Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) General Quick Question on Randomized Quests/Battlefields

Hey all. I've had my eye on this game for some time, and it looks to be shaping up into a great product. I think I'll buy it, and maybe Divine Divinity, first, just to acquaint myself with Larian's work.

But I'm curious: while lurking, I read in some thread I can't recall that randomized quests were possibly going to be ditched. Is this the way it's gonna be, or are they still included?

Thanks in advance!

it is confirmed that the feature will be IN. please refer to IGN's Peek Of The Week 25 on <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> the link to confirmation.

Nope... can't see the proof. I thought they ditched the random quests and just kept random areas?

Well, in that interview it is mentioned that the team is working on random quest generation.

Great! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> With a fully customizable character (no pesky classes), interactive environment, and randomized quests, there is no way I'm passing this game up.

I think I read somewhere that the Batlefields will be randomly chosen areas and that there they are gonna put these random quests.

Go out now and buy Divine Divinity, you will most likely enjoy it very much. If you do dont forget to install the latest patch before you start a game.

and

I hope that they don't go overboard with the random stuff. Randomly generated quests and areas tend to have a dull, shallow cookie-cutter look and feel to them. Randomly generated areas tend to just be different rearrangements of tile sets, and randomly generated quests tend to be "Bring me this item" or "Kill this monster".

Thanks for the welcome! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Doctor Kaz, you are partially correct. Most games with randomized quests do have a shallow, repetitive feel to them, but remember, there are only so many kinds of quests in the first place. Plus, there are exceptions to every rule. Personally, I found there to be as much variety in Daggerfall (COMPLETELY random) as in Morrowind (entirely hand-crafted).

One reason I have high hopes for the system in Beyond Divinity is that it incorporates the two styles. Happy medium!

An alternative would be.. what?

Exactly. All you can do is have a list of quest templates, places, monsters, items, rewards and some random text. Put monster A into quest B... After you've seen each template, they offer little else.

Just a sudden thought... Have the entire game with pregenerated quests, but with all of the variables random. For instance, the Cursed Abbey might be filled with undead or elementals or beasts, and the Engineer might be a mage or a corrupt monk. The Haliberd of the Rock might be a scimitar or a shield.

What might make it even better is if the difficulty of each quest could be shuffled. At the moment, it's given that you need to be level 20 to do the Cursed Abbey and level 10 to start taking on the orcs. What if you switch them by adjusting the monster stats? You would have to decide what you were capable of and try and determine a suitable route through the game. Some things would have to remain the same, such as the start and end of the game.

I remember that Blade Runner did this, although I never got around to playing it. The targets you had to identify and kill changed every time. If you killed an innocent by mistake, you lost. It would make for interesting replayability. I'm not saying add this exactly into Divinity, but it shows that the concept is possible.

D2 of course does not randomize the quests, but does randomize monster type, unique boss stats, and maps. Isn't that going to be the case more or less with the battlefields?

I thought all the bosses in Diablo 2 were the same every time?

The end of act bosses--Andariel, Duriel, Meph, Diablo and Baal are the same every time. Many others can spawn with variable special abilities--Hepasto comes to mind. And of course the unique run of the mill find 'em all over the place bosses can spawn with anything.

ok,
i think there is a difference between random quests and random maps.
i don't know how the larians are going to implement these features, but the random maps i sa feature after you play <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> for a second time
the random quests is for every time you enter this specific battlefield.
at least that's what i 'm thinking right know <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

The maps in a battlefield is generated randomly, the first time you access it and stays that way during the course of the game. When you replay the game, different maps will be generated.
This you can do throughout the game and not only after you have finished it. What is likely to be implemented is that you can continue to play in the battle fields after the game has finished and enter those battlefields that you have not done before.

One way to make radom quests more interesting is creating a quest with several sub-quests.

example:
You meet a man whose finacee is missing.
You find out she is kidnapped
You must find her and kill the person who kidnapped her.
You rescue her but she lost her wedding ring.
You must find the wedding ring.
You find the wedding ring.
You bring both of them back to the man.


*later*

You meet the man again.
He says his finacee is some how diffirent more "evil".
You find out she's is carries a demon child wich is taking over her body.
You must find a cure.
...

Well you get the idea. Manny easy quests in one big quest, some thing like the farmland quest. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

I don't mind the "find this" or "kill that" thing that much it just needs to be told/sold right to the player.

What do you guys think?

I'm thinking -- like the quests in Divine Divinity. Or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Stuff that is fun and interesting. Find cures for diseases, expose a criminal, blow up enemy supply caravan, etc etc. I love stuff like that. Even the fetch quests in Divine Divinity had some character to them. You felt like you were actually solving a problem that somebody cared about. I think that randomized dungeons and quests are added to a game under the illusion that they add replayability to the game, but they don't.

That may be your personal experience, but it is not an authoritative fact. The games I replay most often are either those with randomly generated quests or those with adaptable editing suites.

The rest go bye-bye in a relatively short amount of time. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />