Samuel_Tow

Yeah, I found it. I was hoping the interface could be made to display it, though

Seems I'll be doing a lot of hand-editing. The editor's \  messes up arc description, so I need to hand-edit those out of at least there, I might end up having to rearrange objectives to ensure they spawn where I tell them to, and the editor seems to insist on inserting a P0 P-string in random popup window text boxes, which forces an empty popup window to show up, which I suspect I'll have to clean up by hand.

At least I'm lucky in that the bloat from all the non-slash   clutter isn't putting my arc over the limit, though it comes close.

*edit*
Question: Will NPCs set to Rogue fight other NPCs set to Rogue, or will they just fight those set to Enemy and Ally? The tooltip seems to suggest that they will, but I've no way of testing it.

Question: Is there any workaround to the "unable to edit your souvenir" bug? Every time I try to edit mine, the text field jitters up and down and up and down and never fully expands, so I cannot read nor correct text in it.

Question: Once an arc has reached Developers' Choice status, can it be edited at all, ever?

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What I did was create a faction that had only the boss, elite boss or archvillain and picked "boss" from that. When I had to pick his minions, I picked an existing group. What you want to do is leave your AV in a group all by herself, then make ANOTHER group that consists of nothing but your fillers and set that as the group to spawn with her. You could probably even name them the same if you change the save path.

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Ah hah. So you're saying make another custom group with some fillers (lieutenant probably, and a minion or two) and name it something else, and have it spawn with her "group" (of which she's the only one) just to clarify? I hadn't thought of that at all. Of course all of this would be simpler if you could simply tell it "group to spawn with" (or whatever the field is, I forget) to "none" then it would only spawn the one character. When you say "picked boss" you mean that's the group you used for the boss, right? That's what I did. I guess the only difference we have here is you used a SECOND custom group to "spawn with" the boss...have I got that right? By the way, Hi Sam, I've always been interested in your posts, even when I don't agree, they're always informative.

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When you create a boss, there are two major categories you need to fill up. Boss group and boss NPC from that group, and then boss spawn group - the group that spawns with the boss. Those don't need to match, and indeed in my arc they almost never did. I kept spawning my made-up bosses with Crey and the Freakshow.

So if you want only a boss and only one copy of her with just filler NPCs, create one group that has only boss in it, set that as the boss group, then choose your boss from it. For boss spawn - the enemies that spawn with the boss - pick your filler group and pretty much leave it be. That will spawn one boss and only one boss of exactly the NPC you picked, with a group of variable size and variable selection of your filler group. If you only have one Seeker Drone minion for the entire group, you will always get a boss with a spawn of variable size of Seeker Drones around her.

In general, I find it's good practice to keep your unique bosses in their own unique group to prevent them from accidentally spawning in regular spawns with bigger teams. For bosses you override (pick a stock NPC and re-write his or her bio) that's less of a problem, as you'll be seeing those NPCs in combat anyway, they just won't have the unique's name,

Hmm... Well, that's definitely very nice to know. Thanks, Arcana.

I don't believe you can set optional objectives to display in the Nav bar.

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How do I make an optional objective display on the nav bar? Any time I set something as optional, it won't show up top. But I know pohsyb accomplished this in an arc.

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If you leave the singular and plural text of an optional collection empty, nothing shows in the Nav. If you actually put text in those blanks, the MA assumes you want it to show, and that text will show in the Nav whether the collection is optional or required.

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So I need to put text in BOTH of the fields, even if one is irrelevant? I ask because it's usually something like "Defeat Council base leader (optional)," so having one for plural would be pointless, unless of course the system requires me to fill that field in to display it.

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If you only have one, you don't need a plural, but I suspect that if you DON'T have a plural and end up with more than one, nothing will show up. If you're positive you're only ever going to have one, you only need the singular text filled in.

