What is a good way to go about doing quests for someone with no programming experience?

[Phil32]

Hello, all. I'm wanting a quest system in my game that has it where you go to the central city's quest board, see what quests are being offered, accept which ones you'd like to complete, go to the place where the quest-giver is to get details, and then go about doing the quest, being able to use a log to track the progress of currently accepted quests, as well as completed quests.


Each quest would have a reward, whether monetary, experiential, or item-based and would have goals such as slaying a certain number of enemies or fetching an item or series of items, for instance.


The problem with this is that I think there's no way around doing such a quest system without any scripting knowledge. I'm not very bright (see: I am dumb as a box of rocks) when it comes to programming, and that's why I gravitated towards RPG Maker to begin with. However, I guess if I DO have to script, then any help would be appreciated, such as what quest system should I think of using, how to go about having a quest log, how to go about doing the things I want to do as stated in the opening paragraph, and anything else I've forgotten to add.


I hope this isn't asking too much, and I hope I fully explained and described my problem and the kind of assistance I need.


Thanks, all, for reading, even if you can't help. I appreciate it.

 

[Shaz]

There are quest system plugins that will let you do this.  You don't need to script it yourself, but unfortunately for something as complex as you're talking (using a log to track progress of individual quests, which I assume means you want to list the steps necessary), you're going to have to modify the plugin to add the quests and the steps.


If you just wanted something nice and simple that listed the quests with just one or two lines of detail, you could use Key Items.  Each quest is a key item.  When you accept the quest, add the item; when you complete the quest, remove the item.  The player can go into Items > Key Items and see what quests need to be done.  You can change the description of Key Items in the Terms tab, and call it Journal or Quests or something like that.  Doesn't give you individual steps for each quest, but it does mean you can do the whole thing without needing to use a plugin.

 

[Phil32]

There are quest system plugins that will let you do this.  You don't need to script it yourself, but unfortunately for something as complex as you're talking (using a log to track progress of individual quests, which I assume means you want to list the steps necessary), you're going to have to modify the plugin to add the quests and the steps.


If you just wanted something nice and simple that listed the quests with just one or two lines of detail, you could use Key Items.  Each quest is a key item.  When you accept the quest, add the item; when you complete the quest, remove the item.  The player can go into Items > Key Items and see what quests need to be done.  You can change the description of Key Items in the Terms tab, and call it Journal or Quests or something like that.  Doesn't give you individual steps for each quest, but it does mean you can do the whole thing without needing to use a plugin.

Thank you for the prompt response, Shaz! I didn't even think about the Key Items solution. That might be my alternate method of doing quests if these next questions don't pan out well for me. hehe


I know some quest systems have demos that would allow me to see what was done to create a given quest. I think I would be able to use these already-made quests as a baseline and guide to create my own quests by just replacing text/plugging in my own information (such as quest names, descriptions, steps), and seeing how it's implemented in that demo.


I just saw Gameus' quest system on this site, and it seems like it's all I'd want. I wonder if I could handle that... 





Looking at it and the demo, it explains things well. The thing that was confusing me was that I didn't have Yanfly's Main Menu plugin! >_<


No wonder I couldn't figure out how to implement a quest log into the menu!


I'm going to see how far I can get with this, and if I have any questions, I guess I'll post in that topic. Maybe I should have done that first, but then I wouldn't have known (or have thought of) your great Key Items suggestion!


Thank you so much!