Quest for boredom remover

[djIndy]

Hey!

Thought up i'd sign up today, just another fan of the rpg oldies. I actually found out about fan-made remakes ages ago. I was googling for abandonware games and came across quest for glory 4 1/2 on the home of the underdogs website. I was pretty surprised that it was fan-made so i figured, hey i wonder if there are any other remakes around. Thats when I stumbled across the tierra gang... now agdinterative.. lol hey i still type in www.tierraentertainment.com to get to the site! Pretty impressive stuff KQ1&KQ2 guys, and of course QFG2 arguably the best in the QFG series is just around the corner. Played KQ3 by IA which wasn't too bad either.

However one thing i've been reading about is the continuation of all the different sierra lines (e.g. space quest, kings quest..). I know that Hero 6 is as close the a sequel as you'll get to QFG but I had an idea! Our hero likes to help his friends and wont hesitate to follow them to do so. (Like jumping on a magic carpet with his Katta buddies from Speilburg and off the Shapier!). I was thinking what if while on Silmaria our hero is greeted by his local friend Woolfie (with that classy indian accent!). Who hysterically tells our hero, "there be trouble in my motherland!" (with that classy indian accent again!). Now Woolfies motherland if im not mistaken is Punjab the land of the dog people? Now the setting, scenery will have a strong indian/asian influence and land already full and culture (and call centres heh!) which will help when drawing upon mythically stories and creatures and magic to use. He'd probably travel to Punjab from Silmaria in a ship i'd say. ummm... just thought id get that out there!

Anyway cant wait for QFG2!

[adeyke]

I, for one, think that letting the Hero retire is really a good thing, and a QfG6 that's a continuation of the series would be a problem.

One thing is the open-endedness of QfG5.  You had the choice of whether or not to be king, whether or not to become chief thief, whom (if anyone) to save from the Underworld, and whom (if anyone) to marry.  That means that a sequel would either have to account for all these different possibilities, or it would have to assume one specific path was taken.

Some QfG games did make assumptions like that; it's assumed that you free Bernard, drive away Baba Yaga, and help Julanar, even though none of those are necessary for game completion.  However, QfG5 is different, since those are actual personal choices, not just doing the correct thing vs. skipping it.  So invalidating those choices would be unfair to the player, while having a sequel that fits all of them would be impossible.

Another problem is that the Hero is just too powerful.  He's the Hero of five lands, Prince of Shapeir, and potentially King of Silmaria.  He's defeated Iblis, the Demon Wizard, Avoozl, and the Dragon of Doom.  He's done a whole lot f simply incredible things.  So a sequel would either be anticlimactic, or just more of the same, or simply ridiculous.

Then there's the whole inflation thing.  The stat system is an important part of QfG, and it's part of what defines the series.  In QfG1, it actually made sense.  There were things you could do with 100 in a stat that you couldn't do with 5.  This makes sense, since you'd be 20 times as powerful.  Thus, training your stats there is satisfying.  However, every sequel made this a bit sillier.  In QfG2, because the stats went to 200 instead of 100, they had to make things correspondingly more difficult.  This continues in every game.

So for QfG6, you'd go from 500 to 600 in a stat (only a 20% increase), and that would have to make a difference.  Maybe the rocks there are so misshapen that someone with just 500 skill can't throw them correctly, and maybe the monsters there are so tough that even someone who has no difficulty dealing with all the monsters in the previous games would be unable to defeat them until he has 600 skill instead of just 500.  This would also get rather ridiculous.  And yet, if stats didn't matter, it just wouldn't be QfG.

And if it's going to follow QfG5, it should really support everything a could could gain there (the spells, Paladin skills, and equipment).  People don't like it when things they've earned get taken away.  And a new game should expand on these things.  So that would also be difficult, if not impossible, to do right.

In short, if there was going to be another QfG game, it should really be a new story, with a new character and fresh start for everything (like what Hero6 is doing).

[gamecreator]

Good points, adeyke.  I have two solutions for the stat issue:

The first involves what you said (and what Hero 6 is doing): a new hero.  But my idea would be to have the son of a hero replacing his father.  I think it would be cool to have him visit a town where some people have heard of his father.  It would be even cooler (since many of the games play with rumors) if a few people thought his father was overrated.  This way the son would have to prove himself even more.

The second involves a design I've been playing around with: a new place.  And not just another town.  My thought is that some W.I.T. wizards find out that the demons are planning another invasion and to do a preemptive strike, they teleport the hero in to save the day.  Perhaps he needs to eradicate a source of power, or something that they use to create gateways.  But this can branch off two ways:

One, dropping unnecessary skills like throwing.  The hero knows how to throw.  Done.  This doesn't mean he doesn't need to get better at fighting.  Demons and the like can be pretty vicious.  But if he encounters a humanoid, it won't even be a challenge.