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So,
Is there a way to get an AV to spawn singly by itself, or must it be accompanied by something? I created a custom enemy group that only consists of the AV in question (she is her own "faction" and she is Rogue as well). Most of the time 2-3 copies of her spawn, and that doesn't work. I tried adding one of those little arachnos Cruise Missiles as an underling (the things that just fly toward you and blow up) to take up "space" and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. Is it just semi-random how many spawn with the boss, or is it determined by map, or both? I can't get it to stay consistant at all. The structure of the mission depends on her being alone, as she's not part of the main villain group the mission uses.
Any tips?

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What I did was create a faction that had only the boss, elite boss or archvillain and picked "boss" from that. When I had to pick his minions, I picked an existing group. What you want to do is leave your AV in a group all by herself, then make ANOTHER group that consists of nothing but your fillers and set that as the group to spawn with her. You could probably even name them the same if you change the save path.

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However, I was working on a mission last week that does something *close* to what you're describing. What I did was create a blinkie that spawns "Back" and I tested to ensure it was actually "back." I then set a large number of patrols to spawn based on that blinkie which fills the mission *and* a triggered boss that becomes a mandatory completion task set to "Front."

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Thanks, Arcanaville. I sort of reworded my mission to accommodate this. I had a boss fight at "back" that triggered the mission, which spawned both a boss fight and a rescue in the Front, with the player being told to "seek information."

That actually opens up another little tip, though:

Question: I want to test all of my triggers, but I don't want to fight hordes of static spawns or run the Gauntlet every time. I also don't have invisibility on this character. How can I do this?

Answer: Create as many patrols as the map will permit, then set them all to key off whatever it is you want to test. That will spawn the map empty until you accomplish the objective you wanted to test, after which point you can just exit test mode and go back to Architect Entertainment.

And another little tip I found. The game has no spell checker, but since it saves story arcs to text, they can be spell-checked externally. I tried several ways, and finally found one that was both fast and easy AND that didn't corrupt my files in the process.

Here's what I did: I made a backup copy of my story arc (obviously) and then opened the *.storyarc file in Microsoft Word (2007) as plain text. I found a whole HOST of ugly typos, then eventually saved the file as plain text and loaded it into the game. In the meantime, I Alt-Tabbed between word and the game to make sure the arc doesn't corrupt from the things I do to its file and, if it does, so I can see what I did that corrupted it.

The arc is currently published (possibly twice), but the servers wend down shortly thereafter.

OK, Question: Is there something bugged about Escort AI that prevents it from attacking me when it "betrays" me or does it have to be set to some specific setting?

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I more mean if it's possible to make something like Lady Jane - a combat ally NPC whom you rescue, they fight alongside you, but when you bring them to a specific, otherwise-untouchabe objec (like Lady Jane's chest) they activate it, THEN turn around and leave the map altogether. I haven't looked at allies closely enough to know, but if that's doable, I'll dance a polka.

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You want a "Lead to object" detail, which isn't current possible. You can only lead allies to the door.
I really hope they add that capability soon after launch, though.


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Well, that answers that. Too bad, but at least I know what I want and what I should be campaigning for. Thanks

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Also,
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(like Lady Jane's chest)

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lol

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I specifically reworded that from "objective" to "untouchable object" for just that purpose

*edit*

OK, I give up: Ambushes are horribly screwy in how they play their dialogue, and the tips that explain what each line of dialogue does are badly non-informative. "The dialog spoken by one of the members of the battle" doesn't really tell me much. WHEN is it spoken? At the start of the battle, when the combatants are discovered or at some other time? The examples seem to suggest ones are for combatants taunting each other and the others are for combatants responding to being interrupted, but they seem to play them almost at random. Sometimes they'll play all four instantly, sometimes only one faction will speak, and sometimes only one faction will speak only one of its lines. What gives?

*edit*
It seems fights and patrols somehow interfere with each other. I had a mission that allowed no more than four fights (I tried more, it threw an error). I added as many patrols as it would allow me - 8, then attempted to remove the fights. It gave me an error that there were too many patrols. I had too many patrols with ZERO fights, but not too many patrols with four, or indeed EIGHT fights. Odd... Trying to run the mission with eight fights and eight patrols resulted in an error.

