CTF idea... posted in wrong thread to begin with.

[trevius]

Ya, you definitely don't want to post this anywhere else. Just wait to see if it is moved or not. Spamming can get you in big trouble.

To even the battlegrounds, I would probably have to make it so the events had a level range specified. Some might be for 20-30, some might be 1-10, some may be 60-70 etc. I would also allow level 70s to temporarily de-level to that level range using my de-level quest. Then it would come down to who has the best no level req/rec gear and/or best skill.

Depending on player race, the NPC that sends players to that zone would send different races to either side of the zone. You can divide it up however you want. Simply add a race check to the porting NPC and then the quest::movepc(zoneid,x,y,z); to have different locations of the zone depending on which side that race is considered to be on. I am not sure if illusions are considered or not, so that might take some testing to make sure people can't cheat and switch sides.


This is one way to do it:

The players zone into a small room that has a locked door on it, and 1 NPC in that room.

That NPC will have a proximity that will cause any players that enter it to be bound to that area and also change their race to the race of their team so sides will be easily identifiable. It will also set a quest global on them all for use later on.

The NPC will ask them to say [ready] when they are all ready to go.

Once one side says they are ready, a signal is sent to another NPC that keeps track of the event. That NPC will then send a signal to the opposing side NPC and the opposing side NPC will say that the other team is ready and all they have to do is say [confirm] which will send a signal back to the event tracking NPC and this will open the doors to begin the event.

Upon getting to the opponent's side of the zone, there will be another NPC in a separate area from the starting room. This NPC will have a small proximity set on it that once entered by the opposing team will cause the NPC to despawn, use quest globals to "flag" the player and set their race to yet another race so that everyone can identify who has the "flag" easily.

If the flag carrier is killed, they will return to the bind point where they zoned in and their "flag" will be removed by entering the bind NPC's proximity. Their race will also be set again to their team's race.

Finally, if the player with the "flag" makes it back to their side (different room than the zone in room), their own flag NPC will check their globals and race to verify that they have the flag and have the correct flag race and then reward the player however you see fit. It will send a signal to the event tracking NPC which will announce that the event has been completed and will despawn all NPCs related to the event.

Deciding the reward(s) is up to you.


Another option might be to have the NPC at the zone in do all of the things I already listed, but also then send the players to their "flag" room. The binding NPCs could then be anywhere that is blocked off from the rest of the zone. I don't think something like this would be all too hard to write. It would just take some testing and working out the final details. The hardest part would probably be setting up the doors.

There are many options that could be added to this quest. It definitely sounds interesting.

[Fridgecritter]

Sounds very promising. I still don't know about the combat element of it though. Sure, with Quake III or similar FPS games, you get hit maybe 3 times max and you are dead, but in EQ, you may get get 500 times before you die.

This is the hard part to mitigate. One idea I had after reading your post is to have everyone delevel to a certain level upon entry to level the playing field, and then an NPC puts a debuff on them that makes AC almost nonexistent. Like I said before as well, there needs to be narrow corridors on the map that serve as choke points so you don't just have people running a loop around the competition to make the point.

Another thing to figure out is the flag check. I like your idea about using yet a different race as the flag. This is great. We could even make it so the NPC changes the #size too so you are easier to target and hit. The hard part is going to be preventing everyone from a team from changing race, and you have an entire team with flags.

Any ideas on the zone flag check function? I think the rest is pretty much hashed out for sure?

P.S.
Feel free to use this idea. I want to see it work.

[trevius]

By changing race, I meant when they get the flag, they turn into an NPC race that no players can cast or get items to change to. So, maybe change them into one of the new globals like race 470 Hanvarlookingmob(withoutaxe). I don't think there is a way to have quests change player size.

As for the combat portion, you could probably create a custom spell for the NPC at the start to cast that will reduce all stats by 500 and AC by 3000 or so. That would be a start. Then you could create another spell that will buff players with an insane damage proc so they can kill any player in a few hits. Maybe even have it proc cazictouch (death touch). You would have to make sure that any players that leave the zone will have that buff removed though lol. Players would definitely want to use speed buffs and snare/root when possible.

One thing I was thinking about but have never tried to give out the reward might be to have an NPC spawned when the flag is turned in and the event is won. The NPC that is spawned would depend on which side won. That NPC could maybe have a perimeter so large it would cover the entire zone and the perimeter would check for the winning quest globals. Then any players on the winning team would be rewarded with whatever the reward is and have their quest global changed again so they don't keep getting the reward over and over.

And, the only reason I mentioned that the final flag check NPC checks for race is so that it makes sure the player didn't change their race with an illusion to make it look like they don't have the flag. The real "flag" check is in the quest globals. Quest globals are a way to "flag" a character so that NPCs can remember them. They can be used in tons of ways.

[Fridgecritter]

Sounds great, and the debuff idea sounds good too. I have already found a QIII map that I got permission from the designer to use. He made it from scratch using Quake modeling tools.

