[RFE] NPC quests and factions.
issueid=4406 08-18-2016 05:17 PM
Junior Member
Number of reported issues by Adam Taylor: 4
[RFE] NPC quests and factions.
Ideas we discussed about adding quests from NPC's and various factions to the game.

As we discussed on Steam earlier, a great new addition to ADoM would be NPC quests and factions.

For NPC quests, we could have random quests available by various NPC's.
Farmers might ask for logs to repair a house, or a new scythe because their broke, or ask you to go out and kill X number of wolves to protect their livestock.
A Merchant might ask you to find some rare item, or to track down a thief (random named monster) and bring back whatever they stole (which you might decide to keep if it's nice enough).
A Necromancer might ask you for a specific corpse, or to kill some Lawful NPC (random adventurer spawn) that's been chasing them.

Quest rewards could vary from gold and food and other minor items to skill training (Farmers teaching you Herbalism, a Thief teaching you Detect Traps, etc).
Possibly even earn you a companion (Farmer gives you his dog, a Necromancer might summon you a powerful minion).

As for Factions, they could be site based (Terinyo, Dwarftown, Outlaw Village, etc).
Doing quests for NPC's belonging to the faction would slowly increase your standing. Random NPC quests would give small amounts (increasing with difficulty of quest), while the current quests (like saving Yrrigs) would get you a more substantial amount.

Higher standing with a faction could earn you store discounts, maybe the occasional gift (farmer gives you a ration, blacksmith gives you a weapon or ingots). Could possibly even have faction specific NPC's for special training or specialty shops.
Issue Details
Issue Number 4406
Issue Type Feature
Project ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
Category All
Status Suggested
Priority Unknown
Suggested Version ADOM r61
Implemented Version (none)
Milestone (none)
Votes for this feature 4
Votes against this feature 3
Assigned Users (none)
Tags (none)




08-18-2016 07:12 PM
ixi ixi is offline
Junior Member
Yes please. This would make some ADOM creatures more an intelligent beings and would improve impression greatly.

08-19-2016 05:08 AM
Senior Member
This is a pretty big undertaking and I don't think it's what team ADOM want to work on right now because they have a lot more important improvements on their plate right now.

ADOM isn't as open ended as some other classic roguelike games but I think that works towards it's strengths as ADOM has always been a more story driven game than the other roguelikes out there.

This might be worth bumping in the future but right now I don't think it's too important. In fact this kinda sounds like something The Creator wanted to do for ADOM II if I'm not mistaken.

08-19-2016 05:16 AM
Junior Member
Actually, I was chatting with Thomas about this on Steam. We were tossing some ideas back and forth. It's something he's very interested in. He told me to post it here so that he wouldn't forget what we spoke about. lol

08-19-2016 05:57 AM
Senior Member
Oh! That's pretty cool! Shows what I know, I think this would be a cool addition I just doubted that he was interested in it. Sounds good to me, I'll vote for it.

08-19-2016 06:21 AM
Junior Member
We were discussing some of the elements that are in games like Caves of Qud and Tales of Maj'Eyal that he likes.

Caves of Qud has a really neat skill and mutation system, that lets the player shape their character the way they want. Which can lead to some truly unique builds.
And it's also got a simple yet rewarding random quest system. And the faction system.

What I really like about CoQ's faction system, is that it's by race. ALL races. So from the various humanoid races, to birds, plants, grazers, large cats, ursa, etc.
The game spawns named creatures, and they each have various factional standings. To use ADOM terms, you might get a named Orc. Killing him would hurt your standing with Orcs. But his description would have things like "hated by Kobolds for stealing a sacred relic", so you'd get a big faction boost with Kobolds for killing him. Or maybe "loved by jackals for saving a lost cub", which would hurt your standing with jackals.
Each named creature usually had 2-5 different faction modifiers. It made it quite interesting, as you couldn't just indiscriminately kill everything without hurting your faction standings.
I wouldn't mind seeing something like that in ADOM. It would basically give us more to worry about than just cats. :p

08-22-2016 01:56 PM
Senior Member
Very interesting idea and I really like the possibility of each unique/named monster having effects on your standing with multiple factions.

The problem right now is that most factions one could imagine have little in-game effect. Your standing with dwarves could obviously raise/lower prices for multiple services in Dwarftown; however, the only obvious effect from standing with other races would be your chance of generating them initially hostile/neutral/friendly. Which is still interesting, but not tactically important enough to really bother worrying about in play.

