Quest Giver
TBD.
Quest Objective
Keys. Lot and lots of keys.
Type of Quest
Collecting quest.
Reward
See below- lots of possibilities.
Short Summary
Finally, a use for all those keys you don't need anymore.
Prerequisites
Finding the NPC. He should be rather hidden in an out-of-the-way place, or we can go the 'master trainer of conjuration' route and have him be some hostile NPC who needs to be calmed to speak to him.
Assets Involved
1 NPC with unique dialogue.
1-5 possible new unique item(s) as reward(s).
Long Summary
1. We all have keys we use and then they just clutter our inventory. This is a good/fun/interesting way to find a use for them.
2. Some NPC out of the way, or possible hostile at first and needs to be calmed, would reveal that he is an odd collector of keys. Any keys, all keys, he'll take them.
3. PC travels Morrowind and returns keys to the NPC for various different rewards/outcomes. See below for a rough idea.
4. Perhaps after enough keys are given to him, the NPC will disappear forever.
Reward
1 key given: 1 gold.
3 keys given: saltrice or other easy to obtain and low value ingredient.
5 keys given: 10 gold.
8 keys given: Piece of low-grade armor.
10 keys given: Skill book to increase security (would be nice if it were a unique book written solely for the quest, which I can write if need be).
15 keys given: 275 gold.
18 keys given: 24 hour blessing that reduces frost damage by 30% and adds a small telekinesis buff.
20 keys given: Unique bracers somewhat better than bonemold called Right Truculence of Selene and Left Truculence of Selene, the right one fortifies short blade by 25 points for 60 seconds and the left one gives a poison resistance of 30 points and a 15 point nighteye for 60 seconds.
27 keys given: Location of some cave, 400 gold, and 40 enchanted silver arrows that do 5 points of shock damage.
30 keys given: New spell that is a powerful fireball spell, which doesn't cost a lot of magicka to use, but also gives the caster a weakness to magicka for 10 seconds or so. Not sure if it's possible to set the magicka cost for spells or not, though. Would be better if it's possible to make it have a high rate of success as well, without it becoming a power/ability.
33 keys given: Ring that seems to give a bonus of 40 health constant effect, but when equipped it actually is replaced by another ring that transports the player to some type of sub-realm where they need to fight 3 particularly strong, uniquely named dremora lords at once. One of them has a scroll in his inventory that will summon a storm atronoch and a dremora for 300 seconds and a key(!). I imagine the battle taking place in a large-ish room, and after the battle the key is used to open a door that leads to a table with 2,500 gold on it and a baizer or some such that will teleport the player back to some random location in Morrowind.
40 keys given: A special engraved key that cannot be given to the NPC (but that can be dropped) that looks really pretty.
45 keys given: A unique mace that is roughly better than ebony (lighter and does a touch more base damage) that absorbs 5 points of health each hit and absorbs acrobatics 5 points each hit for 20 seconds.
50 keys given: Some rare ingredients, a grandmaster mortar and pestle, maybe a glove that is constant effect fortify alchemy 10 points.
52 keys given: 10,000 gold, a unique dwemer helm that has a constant effect reflect of 20 points, and a unique book that sheds some more metaphysical inisght into the disappearance of the Dwemer. (I could again write this if need be.)
58 keys given: Permanent ability that fortifies security, sneak, unarmored, and speechcraft by 10 each.
63 keys given: Unique set of clothes that supposedly belonged to Ada'Soom Dir-Kamal. Would be a nice reward to have some Akaviri-inspired clothes. The clothes could be scripted to actually have cliffracers turn 100% passive.
Outcomes
1. After each subsequent reward is reached, the NPC will hint towards the player that there is another reward waiting for them, until the final reward is given, in which case the NPC will say he has no more rewards to give them, but the PC could give him a few days to try and dig something up and can come back. After a journal update, the NPC will be gone, along with all the keys, but a totem will be in his place that you can still give your keys to and they will disappear, and maybe the totem will bestow 5 or 10 gold for each key you give it?