I am starting work on the project tonight. The map has two rooms that can be closed in with spawned doors, no space aged teleports into the air, lots of stairs and is perfect for what I need it for. I will start coding the easy parts of the script first like the teleports and race changes, and go from there. I will keep you all posted on my results, and host some screen shots on my site with links here.

Thanks a ton for the ideas... keep them coming!

[w4xt33th]

Well from the sounds of it, its sounds a lot like WSG in WoW. I haven't had a chance to mess with shrouding to even see if it works on the EQEmu but if it does maybe thats one way of doing it. Make it so only shrouded players can enter the zone via teleport NPC. That should make the playing field a little more fun.

As far as the item I would say it would probably have to be a buff. When the person dies then the buff is gone. You would have to tie it in with a spamming particle effect. something like the Jboot clicky particle effect or the monk 1.0 celestial fist effect. That would require players to set their video cards to show them though.

Another idea... Lets say you base it off of evil vs good. Evil players get made into goblins and good players turn to otters. if an otter reaches the NPC in the goblin base he hails the NPC to get an illusion buff... lets say Orc for example. Now the otter with the orc illusion has to get back to his home base and hail his NPC which will give the team 1 point... or the player something. With that you could either make it so one person on the otter team can have orc illusion or whoever hails the opposite NPC. So you could score multiple points in a group.

I think the hard thing would be how to make a scoreboard or decide who is in the lead as far as team wise. Maybe every time you get the illusion from the enemys base then turn it in to your own then your NPC will zone shout a score. first to reach 10 or whatever will trigger both NPC's to depop and the winning side gets whatever. I think it would take a lot of careful planning but it would defiantly open up a whole new idea for EQ.

EQ Battlefields FTW!

[Fridgecritter]

I never thought of that and I don't know why. I had a level 70 Warlock that lived in the BGs on WoW. Why have people parading around trying to kill each other in one hit when EQ was not designed to do that?

Make it a battleground. That's perfect! Everything would be the same as I planned, only the goal would not be to get the flag and bring it back and get points, but rather to get to the enemy's base and infiltrate their defenses, and kill the boss NPC. Perfect!

This way I don't have to worry about player levels being equal. You just let players from level 68 to 75 into the BG, and they all PVP each other on the way to the other team's base. I am really stoked about this idea.

When the boss NPC is killed, he automatically drops 6 of the same LORE, NO TRADE item that each player on the team can loot after the boss is dead. This item can be turned in to an NPC for rewards. The more of them you have, the more rewards you get. Just like in WoW.

BGs were my favorite part of WoW anyhow, since after 70 the game basically became a chat program with 3D avatars.

I am running with this idea now, and now I need to pick another map because the smaller CTF map I had in mind just will not do. This totally solves my PVP issue because it doesn't matter if you can kill someone in 3 hits this way because there are no flags.

NOW... the issue I have to figure out because I have no clue how to do it, is to have the zone de-pop when one of the bosses is killed, and the boss is only spawned on a trigger. Even though players might stick around to defend the boss, if they leave him behind undefended then I don't want players to be able to just go straight to the end and kill him.

Maybe make the zone so you can't invis. I think there is a field in the database for that in the zone table. MORE IDEAS these are great guys!

Oh, and of course if I make a finished version of this event first, I will post the SQL scripts for anyone to add it to their server in the quests section. Thanks a ton.

[w4xt33th]

Using AV for example lets see what we can do with a mixture of EQ faction.

Lets say you have 2 NPC's in POK. one is on a good faction and another is on a bad faction. As you do quests for one of them your faction with that NPC goes up while your faction for the other NPC goes down. In order to join the BG's you would need atleast warmly or something. Make the quest turn ins reward high amounts of faction simply for picking the team you want to be on. Also have vendor NPCs based on those factions. Kinda like DoN good vs evil mission NPC's but make it so in order to get the best gear you would eventually have to switch to the other faction. Just so its not an overly one sided fight.

Like weapons and augs from the good one and armor and trinkets from the bad vendors.

Now for the BG... You would need a map that would offer a good defensive position to both teams right before their general... like the bottlenecks in AV. the bridge at ally and the tower at horde. Along the way you could put NPC's like in AV based on the good or bad faction. killing them would net in minor random drop items that wouldn't be as good as the merchant items you would get from the general but it would be good enough to encourage players to hit them on the way to the general. You could also put quest pieces on them to help play a major part in other quests outside the BG. Some servers have custom epic quests... that would be a good thing. Or make an uber trinket on your server and put one of the pieces on the NPC's as a minor chance to drop.

For graveyards you would simply put NPC's that bind you via "bind my soul" as you go down the map... still haven't figured that part out. Also... when you die would you load on the same map again or just be gated back to bind with all buffs gone and full health/mana/endurance?

You could do a lot with it.