Mob Dialogue and Quest Changes

Iosyne

As the most recent announce post (#2109) revealed, Aetolia has introduced a system we're very excited about - mobile dialogue options! Simply put, we have "turned on" a system that makes it far easier for players to interact with mobiles who have dialogue or quest options. The dialogue is a way to hint at responses that will move the conversation between the player and the mobile along. The frustration with "guess the keyword" is eliminated, and a whole new way of how lore is revealed is introduced as well.

Here's an example of how it looks in-game:

You greet a burly centaur crossbowman with a sincere smile.

A burly centaur crossbowman says, "May the blessings and bounty of the wilds ever be upon you, traveler. What can I help you find?"

 [*] I'm looking for a specific guildhall.

 [*] I'm looking for somewhere to relax or be entertained.

 [*] I need to do some shopping.

 [*] Tell me about some general points of interest.

If you have MXP enabled, you can click on each of those responses to respond quickly:

You say, "I need to do some shopping."

A burly centaur crossbowman says, "What are you looking to buy in particular?"

 [*] I'm looking to buy some commodities.

 [*] I need to buy or stable a mount.

 [*] Where is the Crafting Alcove?

 [*] Can you point me towards the general store?

 [*] Where can I find shops owned by others?

You say, "I'm looking to buy some commodities."

A burly centaur crossbowman says, "The commodity shop is in the West Hollow, near the durdalis."

[HINT]: You can PATH FIND 43840 for precise directions.

As you can see, there are a lot of great ways to take advantage of this new system! Keep in mind that MXP must be enabled in order to CLICK on the text, but not to see the text. Additionally, you can change the dialogue options to HIGHLIGHT to quickly parse through and see which keywords, in specific, the mobile will respond to. This way, you can interact with the mobile as preferred, according to your style of roleplay. 

Hand in hand with this change is a much-needed overhaul of how we treat Aetolian quests - a way to accept quests, track them, and view important details such as where the quest was located, and which mobile sponsored the quest. This system is going to be continually tweaked, and so what you might see now is a very rough version of what we would like it to be in its final form:

The Purifying Waters:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Level: 10

Area:  Duiran

Giver: the undine Ashasa

Ashasa has tasked you with cleansing the corrupted waters in the

Kalydian forest.

Take the vial of ice in your possession to the Core of the Great Oak in

Duiran. Place the vial inside the Core to charge it with the spiritual

energy of Dendara. Once it is fully charged, bring the vial to the

dessicant lake in the Kalydian forest, and drop the vial into the

waters.

Personal Completions: 0

Total Completions:    0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For now, you might encounter some clunky interfaces - and very likely, bugs - with both of these new systems, but we couldn't wait to implement them in conjunction with the major event taking place in-game in the Pious Wards of Delve! 

You should expect to see newbie areas and cities (including Delos and Delve) receive these changes first, with the other areas of Sapience eventually receiving a much needed coat of polish to their mobile dialogue. Finally, keep an eye out for new quests, as each area is revisited and tweaked to meet these changes! We feel positively that it will not only be much easier to research quests, but also find quests, using this new system.

Enjoy, and be sure to stop by the Pious Wards for some examples of this awesome new dialogue system!

Piper

To quote a (TeenGirlSquad) Jade:

Sooo (g)cooooool(d)!

I'm really excited about this!!

Lin

That's pretty excellent. Aetolia is shaping up to become the WoW of IRE MUDs, and that is to say that it's becoming the most convenient and accessible of them.

Also the raiding.

Aarbrok

I enjoyed the Pious wards, had a great time learning and finding out stuff there, Thanks for these changes, it made it easy and accessible to learn, instead of endlessly prodding searching for keywords to spark an NPC.

Haern

Yeah, that was definitely the goal. We wanted to have people see easily accessible info without, literally, having to struggle to figure it out because one person felt an obtuse word was enough for players. It streamlines the hell out of dialogue for us, while still allowing players to ask questions in their own way if they so choose. 

Keep an eye open for more quests arising in the Pious Wards as we convert them over. Oh, and books. And new dialogue!

Mastema

This is brillant, thank you.

Angwe

SQUEEEE~!

Moirean

This is really cool. I especially like how the mobs can give directions to things - it's a nifty, immersive way for players to find things out. Very awesome!

Tza

Awesome!

Maybe now I can finally figure out how to "help" Brundhilde. Playing guess-the-keyword game with her is bound to leave you very frustrated (and without any useful results).

Meyvitch

MXP enabled!??! What is this?

Iosyne

CONFIG MXP ON|OFF

Mastema

So glad the newer mudlet lets us use mxp. I can now click on stuff :P 

Seir

As I was saying to someone, now I just need Renegade interrupts and the ability to punch reporters in the face. This will allow me to truly be Seir.