So this is maybe a little premature, but it could become very interesting as the game adds more locations with more unique services.

Currently viable factions: Dwarftown (numerous services), Thieves' Guild (black market and skill training), Assassins' Guild (no services, but some could be added), Terinyo (already implemented I guess, with lowered food prices for the carpenter quest).

Factions/places I'd love to see: Ratling Warrens (town with dungeon-like or cave-like topology), Orc Horde (nomadic orc town as random wilderness encounter), Goblin Market (maybe at the bottom of the 12-level, low-danger dungeon)

08-22-2016 09:01 PM
ixi ixi is offline
Junior Member
Goblins and orcs are tricky ones. Their sosiety has the cult of force (and fear). If you're weak - they will never respect you. If you think you're strong - you will have to prove it. I'm not quite sure what could make these races to respect the PC worldwide in ADOM. I don't think either killing their enemies or not killing them could make them friendly.
Elves are kinda special too. Would their arrogance allow them to like non-elf? Could they be disapponted by an elf (non-dark) that much to turn on him? Don't think so.
Some suff like demons, undeads, constructions or chaos creatues play on their own. Well, while undeads could show some respect to necromancers and chaos creatures could accept very chaotic and highly corrupted beings the couldn't be any kind of reputation. Maybe ants, bees, claw bugs, cats and blink dogs pose some intelligence but I doubt there could be jackal fraction, right?

Finally if you killed a farmer in wilderness - how would guys in terinyo aknowledge you did it? I'd implement reputation with care.

08-23-2016 10:57 AM
Senior Member
Good point, ixi. Events in the wilderness should be secret (maybe with a low probability of news/rumors getting back to a community).
Some other ideas: uniques and rare monsters could spawn a trophy that you can use as proof of your deed. Many of the uniques already have preset drops so that shouldn't be too difficult. To earn the respect of the orc horde, you could turn in the trophy of an orc butcher, or fight one, without spells or armor, in single combat.
Sinister library could also be a faction, and dark sages/wizards could drop non-magical scrolls of membership (library cards) . :-)
Then of course you have to consider how all these factions feel about each other!
Finally, not all races have to have a permanent community/faction presence in the Drakalor Chain. I mentioned orcs and goblins because they seem particularly numerous. And ratlings just because I love ratlings. :-)

08-23-2016 11:20 AM
Junior Member
In Caves of Qud, most factions don't have any actual towns. It mostly affects random spawns. So if you're super friendly with a faction, say Kobolds, they not only often spawn peaceful, but they will also often attack your enemies. Or you can trade with them when you find them.

In ADOM, if you hit the max friendship with Orcs say, you should encounter many friendly ones. Be able to buy Orcish weapons and armour off them. Have them help you in battle. Hell, maybe even hire Orc minions.

But yes, finding the right balance for how a faction system would work in ADOM is the trick. Caves of Qud has a story, but it's also very open ended. You spend a lot of time just wandering and building yourself up. ADOM has the whole corruption time limit thing, and is much more linear. So it would make sense to have some factional things that are more story and side-quest related. Still have random quests and such, because that's just more fun content to enjoy. Plus it could encourage exploration (or re-visiting) of specific zones.

08-23-2016 01:11 PM
The Creator
Just to confirm Adam: I love the general idea and asked him to post the RFE so that we can start collecting ideas. It won't actually be implemented in the very near future but I love the whole idea.

08-24-2016 11:49 AM
Junior Member
Factions should be based on either based by race or based by profession and not take too much time due to background corruption.

All races have should have other races they like or dislike. Races born from the first nightmare (like orcs) might use a 'respect' system where the stronger of a physical warrior you are, the more respect you earn. And then when a certain value is reached, talking to the first friendly member of the respective race (this is even possible for rare races like drakelings or mist elves since there's always the priest in dwarf town) will reveal the location of a village populated by the other races. There you could get quests, items, etc.

For professions it could be something like having a number of quests completed, so you get known in ancardia and then you could receive an invitation to join a guild hidden somewhere in CoC.

Something cool would be a dungeon feature or even a wilderness feature : area of conflict, where two armies are clashing each other and you have the option to join either side or just ignore it altogether. Joining one side reveals their camp that has NPCs that could be hired as companions after you clear the conflict.

+ Reply