However, removing all fights and leaving the mission with 8 patrols keyed to appear off a boss fight and 0 fights produced a mission that was EMPTY, save for the boss at the end. Defeating the boss resulted in swarms of Arachnoids (picked at random off the top of the list) to swarm the entire map. Score!

Now here's the other question.

Question: Can I design a mission that you have to "escape" from? This mission would have a jail and not show the "Exit" button upon completion, like one of the Lilithu missions or the Rob the Midnight Squad mission? I'm not seeing an option for this.

Failing that, what would be a good way to approximate a "You have to fight your way out of here!" mission?

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Can I make a mission that doesn't spawn anything until you trigger some kind of event, like the trap for Nocturne in the Faultline Dam, and if so, how do I achieve that? I don't seem to have any control over regular spawns, other than saying what enemy group they are.


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There are two main spawn types in most missions. One is used for ambush, boss, patrol or destroy object details, the other is used for battle, rescue, escort, ally, or defend object details. (Some maps have additional spawntypes that are not overrideable by the MA).
Lets pretend you picked a map with 15 of the first type and 15 of the second type. If you wanted it to be empty until your trap is hatched, you could add a patrol detail with quantity 15 and and a battle detail with quantity 15. Next, add a collection detail and have both the patrol and battle trigger on completion of the collection.

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So, all spawning locations are divided into two kinds, then? So if I want all of my spawn locations to be empty until triggered, I will need to use both ambushes AND battles? Hmm... That might be problematic if the mission doesn't entail enemies battling each other or any allies to be had. I was really looking at an ambush mission like the Protect Lady Grey or Ambush Nocturne ones. Have to play around with it, I suppose.

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Theorhetically yes, add an ally set Combat Abilites to "agressive" and Ally Behavior to "run to nearest door" they should take off to the door fighting anything they meet.

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I more mean if it's possible to make something like Lady Jane - a combat ally NPC whom you rescue, they fight alongside you, but when you bring them to a specific, otherwise-untouchabe objec (like Lady Jane's chest) they activate it, THEN turn around and leave the map altogether. I haven't looked at allies closely enough to know, but if that's doable, I'll dance a polka.

Thank you kindly for your answers, pohsyb

Here are a couple of interesting questions:

Question: Can I make a mission arc end two different ways based on beaten or failed final mission like so many CoV arcs do, and if so, how?

Question: Is it possible to make an ally who fights alongside you until a trigger is activated and then leaves? If not, can a fighting ally be "rescued" and leave the map? Is is possible to have glowie that you need a fighting ally to activate?

I don't necessarily dislike the Croatoa outdoor maps themselves, even if they are a bit... Random. But there's an arc in there that's literally one huge outdoor map after the other, and that sort of things is... Cumberosme. Kind of like Unai Kemen's To Save a Thousand World.

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Is there some kind of list I can see that shows what works on which player model?

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You'd be surprised how difficult it actually is to generate such a list by anyone.

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Ouch!

OK, how about this, then - if I enter a boss battle to act as a trigger, then add about 100 patrols to spawn off those, would that map even load? I'm assuming (hoping) that any patrols for which there are no spawn points will simply not spawn, and the boss, being higher up the list of objects, will reserve a spawn point for himself. Will that even work, though?

I'm at work right now, and although I COULD load up the game and check that out, I really shouldn't.

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Walter Daschle

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Oh, THAT guy! I haven't done the Croatoa stuff in, like, forever. All the big huge yellow outdoor maps crush my will to live

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Many spawns do that hyperfast cycling, seems to be a general bug. The boss in question may not be able to do the animation you wanted, so reverted to "default"

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Well, this was a custom character using a player model doing an animation that I don't believe players have access to, but he was showing doing it just fine on the looping animation in the editor. Is there some kind of list I can see that shows what works on which player model?

[/ QUOTE ]Trial and error, I think. I've only tried the animation you're talking about on Walter Daschle, and it worked fine.