2016-01-17 16:36
5 years 8 months ago
DIALOGUE IDEAS:
[Greeting (Initial)]: Many locks, so many locks. Many many locks! Made of steel, made of bone! They don’t call it a ribcage for nothing! Lost locks, lusty locks, lucid locks. What hides behind the tumblers of fate, %PCRace?
1 Key: Ah...ha…hahahaha...a seldom, single, succulent key. I wonder, what secrets did you hold, little key? Take this for your troubles, %PCRace.
[Greeting (After 1 Key)]: Where have all the keys gone? I had them, they were here. Floating in such divine patterns, right in front of me.
2 Keys: Oh? Another key? For me, truly? You seek secrets as well? Well, I haven’t met someone of your caliber in quite some time. Heh-heh. Have you ever looked at the world through a keyhole? It all seems so dim and mysterious. Yet, I cannot help but gaze through them; it fills me with purpose. A purpose that I have long-since forgotten.
[Greeting (After 2 Keys)]: My, my. The scribe of all scribes bestows such a joyous presence upon me once again. Do your fingers twitch and tremble; seemingly calling out for a key to hold?
3 Keys: Yes, it’s all coming back to me now. The clamoring of the keys as they line my satchels. Oh, the harmony of their teeth! Grinding and gritting together. My hunger has subsided...for now! Subside your hunger, %PCRace. Gorge deep from the troughs of adventure and destiny!
[Greeting (After Key 3/4)]: Have you lost your way again, %PCRace? Or do the keys bring you back to me...once more? Heh-heh...like a beacon of the Veloth…?
5 Keys: Wanderer, savant! A true chaplain of devout insistence. I...I reached deep within my trenches for you! Bless these keys, kiss this coin! And continue your search for the lost identities and deities in this world.
[Greeting (After Key 5/6)]: Shining bits of metal in the darkness. I missed them so, %PCName. I used to hear tales from villagers far south of here. Tales carried on the wind, speaking to me but softly. Now I hear tales from the keys. They speak to me, and I must listen with zealous ears. Bring me more tales, %PCname, so I may continue to learn the secrets of the soils.
[Greeting (After Key 7)]: Marvelous! The keys can muster a hymn to me now, %PCRace! Please, help our sublime choir become the prime of its ilk!
8 Keys: I am shielded from the woes of the red-womb abstract. I am forgiven of all instances of the penumbra cast across the lands. Protect yourself, my liege, and keep your eyes open further for more sacred symbols of our fidelity.
[Greeting (After 8 Keys)] Teeth? Teeth! I’ve lost all mine long ago. Can’t speak much without teeth, that’s why I have the keys speak to me and for me.
10 Keys: Oh-hoh! The knowledge we can learn if we just listened as much as we thought within our own minds. These keys have moved you through doors that were once impassable. Let them move you to a plane of existence that was once impossible, %PCRace!
2016-01-19 19:35
1 month 4 weeks ago
I like the premise, as it certainly would do something with all those keys!
One thing I’d be cautious of is the keys they accept, as some keys may need to be used more than once, or the player accidentally turns them in before using them and then may be stuck. So the quest giver should be able to give them back, or give the player a confirmation message before taking them.
For this reason I’d also change how the keys are turned in and rewarded. Instead of doing it based on number of keys turned in, we could treat each key separately. This would allow for unique dialogue and rewards for each key to keep things interesting. “Ah, you found the key to the George’s cellar! Very rare, this one. Khajiit gives you flin now, expects to find more on next trip.” It would also stop the problem of having a code yoink all the keys in a player’s inventory whether the player wants it to or not.
There’s problems to this method too, such as keeping the NPC’s dialogue from filling up with key names. It’s also more work coming up with the dialogue for hundreds of keys.
2016-06-10 21:48
2 weeks 1 day ago
With Morrowind, losing your keys is a bit less important because every door is openable by other means, but I get your point.
“ we can go the 'master trainer of conjuration' route and have him be some hostile NPC who needs to be calmed to speak to him. “
I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to to write a thousand words of key dialogue I’m not going to have him be an easily skipped and permanently murdered NPC. He’s going to live in a castle dungeon and people are going to tell rumors of this weirdo keylord so more players can find him.
