Task System (preliminary work)

**Derision** · #1 08-07-2008, 02:35 PM

I've been looking at whether it would be possible to get the Task System working. The OPcodes and
structs are pretty much squared away (a lot of this was already mapped out in the code, so I just
filled in the gaps with some info from a packet collect by Solid11 over at PEQs repository).

At the moment, I have written code to send the relevant OPcodes to the client and I'd thought I'd
share.

Bring up the Task Selector:

Send Task Description and Activity packets:

Send Task Stage Completed packet:

Send Task History:

I don't know what should go in the 'Quest Progression' part of that window ... maybe an Opcode I
am missing. I'll have to hop on live and see.

I haven't seen any packets relating to the 'Shared Tasks', but that is not a particular priority for me.

At the moment, all I have are some #commands to bring up these windows etc, as a test. There is still
a lot of work to do to integrate it into a working Task system. If anyone has any thoughts on how to
tie it in to, for example, the quest system, feel free to post your ideas.

So_1337 · #2 08-07-2008, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Deliver 2 Elven Bottle of Wine to KLS
Kill 4 Forum Trolls

Hahaha! Talented and funny!

Isn't this one of the primary roadblocks on any sort of LDoN functionality? I know getting any form of instancing working is also a pretty big hold-up, but I believe that the original form of LDoN didn't really have any -- It was simply 10 different versions of the same zone that could handle a group each. The Rujarkian Hills 'instance' was ruja-rujj, for example. Though I'm sure this is already common knowledge around here.

Just wondering, since that's the first I remember the task window ever coming into play. I know it was used for quests after that, but I didn't play much at all during that period and am thus unfamiliar. Was it retroactive at all? Did it handle some older quests by chance? My gut feeling is that it didn't.

Andrew80k · #3 08-07-2008, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by So_1337

Hahaha! Talented and funny!

Isn't this one of the primary roadblocks on any sort of LDoN functionality? I know getting any form of instancing working is also a pretty big hold-up, but I believe that the original form of LDoN didn't really have any -- It was simply 10 different versions of the same zone that could handle a group each. The Rujarkian Hills 'instance' was ruja-rujj, for example. Though I'm sure this is already common knowledge around here.

Just wondering, since that's the first I remember the task window ever coming into play. I know it was used for quests after that, but I didn't play much at all during that period and am thus unfamiliar. Was it retroactive at all? Did it handle some older quests by chance? My gut feeling is that it didn't.

Nah. The older quests were never "retrofitted" for the task system, which is a failing in Live, IMO. Would have been handy for those long epic quests. Or even the smaller ones. I think most of the "older" quests eventually yielded mostly crappy, in comparison, stuff so was thought to be more work than it is worth. It would be really nice to work it into the emu quest system though so as to rectify it if possible. We still have a lot of older quests that haven't been completed that could be fitted to make it work if it was possible to have it work that way.

Andrew80k · #4 08-07-2008, 03:02 PM

Dude!

I've been thinking about this for a while, but haven't had the time to get into it much. I think it would be great if we could tie it into the quest system. I haven't come up with a good solution, because I just don't know enough about how it works within the client. Basically, how it's passed to the client. Is all the quest data passed into the client at the time the quest is assigned, and then how do the updates affect it?

I was thinking about doing something on the order of quest::taskassign(blah, blah,blah) or however it worked out to assign tasks. Then quest::update(blah,blah), or what ever as far as how the data is then passed to the client. That is if it could even be integrated into the quest system.

Anyway, that's an awesome start. Thanks for taking it on...

So_1337 · #5 08-07-2008, 03:07 PM

Having no idea whatsoever how it's actually handled, I feel perfectly qualified to pitch an idea for how it should work.

Initiate a quest with an NPC. That should pass the quest completion criteria to the client's task window.

quest::task(type,quantity,id);

Where type is the type of quest (collect or kill), quantity is how many must be collected/killed, and id is either the item ID or NPC ID.

Is there an op_code triggered by looting a certain item ID or killing an NPC of a certain type?

Feel free to shoo me away from this thread. I know I'm in far over my head. Just pitching that out there, though, as a rough example.

**Derision** · #6 08-07-2008, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by So_1337

Is there an op_code triggered by looting a certain item ID or killing an NPC of a certain type?

No, the way I see it working is, whenever you kill a mob, or loot something, the server will need to check if you have any active tasks, and if killing that mob, or looting that item, was an objective of the task, then incrementing the kill/loot count for the task and sending the Task Complete packet when you have killed/looted the required number.

Quote:

Feel free to shoo me away from this thread. I know I'm in far over my head. Just pitching that out there, though, as a rough example.

I welcome anyones ideas. I never actually did any of these Tasks when I played on live.

So_1337 · #7 08-07-2008, 03:26 PM

That sounds about right. I'm trying to remember the different quest types. I remember kill and collection, as those were the easiest. My friends and I pretty much kept requesting a new task until we got one of those, heh. Again, though, this only applies to LDoN. I suppose it could apply to many different quests that came later and fit the format correctly. Might need someone with a little more insight as to how it was used on Live, but your understanding of it sounds pretty spot-on thus far. It's the application of the system that's going to take some understanding.

**Derision** · #8 08-07-2008, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by So_1337

I'm trying to remember the different quest types. I remember kill and collection, as those were the easiest.

There is an 'Activity Type' field, which determines, whether the activity is loot, deliver, kill etc. I've not tried all the possible values yet, but I know there is an 'Explore' type, which I imagine could be tied into the quest proximity detection in some way.

Andrew80k · #9 08-07-2008, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by So_1337

That sounds about right. I'm trying to remember the different quest types. I remember kill and collection, as those were the easiest. My friends and I pretty much kept requesting a new task until we got one of those, heh. Again, though, this only applies to LDoN. I suppose it could apply to many different quests that came later and fit the format correctly. Might need someone with a little more insight as to how it was used on Live, but your understanding of it sounds pretty spot-on thus far. It's the application of the system that's going to take some understanding.

Most of the task quests involved kill and collect. There were locate explore type quests as well, where you just ran around looking for stuff. These were mostly to get questers familiar with the zones and such. I don't have the latest expansion so I'm not sure if there are other types in the later ones. I've done a lot in the DoN and a several in the Depths of Darkhollow. Most of those were kill and collect.

Grundy · #10 05-12-2010, 10:19 PM

If the activity is to collect a number of items and it hooks into Corpse::LootItem, does that mean there's no activity for picking up ground spawn items?

**trevius** · #11 05-12-2010, 10:49 PM

Since almost every aspect of the task system is exported to perl (huge thanks to Derision for being awesome like that), the possibilities with tasks are nearly limitless. You can simple add the pickup part into your player.pl and have it update your task when they pick the item up. I have it working in my custom Crescent Reach zone and it works great.

Grundy · #12 05-12-2010, 11:34 PM

Oh, cool. I didn't even know about that player.pl thing. I thought every quest was in a file with the NPC's name so I thought there were no quest functions for picking up items. I haven't done much quest editing because i don't know perl and i guess i'm too pampered at work using vb.net 2008 the IDE is so friendly and has intellisense and autocomplete i hate coding anything outside of visual studio now.