[*] I've had enough of your snide insinuations.

Xavin

But why is Renegade so canonical

Seir

For what it's worth, my Shepard was a Paragon Vanguard.

That didn't stop me from playing a Renegade Shepard who I made to look like Samuel L. Jackson

Lin

Arbre

I think RL whenever y'all say Renegade.

Achamia

I just started here a couple days ago, so I thought this was just how this game worked until I saw this. It's really awesome. 

I love how the city guards will give me directions whenever I get lost. I can always find a guard. And for most of the quests I've tried to do, it's been immensely helpful. Guess-the-word has been a source of immense frustration for me in a lot of muds. It might be helpful to have the highlighted keyword on by default though. I've been thinking I needed the whole phrase that they say, and I didn't know that this was something I could change, again, until I read this thread. That's not something everybody's going to do, I think. And the IG announce mentioning it is going to get quickly buried too far in obscurity for all but the most compulsive newbies to notice, so it might not hurt to have your hint system mention you can toggle some things about it the first time you see this.

Also, at what point do you want us to actually bug some of the things that might be broken? I've got one quest in my list that doesn't register as completing, and others that didn't register in the quest list at all until they were done. And when I was fiddling around with the scholars in the Valley of Kalebb, I couldn't get Aburien to respond to anything at all, even to the ring he's supposed to be interested in. So I couldn't tell if this system just wasn't fully implemented there, and I couldn't guess the keyword, or if he was just bugged.

Anyway, this really is amazing. I've barely been playing two days and I can already appreciate the hard work you guys are putting into constantly finding ways to improve your game. That's kind of rare.

Maghak

Bug absolutely anything you find that seems broken! This is a transitional phase and we love it when people actually bug things, rather than complaining about them on webs for us to see later. It's great to hear you're finding it easy to interact with the system as a newbie, since that's half the purpose of the change, and thank you very much for posting about your experience - we can't do much without input, and this is exactly the kind of post we find useful.

Ezalor

Maghak said:

Bug absolutely anything you find that seems broken! This is a transitional phase and we love it when people actually bug things, rather than complaining about them on webs for us to see later. It's great to hear you're finding it easy to interact with the system as a newbie, since that's half the purpose of the change, and thank you very much for posting about your experience - we can't do much without input, and this is exactly the kind of post we find useful.

This just made me incredibly paranoid.

Maghak

If you report bugs when you find them, you have nothing to be paranoid about!

You.. you do report bugs.. Right?

Iosyne

Achamia said:

I just started here a couple days ago, so I thought this was just how this game worked until I saw this. It's really awesome. 

I love how the city guards will give me directions whenever I get lost. I can always find a guard. And for most of the quests I've tried to do, it's been immensely helpful. Guess-the-word has been a source of immense frustration for me in a lot of muds. It might be helpful to have the highlighted keyword on by default though. I've been thinking I needed the whole phrase that they say, and I didn't know that this was something I could change, again, until I read this thread. That's not something everybody's going to do, I think. And the IG announce mentioning it is going to get quickly buried too far in obscurity for all but the most compulsive newbies to notice, so it might not hurt to have your hint system mention you can toggle some things about it the first time you see this.

Also, at what point do you want us to actually bug some of the things that might be broken? I've got one quest in my list that doesn't register as completing, and others that didn't register in the quest list at all until they were done. And when I was fiddling around with the scholars in the Valley of Kalebb, I couldn't get Aburien to respond to anything at all, even to the ring he's supposed to be interested in. So I couldn't tell if this system just wasn't fully implemented there, and I couldn't guess the keyword, or if he was just bugged.

Anyway, this really is amazing. I've barely been playing two days and I can already appreciate the hard work you guys are putting into constantly finding ways to improve your game. That's kind of rare.

Thanks for your feedback, Achamia. It's really great to hear from a player who's newer, especially, as Aetolia (and Iron Realms MUDs, in general) is putting a high focus on having a more convenient and accessible playing experience for newer players.

Absolutely bug the things that aren't working, it is the best way for us to immediately find problem areas and tweak them. With new systems like this, we are especially on the lookout for newly-submitted bugs and areas where the interface could be improved upon - sometimes it's just a matter of a confusing syntax and not a true bug, which is still something we want to fix. The quest/dialogue system is still in its infant stages. The goal is to have all newbie areas and cities converted over, with other areas as a lesser (but eventual) priority. Once we put the finishing touches on the QUESTS system, we'll have a new help file in with some support on that, and find some ways to make the system common knowledge.

Thanks for the input!