!!WARNING!!
Super-long post ahead. Make yourself comfortable.
This is a BRILLIANT idea, stolen from imredtalon in
the dream RPG thread, and expounded on by me.
I like the idea of user-generated Jobs / Quests. What I'm picturing is a selection of drop-down menus or checkboxes, to make the Job creation streamlined.
First would be Job Type:
- Fetch (or something that sounds better)
- Delivery
- Escort / Bodyguard
- Recruit (Corporate extraction)
- Assassination
- Infiltrate / Hack / Plant
and so on.
Next menu would be a sector of the city:
- Combat Zone
- Downtown
- Corporate Plaza
etc.
Next menu would be a number of buildings / locations you can use for your job.
Next menu would be to indicate where the target of your job goes. This would be a number of pre-determined spawn points / interaction points for your Job in question. Could be a park bench, or a restaraunt booth, or a cyber-terminal, or a safe, etc. Each building / map would have a number of these interaction points hard-coded into 'em already, so all you had to do was pick where you want the action to take place.
Next menu would be selecting the spawn points of opposition (if any,) number of opposition, type of opposition, and frequency.
Last menu would be a checklist of criteria for successful job completion, and other errata.
Putting it all together, it would look something like this:
Say I want to create an Assassination mission.
I select Assassination, then select the location, which I decide is going to be Downtown.
I then have a list of available locations Downtown. I select a restaraunt off the list.
I now have access to the map / layout of the restaraunt, and a list of locations where I can position my target. From the list, I position my target at a booth, towards the back of the restaraunt. Choosing this option, the target will spawn at the booth seated, having a meal. I'm then presented with a list of NPCs to put there. I choose a well-dressed Corporate type, wearing a suit.
Next, I choose opposition. I've decided that this is a fairly important management type, so I place one bodyguard in the booth with the target. I also choose to place another bodyguard in the bathroom, that will come out at the first sound of gunfire. (Mind you, the bodyguard will spawn upon player arrival, but not auto-hostile if the player hasn't taken any hostile action yet. The bodyguard will run from the bathroom, back out in to the dining area and hostile the player at the first instance of gunfire. I'll place one last bodyguard / driver at the limousine outside, who, again, will enter the restaraunt and engage the player upon first instance of gunfire. I select the AI of the booth bodyguard and the one in the bathroom to be Advanced difficulty. The bodyguard at the limo, I select to be Average.
I opt *not* to choose 20 bodyguards, spawning from the bathroom, one every five seconds.
For mission completion criteria, I select assassination of target, and select retrieval of [object from drop-down menu.] I choose data tablet, which will spawn on the Corporate's person / in their Inventory. Amongst the errata, I choose the date of the mission to start three days after acceptance of the Job, and I choose the time of day to be 6:00 pm.
I opt not to select "no civilian casualties" and "no collateral damage." I also select the payout for the Job, which I decide will be in a small sum of Eurobucks. To keep people from gaming the system, the difficulty of the opposition and the location will determine the maximum amount of payout you can choose for the Job.
If I hadn't selected "retrieve [object]," the player could just use a rifle and put a round through the target's head at long distance, and call it a day. Since I selected "retrieve [object]," after escaping the restaraunt (
IF they escape...), the player will be contacted by a Fixer for hand off / blind drop of the object, after the player has shaken any tails.
So. What'cha think?