I have been messing around with the editor for about a fortnight and I believe I'm ready to start laying out some of my ideas onto paper and eventually into an actual quest.
Before I get too deep into anything I wanted to get peoples opinions on certain features of a quest and weather they are fun and add to the quest, or if they are annoying and tedious and end up being more of a burden. So...
How do you feel about....
..longer, story driven quests?
- one main story line with a few optional mini story lines the player can choose to follow or not.
- npc characters the player actually cares about and wants to follow-up with their story
- optional mini stories might take the player to otherwise inaccessible secret areas and finishing the mini story could lead to unique rewards (like more powerful versions of items, not needed to beat the quest, but makes it worth doing)
..large overworlds?
- I just can't fit all my area design ideas into one 8x16 overworld (DoR takes up a lot of space) so I wanted to use 2 overworlds (North Fakelandia and South Fakelandia, meant to be viewed as one continuous map)
..backtracking?
- Level Q can be completed with Item A and Item B, but if you come back later with Item F, you can snag additional items (HCP, rupees, collectables, etc)
..screens connected by maze-like paths?
- I can take a 2x2 grid of screens, throw a large tree in the very center, and wall off the outer borders and make a nice open 4-screen field. At the same time, I can take the same 2x2 grid, and make it a mountain with crazy maze-like, back-and-forth, multi-splitting paths of multi-leveled cliff heights and mini cave systems that would take the player 4x longer to explore fully and navigate through.
..quests that are heavily rupee-focused (many ways to earn, lots to buy)
- Many wallet upgrades (5, i think)
- Wallet restrictions help direct game progress and item collection (somewhat)
- Dungeons do not have 'dungeon items', instead, players purchase appropriate item before going to dungeon
- Dungeon item chests (ya know, the big ones) instead give large amounts of rupees
- Many ways to make rupees (more rupee chests, higher rupee drops, money making games, secrets, monsters drop items that are sold to merchants)
- Many things to spend money on (equipment, mini games that reward HPCs, hints and information, donation fountains that upgrade certain items, maybe at a certain point you will have to bribe a guard or pay someone to rob a caravan, or an option to finance a young blacksmiths apprenticeship in hopes that someday he will be able to forge you a mighty blade)
- The majority of items can be purchased from the beginning (with enough cash), allowing player to complete dungeons in whatever order they buy items in (Think of ALBW)
..items that exist purely to enhance puzzles, (what if the puzzle styles recur throughout the majority of the quest?)
- Cane of Sumo-something? (from ALttP) that creates a push-able block you can use to activate switches
- Dominion Rod (from TP) that allows you to control statues so you can... uhh... activate switches
- Warp Doll (from the Scripts Database) that deploys a warp doll and then allows you to swap places with it... for clever push-block puzzles so you can activate switches!!!!
..tons of items?
- Boomerang and Ice Rod both essentially stun enemies without doing damage, but Ice Rod can put out the shooting flames that block your path to that one place, and frozen enemies can be used to activate pressure triggers, while the boomerang can flip switches that the Ice Rod cannot as well as fly in 8 cardinal directions. Does this make it worth having both items?
..trading sequences?
- find a specific item, trade it to a specific someone for another specific item. rinse and repeat xx times until you get to a unique reward
..collectables?
- Secret Seashells from LA (scattered all over the world, collect 50 or 100 for a unique reward)