Content Design tasks include, but are not limited to:
NPCs: (non-combat)
MOBs: (stuff we kill)Population: First round, clean up dupes and create/place NPCs that are missing in an area of a zone.
Placement: Place NPCs at the expected coordinates, facing the right direction. Stationary NPCs should already be placed, but wanders need a logical "starting point", usually when the zone activates, they spawn and start moving from this point.
Appearance: Should match the Live version of the NPC as close as possible. Many attributes include skin color/age, eyes, hair, facial, armor, weapon(s), etc.
Movement: Create movement patterns of individual and group NPCs to mimic the live NPCs. This is done in SpawnScript LUA files assigned to the NPC in their `zonespawngroup`. Movement, interaction, and reactionary responses can all be handled from the spawn scripts.
Interaction: Not only "proximity" responses from the SpawnScripts, but also ensure all possible commands on a given NPC are available (Hail, Assist, Find NPC, Sell to Merchant, etc).
Merchants/Trainers: Build the merchant lists with proper values for items sold and purchased.
Loot/Items:Repeat of the same work on NPCs for population, placement, appearance, and movement.
Interaction: Added complexity of KOS, group attack, spell casting onto the MOB and from the MOB onto you. Again, I believe most of this is handled in the SpawnScripts, but there might be a certain level of AI that occurs in the server that Lethalencounter might need to elaborate on.
Objects:While the collector/parser should gather most of this info...
Items Appearance: Items should look like players expect them to look. A sword shouldn't look like a shovel.
Item Effects: Some items have effects (from clicky spells, augments/buffs, or simple visual sparklies).
Item Stats: Change any stats that are reported incorrect by testers of the community players.
Loot Tables: MOBs invariably drop loot. Using ACCURATE loot resources from the web, we likely need to recreate loot tables from scratch. The collector does not see what a mob drops unless you kill it.
Harvesting: Harvesting nodes need loot too! The proper action (command) needs to be available on double-click or right-click, and the rewards should be like EQ2 live; how there are 3 successful harvests out of 'x' tries? (can't remember)
Quests:Zone Points: "Widgets" that act as our zone points need to engage at the right point and place the character (or group) at their proper destination. Note that some zone points do not require a click -- I am still not sure how to emulate that, unless we plan to use invisible men and proximity?
Doors: Need doors to start Closed, and hung on their hinges properly. This should be handled during collection, but in the case where it is not, they need to be tweaked to open/close properly and look well placed.
Signs: Cursoring over a sign should show the text of the sign. Some signs offer interaction, which are instead "widgets".
Widgets: Things like the "Wanted" posters, or writing desks that offer writs or quests, need all their options available to testers. The Quests that work with these are discussed later.
Chests: Options to examine, disarm, open, etc. Chests explode, yes? Does this mean they get a SpawnScript?
Books: Books open and tell their story, give a quests, or grant an ability.
Scripting:Quests are still in development, but here's some generic tasks related to them.
Quest Givers: NPCs, Objects and Items may give out quests. Provide those interactions via DB and/or quest scripts.
Quest Text: Mostly, quests are given through a series of dialogs. All text should be present, and match voice-overs where applicable.
Talk-Tree: As mentioned, some NPCs "speak" their dialog as well as display it. Not sure how this will be implemented yet.
Rewards: Quest completion yields rewards either immediately, or after a hand-in or converstion with the quest giver.
That's my list, tho I feel I have missed something. Anyone got anything they think is Content Designer related?Spells: The client passes a spell command to the server, which sends parameters to the Spells LUA file. Scripts need to be written that handle all types of spells being cast.
Quests: Quests will likely be the biggest scripting task, since they are so detailed. We can discuss this one separately.
SpawnScripts (interaction): This is what the NPC does when you intentionally interact with it. Hail, Attack. These are scripted events.
SpawnScripts (movement): NPCs wander, so scripts need to be written to generate that action.
SpawnScripts (reaction): Shooting an arrow at an NPC will cause it to attack you - that's part of the server AI. But other reactions, like bad faction, KOS, you smell bad, could make an NPC attack or hail/talk to you without you doing anything but coming close (proximity).
PS: I am moving the skills/abilities and similar "static" data to the main DB Design team, since that stuff is not necessarily zone content.
