Main Quest Draft

Meeting 4.12

Start the Run - First Run

• Nightmare: Subjective and cryptic introduction to the story.
• Tutorial: Introduce combat mechanics through an early encounter.

Main Quest Overview

•  Collect 3 artifact links.
• Stop the coven from linking the 4th artifact.
  •  Break the curse and end the nightmares.

Quest:

Artifact Discovery

• How do players find artifacts?
  • Exploration-focused gameplay.
  • Merchant leads: Gain hints after haggling.
  • Sub-quests:
    • Escort someone to a shrine.
    • Retrieve magical knowledge.
  • Anti-Magic Faction Quests:
    • Gain rumors by completing tasks (e.g., a training grounds quest).
  • Combat/Hidden Nodes: Unlock hidden artifact locations through battles or exploration.

• What are the artifacts?

  • Players can identify them visually.
  • Additional quest elements include:
    • Coven involvement.
    • Dream offering guidance.
    • Corrupt personalities of those near them.
    • Found close to thorny brambles
      

Player Awareness

• How do players figure out their purpose?
  • Trial and error.
  • Nightmares.
  • Coven encounters.
  • Merchant interactions.

Merchant Mechanics

• Core Idea: Artifact wander between every run
• Details:
  • Artifacts are tied to leaders as jewelry.
  •  Protect the leader to earn link or buy it
    • failure forces players to buy them.
  • Artifact Effect: Grants a speed buff.

Anti-Magic Faction

• Core Idea:

  • Artifact known to be in a cave, once activated, caused deaths.
  • City records indicate artifact-related events (weapons, classes, etc.).

• Combat Mechanics:

  • Soldiers guard the artifact.
  • The faction's strong/weak no fight against Soldiers
    
  • Enemy Summons:
    • Artifact summons various enemy types.
    • enemies tailored to counter the player’s group?
  • Objective: Survive for a set time limit or defeat a certain number of enemies.
  • Visual indicators for progress
    

Magic Faction

• Faction Quests:
  • Provide better path to the artefact.
• Artefact is in a sanctuary surrounded by admires
• Combat Mechanics:
  • Enemies are buffed until death.
  • Strategies:
    • Outrun enemies.
    • Use crowd control.
    • Tank through damage.
  • Objective: Acquire thorns link and escape.
  • Ability Buff: Enhances attack power.

Coven Mechanics

• Main Quest: Stop the coven from completing their artifact links.

• Side Elements:

  • Coven lairs serve as key locations.
  • Quests include:
    • Interrupting rituals.
    • Raiding their hideouts.

• Encounters:

  • Stop rituals during specific quests.
  • Random encounters after completing objectives.
  • Optional mini-boss fights with coven generals tied to individual artifacts.

Ending

• Progression Control:

  • Early access to the final area triggers warnings.
    • Ignoring warnings results in failure or death.
  • or
  • No path to the end

• Final Boss Mechanics:

  • Allies: Players fight alongside NPC allies against the coven.
  • 4 Generals: Players must defeat artifact-bound generals before the main boss.
    • Boss stronger than any individual player.
    • Mixed class mechanics (e.g., healer, DPS, tank).