I was trying to think of a way to force players to engage an kill enemies when they are ambushed, as opposed to just running from combat.  Would it be too far-fetched to have a quest slow the engines of the player during ambushes until all spawned enemies are destroyed? (or some other criteria).

The only other way I can think of forcing players to actively defend themselves (rather than run) would be to have those mobs drop an item that they need to complete the quest.

edit:(But this could be problematic for groups completing a quest if someone picks up an item they shouldn't have, or too many of the items, making it impossible for one or more players to complete the quest.

Thoughts?

Also, Angus.  What is your current focus for quests? End Game or level progression? 

I was thinking of adding a simple quest chain at each inner system to help the player find leveling paths without having to rely on reading the guide online.  This would also help close the item gaps between systems that seems to plague new players, as I am a level 17 with level 0-9 gear, which makes sense that a level 14 can become "hard" to kill.

Edit:
is there any way to get a function to return the player's base class?  (just engi, path, pyro, etc, tier doesn't matter).  This would aid in selecting items based on player's class,