I'm making a 2D RPG in a Western setting. The dialogue system is superb and really helpful, it shaved off a lot of development time that can be put into other systems that we have in mind. I'm wondering what Quest Machine is like. Will it allow me to create branching quests?
Let's say there's a quest to take over a town. The player can help the current mayor to defend the town and spill the beans on who wants to take it or he can help the person who wants to take over. Or maybe he betrays both and takes it for himself! Depending on the quest and ending that the player achieves a separate branch of quests should open.
Is this something that is possible with this asset? The game is very heavy dialogue and story wise and I really want to have the player be able to pick meaningful choices.
Those scenarios are possible in both assets. Or you can combine them. It's really just a matter of which workflow you prefer.
Some differences with Quest Machine:
It can generate new quests at runtime. For example, if the mayor knows that a gang of bandits are near the town, he might try to hire the player to get rid of them. Or if the town's well runs dry, the mayor might hire the player to dig a new well.
It has a node-based quest editor, similar to the Dialogue System's conversation editor, which makes it easier to see the quest's logic flow. Like the Dialogue System's conversation editor, the editor also shows the current state of quests at runtime.
It doesn't do branching dialogue. Each quest has Accept/Decline buttons. To add branching dialogue, use the included Dialogue System integration package.
Both support conditional logic, such as opening up new quest options based on player actions.
In summary: If your game will have a lot of dialogue choices, use the Dialogue System. If you want the features of Quest Machine, use Quest Machine in addition.
Note that, with Quest Machine, you can still give the player a lot of gameplay choices such as which quests to accept and how to accomplish them. It's just not as easy as in the Dialogue System to present multiple choices in dialogue.
That's great. I suppose with the Love/Hate asset, faction creation and interactivity is a breeze? I'm thinking of factions like the ones found in Skyrim such as The Dark Brotherhood as well as "invisibile factions" like the citizens of Riverwood for example.
These three assets are compatible, especially with the Dialogue System having been updated to 2.0?
Yes, all three assets are cross-compatible with the Dialogue System for Unity 2.0.
Quest Machine and the Dialogue System both have very basic faction systems of their own. In Quest Machine, each faction has a single number value for every other faction that indicates their like/dislike. In the Dialogue System, you can define any amount of values (like/dislike, respect/scorn, etc.). But in both assets you have to manage these faction values manually.
You can also manage Love/Hate's faction values manually, but it also updates them automatically based on gameplay actions. If the player kills an enemy of The Dark Brotherhood, any members and allies of The Dark Brotherhood who were witnesses will automatically improve their faction to the player, and when they run into their own allies they'll share knowledge of the player's action.
