Morning already? I haven't finished putting the information video together yet. Some clips are hard to find. I couldn't find a clip of anyone hitting a goblin hunter out of stealth, and that's a key part of killing them before they can pull off their ambush. They go into stealth almost immediately whenever a battle starts, so hitting them before they cloak is nearly impossible.
James sighed as he began double checking that every clip he had made was saved to the editing menu before pushing the editing and recording screens aside and focusing on the noise coming from the climber menu.
"I want to build the bathhouse first, I'm going to go insane if I have to keep sharing an outhouse with 50 new people coming in every day."
"We need to build the canteen first, it'll let us keep using the bathhouse buckets until we've all completed the goblin slaying quest, and we don't know for sure if we'll be able to take water out of the bathhouse."
"Plus if we're paying for the food the canteen sells, it'll have to be better than the stuff we're cooking on our own. I don't think I can keep eating the animals we kill without any seasonings."
"I'd fight a dozen goblins single handedly if it meant I could eat a hamburger again."
"You won't die going a few days without a hamburger, but people are starting to smell. We don't have enough bathing water for everyone, and bathing at the river is too dangerous if those goblins keep lurking there. At the rate we're getting new arrivals, we'll have to start wearing masks just to withstand the stench if we don't get the bathhouse going soon."
Everyone's debating which building to work on first. James realized. All the wood they've gathered has gone to cooking fires, outhouses, and a privacy wall for a bathing area. They haven't had much luck gathering an excess of wood with only a few axes in circulation among the climbers. I can't create a quest about deciding which structure to build first, at least not one with any kind of reward. I can spend the 10 points if they can't come to an agreement on their own, but that really shouldn't be necessary. More importantly, it wouldn't be a good idea to add a carpenter to the village just yet, as it'd only give them yet another thing they need to allocate wood for.
But with the over one thousand points I have, I could provide some significant rewards for a monster slaying quest. I could offer soap, a frying pan... Maybe I could offer a ton of wood to help with the building, as well as harvesting tools to help them get more resources on their own?
I should take another look at the item database. James decided, a screen appearing displaying the item database in response.
{Item Database:
-12 Berries (1 per unit): A dozen edible berries, provides little sustenance, and offers no stat boosts.
-Wood (1 per unit): one unit of wood, useful for crafting or building, or fueling fires.
...}
James read the list of items, same as before, but continued scrolling until he reached items that cost 1000 tower points. I don't want to spend more than 250 on a single item, but I should look at everything worth 1000 points or less to check that there isn't something that could be a huge game changer for everyone.
{Item Database:
...
-Waterskin (250): A container used primarily to hold drinkable liquids, and protect them from being spilled or effected by the temperature of the environment. Comes with straps to be worn over a shoulder or attached to a belt. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains.
-Wooden Bowl, Fork, and Spoon (250): Cutlery important for eating food beyond cooked meat and fresh fruit. Invaluable for any soup lover. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains. Lack of splinters, guaranteed!
-Iron Cauldron (375): An iron cauldron, useful for cooking food over a fire. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains.
-Low Quality 2 Handed Iron Weapon (375): A single low quality weapon meant to be wielded with two hands, and made mostly of iron. The weapon can be any kind that is compatible with the buyer's class. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains.
-Modest Clothing (375): A bundle of clothes that offer minimal protection, more for conserving modesty or providing mild comfort. Comes with socks, pants, shirt, and your choice of undergarments. Can be worn under any type of armor. All clothes are gray in color. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains.
-Hardcover (500): An empty hardcover, devoid of pages. Can be combined with up to 1000 pieces of paper to create a Book. Books clean and repair themselves when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 75% of the material remains.
-Infinite Ink Pen (500): A pen that never runs out of ink. A necessary tool for note taking or map making. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains.
-Compass (750): A small device that always points north, useful for ensuring you don't walk around in circles. Combines with a map to unlock the Map Menu in your System HUD. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains.
-Mediocre Blanket (1000): A two meters by three meters sized blanket made of plain but durable cloth. Offers sufficient warmth in environments with moderate temperatures. Cleans and repairs itself when left in your inventory for at least twelve hours, so long as more than 90% of the material remains.}
The only thing worth more than 250 points that I'm seriously considering is the infinite ink pen, but I'd have to pair it with paper, and word of mouth is doing a sufficient job in passing information around. Maybe I should build a library before the carpenter so there's a place people can store information for future climbers. There's a time limit for completing the tower, so veteran climbers won't have a lot of time to come back and pass information along, and word of mouth is bound to fail eventually as the number of climbers increases.
But that's neither here nor there, without a library there's no place to store the writing outside of personal inventories, and that defeats the purpose of giving climbers a way to pass information along without having to personally be there every time.
I suppose there's modest clothing to consider, too. It wouldn’t offer a tactical advantage beyond a potential moral boost, but it isn’t listed in the general store like the compass and waterskin. The only way anyone is going to have more than one pair of clothes, outside of me rewarding them, is building the armorsmith and providing the money and materials to request it. But if their current clothing has the same self repair function as the ones I’d be giving them, just handing this over in a single quest reward would be enough for them to have a clean pair of clothes on hand for the foreseeable future.
