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Introduction

Have your read about the author commands yet? You should do that before reading this page.

Here you find tips and best practices to follow when creating quests. We recommend you make sure your quest follows/implements these tips as a step in your quality assurance process.

Find on click not proximity

• Right: The quest is found upon clicking a quest giver NPC (pink name)
• Wrong: The quest is found upon walking close to an NPC.

Quests are supposed to be found upon right clicking a quest giver NPC rather than being found when just walking nearby the NPC. The reason for this is that players otherwise will get spammed with quests they might not want to find at the time. This holds true especially for content rich quest hubs where many quests start.

Use Sound Effects

Use the DoHearSound rule to spice up those “right click NPC conversations”. It’s very common in our quests that we use the OnClickNpc rule to simulate conversation with an NPC through clicking it. A sound effect can do wonders to make those conversations feel more real.

To Test:
DoHearSound CAT_MEOW
/mcore hearsound CAT_MEOW

List of all sounds:
http://github.com/Bukkit/Bukkit/blob/master/src/main/java/org/bukkit/Sound.java

The format:
SOUND,volume,pitch

Examples:

• villager huh: villager_haggle
• villager lowhuh: villager_haggle,1.0,0.7
• villager highhuh: villager_haggle,1.0,1.3
• villager agree: villager_yes
• villager lowagree: villager_yes,1.0,0.7
• villager highagree: villager_yes,1.0,1.3
• villager disagree: villager_no
• villager lowdisagree: villager_no,1.0,0.7
• villager highdisagree: villager_no,1.0,1.3

Find more inspiration here: https://www.massivecraft.com/massivechat#emote-list

Invite Inexperienced Testers

TODO: The value of new eyes. The speak what you think approach.

Include Directions

TODO: Using text based direction explanations and road signs.

Light Sources for Midnight

Quest should be enjoyable during both night and day. For that reason we must place enough light sources around the quest locations. Use “/ptime night” or ask Cayorion to put the whole quest map at a permanent state of night. Play through the quest and add light sources where required.

Use Do instead of To

To To or To Do? An excellent and very confusing question. The question could be boiled down to asking which of these two versions of the same quest is the best one?

Using ToFind and ToAdvance

In this first version we make use of “/q e tf OnFind …” to make sure the objective is found upon finding the quest itself, and “/q e ta OnComplete …” to make sure the quest itself is advanced/completed upon completing the objective.

Using DoFind and DoAdvance

In this second version we make use of “/q e oc DoFind …” to make sure the objective is found upon finding the quest itself, and “/q e oc DoAdvance …” to make sure the quest itself is advanced/completed upon completing the objective.

The second and last example is the best one from a performance perspective. Less CPU is used in the “ToDo” approach than the “ToTo” approach. The reason for this is that the ToFind and ToAdvance rules have to scanned extremely often to see if they apply. Every time someone breaks a block, clicks an NPC etc. the server checks the ToFind and ToAdvance rules for every node there is. The OnFind and OnComplete rule sets are however entirely “passive”. They are only checked upon the completion or find of that certain node, which happens but once per player.

NOTE: The command “/q t todo” automatically rewrites all quests to use the “ToDo” approach instead of the “ToTo” approach.

Quest Creation Guidelines

Quest Maps

Work together! One single quest can never be a masterpiece on it’s own. We want to tell stories that amaze. Where one quest ends another should pick up and the bigger picture is important. What do all the quests look like together as a whole? Its thus important that we create many quests at the same time and work from up down. A huge amount of quests should be planned and created at once on a new dedicated quest map.

1. First a project lead with 2-3 high rank staff members sits down and outlines a new quest map. The main setting and storylines are decided roughly and written down.
2. Then more people are involved. More details in the overall story are decided. What quest hubs should exist are planned.
3. Now the quests are planned. What are all the quests you can find at all the quest hubs? Planning at least 30 quests at this stage is a good idea.
4. The project lead reads through the quests and based on the ideas they decide roughly what the map should look like.
5. The world department creates the map and it’s uploaded to MassiveCraft.
6. The areas are built on the map and the quests are created.

Player Maps

Player maps are maps the players can alter and build their Faction base on. Ellador and Daendroc are good examples of such maps. Most maps on MassiveCraft are of this kind. You should not create any quests on player maps. Why? Player maps are reset at regular intervals. Upon reset all NPCs, quest signs and buildings involved would be removed. The quests would break. Since MassiveCraft staff members come and go it’s important we never break existing quests. Repairing a quest you are not the author of will probably be hard since you don’t have all the details in your head.

Regalia

What about Regalia? We do want quests in Regalia since it’s the server capital and it’s a golden opportunity to show new players early on that MassiveCraft has a quest system. Regalia is however very volatile. We staff members rebuild and alter Regalia all the time. For that reason quests in Regalia should preferably be designed so that they are not depending on their surroundings. Say you are supposed to kill 10 zombies or gather 10 apples for an NPC. A good idea may be to allow these zombies and apples to be found anywhere as opposed to a certain apple tree in Regalia. Also don’t scatter quest givers all around Regalia. Make use of the Quest hubs.

Quest Hubs

A quest hub is a place on a world map where many quests start. Don’t just scatter quests all around the place. Make use of quest hubs. Players will know where to find more quests and maintenance will be easier for us in the staff. How many quest hubs should there be per world map? That depends on what kind of world map it is. Player maps should have 0 quest hubs and 0 quests as previously mentioned. Regalia should have 1-3 quest hubs. Dedicated quest maps should have between 1 and 9001 quest hubs.

The Test Map

Spend some time on the test map. Experiment with the commands there till you understand the system. Preferably delete your quest when you are done. Writing and planning quests is just as important and actually making them real ingame. You don’t have to learn the quest commands although it’s a good idea to do so since it gives you a better understanding of what quests are possible.

HINT: Use “/wtp test” to get to the test map.

Quest Naming

Quests should preferably have short and neat names. This way players can more easily select a quest for use. Which is more fun to type?

• /q u vacation
• /q u the glorious vacation on derpingschtein island

NPCs

NPCs that hand out quests should have pink names. This is achieved by prefixing the name with “&d” for example “/npc create &dOld Man Harry”. Other NPCs should use the standard name color (white). It’s a good idea to include spaces in player NPC names since normal minecraft account names can’t contain spaces. This way it will be easier for players to determine who is an NPC and who isn’t.

IMPORTANT: You should always use “/citizens save” after creating a new NPC. The autosave system seems to be broken. A server restart or crash could result in your NCPs disappearing unless you use that command to force a save.