Random ecounter questlines?

I did a lot of the random ecounters the last few days and an idea came to my mind.
What if there would be several quests you can do in a string of interconnected random ecounters?
Would that be a way to circumvent the "we can't change scenes because of housing" rule?
@DarkStarr @Berek @Lord British

PS:
I start to like them. The level scaling thing is sexy.

 

Yes please.

 

And while we are at it: can we get super rare ecounters as well?

 

I would love to see more diverse encounters. For example we see a corpse on the overland map and when we "enter" the scene we get a quest to solve a murder. Or we see a broken down cart and upon entering the scene we get a quest to rescue the kidnapped daughter of the merchant.

 

Stuff like that, exactly.
And then the ecounter stays on the map, only for the player in question, to come back and do/deliver/find xyz.

 

Aaaaaand we could to special quests this way.
Like: Hey this quests only exists for (random example from the top of my head) Halioween 2017.

 

Spoiler: Something like that ?

Back on the world map, Garriott pointed to a small gypsy wagon traveling along the road. If you end up the the same spot as the caravan you fall into an encounter at a gypsy camp. You can also choose to move into one of these encounters when the gypsies set up camp.

As Garriott moves onto the space, the view shifts again to third-person and we're on the outskirts of the camp. In the distance we can hear wolves howling. When he approaches a woman in the camp on the edge of some woods, she warns him about the wolves. When they attack, Garriott kills them off.

Or maybe a bit more elaborated

Source : http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/8/4076734/shroud-of-the-avatar-richard-garriott
It's part of the plan I think.

 

Well that's pretty much the average random encounter with a bit of story to it.
Yes, that would help a lot already.
But what i was primary thinking about was a questline connected through different ecounters.
Because that gives the Devs the chance to actually change scenes. You know like: Oh our trade convoy is in danger of beeing attacked by evil bandits! Help us by burning down their camp!
*player moves to next ecounter, the camp* Oh hardly anybody here. Where are they all? *player finds a note that says they went off to attack the traders*
*player runs back to the traders in the first ecounter and see everything is burned and most of them are fighting for their life*

 

And that things can have real consequences.

You meet a traveling trader in encounter A being attacked by bandits.
This can go in three directions.
1) kill of bandits - trader lives. The trader thanks you
2) bandits kill the trader
3) player kills the trader

Next time you encounter A if you enter you get to
A1 - the trader selling wares to you at a discount for saving his life
A2 - done other trader with high prices
A3 - trader with an escort which are hostile

Etc

 

Exactly that's the point of it!
And you could spin even more complex questlines with this idea.

 

Nice, want that on thursday please

 

Not all my ideas are bad or pvp related

 

I tweeted Richard back when he was big time into Pokemon go that they should have some rare encounters like rare Pokemon Go. They spawn rare and in less traveled areas, it would get people out exploring.

I haven't actually walked on the map out side of Brti/Desolis/Adoris area in probably 9 months.

 

That would be a start.
And i guess it would be doable without taking too much ressources from the rest of the development.

 

As of the last couple days i have ventured out into some other areas than normal..Yes I got out of HIdden Vale . LOL. I have noticed that the random encounters are now starting to reflect the regions more and more. Nice to hit a swamp encounter in the swamps and so on. But adding some more content as mentioned above would be really nice and might give others a reason to get out and travel more and give them more immersive things to do.

 

I think they had said in the beginning that they had chosen scenes to also switch them back and forth if there is an event.

Anyway, a neat idea with the random encounter quests but I thinking just the first encounter can be really a random one. The following ones (after accepting the quest) must have more or less fixed positions as else some avatars might never find them.
E.g. the random encounter quest is saying that there is a cave in the mountains in the south west of drachvald where you have to do something and that he will be waiting at the crossroad to Port Graff and Spite.
So the cave will always be at a position in the south west mountains and while you are searching the area somewhere near your avatar the cave encounter could appear if you are close enough to the second encounter of this quest. After leaving the cave the over world mark (cave) disappear if you walk a good way off. Again getting close to the crossroad the third encounter gets visible. As the NPC do not have anthing to say to avatars without the quest I do not think they should see this encounter.

But I think this is currently not possible because first they need a possibility to switch visibility of things that one avatar can see something but another avatar cannot. E.g. other avatars wouldn’t see the hidden hints that lead to the cave as they are not searching for them and that way wouldn't have found the cave but even if they wouldn't know what to do there or where to go after clearing the cave. -> no need that avatars without the quest can see the cave

By the way I think this could be also the way for consequences in e.g. the main stories. E.g. everyone is in the same scene but just the ones who saved some orphans can see them playing in a city while the ones who didn’t saved them would just see some additional graves on the graveyard and the one who didn't startet the quest would see neither one thing nor the other…what our avatars would see would be based on what we did (or did not) and just the ones who did the same as your avatar would see the world alike…I think this is as close as we could get with consequences in a multiplayer world.

 

No idea what you are reffering too at the moment.

In my opinion you could do both.
It would be important that the random ecounter would only pop up for the person that is doint the quest at the moment of course.
But i think searching for the right place might be part of the fun.
Of course it would be still visible on the overworld map. But only if you do the quest.

Ok, that's pretty much what i said above. I should finish reading posts before i answer them ^^

That's why i tagged @DarkStarr and @Berek to get a opinion if that is something that is doable or not.

 

@Lars von Drachental

Whatever the topic, phasing instances, NPC, objects... seems to be the proper solution

 

Well sure, it would be a solution.
Though i admit that WoW needed....3 years + to make it work in a way it didn't seem totally awkward ^^
But the phasing thing seems to be a problem tech wise.
Hence the idea with private, seperated instances in the form or encounters.

 

Well...maybe...
Earl Atogrim von Draken: And while we are at it: can we get super rare ecounters as well?
Earl Atogrim von Draken: Aaaaaand we could to special quests this way. Like: Hey this quests only exists for (random example from the top of my head) Halioween 2017.

I think they thought more about changes in combat scenes e.g. a volcano is erupting for one month and that way the scene and maybe the resources and enemies in that scene are changing by switching to a copied and adjusted version of the original scene but even changing a town scene could be possible if they can manage to tranfer the lot data between the switched scenes.
E.g. if they want to add a plague or an invasion with coughing refugee from the surrounding villages and streets filled with wagons and stuff people carried with them or a festival with banners, floral decors and fairground people everywhere they would just have to "simply" change the scene we are loading and switch back if the event is over.
And if that event starts again e.g. one year later they already have a scene ready and do not have to change the original scene again.

Well I’m sure you know what random means, no? Without a fixed position whole novia would be your searching ground and that’s what I meant with “some avatars might never find them”.
*think*
Or do you mean with random “wherever you turn after a random time the scene entrance appears on the over world map no matter in what direction you walk”?