Next Big Thing: Engagement!

Glathna

As a long-time MUD player, and a relatively new Achaea player, I have some thoughts in this area.

1. break up the tasks, experiences, objectives, etc., into ones that require killing, and ones that can be done by people who wish to be pacifist or civilians.

2. Organize them sequentially by difficulty. For example, I see a list of activities called "The Trader Path," with the end-goal being that I, the Achaean, will know all there is to know about trading via ships, mining, and will, at the end of the path, have my own mine, ship, whatever. Note that this is only an example.

3. Make it possible to complete the paths with or without people. I, for example, do not play to engage with people much. I have social anxiety, and it gets in the way, even in character. If I want to, say, do a high-level quest that would typically require the aid of fellow adventurers, I would like to have the option to recruit denizens, instead; the choice should be an absolute, though; if I choose to do the task with NPCs, I cannot then have adventurers come in and join my group.

4. Tie each path to experience gain, regardless of whether the task requires killing or not. This would make it possible to do what I have always wanted out of a MUD, to have peaceful and bellicose tasks rewarded equally with experience.

5. Make it possible to declare to a pathway, and that declaration comes with certain abilities and hinderances. For example, if I declare myself to an explorer pathway, I will be able to tell when denizens reset, and I can use an ability to tell what type of interaction I would need to use on an object to open the chest, make the item function, etc., but I would lose access to the WALK TO ability.

6. if the pathways are long and will take several real-world months to accomplish, they should come with a permanent, tangible reward that reflects the set of tasks. For example, a path soaked in blood shouldn't have a miner’s cart at the end.

7. To give the tasks direction and structure, not just in theme, but as a story, each task cluster should be associated with a relevant NPC.

Anyway, which tasks could and should go where, I don't know. I'm too new to know even the tiniest sliver of all the depth Achaea has to offer. Right now, I'm focused on gaining enough experience to get to the top of the world tree without having to have a chat with Ugrach.

Hope that helps.

Asmodron

I always wanted something like this...but I admit more Org based.

While general tasks are nice, it can also be rather limiting to the options you can give. Since you said this was the next big project, may I suggest making it a system that allows an org to create their own task, simply based on 'GET' and 'KILL' for items/monsters? The reward of gold could come from the Culture ministry funds, which the city would need to allocate to. You'd have to have the item in hand or the mob in front of you to make the task, such as Kill Hecuba or Get <rare karmic item>.

If not the case, Below are some suggestions for tasks:

General:

[ ] Checkout a book from the <x> library (Could be Theran or city based..not if enemied)

[ ] Find the Memorial to the Gods and hear the tale of <x> (changes each time)

[ ] Find and climb the great Bataoc.

[ ] Find and enter the Thousandth Door

Quests:

[ ] End the plight of the Hriddan

[ ] Assist Kolyartus within the Hriddan camp

[ ] Free the monster within the depths of Riparium

[ ] Assist the Queen of Arcadia with her scandal ( )

[ ] Return Maim's boy

[ ] Sabotage Maim's plans

[ ] Return the jewel to the Horkval of Ulangi

Unique:

[ ] Complete the task at Dreamspear.

[ ] Return Arsentar to power

[ ] Assist O'sing in Aran'riod with the ritual.

Is it possible to add org based tasks for players of that org? Such as

[ ] Burn the Eye of Ecalith within the Pyre

[ ] Complete the Spectre collaring quest.

[ ] Attend the yearly Ritual to Evil

Rasia

I think calling the engagement thing something like Accolades would be cool since it speaks of things one does for the land.  As far as tasks go how about making a potion for the tutors depending on the city. For example in Targossas perhaps a healing potion. They'd have to gather herbs, liquid something like that. 

Dupre

That would overlap with the already existing ACCOLADES

Tysandr

Clearly, Ascension.

Cooper

Let's call it quests.

Rispok

Some sort of system where you could leave your mark upon the land. Let's call it... Landmarking.

Asmodron

Names:

Ventures
Trials
Treks
Expeditions
Excursions

Mercer

I don't want this to sound negative but it is kind of unavoidable.

If you want this idea to work... I mean really work... you need to be willing to reward players for doing it.