2016-01-19 19:35
1 month 4 weeks ago
Are there any keys that need to be turned in to advance a quest? Including those freeing slave events. Just thinking of all the instances we may need to account for players needing a particular key.
2016-01-17 16:36
5 years 8 months ago
I think its OK if he can be killed. That's part of what makes morrowind special. :)
2016-06-14 05:24
8 years 5 months ago
You could have him be a merchant, and let the player buy back keys if necessary. There needs to be a way to make sure the player cannot exploit this to sell and buy back the same key to quickly reach the maximum number.
2016-06-10 21:48
2 weeks 1 day ago
there’s a difference between “can be killed” and “easily missable and erased from your game”. There’s no reason for a key collector to be a hostile bandit in a hard to reach cave, especially one with that much dialogue and utility to the player.
2016-01-19 19:35
1 month 4 weeks ago
Currently untransferred. Deciding between whether the turn-ins should be based on individual keys or on how many keys have been turned in overall is pretty vital I think, as it greatly affects how the dialogue and quest mechanics are written. Once a decision has been reached regarding this, I will transfer it into the asset browser (or the original designer can do so at any time!)
2016-01-17 16:36
5 years 8 months ago
Im still going to work on more dialogue for this. In pretty reluctant to have the keys be sold to him, and rather think they should just be removed via dialogue. As far ad what keys would be removed, i will admit i did not think of that. I have no idea how it would even work as a scripting mechanic
2016-01-19 19:35
1 month 4 weeks ago
That’s why I’d suggest doing the keys individually. It could also be based on dialogue. That’s an easy thing to get the game engine to detect, as it works the same as any other quest turn in as far as scripting goes.
Counting key totals on the other hand would need a special script. Probably do-able, but more fiddly, especially if it has to check for keys the player doesn’t want to turn in before snatching them.
2016-05-21 23:57
8 years 3 months ago
Maybe the rewards could be increased, with the trade-off being that you now might not have some keys that might have been otherwise useful.
This way selling off all your keys to a strange collector isn’t something every character is going to do, but the option is there (and rewarding) for those who aren’t in anyway attached to them and are willing to deal with the consequences. It will still be a cool character to run into in any playthrough regardless.
2016-01-17 13:07
1 year 9 months ago
In general, quests that need to take something out of your inventory in Vanilla just go for it; if we have a little prompt in-dialogue letting the player back out of giving away all their keys, I think that will be enough. There’s no reason for the player to seek out and talk to this NPC other than to give away all their keys, so if a player manages to ‘accidentally’ lose all their keys to this guy it will really be their own fault.
I would definitely prefer the keys go all-at-once and give the player an appropriate reward; handing in keys one-at-a-time would be extremely tedious once the player is running around with hundreds of them and doesn’t really make it easier to avoid ‘losing’ crucial keys, since the player probably won’t know which key was taken until it’s already gone.
Custom responses for (very) specific keys could be fun, but realistically we could only provide responses for ten or so unique keys which the player might never find and give to the NPC. I think that level of detail is a bit overkill for such a simple quest, anyway, and I’d rather an obscure, easily-skippable (and possibly hostile) NPC with very limited dialogue.
2014-03-16 17:45
2 years 2 weeks ago
On the technical side, you can take keys from dialogue on a case-by-case basis using only one topic, with a little-used but perfectly functional technique which consists in calling dialogue choices from a script. So in total you’d have one topic, one long but rather simple script (possibly 2-3 if there are so many keys that it needs to be split up for length) and a couple global variables.
All there is to it is cataloguing all the keys in vanilla & TR together with their quest uses, and coming up with some dialogue. If someone feels up for that ( Templar Tribe ?) there’s no issue with taking them one by one. In fact I’d advocate that option, since you DO need to remove them one by one on a scripting level anyway, and at least this way you can check the relevant quest states and/or ask confirmation before removing important ones.
Also, as to having him hostile by default (or high Fight): it would be easy enough to hint that he’s special to the player by surrounding him with a lot of big keys and some chests.