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It won’t really help them survive, anymore than not being uncomfortable from dirty clothing would help them focus better, but the amount of time and resources it’d save them for them not to have to buy the clothes themselves would make this a worthwhile purchase. Plus, even as a morale boost, it’ll be an effective one. Imagine finally unlocking the bathhouse and taking a nice bath, only to realize you have to put on the same unwashed clothes you’d been wearing for the past few days.
If I’m not going to reward something costing 500 tower points or more, then I should add a harvesting tool to the quest reward, too. Giving everyone a way to harvest materials would undoubtedly help with the building quests, and this way the quest for the clothes will also offer something more directly beneficial.
That'll cost 500 points, in addition to the 10 points for creating a quest. I'll stop there so I can recreate the health and mana potion quests, and I'll recreate the bucket refill quest as well. I don't know if I'll be able to make it once the bathhouse buckets are gone, having people refill a bucket they can transport in their inventory might not be challenging enough to give a reward, and it's a cheap way to provide a bit of extra food to everyone.
Let's see, the gold and mana potion quests each cost 60 points, the health potion still costs 85, and the bucket refill quest was 20. Combined with the clothing and harvesting tool quest, it'll cost me... 735 tower points, leaving me with at least 500 to save or use for emergency quests.
Although… I was thinking of offering a ton of wood, and with the third wave of climbers there are now over 100 people on the first floor. If I recreate the exploring quest that had 5 gold as the reward, and exchange that for the same amount of tower points in units of wood, it'd be enough for everyone to build both of the shops and still have wood left over. Alright, I know what quests I want to create, there's just one question left...
"61-3, I want to create a monster slaying quest without specifying a specific monster as the requirement, and that awards a set of modest clothing and a harvesting tool as the rewards. Could you create a quest with those parameters?"
[Affirmative. Quest created, please review the following quest.]
{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 1389 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have added “1 Modest Clothing” to the Reward(s). -375 Tower Points. 1014 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have added “1 Harvesting Tool (Climber's Choice)” to the Reward(s). -125 Tower Points. 889 Tower Points remaining.}
{Kill Monsters!
(Input Quest Type)
(Input Quest Recipient(s))
Description: Kill 60 monsters and receive Modest Clothing and a Harvesting Tool as a reward.
Monsters Killed: 0/60
Reward(s): 1 Modest Clothing, 1 Harvesting Tool (Climber's Choice)}
60 monsters!? Even using party-participant, that'll take days. I was hoping to give everyone a harvesting tool before the third day ended.
"How many monsters would they have to kill if the quest only rewarded a harvesting tool?”
[The number of non-specific monsters required to reward a Harvesting Tool is 16.]
"Could you please divide the rewards into two separate monster slaying quests?"
[Affirmative. Quest created, please review the following quest.]
{You have removed “1 Harvesting Tool (Climber’s Choice)” from a Quest's Reward(s). 112 Tower Points refunded. 1001 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 991 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have added 1 “Harvesting Tool (Climber's Choice)” to the Reward(s). -125 Tower Points. 866 Tower Points remaining.}
A second quest prompt appeared, and after filling out the quest type and recipient fields, James looked over them one more time.
{Kill Monsters!
Quest Type: Optional Party-Participant
Quest Recipient(s): All Climbers on Floor 1
Description: Kill 16 monsters and receive a Harvesting Tool as a reward.
Monsters Killed: 0/16
Reward(s): 1 Harvesting Tool (Climber's Choice)
Confirm Quest?}
{Kill More Monsters!
Quest Type: Optional Party-Participant
Quest Recipient(s): All Climbers on Floor 1
Description: Kill 46 monsters and receive Modest Clothing as a reward.
Monsters Killed: 0/46
Reward(s): 1 Modest Clothing
Confirm Quest?}
"Thank you." Weird, added together they require two more monsters to be killed as two separate quests than as one joint quest. Although, if the quests can both be completed at the same time, it'll actually be 14 less monsters for both of them. "61-3, how do I know if the quests can be completed at the same time or not?"
[Quests that must be worked on separately from other quests will have the (exclusive) modifier on their progress tracker.]
"I see, so both of these can be worked on simultaneously. Thank you."
[You are welcome, Administrator James.]
Confirm quest, confirm quest. Now to recreate the bucket refill, and the three explore floor 1 quests. With a clear picture of the quests he wanted to make, James recreated the four quests in seconds.
{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 856 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have added “1 Low Quality Health Potion” to the Reward(s). -75 Tower Points. 781 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 771 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have added “50 Wood” to the Reward(s). -100 Tower Points. 721 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 711 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have added “1 Low Quality Mana Potion” to the Reward(s). -50 Tower Points. 661 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 651 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have added “120 Berries” to the Reward(s). -10 Tower Points. 641 Tower Points remaining.}
[The quests: “Kill Monsters!”, “Kill More Monsters!” “Explore Floor 1!” “Explore Floor 1! Extended”, “Explore Floor 1! Extended Extended”, and “Refill Buckets!” have all been finalized and are now being sent to the proper recipients.]
Oh, I should have waited a bit between each quest, it'll likely alarm people to receive so many at once. James realized, and true to his suspicions, several shouts of alarm rang out through the screen of a climber's observer, as the notification of a new quest rang out repeatedly for those who hadn't chosen to turn the notifications off.