Discussion: New event type: quests to do something within X turns

[Nightinggale]

Debating in other threads made me think about how the game is a sandbox game, which benefits greatly from not being the same game each time it's played. If we are to embrace this concept, then we should add something, which will make the game help the player towards playing more differently each time, but at the same time not ordering the player how to play.

My idea is that random events could give the player a quest (the AI already use the word mission). It could be something like "an elder stateman is considering joining your colony, but he fears he won't be able to eat properly. Since he loves fish, he will join you for free if you can catch 15 food from water plots in a single turn in a single colony. He is looking for other locations with good access to his beloved fish and will likely not come to your colonies unless you can meet his demands within the next 5 turns".

In other words the player should be given tasks once in a while, some short term, some longer term and the player benefits from adjusting plans to meet the demand, but at the same time the reward should be of a strategic value that makes it valid to not accomplish any of the quests. We could also add quests, which are given to all European players as in "joins the first player to found a colony on the west coast" or similar.

Is this something, which would be interesting to add? Would you follow through with requests like this? Would you pay say 150 food for a specific unit? What kind of quests could be added and how can they be made to be so random that it doesn't feel like you get the same quests over and over?

This thread is purely brainstorming. I'm undecided if this is a good idea, but I would like to know what we can come up with.

 

[raystuttgart]

Quests and events are always nice.

But yes, we need to come up with ideas for such quests.
If we have collected enough of them we can start the implementation.

 

[Guynemer]

I love this idea, and some of these quests already exist (send a scout to these ruins within 20 turns, for example).

It feels like one obvious application would be "Specialist A is looking to leave Europe, but wants meaningful employment. The first power to produce X (raw goods improved by Specialist A) will receive his/her services."

Or "The villagers of (First Nations village that is near your territory) are considering moving to other villages, but they lack the means to do so safely. Provide them with X (food or weapons or horses) within Y turns are they will peacefully abandon the land."

"A (high level specialist) is unhappy about life in (other colony). Generate X (bells/crosses/health/whatever) withing Y turns to attract him to our colony instead." Perhaps this could be triggered by another colony starving, or not generating enough liberty, etc. Or it could be your specialist up for grabs for the same reason.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

A system I experimented with in FTTW was story event chains, these stories (although I only got around to making one) spanned the life time of the game and branched off in curious directions.

Each step in the event had three possible choices, and the choice you made not only effected the moment, but also the future of that location and/or character

So the event I wrote revolved around a super mutant named Steve.

Just outside of town you find an unconscious super mutant wearing overalls with the name Steve on, Do you:

A: Kill Him (happiness)
B: Kill and Eat Him (food)
C: Take him home and take care of him.(A free building called Steve's House that also gave you a free super mutant specialist)

Each choice would give you something and lead you down an irreversible path.

A: lead to a bunch of mutants showing up looking for steve and potentially causing trouble or getting hired as soldiers (I think)
B. lead to the creation of a zombie horde or super soldier program
C lead to Steve becoming a valued member of society, or being lynched, birthing a racist/xenophobic anti mutant activist movement.

Each story had just shy of 40 potential choices. 3+9+27.

I have forgotten all the ins and outs of unit vs profession in Col, but I am sure something similar could be achieved with it.

so instead of just 'an elder statesman' wanting to join you, it could be an individual named unit/character and based upon choices you could get various special benefits, unique production bonuses from a special free building, a unique profession, a unique combat unit or whatever other options are available in a Col/Event Context.

Follow the story of Malcolm Stag Horn, the indian brave you discover unconscious in the forest with a terrible wound..
Follow the story of Ferdinand Volke an austrian noble man fleeing his former life under mysterious circumstances.
Follow the story of Pastor Mathew and his flock of religious heretics fleeing persecution in the old world.
Follow the story of Sally an indentured washer woman who dreams of being a seamstress.

Follow all these tales and more in We the People, because History is just saying Hi to the Story of People.

 

[Tugboatspotter]

I like playing with events but, with the current amount being limited, I do consider disabling them each time I start. Therefore, I would love to see them expanded in new and unique ways.

Perhaps some more events dependent on harder to get specialists if you have the resource within your territory: pearls or seals for example.

 

[Nightinggale]

A system I experimented with in FTTW was story event chains, these stories (although I only got around to making one) spanned the life time of the game and branched off in curious directions.

While I like the idea, I do have one issue with it. It's way too specific meaning if you pick the same options each time, you can get the same storyline in 3 games in a row. I would prefer something a bit more... should we say random.

Something like semi-random task results in random unit with a base price in the 1200-1600 range (or whatever numbers would match. I'm not balancing right now). Get this 10 times and the player will see 10 different events.