The other branch would have the wizards' teleport spell partially failing.  The hero would arrive in the other dimension passed out.  He would awake to someone looking over him, having been healed as much as possible.  But his muscles and his mind have been been twisted by the spell and his skills have dropped considerably.  (I know you mentioned people hating things being taken away but I think this could work.)  Over time he would naturally heal and his skills automatically improve, little by little, but practicing with them will increase it much faster.  This can be motivated perhaps by having a time deadline, similar to QfG2.

[Gronagor]

Heh. How do you know that's not what Hero6 is doing?  No leak, sorry.

[adeyke]

I disagree that having the Hero's son as protagonist would be a good idea.

For one thing, some of the issues I raised would still hold.  For example, the son of the chief thief and Nawar, the son of the King of Silmaria and Elsa, and the son of the unmarried wandering Paladin (!) would all end up being quite different.  So you'd end up invalidating those choices or making a whole lot of essentially different games for all the branches.

Also, a lot of the charm of the QfG games is that the character has a blank slate.  You don't really know anything about the Hero's past, and he's given almost no dialogue.  He's just a simple person who wanted to become a Hero.  Because of this, the player has the ability to see this character however they want.  Instead of just controlling the character, they become the character.  I would say that this, too, is an important part of QfG.

There are, then, two problems with playing the Hero's son.  One is that this character would have a defined past.  I think a nobody aspiring to become a Hero is much more appealing than the son of an incredibly powerful Hero trying to follow his father's footsteps.  The other problem is that it would take away from the character of the original Hero.  The QfG games generally avoided even putting words in the Hero's mouth.  So taking away control of the Hero for something as important and personal as raising a child would really be harmful.

As for the reputation thing, it's already been a bit overdone in QfG, either in the sense of people greeting you as a Hero/Prince, or in the sense of them not appreciating how much you've already done for the world (you've saved the world from Iblis, the Demon Wizard, and Avoozl, but the merchants won't even offer you a Hero discount?!).  A new character shouldn't have to bear this burden further.

I think the Hero should just be left to "live happily ever after."  His unknown (but open to imagination) past should have a symmetry with his future.

[gamecreator]

I disagree about the hero starting with a clean slate.  Even in the first game he had personality, often expressed through humor.  He also did have a bit of past mentioned: him attending adventurer's school.  There were right and wrong ways to play each character (yes, you could play them however you want but only certain actions got you points, honor, skills and progress).  Also, in Quest for Glory 4, the narrator added his flair to the character.  I'd argue that replacing "the character went to adventurer's school" with "the character was trained by his hero father" wouldn't make much of a dent in all of that.  The son would be just as flexible/inflexible to play as his father was with not much more of a past needed to be gone into.

[djIndy]

Wow, looks like ive started a good debate started here. Okay guys how about this correct me if im wrong but our hero at times refers to another hero who if i can remember appears in Silmaria in one of the houses near the beach? The old guy with all the different names who chatted up the mermaid queen or something. How about our hero leaves a book or guide of some sort which details his exploits and tips or somthing. The book is given to the old guy. Now our "new hero" comes in at some location somewhere looking for adventure.

Now there needs to be some connection with dragon fire. Now im thinking

1. Using a character/s unique to dragon fire. i.e. woolfie, "old guy"

2. A connection to our "old hero" i.e. new hero bumps into the old guy who gives him the book.

3. A new hero (starting from scratch)

4. Location - Punjab!

Now the book of course will vary depending on which character type you pick. So if your a thief the book might be "hero by day, theif by night by the prince of shapier"  or something.

[Laur]

He also did have a bit of past mentioned: him attending adventurer's school.

Just as a clarification, the hero didn't really attend any school, he attained his degree through the Famous Adventure's Correspondence School, i.e. he learned to fight brigands through the mail!  

[Alliance]

Here's a few possibilities:
-Make the hero someone around before QFG1.
-Make the hero F.A (Famous Adventurer)
-Put the hero in a modern setting. I've always wanted to see a hero beat up a couple street thugs.
-If all else fails, then make a joke game: Quest for Glory 312: Peanut Butter. You play as the Hero as an old man, and you really are hankering for some food...

[djIndy]

bwwwhahahaha  :rollin Peanut Butter... damn im hungry now! I just wanna laugh at talking dog people with indian accents damn it! Wolfie all the way!!

[Adventure_Knight]

Yeah, I'm trying to make in AGS Quest for Glory 6, with the son of the hero.  I'm using very ambiguous comments on the game about him so that all the options on Quest for Glory 5 could take place.

[Kurdt]

Starting the Hero off from QFG5 wouldn't be as hard as you'd imagine. With the magic of the imported character button, the file could know your class, whether or not you married, whether or not you became King, your Chief Thief status, etc. As for those who don't have a character to import, you'd just have either one set way of how things went down for each character class (i.e. Fighter married Elsa and became King, Wizard married Katrina and lives on island with her, Thief married Nawar and became Chief Thief, Paladin married Erana and forsook Kingship to go fight evil) and start from there. It's like the beginning of QFG3. If you imported a Paladin who was once a Wizard, you still get the Wizard's intro because it knows that's what you finished the game as. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to do so for these situations.

Still, though, I'm with adeyke. The Coles always planned for only 5 games, so the QFG saga is already complete. While they would love to make a new game, I believe they've only expressed doing so with a new hero, which is the right thing to do. Not only are the stats getting a little too unwieldly, his story is over and there are millions of different elements you could incorporate with a blank slate. This time around, you could choose species (who hasn't dreamed of playing as Toro?), gender, have more character classes (though there is a certain charm to only having the 3), having skills and spells available only to certain classes (Katta magic would be interesting to see in battle)...the sky's the limit.

[gamecreator]

Starting the Hero off from QFG5 wouldn't be as hard as you'd imagine. With the magic of the imported character button, the file could know your class, whether or not you married, whether or not you became King, your Chief Thief status, etc.

The starting techincal end is probably no problem.  It's trying to cover the various story branches, how the hero is addressed and dealt with (a king is treated much differently than a "mere" hero), etc., which would be a pain.  There are quite a few possibilites which would be a nightmare to write for, especially if you wanted to develop the character further.  It just wouldn't be practical.

[Adventure_Knight]

Wait, your character can be imported from QFG5? (I have the game, but still haven't finished it)

[Jontas]

I'd love to see a new quest for glory series, with a new character and a fresh start. I think any references to the first hero, and any choices he made should be general and minimal, yet the legend of the old hero could play a significant role in the new hero's quest for glory.

I think a new quest for glory series could borrow allot of concepts, creatures and places from the original and still introduce an originality and uniqueness of its own. New places could introduce Asian, Indian, Egyptian, or even Native American settings (I think QFGIII was purely African even though it had pyramids).

Or a new hero wannabe may stumble across familiar places like Spielburg only to find that they are in desperate need of a new hero. Any references to the original hero would assume the same class selection as the new one. Just my thoughts.

Hey everybody, it's been a while. nice to be back.

[gamecreator]

That's exactly what I was talking about.  Though I didn't think of revisiting old towns, that could be fun.  Spielburg twenty years later under corrupt rule.  Or Raiser and Shapier at war.  Imagine going back to one of the places you "saved" only to realize that you may have made it worse.  Or someone took advantage of the changes you created (getting rid of brigands opened up opportunites for another group).

Or some combination of the above and the son idea, where a son goes to a new town and meets evacuees from the Rasier/Shapeir war and though the town needs help, they won't accept his.  Do you go behind their backs and help them anyway?  (I guess the alternative would be quitting the game.  ;))

[Adventure_Knight]

I think I got something solid!

Quest for Glory 6: The Challenge of the Gods

Featuring the son of the original hero, and it uses the ripped graphics of QFG1 (Yeah it all happens o Spielburg)

[adeyke]

Wait, your character can be imported from QFG5?

Actually, no.  It does let you save the character at the end, but from what I gather, this isn't the same type of file you'd get from the other games.  Instead, it's made for the planned but canelled multi-player expansion.  Or something like that.  I don't exactly recall the details.  In any case, this technical issue is much less important than the storyline implications.

As for revisiting the location of a QfG game, I don't like the idea, for the reasons already mentioned.  If a land is in trouble again, the Hero must not have done a very good job.  And I think a new land would have much more potential to be interesting.  I might even go so far as to say a new world would be good.

[Kurdt]

The starting techincal end is probably no problem.  It's trying to cover the various story branches, how the hero is addressed and dealt with (a king is treated much differently than a "mere" hero), etc., which would be a pain.  There are quite a few possibilites which would be a nightmare to write for, especially if you wanted to develop the character further.  It just wouldn't be practical.

Not really. It's just more writing to be done. It's really easy to write dialogue regarding a King and a pauper. It's been seen in the different QFGs. People respond differently depending on what you are. It wouldn't be that bad of a stretch.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

plot wise though what else could he do!? especially if each game focuses on different settings. I don't remember exactly what they were absed from but I believe QFGI is based on a German Setting, III was Africa/jamaica and IV being Transylvannia. I suppose II was Australia so really only Aisia could be done since North America is undiscovered.... Unless the Hero becomes a cooler Christopher Colombus.

[Adventure_Knight]

Well, Quest for Glory isn't in our real world, remember that. It's Gloriana.

[Slarty Bardfast]

Ok I know it's Gloriana, but it's obviously based on locations here on ol' earth. But, how is II based on AUSTRALIA? It seemed a tad middle eastern to me. Maybe I mis-read the post? OOOOOOOOOoooooooo

[Adventure_Knight]

What I meant is that America doesn't have to be undiscovered.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

ya you're right, Australia just seemed to fit better in my mind at the time I was writing it but I now know it was way off. Also there are several countries with different ways taht could be used. France Denmark Madagascar Siberia Venuzela! The sky's the limit.

[djIndy]

*Ahem* i believe i mentioned the whole indian/asian influence already... not to sound too snotty! heh! QfgII was arbian/persian i believe, hence the sultan and the last time i checked we didnt have any sultans in Australia mate.  :rollin