Trying to build a new quest

[Burzmali]

Well, until Hikaru can weld together enough busted up Sentinels to chop through the armor plating on the 3rd floor of Theles Spinner, I figured I'd see what I can do with the scripting language to cook up a story or two of my own.  That said, after about 15 minutes of toying with the script, I discovered that I am hopeless lost.  So, I thought I would come over here and harass Joe into providing some advice and hopefully inspire a few others to take a look at the script.

Here is what I am trying to accomplish.  (Quote marks added where I am trying to guess the proper GH2 terminology for the concept)

I am trying to build a "story" that involves 3 tiers of "quests" where the third tier "quests" generate "plots" until a condition is met that concludes the "quest".  Eventually, the second tier quest will be exposed (either all of its child "quests" resolved, or bypassed) and it will being generating "plots".  Likewise for the first tier after the second tier is cleared.

Basically, I am starting with the assumption that I need a Content piece like this for the top tier to generate the middle tier:

Content
   name <Top Tier>
   desc <This is the top tier of the story.>
   requires <*:TopTier>
   
   % Elements

   % SubQuests
   Quest1 <*:MiddleTier>
   Quest2 <*:MiddleTier>


And likewise for MiddleTier.

For all three tiers, I can't figure out how the plots would be added, as they need to be dynamic.

Am I even on the right track, or do I know to do more diving?

[Joseph Hewitt]

I think you may need to do more diving, but I'm not entirely sure. Could you describe what you want to have happen in this quest?

I'm not sure I've defined all of these terms on the forum, so let me do that now. There are several different types of content in GH2.

Quest: A one-time event generated when a new campaign is started and thereafter incorporated permanently into the world. New quests cannot be added during play. Examples of quests include all of the mecha arenas, the CometBurger bomber, the Athera Garden concert, and the Theles Spinner ladder.

Rancon: Random Scene Content. Like a quest, this is generated when a scene is entered for the first time and then incorporated permanently into the world. Rancon is fairly limited compared to the other content types, only being able to directly modify the scene which generated it. Examples of rancon include most NPCs, shopkeepers, dungeon rewards, and the "return the katana" event.

Plot: A plot is an event which is not permanently incorporated into the adventure. Plots may be loaded and disposed of during the game. Examples of plots include most missions the PC is offered, the core story components, the rescue scenarios for when the player is near death or trapped somewhere, and the promotion rewards.

Story: Like plots, stories are not permanently incorporated into the adventure. So far in GH2 there is only one story, the core story. Stories load and direct plots.

Mood: A type of content that's been implemented but not yet fully utilized. A mood attached itself to a city and modifies that city's type, thereby changing the plots which occur there. An example of a mood is the "Faction Rampage" which happens in the conclusion of the core story and also in the "I Have Become Death" encounter. Like stories and plots moods do not become permanent parts of the adventure.

[Burzmali]

Okay, I follow, I think I am basically on the right path, generally speaking, but I think that I might have to use just plots as, if I am following what you are saying, there isn't any way for quests to dynamically generate plots.

What I am trying to do is setup a top level object that is loaded like a quest.  That top level object generates 2 sub components that each generate 2 sub components of their own.  Those bottom components would periodically spawn plots for the player, until some condition is met that allows the player to resolve the component.  Once a component has no subcomponents, it begins generating its own plots until the conditions are met to resolve it.

I'm thinking like a conspiracy mystery, where the bottom level street gang are controlled by the corporate CEOs who are controlled by the gnomes of Zurich.  In order for the player to reveal the next level of the conspiracy, they would need to counter the actions of the current level until they gain enough evidence uncover who controls them.  It seemed pretty straightfoward initially, write a component for each level of the conspiracy, and then add subplots to standard plots to add the clues.