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That would be your own custom character? What model was he using? Also, to further describe, the animation for Extracting Soul is the character hunched over and sort of attempting to lift up a glowing red-pink ball (looks like an Energy Melee effect) for a while, lifts it up for a second, then it slips from his hands back down and the animation loops.

Also, it appears that you can indeed force patrols to spawn on a particular trigger. The next question, then, is how can I tell how many spawn points a mission has so that I can fill all of them but one with patrols? I saw Arcanaville discuss that, but I can't seem to find that information on my screen.

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No. Ambushes take up spawn points, but you're capped at 3 ambushes and you're going to have more than 3 spawn points.

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And I can't set patrols to trigger off objectives? Dang!

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Many spawns do that hyperfast cycling, seems to be a general bug. The boss in question may not be able to do the animation you wanted, so reverted to "default"

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Well, this was a custom character using a player model doing an animation that I don't believe players have access to, but he was showing doing it just fine on the looping animation in the editor. Is there some kind of list I can see that shows what works on which player model?

Also: Thanks a bunch!

Here's another question:

Can I make a mission that doesn't spawn anything until you trigger some kind of event, like the trap for Nocturne in the Faultline Dam, and if so, how do I achieve that? I don't seem to have any control over regular spawns, other than saying what enemy group they are.

And another question:

Why does it seem like my missions are MASSIVELY more populated than regular contact missions? Seems like there will routinely be two 6-minion spawns overlapping with each other in a small corridor or intersection (warehouse), leading to some nasty encounters that I hadn't intended.

And another question still:

Is there any way to determine what static spawns are doing when they spawn? On regular missions, Nemesis soldiers will spawn crouching, Council soldiers will be sitting on crates, Freakshow will be dancing to boomboxes, etc. On mine, they spawn in packs huddled together, punching their fists or looking around.

Similarly, are boss and entourage animations not working properly? I set my boss to "Extracting Soul" and his minions to "Shotgun (Lookout)." What actually happened was the Boss was cycling "pinching fist" and "taunt" over and over rapidly, like half a second each, and his entourage, while they WERE holding their shotguns, we jittering and playing only something like 10% of their idle animation before looping back to the start.

While it's not necessarily bad, a bit of a finer control would certainly allow me to make my missions more interesting.

Final question:

I've seen I can give bosses starting animations that are part of a two-character combo, like punching/getting punched. I can spawn more bosses in a spawn, it seems, but how can I make them interact with each other?

Too bad. Guess I'll have to settle for CLAIMING he teleported when he's defeated, like Echo used to do

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I don't think there is an "Ask about contact" option for dialog, at least not that I've seen.

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OK, THAT'S a serious oversight. As was said - if contacts will only be a pretty face, that's about half the story down the drain. It's two extra text fields that play only once. I'm significantly disappointed they're not present.

Here's another question - can I make a boss teleport away like, say, Professor Echo does when he's low on health? I can set him to run, but I can't seem to set him to disappear.

Here's a somewhat dumb question:

Where do I go to edit a contact's greeting text and "Ask about this contact" description?

*edit*
And there is no way to enable the standard test typing beeps in the Architect, is there?

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Let me try again: Is the whole Mission Architect a big virtual reality?

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Oh well its [REDACTED] there there is [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] (^_^)b

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Pwnd!

Well, I guess I'll have to wait for Open Beta to find out

Let me try again: Is the whole Mission Architect a big virtual reality?

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How can they stop you from pretending?

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Game lore to the contrary. When I say pretend, I don't mean plug up my ears and go "Lalalala! I can't hear you!" so much as I mean to take vaguely-defined or undefined game concepts and give them your own meaning. For instance, I can pretend I kill, maim or arrest my enemies, because "defeat" is ambiguous. If the system text said kill, I couldn't really pretend, now could I?

If the Mission Architect is set only in a virtual reality, what happens inside will be inherently not real thanks to the medium. The best we can hope for is a retelling of an assumed real event, but even that is a stretch.

Also, do we need to put our contacts inside the AE building? I was kind of hoping to plop them out on street corners, though I can see how that would be problematic.