i.e. are there new experiences that you can have with this temporary tag-along player that will mix up your existing gameplay and add flavor?

well, its another spear at your back. if they have special skills (warrior, trader etc), you can learn from them. and of course its a "mule" to carry treasure back from the dungeon. IE the usual advantages you get from an additional party member. being able to learn skills is about the only special thing. but in skyrim you can get members of the companions as followers, and thus have a follower who can train you.

as i said, the reward is the prime motivator. a temporary follower is nice, but the reward is the real benefit to the player. and the quest rewards are quite generous. i seem to have found that happy spot where the treasure is quite big, but not monty haul. makes quest treasures in skyrim and fallout look like a joke. i save whiterun from a dragon and you give me an axe not even worth 1000 gold?

and now i have a new problem -

what if there is no friendly shelter within 100 miles to escort the NPC to? (procedurally generated world. 2500x2500 miles. 60,000 caves - avg 25% friendly, 5000 rock shelters - avg 25% friendly, and 18,000 huts - avg 90% friendly).

just kick it up to 200 miles? or 500? what if that ends up across the ocean or something?

if nothing within 100 miles, don't assign the quest at all, and their quest encounter is "no quest encounter"?

If an escort quest doesn't have a start point and an end point, then why is there a quest?

If you have a living world, then there's no reason why you could not simply encounter an NPC who is going from A to B at some point between A and B and get "hired" to escort them.

Could the destination be another person or group that will take over from some agreed upon landmark?

Escorting an NPC through an area where you can choose multiple paths (i.e. a canyon splits in two directions) might add more interest.

Least favorite escort quest: Spyro 2: Alchemist Escort

• Reason: The NPC walks straight into the enemies. That's the key mechanic there: the person being escorted literally is on a fixed path walking from enemy to enemy in the most circuitous route possible (instead of just taking the first left and reaching the destination, where no walls are blocking).
• Suggestion: Make whoever you are escorting be competent. Either A) competent at fighting, to help defend himself, and even aggressively fight alongside you. Or B) competant at withdrawing from danger until you have dealt with the threat.
  Imagine how great it would be (in a fantasy world with magic) to be escorting someone in tattered robes, and you get ambushed by alot of enemies, the guy in tattered robes suddenly whips out a sword and doing impressive anime-esqe backflipping sword attacks, or else starts drawing magic runic circles around himself and blasting away enemies.

Favorite escort quest: Caldera escort quest - Morrowind

• Reason: The NPC being escorted has some really good unique boots, and the only way to ever get them is to kill the NPC and steal them. So you escort the NPC until you come to an area where no guards are watching, and then you "escort" them into the afterlife. :P
• Suggestion: Think about giving NPCs items that you can only get from killing them. Think about giving other NPCs items, by giving them items that you can only get by safely escorting them. Think about NPCs that hire you to kill the person you are escorting. Think about bandits ambushing you, and offering to pay you to let them kill your VIP.
  And then think of the consequences when the relatives of that person find out what occurred.

Another idea: You are escorting someone, following them, and they lead you into a deserted area and turn around and attack you with a couple of their buddies hiding in the underbrush. You are the target the bandits want to rob.

there's no reason why you could not simply encounter an NPC who is going from A to B at some point between A and B and get "hired" to escort them.

that would be an additional way to trigger the quest...

right now, almost all "quest encounters" only occur at the shelters of friendly bands, and take the general form of "the cavemen here tell you about..."

the "aid ally" and "build hut" quests are triggered when you get an ally encounter at your shelter - either a call for aid, or an invitation to join their village.

as i recall there are a few quests planned that will be "random wilderness encounters" that could happen at any time. and i know that "quest encounters at any time, not just at friendly shelters" is on the todo list already.

Could the destination be another person or group that will take over from some agreed upon landmark?

ah - a substitute destination! a clever work-around! actually, the destination doesn't HAVE to be another band's camp, that just seemed like a logical destination. it could just be some point in the world, which happens to be at a camp if there's one in range, and simply somewhere at random if there isn't. lose the specific references to the camp in the text, and you would not need two different sets of text depending on the destination type (camp or rendezvous point).

Suggestion: Make whoever you are escorting be competent.

i made them a temporary follower - with full blown follower capabilities, AI, dialog options, and orders. about the only thing you can't do is tab over to them and control them yourself, like you can with a band member. and you can't take their stuff. you can only take back stuff you've given them. the game tracks ownership of items - NPC ID number , or -1 for "belongs to player's band".

kesh:

don't worry, i added an explicit call to exchange_items_with_follower(a); for all possible end quest scenarios except follower dead. in that case you can loot the body and take both your stuff and theirs. otherwise you can only take back items you gave them, not items they own.

Think about giving NPCs items that you can only get from killing them

i'm not sure if plain jane NPC's can have "high quality" items (akin to magic items) in their inventory or not, i'd have to check. no reason why someone might not have an unusually nice spear or something. i know high quality items can be part of quest treasures and rewards. but i think they are also available somewhere else (IE by some other means), i'd have to check. its tough to keep a game this big all in your head at once.

Think about NPCs that hire you to kill the person you are escorting. Think about bandits ambushing you, and offering to pay you to let them kill your VIP. And then think of the consequences when the relatives of that person find out what occurred.

all very good plot twists. i'm finding that the possible plot twists are almost endless. i don't think any of the 30-40-50? quest generators planner so far is based around a plot twist. they're all more of less straightforward quests so far. once the various possible types of straightforward quests are well covered, i may go back and make "twisted sister" versions of them. that way you never know if it a straight or twisted quest. ; )

last night i finished up a first cut at both the sacred animals and the escort quest. both are straightforward, but they work. using regular badguys did the trick for the sacred animals quest, although the herd is still just a random animal encounter that might kill both hunters and player alike. making the NPC a follower made the escort quest pretty trivial to code up.

How about an escort quest where the npc is valuable alive.

Perhaps they carry an antibody to a plague, or have valuable information

It's in yours and your enemies interest not to actually kill the npc, meaning you don't have to worry about their unexpected demise, but that won't stop the enemies trying to kill YOU to take the npc from you...