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[nikki]

I am trying to think of abstract 'mission' types, in virtually any game out there.
This is so i could generate those kind of missions procedurally.

The most common:

-kill entity (x amount)
-fetch object (get it there, bring it here)
-build this (prerequisites build this or that)
-gather amount x of y

this all is rather cliche.
Can you think of more interresting mission types ?

[powly]

Continuing the list of cliches.

-get to a certain place
-press a button

Also, fetch can be modified to "get this item from place A and get it to place B."

[s0]

Talk to [X NPC]

[Dacke]

Survive for X time (in place Y)

[nikki]

i've got two more:

-race get to a certain place x within y seconds
-seek object/npc/location

[brog]

- keep X alive.  either for a prescribed time period (standard rts mission: keep your base alive for five minutes) or while achieving some other task.
- solve a puzzle.
- explore/find X.

These really aren't as abstract as you seem to think though - they imply all kinds of stuff about your game; that there is movement, that there is fighting/killing, and that there are objects and resources.  If you're assuming this, I don't see why you shouldn't look at what your actual game mechanics are and come up with missions that involve them: increase your cunning to 6, capture 20 units of territory, don't fire any weapons for a minute, trick the duke into letting you feed his chickens, cast twenty spells, score fifty points in a single turn..

[st33d]

Do a search for RPG adventure generators, there's loads you can steal ideas from:

eg:

http://www.marnok.com/content/_adventure/adventure.php

I'm sure there's one with sauce out there.

[nikki]

thats a nice list,   reminded me a bit of the  hero's journey / monomyth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth , but the monomyth is not specific enough, it's a bit higher in storytelling order

[jrjellybeans]

It's just too bad that by nature, video games with these cliches tend to be the most fun.

(Not to say that being fun is the most important thing in a game or anything...)

[Inanimate]

clear all enemies

go to multiple 'goals'

[Titch]

follow target x
protect location x
escort character
give x items to x characters (like distribute flyers)

[John Nesky]

*shameless plug*

At PlayCrafter, all games have the following goal: Clear all X, Y, and Z, where X, Y, and Z are objects that can be destroyed in some way, either by touching them or shooting them or whatever. The method for clearing items depends on the item and the player character's abilities, but you must clear all of them that are present to advance to the next level. Users have come up with many ways to create subgoals out of this goal, such as:

-Find all X
-Find a way to get to X
-Race to get to X before the path is blocked
-Fight until all X are dead.
-After you're done reading the onscreen text, touch X to continue.
-Or even *avoid* clearing X as long as possible, to rack up points (X in this case would be something like the ball in Breakout, and you clear it by letting it drop off the screen)

X, Y, and Z can be buttons, flags, monsters, coins, milestones, marbles, or anything else. It's a very flexible goal.

[starsrift]

Interesting. My current project (VC:BO) relies on procedurally generated missions.

There's a type not mentioned here - go to location X and perform action Y.
A variation on race mentioned by Titch is sneak - self explanatory.
Investigation is hard to abstract, but possible - find unknown-to-player-number of x objects, talk to y people, then perform conclusion z based on the material the player gathered.
A variation on talk to someone mentioned by CAsinclair is to talk to multiple people to influence them towards object or person y.

Of course, it depends on how abstracted you want to get. Completely abstracted, there's only two things - travel somewhere and perform action. Context adds meaning.

Shameless plug: VC:BO uses 19 not-entirely-unique missions to generate.

[st33d]

The trouble with a procedural script is that you get what you get in Torchlight. A great game with a lot of, yeah, yeah, get on with it and let me kill. (Bear in mind I love Torchlight, but I despise it's story.)

In light of this recent failure in procedural scripting, I would strongly suggest that the story hug the gameplay.

Let them think for a moment that you wrote this script just for this encounter. Not that it was a random number generated ass-pull. So your gameplay is all about killing, the random script should justify this, let it be a comentary on how despicable your play testers are. How they live to provoke suffering and promote capitalism.

Easier said than done, but if you can pull it off at least twice in your game, people will think of you as a story-telling god.

[Hajo]

There is a little collection of ideas over there:
http://www.funkelwerk.de/library/index.php?n=Library.SandboxGameIdeas

if you think "missions" more in terms of "story", this might be interesting to read, too:
http://www.funkelwerk.de/library/index.php?n=Library.TipsForRandomStoryGeneration

[nikki]

that Hajo is almost exactly what i was looking for , especialy the sandbox link! thanks

[Hajo]

I'm glad to help

[nihilocrat]

Read this: http://roguelikedeveloper.blogspot.com/2009/10/quest-for-quests-part-four-assumptions.html

[Stane]

Cover certain area? American McGee's Grimm sort of a way.

Many missions you already described could fall in two maybe even one category.

"Perform an Action to an Object" i.e. kill enemy, push a button

"Apply object A to object B"