supplies behind it but it can not be opened without a key. There will be nothing in the journal about this. But, in-order to get out of the cellar, the player needs to find the key to another door. There will be a notice to the player that a key is required and then it will be recorded journal…
Thank you both for the answers. It doesn’t seem like I need to purchase a quest system from the market after all!
You don’t need to purchase anything! It’s all built by human beings, and you are a human being!
Sometimes, however, it is faster and more convenient to purchase ready-made things.
Whether it makes sense for your case is entirely up to you.
Hmm well , One idea is to see how the Skyrim Creation Kit does it - the Kit is a editor designed for skyrim, and If you simply google “Skyrim Creation Kit Quest Tutorial”, you should find loads of stuff!