You do have an interesting point though. Imagine if you gain a master blacksmith and that could unlock some blacksmith route/future event, which wouldn't happen if you didn't get a blacksmith. It wouldn't be trivial to write something like that without writing a million events, but I think it's doable. Something like writing text where the unit can tell the dll which building and yield would be interesting, hence the text can refer to other strings. The string system is more feature rich for something like this than is commonly used in the modding community. For instance if we say the unit's namestring is first argument, we can write a string, which inserts "him or her" depending on which gender the first argument identifies itself as. It supports singular and plural too.

Perhaps some more events dependent on harder to get specialists if you have the resource within your territory: pearls or seals for example.

I like the idea of specialists seeking out the country where they can work the best towards with their master skill. However at the same time we should consider what happens to game balance if a player gets an expert prospector for free each time he gets the goldmine.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

Yes it would be a static system, at least from the tools we currently have, but at the same time, you would also have 27 different outcomes to end on meaning 27 playthroughs before you see everything the story has to offer, also as you say the result of a path could be partially random, so one choice may be you get gold, but how much gold is between 1000-2000 or whatever.

If I fleshed out just those four random examples I popped off the top of my head, that would give over 100 final outcomes meaning over 100 playthroughs before you saw everything, if one event popped each game. If people have an outcome they really like, they can run that same path every time if they want to, if it makes them feel happy. However they may just get tempted to try that other button just this once...

 

[rah]

I'm a big fan of events helping the replayability aspect and the added spice. I don't think they have to be too complicated, just have enough that it takes many games before you see them all, and don't get the same ones every game. Just make sure it's not like some of them in CIV IV where they ask you to do something you've already done so you get instant credit for accomplishing it. (like building x number of libraries and you already have that many)

 

[Tugboatspotter]

I like the idea of specialists seeking out the country where they can work the best towards with their master skill. However at the same time we should consider what happens to game balance if a player gets an expert prospector for free each time he gets the goldmine.

Indeed, there should be a strategic choice for the player as much as possible and, with an increased variety of events, the frequency should be tuned all the way down so we don't have the kind of situation you mention.

Also, I think it would be a good idea to have two options: disable (or enable ) events and disable bad (or only enable good) events. I know a lot of players get frustrated by bad events and therefore disable them entirely. If a lot of work is going into events, it would make sense to categorize them so that more players will enjoy them as they prefer to play.

One further point: Currently a lot of events trigger that the player can't take advantage of, for example Person X wants to join your colonies for X amount of gold when you don't have the required amount of gold. I would prefer to see this type of event not trigger if it is not feasible to accept it.

Also some events seem to trigger as soon as a milestone is reached. The governor for instance seems to occur as soon as you reach 5000g. I always accept but it is too predictable and leaves you broke when you do accept.

 

[Drunk-Monk]

Whilst somewhat present in vanilla, I'd like to see more boom and bust events to simulate the economic cycle. This would require you to make the most of all the range of your specialists and all the new resources in the game. It would add more of a challenge by adding a risk reward mechanic, rather than the situation now, where you face an economic landscape of diminishing returns once you begin exporting in bulk.

For example, if you are constantly building things a building boom event could occur, that would add extra hammers of production, but would add to the price of buying materials (lumber, stone etc) and add to the cost of recruiting specialists in Europe (carpenters, stonecutters etc). Or say Coffee becomes unfashionable in Europe, so the player will want to switch to the more in demand (and valuable) Cocoa. A war in Europe could see the King ask you for troops and ships, and increase the flow of some types of emigrants (refugees) but restrict others (soldiers). A war in Africa would mean that demand for weapons and war material would sharply increase, but there might be some turns where the fighting makes the market inaccessible. These are just some ideas for events, that would add variety and break up the monotony of the mid and late game.

Original post made here: https://github.com/We-the-People-civ4col-mod/Mod/issues/322

 

[Schmiddie]

I love the idea of having more events. We already have a lot of "local" events in the mod. I like to have more events that encourage interaction with other Europeans, natives, the church and the king. This would make the game more interesting. Such events could at the same time try to balance the success between different nations. Example: If one nation (doesn't matter if AI or human player) becomes the master of the seas because he has more than X privateers there could spawn an event for the other nations that has the task of sinking some more privateers. Example 2: If one nation gets its first manufactory for a good then there comes a task for the player to build a manufactory as well within xy rounds....

 

[raystuttgart]

I love this idea, and some of these quests already exist (send a scout to these ruins within 20 turns, for example).

Just to remind some interested modders what is already possible in the Python Event System, see here:
(It is the example mentioned above of a quest with time limit and randomized additional outcomes. This Python Quest was already created in TAC by the way.)

Spoiler :

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All it needs is somebody to be motivated and creative enough to implement it.
(If you know a bit of XML and some Python basics, this is really not that difficult.)