Cataclysm-dda: Improve "Analyze Zombies Blood" quest description to be more clear to novice players

[leemuar]

Describe the bug

I took "Analyze Zombie Blood" quest from a Doctor in Free Merchant base. Went to a hospital marked on a quest map, there were A LOT of zombies inside so I thought it would be a good idea to save ammo by burning an entrance. Turned out I've burned the entire hospital down. With all equipment inside: no more computers or centrifuge, all destroyed by fire. I can not analyze the blood there any more

Problem is the quest is still active, not marked as "failed", and the quest marker on map still points to this hospital, now destroyed

Steps To Reproduce

1. Go to Free Merchant base, talk to Doctor, get "Analyze Zombie Blood" quest
2. Go to a hospital marked on map, destroy all equipment inside
3. Open map, make sure the quest marker still points to a destroyed hospital where you can not finish the quest

Expected behavior

Remove quest marker if required equipment is destroyed.
Make it clear to a player what to do if this happens: maybe Doctor's new dialogue option to point to another hospital

Versions and configuration

• OS: Windows
  
  
  
  • OS Version: 10.0 1809
  
  
• Game Version: 0.E-2 [64-bit]
• Graphics Version: Tiles
• Game Language: Системный язык []
• Mods loaded: [
  Тёмные Дни Впереди [dda]
  ]

[mlangsdorf]

Not a bug. You can analyze the blood at any centrifuge with a working computer; it doesn't have to be that one.

[leemuar]

From player's perspective it is a bug: pointing to a location where it's impossible to finish the quest. It is confusing and misleading. It is not clear to a unexpierenced player what to do.

I suggest:

• (minimum) to expand the quest's description, add info about hospitals, computer and centrifuge. My current quest description only shows "analyze the blood, coords: X Y"
• (OK) quest marker should disappear if required equipment is destroyed
• (best) all above + add dialogue option to a Doctor to request another hospital location if the first one is destroyed

If you don't like the "Bug" label - lets assign "Feature/improvement" and reopen this issue

[leemuar]

@mlangsdorf mlangsdorf reopen please with "improvement/suggestion" label

[leemuar]

Need advice

What is the difference between
data/json/npcs/refugee_center/surface_staff/NPC_old_guard_doctor.json
and
data/json/npcs/missiondef.json ?

Both of the files has the mission's description

I've added mission's description to NPC_old_guard_doctor.json, and it worked for me.
But Im not sure where missiondef.json is used, should I make changes to it too?

[UmbralReaper]

missiondef.json contains the generic version of the mission. If you want to alter all missions about analyzing zombie blood, missiondef.json is the place to go. NPC_old_guard_doctor.json contains the old guard exclusive version of the mission.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions. Please do not \'bump\' or comment on this issue unless you are actively working on it. Stale issues, and stale issues that are closed are still considered.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically closed due to lack of activity. This does not mean that we do not value the issue. Feel free to request that it be re-opened if you are going to actively work on it

[leemuar]

After getting more experienced in the game here are my thoughts on the issue:

1. Unexperienced players quickly forget what should be done. We should expand the mission description to include:
2. how to get the blood from zombie
3. mention centrifuge and a computer as a required hardware to look for

4. mention data on a flashdrive as a quest result

5. Hospital is not the only place to analyze the blood. Unexperienced players do not know that. We should mention in the mission description:

6. hospital is not the only place to go, it's just a convenient starting point, there are other places. If something happen to the centrifuge - look in other places
7. what hardware to look for

8. hint on what places to look for (labs, medical buildings, etc)

9. Mission pointer on world map is both helpful and misleading. It helps new players to find a starting POI, but if something happen to a centrifuge - players get confused: it points to a location you can not complete the quest in. Player have no idea what to do in that case.

I think the solution is to write a good helpful mission description. It should hint where too look for the required hardware and what to do with it

[leemuar]

Is there a way to highlight some words in mission description screen in the game? Like making some words bold or highlighting with colors?