Creator Guide: Multi-Stage Quest Authoring

This guide covers constructing branching dialogue trees, defining multi-stage quest objectives, binding quest givers, and distributing experience rewards across the 27 skills.

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1. Quest Architecture & Lifecycle

Quests progress through four standardized lifecycle states:

[UNSTARTED] ──(Accept Quest)──► [IN_PROGRESS] ──(Complete Objectives)──► [READY_TO_TURN_IN] ──(Claim)──► [COMPLETED]

• Prerequisites: Can enforce minimum total level, specific skill thresholds (e.g. Mining Lv 15), or prior completed quest IDs (reqCompletedQuestId).
• Journal Integration: Active stages automatically generate waypoints on the MiniMap radar.

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2. Branching Dialogue Trees & Node Graphs

In Script Mode, use the Dialogue Graph Editor (DialogueEditorPanel.tsx) to map conversational paths:

[Node 1: Elder NPC Greeting]
   │
   ├─► Choice A: "Tell me about the shadow rift." ────► [Node 2: Lore Explanation]
   │                                                           │
   │                                                           └─► Choice: "I'll investigate." ──► [Trigger: ACCEPT_QUEST]
   │
   └─► Choice B: "I'm just passing through." ──────────► [Node 3: Polite Farewell]

Each dialogue node specifies:

• prompt: Text spoken by the NPC.
• choices: Array of player selectable answers.
• onSelect: Trigger actions such as ACCEPT_QUEST, OPEN_SHOP, or TELEPORT.

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3. Quest Objective Types

Quests support four fundamental objective criteria that update dynamically in playerQuestStates:

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4. Rewards & Conditional Payouts

Define quest reward bundles in QuestEditorPanel.tsx:

typescript
export const GoblinMenaceQuest = {
  id: 'quest_goblin_menace',
  name: 'The Goblin Menace',
  category: 'novice',
  rewards: {
    gold: 250,
    skillXp: [
      { skill: 'attack', xp: 500 },
      { skill: 'defence', xp: 500 }
    ],
    items: [
      { itemId: 'iron_longsword', quantity: 1 },
      { itemId: 'health_potion', quantity: 3 }
    ]
  }
};

[!TIP] Completing milestone quests can also reward Quest Points (QP) required to wear the legendary Quest Point Cape of Mastery.