Using decals to initiate quests?

redneckronin

Hi folks.

Total foundry new-guy here. Working on my first attempt at a quest.

I was wondering if it is possible to use a decal to trigger a quest objective.

Something along the lines of the player finding a "blood trial" decal, and it then initiating a quest to follow the blood trial.

Now, I am sure I am missing something really obvious here, but I just don't seem to be able to manage it.

Is it possible?

And any chance of a few pointers on how if it is?

Many thanks in advance.

All The Best

myrmecoleon

This should be possible.

1. In the Maps pane, create a blood trail decal (e.g. Ground Bloodsplat 04) and put it in your dungeon.
2. In the Story pane, add an "Inspect Object" objective with the appropriate quest text and detail being set to that blood trail decal. Add the dialogue you want in the Inspect box (e.g. "There's a trail of blood leading northwards.")

redneckronin

Hi myrmecoleon thanks for the answer.

I had tried that, but that flags the "Inspect Blood Trail" quest as soon as the previous quest objective is complete.
The player knows to go look for the blood trail.

I was trying to make the quest activate ONLY if the player notices the blood trail and chooses to interact with it.

In effect I want this to be an optional quest that is only triggered if the player happens to explore far enough to find the blood trail.

Does that make sense?

All The Best

myrmecoleon

Hmm, I think so.

One option would be to leave the objective text to something vague (e.g. "Look for signs of a struggle.") and set Waypoints to "None". That should prevent there being any trail or highlighted section on the minimap which leads to the trail.

Making an entirely optional branch can be difficult, though. Another alternative is to make the decal interactable, which bypasses the objective system. E.g. you can use items (or other methods) to make subsequent content accessible by gating off areas which require said item.

redneckronin

Ah, many thanks.

From reading that I see another way I can achieve, almost, the same thing. And as the "end point" of the blood-trail has just become a hook for introducing an NPC, I'm happy for it to be flagged in the Quest Objectives, but with Waypoints set to "none" so player have to look about for the continuation of the trail

Many, many thanks for your assistance. it is much appreciated.

All The Best

kamaliicious

redneckronin wrote: »

I was trying to make the quest activate ONLY if the player notices the blood trail and chooses to interact with it.

In effect I want this to be an optional quest that is only triggered if the player happens to explore far enough to find the blood trail.

Optional quests can not made using the storyboard, and so do not show up on the player's quest objective ui.