What I'm working on is actually a game, but the issue I'm having has more to do with world-building than it does game mechanics, so I thought maybe someone here might have a good suggestion.
My main character is trying to reach a floating castle. I'm trying to work out some objectives she needs to accomplish to be able to reach said floating castle.
My current plan is that first the player meets with a caretaker in the area and gets some info and some keys to access the rest of the facilities. Then the player goes to a place to restore a connection to the bluestream mana that is used to give power to all the equipment in the area. Finally, the player goes to three towers and restores some crystals or something which is used to send a signal to the floating castle, activating a manual override that forces it to moor at a docking station.
But mechanically, i want one more objective. Something between restoring the magic power and activating the towers. I don't want the player to go straight from restoring power to activating the towers; I want them to make one other stop first.
But I'm at a loss for something reasonable to do. I'd like the player to go back to the caretaker and get some more info or tools, but if that's all they were getting, then why were they not given that when they were first there?
The real reason they were not is because I wanted to pace out the info dump; rather than explaining all the details about getting the castle to moor when their focus is just on restoring power. But it doesn't make sense in-world that the caretaker didn't just tell her everything then and give her any keys he had then.
So I need some other objective to give the player between those two, so I can give the rest of the info dump at that time.
So what's something the hero could be tasked to do after restoring power to the facility, but before they can signal the floating castle to moor?
My main character is trying to reach a floating castle. I'm trying to work out some objectives she needs to accomplish to be able to reach said floating castle.
My current plan is that first the player meets with a caretaker in the area and gets some info and some keys to access the rest of the facilities. Then the player goes to a place to restore a connection to the bluestream mana that is used to give power to all the equipment in the area. Finally, the player goes to three towers and restores some crystals or something which is used to send a signal to the floating castle, activating a manual override that forces it to moor at a docking station.
But mechanically, i want one more objective. Something between restoring the magic power and activating the towers. I don't want the player to go straight from restoring power to activating the towers; I want them to make one other stop first.
But I'm at a loss for something reasonable to do. I'd like the player to go back to the caretaker and get some more info or tools, but if that's all they were getting, then why were they not given that when they were first there?
The real reason they were not is because I wanted to pace out the info dump; rather than explaining all the details about getting the castle to moor when their focus is just on restoring power. But it doesn't make sense in-world that the caretaker didn't just tell her everything then and give her any keys he had then.
So I need some other objective to give the player between those two, so I can give the rest of the info dump at that time.
So what's something the hero could be tasked to do after restoring power to the facility, but before they can signal the floating castle to moor?