My sense is that you have been consistently reducing the rewards that can be earned in-game for quite awhile now. Certain activities that were once widely enjoyed, like ship trading for example, are now almost completely dead or non-viable due to the changes that you have made.

Before you put a lot of energy and resources into this idea, please consider the question of payoff. I'm not saying that I want to see bound credits given out for writing a news post or sailing to an island to grab a corpse... but if the reward is 0.5% xp, a flower pot, or some rare minerals, then people aren't really going to keep doing these tasks after the initial novelty wears off. In fact, it might even turn new players off the game.

Core engagement on Achaea comes from tangible character progress, combat, and RP interaction with other players when it happens on an immersive level. The rewards for any tasks that you implement need to somehow relate to those areas to hold player interest. But is that something that you are actually willing to do?

Antonius

Mercer said:

if the reward is 0.5% xp, a flower pot, or some rare minerals

You might want to choose something other than an artefact valued at 200 credits (so 133 bound credits if you trade it in) as an example of a bad reward.

Mercer

Antonius said:

Mercer said:

if the reward is 0.5% xp, a flower pot, or some rare minerals

You might want to choose something other than an artefact valued at 200 credits (so 133 bound credits if you trade it in) as an example of a bad reward.

The trade-in value is a valid point, and kind of funny I admit, but I stand by the example since most people are not thrilled with an item like that for itself, and most items like that don't inexplicably cost 200 credits...

Change flower pot to whatever generic uninteresting prize example you like.

Shirszae

I really like @Penwize's suggestion. Could maybe even actually make being a Dragon more interesting even for those of us who find Dragonform uninteresting from an IC or OOC point of iew.

Ammar

This might be too esoteric and weird, but there is a word that shows up in the Iliad a lot: athloi. It means ordeals basically, or trials that heroes undertake. I see the accumulation of these tasks in Achaea sort of like Helen weaving her web of the deeds of Achaeans and Trojans. In this case each player would have their own web or tapestry made up of their own completed tasks [athloi].

"Meanwhile Iris went to Helen of the white arms in the form of her sister-in-law, wife of the son of Antenor, for strong Helikaon, son of Antenor, had married Laodike, the fairest of Priam’s daughters.  [125] She [= Iris] found her [= Helen] in the palace. She was weaving a great web, 126a purple [porphureē] fabric that folds in two [= diplax], and she was inworking [en-passein] many ordeals [athloi] 127 of Trojans, tamers of horses, and of Achaeans, wearers of bronze khitons, 128—ordeals that they suffered at the hands of Arēs all because of her."

- Iliad III, 124-128

Rispok

Ammar said:

This might be too esoteric and weird, but there is a word that shows up in the Iliad a lot: athloi. It means ordeals basically, or trials that heroes undertake. I see the accumulation of these tasks in Achaea sort of like Helen weaving her web of the deeds of Achaeans and Trojans. In this case each player would have their own web or tapestry made up of their own completed tasks [athloi].

"Meanwhile Iris went to Helen of the white arms in the form of her sister-in-law, wife of the son of Antenor, for strong Helikaon, son of Antenor, had married Laodike, the fairest of Priam’s daughters.  [125] She [= Iris] found her [= Helen] in the palace. She was weaving a great web, 126a purple [porphureē] fabric that folds in two [= diplax], and she was inworking [en-passein] many ordeals [athloi] 127 of Trojans, tamers of horses, and of Achaeans, wearers of bronze khitons, 128—ordeals that they suffered at the hands of Arēs all because of her."

- Iliad III, 124-128

It's not esoteric. It's just called athletics in English! Athletics isn't the worst idea for a name.

