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Quest System

Quests are the engine that drive all narrative and timed events on the station — from long‑form Patron arcs to small incidents like shipment delays or a visiting celebrity. They are structured as staged timelines, but instead of rigid “missions,” they are flexible story controllers that can touch many different parts of the station’s life.

How Quests Work

  • State Machine Core – Every quest is made up of a set of numbered stages.
    Each stage represents a specific point in the quest’s progress — an active situation, a waiting period, or a completed outcome.
  • Script‑Per‑Stage Logic – Each stage can have its own script that runs when the quest enters that stage.
    These scripts can:
    • Trigger dialogue
    • Cause environmental changes
    • Update the Story Ledger
    • Prompt other systems to react (delayed ship arrivals, new bulletin posts, special customer visits)
  • Flexible Flow – Stages do not need to happen in strict order; they can branch, skip, or loop depending on story needs or player actions.

Scope of a Quest

A quest can be:

  • A Patron Story Arc that progresses across many visits
  • A Station‑Wide Event like a festival, docking delay, or power outage
  • A Small Favor or Request such as sourcing a special item
  • A Recurring Situation that can happen multiple times in different forms (e.g. supply shortages)

What Quests Affect

Quests never “hard‑wire” themselves into other systems — instead:

  • The Quest System only tracks current stage and conditions
  • The Quest Stage Script is what reaches out to other systems, asking them to change state or display something new
  • Other systems (Shop Terminal, Space Station Systems, Customers, PDA) simply respond in their own way to the requested change
  • This keeps each system self‑contained, but lets quests weave them together

Example Flow

  1. Quest: Docking Delay Mystery
    Stage 10: “Announcement Made”
  2. The Quest System moves to Stage 10 after necessary conditions are met (time of day, certain Patron visit, rumor overheard)
  3. Stage 10 Script runs:
    • Tells Station Announcements to broadcast a delay notice
    • Updates the Docking Registry with new arrival time
    • Leaves a note in the Story Ledger
  4. Station Systems and shop life change naturally as a result — quieter foot traffic, certain customers commenting — without the Quest System directly running them.

For Artists and Narrative

  • A “quest” might require new visual moments: lighting changes, props appearing/disappearing, special NPC outfits, or environmental cues that signal an event is happening
  • Treat quests as story containers — each stage is a place where you can build a vignette, create ambience, or drop story hints that players can notice in passing
  • Because quests are modular, one environment change might be reused for different stories with different narrative framing

Design Goals

  • Keep quests decoupled from core mechanics so they can be reused across multiple projects
  • Allow script flexibility at each stage to tie in different systems without forcing changes to those systems
  • Make it easy for artists and narrative to attach atmosphere and detail to specific moments in a quest
  • Ensure the Story Ledger remains the player’s in‑world quest log, showing progress, clues, and outcomes without breaking the immersive style
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