Hiya peeps! One of the things we wanted to add to the game for a long time were quest-like encounters that span multiple zones. Lately, we finally implemented all the pieces to make this work, and we have a couple of questlines added to the game. The main reason we wanted these in the game is to create an opportunity cost to get some cool things. Some of the questlines will be fairly basic, like getting a bunch of supplies and taking them to a castle in the next zone. Some will potentially span three zones, and grant you a really cool relic. We want to reward players that pursue longer questlines with something important, like relics that cannot be obtained in any other way. We also want the longer questlines to actually be rewarding, because of the way theyre positioned in the world.
(note that we added the current party portraits to the world map!) Our world generation is fairly simple and straightforward. There are several manually created layouts of the node network you see on the map. We opted out of generating these positions because of landscape restrictions like preventing nodes from spawning on mountains or on the sea. It is also relatively difficult to generate connections between nodes that create interesting choices. Doing them manually is also not too much work, and gives us nice control over how the nodes are positioned and connected. First, we pick a random layout out of several we have per zone, then we do a content generation pass over all nodes. Nodes are grouped into lanes, and each lane has its own set of controls for allowing nodes to become special, how many of them may do so, how far apart they must be, etc. The questlines are part of that pass as well, which means if you manage to start a quest (which is random right now), you will have a guaranteed node in a future zone be a quest continuation node. It will likely be positioned in such a way that youll have to choose what you want to pursue in that zone. You might want to ignore the questline because you want to hunt for an Arcane node or a City node, its your choice. For example, you might want to not finish the questline that grants you 15 supplies to take to a zone 2 location. Maybe you're greedy and want to keep all those supplies! It's one thing less you have to worry about, but you lose any reward you might get by completing the quest. It's all about tradeoffs!
(screenshot is with Alt pressed down which shows info for all nodes, not just hovered ones) If you enter a zone that has a quest encounter spawned, there will be a special indicator on that node telling you about it. You might want to scour and look over the map before you decide which way through the zone you want to go down. Sometimes they might be a ways off. :) Thanks for reading! If you want to ask us stuff or suggest stuff, you can do so on our Discord server, were all there! MarkoP https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/