Brainstorming for Andor's Trials - Scoring-oriented spin-off.

[Zukero]

Hello fellow adventurers,

I had an idea recently, and I'd like your opinion.
This may never come to life, as the focus is currently on getting v0.7.2 out, but who knows...

So, basically, the idea is to create a spin-off of Andor's Trail called Andor's Trials, where you would play small scenarii, and get a score based on your performance. The pitch is as follows:
- You select a mission
- It opens a more or less predefined character on a given map, and starts the conversation with a NPC explaining you your mission.
- Eventually, you can get ready before starting the mission (gear up, select level ups and/or skills...).
- You talk to the NPC to actually start the mission (speed run, grinding... whatever you can think of).
- You (try to) complete the mission.
- You get your score.

Eventually, if you beat a target score for a given mission, you gain the ability to try it with one of your saved characters from Andor's Trail.

Each mission could be played on cutom-made maps, a subset of the existing ones, or the whole world as we know it.
No merchants would trade with you (except eventually the mission-giving NPC), no XP, gold or items can be gained from battles.
All you have is what has been given to you with the predefined character.
These characters could be fully set up, or be level 1 with enough XP to reach level 40 so that you can set them up as you wish. Same for the items, you can be fully equipped with no other option than to remove some of them, or have some gold and be able to buy what you can from a limited set offered by the mission-giving NPC.

What do you think of it ?

Would you like to play this ?
Any remarks on the current pitch ?
Any mission ideas ?
Would an online leaderboard be mandatory ?
What about Google Play Games integration ?
Achievements (complete a mission with no items equipped and reach a given score for example...) ?

Let your imagination talk.

[ace]

good idea. google play games integration will be best for leaderboard purpose and will be good feature for AT.

[Voom]

I would definitely like to play this. We have had some discussions before on achievements, but this refaces the idea completely. An online leaderboard should be mandatory.

How would this be integrated?
1. Within the current gameplay
2. At the starting menu (Story Mode v. Missions)
3. A separate app altogether

I would always advocate pvp. This is a great way to compete.

Here's some mission ideas:
1. Starting at lvl 1, be able to kill Vacor with the fewest monsters killed possible. (With and without all the quests available)
2. Starting at lvl 20, be able to gather all Oegyth crystals without using potions (food allowed) while gaining the least amount of Exp possible.
3. Starting at lvl 1, complete as many quests as possible without any equipment and without dying (to prevent Exp skimming) by the time character reaches lvl 10.

[Firefly84]

Voom: Here's some mission ideas:
1. Starting at lvl 1, be able to kill Vacor with the fewest monsters killed possible. (With and without all the quests available)
2. Starting at lvl 20, be able to gather all Oegyth crystals without using potions (food allowed) while gaining the least amount of Exp possible.
3. Starting at lvl 1, complete as many quests as possible without any equipment and without dying (to prevent Exp skimming) by the time character reaches lvl 10.

What about 5 skillpoints for "Fehlschläge meistern" (forgot the English expression)? Then you can die but won't loose Exp. Or the mission is over.

Perhaps the achievement of these missions could be the MF equipment at place 1.

[Tomcat]

"Failure Mastery" I believe, though I did not look up the German.

[Zukero]

It would definitely be packaged as a separate app. I don't want to"taint" AT with gplay integration or even internet access. It is possible though that having AT installed is mandatory for Trials (uses AT's code and assets directly, as a library). Don't know if that's possible on Android.

[BethelAbba]

Yea, my first read through of this made me wonder where Voom was coming from... since it seemed as though Zukero was talking about NEW missions / quests altogether, not working with pre-existing ones.

That said, yeah, I would definitely give it a shot if you posted it to GooglePlay. I would love to see what quests you might throw at us.

My question would be: How would actual scoring be accomplished? It would seem that there would be a max top-off for points for which everyone would at some point reach... and thus the scoreboard would be littered with: VOOM= 542. TOMCAT=542. ZUKERO=542. and so on. How would you make it so that there would be some differentiation between the scores?

Timing? Even that tops off once everyone gets the hang of the quest and figures out how to run from point A to point B quickest.
Monsters Killed? Whoever started first gains the distinct advantage .... provided he never sleeps.
EXP earned? ....well, you nerfed this in your outline...
Gold Earned? ... well, ditto, above...
Quest-in-point obtained? once everyone does the quest, what makes for any difference.... in short....

What would the scoring system be?

[Duke]

I would try it.

[rijackson741]

I am picturing the world of AT if all these "custom-made maps" and "scenarii" (i.e. quests) were in the game

[Voom]

Yea, my first read through of this made me wonder where Voom was coming from... since it seemed as though Zukero was talking about NEW missions / quests altogether, not working with pre-existing ones.

If we establish this as a viable idea, then I would waste NO time developing new maps, new quests, new NPC's, etc. Just export the existing game, crop it, and create a menu to direct player to whatever new missions s/he wants to try. Don't make it harder than it needs to be.