Goblin Squad Member
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'By various means men arrive at the same end." ~Michel de Montaigne
I was apparently thinking about this last night in my sleep.
My mind is, it seems to me, odd. It works better in some ways when I am 'out of the way', such as when sleeping or not consciously occupying the problem. Anyway, when I awoke this morning I saw a way forward for the problem of trying to accomplish conditional branching in the central plot of a quest using the Foundry tool.
It involves branching the entire quest, so long as by the end we have reached the same conclusion. It isn't so much building conditional branches in the quest logic as it is building branching versions of the entire game world as relates to the plot.
It would be pretty work intensive but in exchange we get a more interesting and variable tale.
Essentially I may be able to use the possession of a quest item as a gating mechanism. If my thought is correct, then if the player has item A the world conforms to solution conditions A to achieve the conclusion. If the player has item B then the world conforms to solution conditions B to achieve the conclusion. The conclusion must be the same and there must always be an open path forward, but I can duplicate a map and alter version B from version A so long as each ultimately will result in quest satisfaction.
I'll have to try it to know.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I've published an extensive remake of the 'Circumspect Strength' quest, renaming it 'Countering a Diversion'. As soon as it becomes 'published' on the server (it takes a bit of time for it to be implemented once I initiate the publication) I'll take one of my characters through it again to check its viability. Did that once already and had to withdraw and rework it since it was losing its story thread the first time you leave the Adder's hideout. I think I have that fixed, but won't know until I see it live. If all goes well I'll post the shortcode so anyone wanting to can play it.
Note that one significant change is that a successful play through will now entail some combat. There is a way to minimize the amount of combat, but if the player chooses there are a bunch of fights not integral to the story that will be available. The player just has to decide whether to seek them out or stick with the tale.
I have another one in the works. I intend to publish it and another, then bundle them together into a campaign.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Okay I have done what I can. Hopefully it works for anyone wanting to try it. The short-tag for 'Counter Diversion' is #NW-DKJZFSBOQ
Please give it a try and let me know how it is. I've run through it many times, but in building these I cannot tell whether it is interesting and I have no editor to catch out my poor grammar. In this chapter the Drow plan a menacing event which must be prevented somehow.
I have another quest well on the way to completion which will be the second chapter in the campaign. In this one we discover the Drow may not be who we really need to be worried about.