Excelsior

As an avid explorer of our fair (and not so fair) lands, I have thoroughly enjoyed discovering the new and unique things offered by this shard. Unfortunately exploring for the sake of exploring doesn't really pay the bills or provide shiny baubles to collect, so I strap on my best hunting armor (pitiful as it is at the moment), trudge over to the nearest teleporter, and zip off to some inhospitable locale where I dutifully slay foul beasts and strip their bodies clean of anything of value.

But what if exploring *could* provide some reward for those of us with a yen for the horizon? What if travelling to the four(teen) corners of the known world actually did yield some form of reward? What might happen when the masses look up from their heaps of monster corpses and take a peek around that distant corner?

I propose an explorer's quest! GMs could mark out remote, unique, or otherwise interesting locations throughout the lands, which explorers would then have to discover. This is not a short term quest, so hopefully there would be a way to keep this quest active yet still allow other quests to be run. I suggested this quest on a previous shard, and it was nicely implemented, but the locations remained fixed (which wasn't a big deal as our shard was small with mostly responsible players who played by the rules or, in this case, the "suggestion" that the locations be kept secret by those who have discovered them). In order to help keep things random, perhaps a quest book could be assigned and locked to, say, 12 way-points. Each way-point would then have a number of locations where it could randomly spawn at random intervals. Ideally, this would help reduce the "cheating-esque-ness" of revealing the location to other players.

As a prize, perhaps a nice deco piece to proudly display in your home along with some other Explorer themed items (hardy boots that make you immune to poison or paralysis, a special runebook, a unique title, etc.)

Very Cool Idea.

Were you thinking riddles to give hints at where to look?

The fact that Fel has no marking would make this quest a bit more difficult in a good way. Cause once the locations were found, ppl could just mark runes and them make books and be able to complete the quest super fast.

This might be the type of quest that a play could only do once?

Interesting....

I agree that locations in Fel would be challenging and believe that some of the way-points should be located there. Ideally there would be way-points in every facet, so as to adhere to the idea of Exploring Additionally, I think that there should be absolutely no clues as to the locations. This forces the players to re-examine areas they may have previously looked over and found unremarkable or may have never visited at all. I know that there is a tendency for some players to want it all right now, but I envision this quest as a long term undertaking. I want the players who complete this to feel that they have actually accomplished something (and maybe learned a little about the world of Ultima). Certainly there will be people who seek to take the shortest route possible and just get the reward, but this quest is not for them. This quest is for those of us who love exploring, who love Ultima, and love finding new things.

If this quest gets implemented, it may prove to be a vehicle for introducing new creatures, new quests, and maybe even new areas.... As it is now, most people stick to what they know, so if a coders wants to incorporate some new feature that he or she has been working on (and is rightly very proud of), sticking it in some long forgotten, remote part of the world has little payoff for the person who worked so hard on it. But if that person knows that players are going to be out running around in previously unused parts of the world, this could expand the possibilities! Say you are a GM and you have designed a new line of tameable pets. You don't want to just drop them in the middle of Brit and say "there ya go!" but you also don't want to stick them someplace so out of the way that they never get discovered. With the explorer's quest (or really any similar type of quest), people are out looking for new things and have a much higher chance of stumbling across your awesome pet.

And yes, I think that this should be a one-time quest

Wow, a mind reader. I have been thinking about this for some time but as a quest sponsored by me. I have thouroughly enjoyed my time here and thought I could pay back some of my enjoyment by sharing some of my hard earned rewards with fellow adventurers. Unfortunately, I can only offer gold but I think I can make it worthwhile. Maybe I can convince +Colibri to "donate" a prize or 2. I was planning on unveiling this "quest" when I hit my 1000 day anniversary which is approaching soon, sometime in July I think. Some of your ideas helped fill in the missing pieces I needed to make it a worthwhile endeavour for all, so thank you for that. Of course, if the staff wants to hold thier own before I do, then great, but I know they are always busy so it may be tough for them to do it. I, on the other hand, think I could squeeze in a few hours to come up with an adventurers quest. I have come across several areas I think are unique and are not on the more traveled paths. Having someone try to find those locations by following cryptic clues I think should be a worthwhile challenge. The main thing though is to make it suitable for new players as well as veterans but I don't think I can guarantee that they will all be 100% safe unless you have the ability to stealth or a fast enough ride. I do believe I have enough locations that it could take a while to find them all.

Additionally, I think that there should be absolutely no clues as to the locations.

For a staff run adventure quest I agree. For mine, the only way to look for it you would have to have clues.

Finally, I know this isn't exactly what you are looking for but it's close and something I have wanted to do for a long time. Hopefully, the staff will be able to come up with something of this sort. One thing I know is that when the staff does something, it is usually of high caliber and totally worthwhile.

I think player run quests are a fantastic addition to what is an already excellent shard. I'm curious how you'll set up your way-points (do you envision a clue at each place leading you to the next or will it be more like a list of clues which each point to an individual location?) In reading your reply, I think I may have overlooked an important detail in my description - The quest I am envisioning is not an "event" but rather a permanent addition to the shard. The way-points would be created and locked down by GMs (the way-points might be able to acknowledge your presence by double clicking on them or something).

Cygnus, please don't take this to mean I am not interested in your quest... If RL allows it, I'll certainly be participating in your quest. I only wrote this response to clarify my original post

No problems. I know it wasn't exactly what you were going for but it was along the same lines. Right now I am still open to different ways of doing mine but at the moment it will be based along a set of clues for each location. Having one clue lead to another would probably involve staff assistance or me being on 24/7. My main challenge right now is to be able to develop the clues to be a challenge but not impossible or have them possibly point to more than one location. I will have someone perform a test prior to unleashing it on the community so to hopefully validate its worthiness.

As a side note, your idea is a good one but you should post it in the proper forum so you can be sure it will be reviewed by +Colibri or other staff members. There is a forum for player submitted ideas. +Colibri is pretty good at checking them over and will comment on them from time to time.