Dupre

Could call them (Worldly) Feats

Furkhan

WELL OF WONDERS

Think of a well with a stone statue (Guardian of the well). It can be placed anywhere. When you throw a gold sovereign into the well, the guardian of the well begins to speak: “Tell me what is your wish, stranger...”  Guardian gives you some options. For example, EXPLORE, HELP, DEATH, CREATE, etc. Options can vary, these are what come to my mind for now. If you pick explore, the guardian wants you find and object anywhere in the realm. It tells you the name of the object and which area it is in. If you pick help, guardian wants you to help somebody(may be newbies) about something(may be newbie tasks). When you finished the task a scroll appears in the inventory of the newbie and he or she gives the scroll to the adventurer that helps him or her. If you pick death, guardian wants you to kill a denizen somewhere in the land. It gives the name of the denizen and where it is. If you pick create, guardian wants you some items that you can find anywhere to create an object. (like sword of a blademaster) At the end of the task you should throw the objects (items, newbie scrolls, created things, heads of the denizens,etc) into the well then the guardian of the well rewards you with something. Reward can change according to the difficulty of the wish. Sorry for explaining it very simply. Tasks, speech, etc. can be much better and immersive if you organize it again.

Wicella

I really like @Furkhan's idea above, especially with the Create option. What if you were offered the option to create something, and you got an item you got to keep for a few months from it. One of my favourite events in the past was actually a really simple one, helping the kid in Petra get his garden set up and then being gifted seeds and pot as a reward It's not permanent, it doesn't really actually help you with combat or hunting, but it gives great unique flavour and a conversation piece for people that like to roleplay that sort of style. And it segways into exploring new areas, because you could go to the far off island of Eirenwaar and help them in exchange for a special little item that will decay in a year or so.

How about Encounters, to highlight the engagement aspect with the world.

Laedha

Wicella said:

I really like @Furkhan's idea above, especially with the Create option. What if you were offered the option to create something, and you got an item you got to keep for a few months from it. One of my favourite events in the past was actually a really simple one, helping the kid in Petra get his garden set up and then being gifted seeds and pot as a reward It's not permanent, it doesn't really actually help you with combat or hunting, but it gives great unique flavour and a conversation piece for people that like to roleplay that sort of style. And it segways into exploring new areas, because you could go to the far off island of Eirenwaar and help them in exchange for a special little item that will decay in a year or so.

How about Encounters, to highlight the engagement aspect with the world.

I didn't know about that one! I think some of the most fun quests in Achaea are the ones like this where you get something interesting and unique. The cloak of flying, the ugly critter from Valho Coast. Plus then you end up with something that drives more roleplay as you tell people about it later. 

Telinus

Skimmed the thread, but I would be interested if you could be randomly assigned something based on a difficulty toggle of your choosing.

So you could essentially go "I feel like an easy task" and it would come up with something "Do X Y and Z"

"I feel like something more difficult" and you would get something that would be objectively harder (or take longer to complete).

Easy - assigned a task from the mainland of sapience, takes a day ~ to complete

Medium - assigned a task/tasks from mainland and other planes accessible directly from here via ferries ~ takes one month to complete

Hard - assigned a task/tasks from any location on the prime plane including islands ~ could take multiple months to complete

Extreme - assigned a task from any plane including treacherous ~ could take months to complete

Something along those lines - they could be as innocuous as gathering something to give to a denizen (maybe a denizen that would point towards a quest within that area that you are unaware of), or it could be killing every honours mob in the game.

Interlink it all into existing lore, could be quite cool.

Cobault

Part 1: Adding things to get people involved can create a massive and horrible web of a list. You could theme them though, technically. One day is ship day, one day is explore day, raid day, hunt day, make money day, social day, etc.

-Sell X lbs of fish to a fisherman
-Complete a ship trade (seriously... the seas are dead. We need to try and get it active again.)
-Ride or Captain a ship for X# of rooms
-Shout something, possibly from a specific horn
-Buy something from a shop, possibly in X Location
-Have someone earn X amount experience/level(s) while following you.
-Be cheeky! Make one for purchasing like 10 or more credits from the webpage. Lmao. Don't do this one. I can hear the whining already.
-Complete a talisman (during one of the cache promo weeks?)
-Win roulette with a 50k bet on a single number.
-Stand in Annwyn for five minutes
-Some impossible stuff, stuff to piss people off. Raise the Spawn, become accolades a Champion by Caer Witrin, obtain an honours line, catch an overall ranking fish, eat X food (something crazy random to find,) pick up that pouch with gold in it that is impossible to pick up that everyone that has ever seen it before has tried to pick up, flip a coin and make it land on its side, etc.
-I can't keep going with this. You guys could literally off the dome anything that anyone can do in Achaea and it would suffice.

Part 2: Name - Achaean Activity/Adventure List, AAL for short to pull it up. Or Sapience Schedule. Ictinus Incentives? I dunno, I like when our things are very much Achaean named so the other IRE worlds know whassup when that newsletter hits.

Zenii

A few words to throw around that may spark ideas:

Wanderlust
Junket
Excursions
The Odyssey
The Fables
Circo (like to circumnavigate or to traverse)
Triumphs

I have to say that I liked a lot of the ideas that were built in to make it more RP based and kind of build it together. It would be nice if this system pulled together things that we already had and kind of made it easier to explain why we hunted, like what Penwize was mentioning. The exploration and learning would also help make the adventurer more of a defender. 

Torrent

Just some words to throw out for names:

Commisions
Vocations
Pacts
Trials of (Name) - Kinda like the 12 trails of Hercules
Sojourns
Peregrinations - if they are especially long

Laedha

I love the suggestion about by @Telinus of having time/difficulty choice but less content choice. Some days I'm up for a fun and longer challenge that takes more headspace. Some days I have grading up to my eyeballs and I just made 27 homemade Valentines and I would love spending an hour on some in-game task that gives me an "objective complete" warm fuzzy feeling but requires little thought. 

Nicola

Time for an update!

We've been watching this thread and had some great discussions about various aspects mentioned here, so for the last week of this thread's life we'd like to focus down the suggestions.

We have a plan to work this system into the world so that there's in character reason to participate (or not, as your roleplay may determine), but this will be wide enough in scope that it should be easy for everyone to participate if they want to.

We love the idea of an in game yearly cycle, with each month having a specific theme. The theme will be a random determination, and will not repeat on consecutive months. Each theme will have a list of possible tasks.

We are also looking into a method to allow city and house leaders (unlikely that we will expand this for orders/clans, but it's under discussion) to manually check off certain tasks.

So what we need from you all? Suggestions for themes and suggestions for tasks within those themes.

Also, please keep the name suggestions coming!

Once this next 7 day stretch is over I'll close this thread and then the team and I will begin design discussions, and then you'll hear more about the next stage of the process!

Taryius

- Death and Undeath -

Travel to the Underworld, once there, seek out a representitive of one of the Underworlds many factions, and assist them in their plot to rule. (Complete one of the daily faction quests given by Takt, or Lesame, etc.)

Delve into the Azdun Catacombs and successfully slay one of the Underlords that dwell within.

Decide the fate of the enslaved women held within the Azdun Catacombs.

Die, and pray that the Finality offers you another chance at life -or- reap the life of another adventurer, and send them to Halls of Death instead.

Slay the Vampiress Belladona or the Vampire Lord Zsarachnor. 

- A Yggdrasian Expedition -

Climb the branches of Yggdrasil and reach the Elemental Embassy, enter and slay one of the the Elemental Guards that patrol within. (They have a specific name that is just slipping my mind, but the really tough ones near the entrance.)

Discover and enter the fabled burrow of Ratatosk, the Guardian, and slay one of his squargon kin. Be wary of the Guardian's nest, for an encounter with him would truly be a much more difficult challenge.

Embark through the Stone Forest of Lhitsu and lay your hands upon a Dreadpilars egg.

Take in the serene sound of the Ausafass and successfully catch and land one of the many species of fish that flourish there.

Find and enter the heart of the Valdblom.

Make your way to the Ioje Compound and enter the fighting ring within.

Help make some bread with the Vertani Baker on Kuthalebak.

Open the Obelisk upon Pri'alysh and put an end to the one they call the Incorporeal Master.

Prove yourself a mighty hunter and put an end to the King of the Prairies.

Taste the Infection that is plaguing Kuthalebak.

(There are so many options here.)

- Of Oceans and Islands -

Successfully complete a Trade Deal from any mainland Harbour.

Prepare your ballistas, stock up on munitions, and participate in the slaying of a legendary Leviathan.

The seas are a treacherous land, go out and sink another vessel unlucky enough to cross your path on open waters.

Tighten the halyard and bind the stays, its time for you to travel far north to the Ilyrean Isles to take in the scenery.

Find your way to the Isle of Prin and put an end to the ancient serpent that is terrorizing the xorani.

Sail westward from Sapience and reach the Isle of Ageiro, once there offer some assistance to the malagma within.

Just some ideas tossed around, there are so many possible tasks that could be given. I think this is a great chance to give a lot of the tougher, less discovered denizens a chance to actually be hunted and to reward the player by doing so. Gotta have options for people who enjoy hunting, exploring, questing or pvp'ing so that everyone participates in the system.

Morthif

Allowing orders to create/complete tasks like sermons etc is a great way to get people involved. Being able to assign tasks to All or Lay Members would give actual use to laymember status too. Orders are usually the pinnacle of RP for most people and excluding them from the task system seems like a huge mistake 

Shirszae

Yes, please, definitely allow Orders to be included in this

Asmodron

Very few orders are active out of the majority of Gods that exist, and their activity fluctuates based on the presence of their God (as we have seen happen with many an order). Orders also tend to be for a very select group of players, and could very easily have tasks they manually create and do. I can see why they'd stick to cities and houses.

As for tasks, I definitely would suggest less extreme ones such as slaying high-powered bosses...but rather more accessible ones.

Jadys

Edit: sorry for all the wide spaces. Not sure why that happened, and editing doesn't seem to fix! 

These boots were made for walkin' (travel)
-ex. Travel somewhere you've never been, discover and walk the path to Meropis, walk 2000 unique rooms in one Achaean month, etc. 

Joggin' your noggin (thinking and creativity)
-ex. Design something new (crafting or program), post to poetry board, win a Bardic/Artisanal, perform in a Scarlattan concert, write a book, plan a mini event, perform a ritual, speech, debate, solve a problem in your house, city, class, offense, defense, etc.  

Bacon and Stakin' (hunting and combat)

-ex. Hunt an area you never have before, kill something big and scary, get a bounty put on you, complete a contract, kill someone in a raid or duel, stake some heads, get enemied, become hated in a village, etc.

Give me Pear or Give me Death! (Underwater exploration)

-ex. Dive for treasure, discover 15 unique underwater creatures, visit underwater villages, etc.

Cha-yacht-ica (seafaring)

-ex. Sail to all the islands, get your marque, kill seamonsters, become a captain, learn a new specialisation, sink someone, salvage someone, become a pirate, design a flag, get keelhauled, etc. 

Free Bird (exploring the sky)

-ex. Explore areas while flying, visit Skylord's temple if able, get carried off by a dragon, get handed a balloon by a jester, become a living meteor via Yuthka, get launched by a catapult, etc.

Bowels and Trowels (underground exploration)

-ex. Spend time traversing underground areas, dig and burrow for so many levels/rooms, bury something, dig something up, etc.

Monkey See, Monkey Do (mentor/protege outings)

-ex. Copy your mentor for a day, learn a new activity from your mentor, shadow a city/house leader or minister for a day, etc.

Honourable Mentions (honours lines)

-ex. Earn a new honours line, get mentioned in an events post, get mentioned in a log for tanking or disarm, etc.

I can do anything you can do, better! (contests and rankings)

-ex. Win a foozle, improve your ranking in anything from RANKINGS, become top mark, win denizen games, rps etc.

One plus one is.. another one! (personal growth)

-ex. Gain a new level, earn next house rank, trans a mini-skill, learn a new language, improve your personal stats, get a runestone reading and learn about yourself, etc.

Pick of the Litter (favours)

-ex. Earn a divine favour, house favour, city favour, earn citizen/house member/order member/leader/minister of the year, earn allyship with a city/house/order, gain favour in a village, fill your friends and ally lists, become lusted, etc.

Shirszae

@Asmodron None of that is a real good reason to not implement it for Orders. Citing that people leave Orders and that their activity changes a lot depending on whether the Divine doesnt really work as a reason against their implementation there. Not to mention very similar arguments can be made regarding Cities and Houses.

If anything, having Order-placed engagement thingies would help Orders whose Divine is dormant. So in that regard this system would actually be a plus there.