more depth to quests

[cheapbooks]

I played the original elite, perhaps it was on the commodore amiga, I forget.

one of the issues I had was that I got bored with it after a while, the distant star systems were all the same.

one idea I had is to add more depth to the game by having a better quest system. something whereby it might take you many weeks or months to finish the quest, much like from the old Ultima RPG's.

a good quest idea might be to 'save the universe'. for example, an unstable star is about to explode which will kill billions of people including your home planet, so you have to figure out how to prevent it from happening. everyone in the game works together on the quest, and if it isn't completed, the event happens. maybe make it a month long quest.

 

[Kramster]

I think you are describing the background simulation that has just started to unfold.
There are missions that can effect the galaxy and players are already tipping politic balance to trigger civil wars etc
You have to look and travel to be part of it but it is there...check your Galnet news there is a lot of info on there that is outside of the mission system
Most of what is happening is fairly low key but I think it will become more obvious and have greater consequences as the story unfolds

 

[cheapbooks]

ok

one of the ideas I had is imagine if you had to evacuate a planet in an emergency, and transfer all of the people from one port to another port. it would be a huge cooperative effort among players to work on a collective project together. and it could take weeks to accomplish.

or imagine if you have medicine in one star system that has to be transported far across the galaxy to another star system to help fight disease. and imagine if it takes you weeks to get to your final destination. maybe you have to jump to 100 different star systems. you have a mission, you trade along the way, you learn to explore areas you haven't seen before, etc.

the game opens up doors for all sorts of adventures.

by quest I did mean a quest that could perhaps take a year to solve. the galaxy is big enough that it is possible.

the key is going to be making it such that the quest can either be solved by more than one person, or to have sufficient parallel quests that people have many options.