Monday 14 May 2001

Pic of the day: Also it would be nice if you could actually take over one of the many castles in more or less decent shape, rather than just have them restock with monsters every time you leave. (Screenshot from Daggerfall.)

Computer RPG fluff

I am so scattered that I don't get anything really done, not even playing! I've installed Might & Magic VI: The mandate of Heaven on the new PC. It is a colorful RPG which I haven't played in a long time. It grew boring after a little while, as far as I remember. But the music and the graphics are cute.

Actually my favorite RPG is still Daggerfall, even though most of the old Daggerfall fans have expressed sympathy for Baldurs Gate II, an AD&D based game if I understand right. I doubt I will be buying yet another game right now, but perhaps when it comes in the bargain bin. (I actually started to type "garbage bin" here. I guess I don't have too high opinions.)

***

For those of you who remember Daggerfall, it is worth mentioning that Donald Tipton has done a great job fixing some of the bugs in its quest system. The quests are the heart of the game, kind of like a salad bar of plotlines. You can do small local quests for the friendly neighborhood shopkeeper who needs some object delivered safely to another town; or you can go on to solve the mystery of the king's death and his return as a ghost, taking you on a series of epic quests. Or anything inbetween. There are several guilds and some other prominent factions who give quests, if you want to improve your standing with them. The same applies for the various royal courts. Sadly, several quests were broken. And the slightest mistake in the main quest could rob you of any chance to ever complete the epic and unravel the main plot.

Tipton has fixed various broken quests, and even created a tool that lets you resume the main quest if it is already stalled. He is also currently well under way with an extensive set of quests for lycanthropes (werecreatures). But more than that, he has created a tool that allow the logical minded user to create his own quests (or change existing ones) without knowledge of traditional programming languages. (You'll find his various Daggerfall tools here.)

I have already made a quest for the Mages Guild involving the legendary artifact, the Staff of Magnus. The quest also involves villains, rumors, a dungeon, and nymphs. Lots and lots of nymphs. Your character should be able to cast Stamina spells or better yet, have a Never Tiring item that casts said spell. It is unlikely that the playing character will get much rest during the quest, unless owning a ship.

***

On the newsgroups this weekend, we discussed the possibility of augmenting the game with a romance quest. When the game was originally under development, it was advertised as containing romance. (Or at least unrequited love.) There are still snippets of dialog left in the game files that indicate they tried to put some romance in, but failed. Given the enormous appeal of romantic quests in literature, one would think it would be a welcome addition to the game. A game that is only now starting to be all it could be, thanks to many contributing fans but perhaps particularly Donald Tipton.

But are the people who play Daggerfall the same who read romance novels? (Apart from me, obviously, and then only if the romance novels include magic.) Or is the typical Daggerfall player only interested in Daggerfall nudity?

I don't know for sure, but I know that the cult hit Ultima games had hints of romance, or at least a couple of them. I think it was Ultima 7 that had this heartbroken girl in Cove which male avatars could fall in love with. And she did indeed send the poor guy off on a quest or two. Ultima 7 part 2 - Serpent Isle - had a more cynical approach with a couple of one night stand subplots. Hmf.

What I imagine is a quest that spawns subquests, and this I am not sure I can do, though I am pretty sure it can be done. Obviously the Love Interest would be sort of hard to get. That's the point, yes? You'd probably have to prove your dedication by doing various weird things. (As you can see, I write this from a male perspective. We always do these kind of things, don't we?) Throw in the occasional kidnapping. I know how to code those, I think.

The main downside is that any hands-on interaction in Daggerfall tends to end up with one part dead. This kind of takes the edge out of eventually consummating the marriage. Though I suppose having a temple priestess in your house might be kind of nice, in a decorations kind of way. Hmm.

But right now, I am too scatterbrained to do such a project, even if I knew how to make subquests. Perhaps if I started to sleep at night again, instead of teasing the college girls. (Long story, and not quite as bad as it sounds. Good thing too.)