[Suggestion] Quests/Tasks
Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:05 pm
Now included in SVN version
Alpha release of the Tasks mode.
- Six types of tasks are implemented.
- Only end-game tasks are supported (those validated after the game ends)
- Rewards should be reasonable, but are not considered final.
Usage:
Enter shop, open menu (enter/start), select 'See available tasks'.
All tasks in the list are active, until they expire ('Days left'; day passes after each game).
You can finish any of them and get bonus. The bonus gets a bit smaller every day.
Testing options:
Square button at the 'Task Board' screen passes one day, generating one more task. This is to help alpha-testers, will be removed later.
After every won game, you are presented with 'Credits per second' information. This should help to consider whether task reward is worth the effort.
Download:
Eboot
Exe
Source in SVN.
Feedback needed!
Reward was not awarded to you after finalizing a task?
Do you find some of the tasks too easy?
Are the rewards for particular task too small/too high?
Did you find an easy exploit to win any of the tasks?
Do you have an idea for a cool new type of task?
Do you have any other ideas?
Let me know!
-----------------
Original post:
-----------------
Few days ago, while falling asleep - they say that some of the greatest ideas come during this particular moment - after playing Wagic heavily, I had following idea:
Let's include tasks with rewards in Wagic!
Here's my reasoning and inspiration (with details following; if you don't care about the philosophy behind and just want to read my suggestion, skip following and start reading below the picture):
I like the current bonus system. I had much fun trying to build decks designed to specifically exploit some of the bonuses - some time ago, I've built a deck to get an extreme amounts of credits via 'Life delta' bonus (which is limited now). Now I'm playing with the deck that manages to get both 'Fast and furious' and 'Live dangerously and live right' bonuses in almost every game. And I'm starting to get bored. While it was fun building and optimizing these decks, now it's only repeated credit-hunting. To increase the challenge, fun and revenue, I've included two more bonuses in my personal copy of Wagic:
'Flawless victory' - small bonus (40cr) for winning while still having 20 lives and
'Slaughter' - greater bonus (up to 500cr) for bringing the opponent to less than -15 lives.
These, same as the original bonuses, force me to play the game in yet another way and to keep one more goal (other than winning) in mind while playing - which is fun. Yet, I don't think, this is the proper way - while I or anyone else can come up with several interesting new bonuses, we probably don't want to flood an player with list of tens of bonuses he just gut after every single game - we want to reward player for excelling in particular game style. So while I see a room for few more bonus types, I don't think they can add too much to the variety of players games, decks and experiences with the game. See below the image, what I propose instead (I got there!).
Let's include tasks with rewards in Wagic!
It would work like this: 'Task generator' would be created - it would create several tasks (their nature would be similar to current bonuses, but they would be much more specific; for example: "Kill <AI DECK> without losing a life", more examples below) and present them to the player. Player would choose one of the tasks (more about this below), pay the subscription fee and try to fulfill it in the next match (or next few matches). If he'll manage to do it, he would get a promised reward - the credits at the beginning, other forms of rewards could be added later (rare cards, boosters). If he won't - nothing happens, except for task subscription fee being wasted.
Task examples (combinations into complex tasks could be possible)
a.) Simple-to-program tasks (these are conditions on final state of the game)
- Win a game against <AI DECK>.
- Win a game while having from x to y lives (exactly x lives) at the end.
- Win a game while having from x to y cards (exactly x cards) in hand/graveyard/library at the end.
- 'Slaughter' <AI DECK> (bring it to less than -x lives).
- Keep the opponent occupied for x turns (Win at turn > x).
- etc.
b.) Less simple-to-program tasks (tasks to be accomplished during the game)
- Summon a creature with power (or toughness) >= x.
- Control >x creatures of given type at one time.
- Make sure your opponent controls no lands/creatures at the ends of your x subsequent turns.
- Win the game while never having less lives/cards in hand than your opponent.
- etc. etc.
The reward would be proportional to the difficulty of the task (there would be some smart computation behind this).
There are many different tasks that could be implemented, but the points are:
- Tasks would be limited-time-offers. Player would be forced to pick one of the tasks and focus on it.
- They would be designed in such way, that no single deck could fulfill HALF of them - they would require different strategies, decks, ways of playing - and luck. Some would be extremely hard to accomplish.
- As long as they will be scaled, there is no need for too many types of tasks to keep things interesting. Whether they would be hardcoded or defined through data files is for the discussion (I prefer the former - It would allow to add few completely different tasks compared to many similar tasks in the later case - and wouldn't require a parser).
Integration into the game
There would be a random list of the active tasks accessible in the game (this would have to be saved along with the game data) - in dedicated section or perhaps in subsection of the shop. Every item in this list would have description of the task, price for getting it, prize for finishing (credits, card, booster) and days until expiration (for this purpose, every game that player plays would be considered to last a day). Player would choose maximum of one task, pay its fee and try to fulfill it. After every game, one day would be subtracted from the expiration period of all tasks. If current task expires before finished, player cannot fulfill it anymore, loses the fee, but is welcome to try another. When any of the task on the list expires, new one would be generated in its place after few 'days'.
Epilogue
I know there are several suggestions regarding the quests/campaigns/story modes floating around, but this one has several advantages:
- Covers some of them (eg. play for booster).
- Can be combined with most of them - 'Tasks' would just add one more short-time goal for the player to reach on a way to whatever is he trying to accomplish right now in the current game mode.
- Would have great ratio of fun versus programming time.
- Has a coder excited about this idea enough to implement it at some point in the future (me).
PS: No, the plane image doesn't have any meaning in context of this thread, it just makes it more visually appealing and probably is rising the probability that people would read this.
Place for your feedback:
Alpha release of the Tasks mode.
- Six types of tasks are implemented.
- Only end-game tasks are supported (those validated after the game ends)
- Rewards should be reasonable, but are not considered final.
Usage:
Enter shop, open menu (enter/start), select 'See available tasks'.
All tasks in the list are active, until they expire ('Days left'; day passes after each game).
You can finish any of them and get bonus. The bonus gets a bit smaller every day.
Testing options:
Square button at the 'Task Board' screen passes one day, generating one more task. This is to help alpha-testers, will be removed later.
After every won game, you are presented with 'Credits per second' information. This should help to consider whether task reward is worth the effort.
Download:
Eboot
Exe
Source in SVN.
Feedback needed!
Reward was not awarded to you after finalizing a task?
Do you find some of the tasks too easy?
Are the rewards for particular task too small/too high?
Did you find an easy exploit to win any of the tasks?
Do you have an idea for a cool new type of task?
Do you have any other ideas?
Let me know!
-----------------
Original post:
-----------------
Few days ago, while falling asleep - they say that some of the greatest ideas come during this particular moment - after playing Wagic heavily, I had following idea:
Let's include tasks with rewards in Wagic!
Here's my reasoning and inspiration (with details following; if you don't care about the philosophy behind and just want to read my suggestion, skip following and start reading below the picture):
I like the current bonus system. I had much fun trying to build decks designed to specifically exploit some of the bonuses - some time ago, I've built a deck to get an extreme amounts of credits via 'Life delta' bonus (which is limited now). Now I'm playing with the deck that manages to get both 'Fast and furious' and 'Live dangerously and live right' bonuses in almost every game. And I'm starting to get bored. While it was fun building and optimizing these decks, now it's only repeated credit-hunting. To increase the challenge, fun and revenue, I've included two more bonuses in my personal copy of Wagic:
'Flawless victory' - small bonus (40cr) for winning while still having 20 lives and
'Slaughter' - greater bonus (up to 500cr) for bringing the opponent to less than -15 lives.
These, same as the original bonuses, force me to play the game in yet another way and to keep one more goal (other than winning) in mind while playing - which is fun. Yet, I don't think, this is the proper way - while I or anyone else can come up with several interesting new bonuses, we probably don't want to flood an player with list of tens of bonuses he just gut after every single game - we want to reward player for excelling in particular game style. So while I see a room for few more bonus types, I don't think they can add too much to the variety of players games, decks and experiences with the game. See below the image, what I propose instead (I got there!).
Let's include tasks with rewards in Wagic!
It would work like this: 'Task generator' would be created - it would create several tasks (their nature would be similar to current bonuses, but they would be much more specific; for example: "Kill <AI DECK> without losing a life", more examples below) and present them to the player. Player would choose one of the tasks (more about this below), pay the subscription fee and try to fulfill it in the next match (or next few matches). If he'll manage to do it, he would get a promised reward - the credits at the beginning, other forms of rewards could be added later (rare cards, boosters). If he won't - nothing happens, except for task subscription fee being wasted.
Task examples (combinations into complex tasks could be possible)
a.) Simple-to-program tasks (these are conditions on final state of the game)
- Win a game against <AI DECK>.
- Win a game while having from x to y lives (exactly x lives) at the end.
- Win a game while having from x to y cards (exactly x cards) in hand/graveyard/library at the end.
- 'Slaughter' <AI DECK> (bring it to less than -x lives).
- Keep the opponent occupied for x turns (Win at turn > x).
- etc.
b.) Less simple-to-program tasks (tasks to be accomplished during the game)
- Summon a creature with power (or toughness) >= x.
- Control >x creatures of given type at one time.
- Make sure your opponent controls no lands/creatures at the ends of your x subsequent turns.
- Win the game while never having less lives/cards in hand than your opponent.
- etc. etc.
The reward would be proportional to the difficulty of the task (there would be some smart computation behind this).
There are many different tasks that could be implemented, but the points are:
- Tasks would be limited-time-offers. Player would be forced to pick one of the tasks and focus on it.
- They would be designed in such way, that no single deck could fulfill HALF of them - they would require different strategies, decks, ways of playing - and luck. Some would be extremely hard to accomplish.
- As long as they will be scaled, there is no need for too many types of tasks to keep things interesting. Whether they would be hardcoded or defined through data files is for the discussion (I prefer the former - It would allow to add few completely different tasks compared to many similar tasks in the later case - and wouldn't require a parser).
Integration into the game
There would be a random list of the active tasks accessible in the game (this would have to be saved along with the game data) - in dedicated section or perhaps in subsection of the shop. Every item in this list would have description of the task, price for getting it, prize for finishing (credits, card, booster) and days until expiration (for this purpose, every game that player plays would be considered to last a day). Player would choose maximum of one task, pay its fee and try to fulfill it. After every game, one day would be subtracted from the expiration period of all tasks. If current task expires before finished, player cannot fulfill it anymore, loses the fee, but is welcome to try another. When any of the task on the list expires, new one would be generated in its place after few 'days'.
Epilogue
I know there are several suggestions regarding the quests/campaigns/story modes floating around, but this one has several advantages:
- Covers some of them (eg. play for booster).
- Can be combined with most of them - 'Tasks' would just add one more short-time goal for the player to reach on a way to whatever is he trying to accomplish right now in the current game mode.
- Would have great ratio of fun versus programming time.
- Has a coder excited about this idea enough to implement it at some point in the future (me).
PS: No, the plane image doesn't have any meaning in context of this thread, it just makes it more visually appealing and probably is rising the probability that people would read this.
Place for your feedback: