AngryRedHerring

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Thanks Ironik and Hercules. I played around with the idea of using a Croatoa map, but the whole look is more mystical than historical.

Hmmm....may take a second look at it though.

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I feel your pain. I reeeally want some outdoor Cimerora maps for an "old European village" thing. I ended up having to settle on a Cimeroran cave; at least the abandoned architecture hinted at that feel. Nowhere near what I wanted, but as close as I could get for now.

...At least for me, anyway. I've been trying several times a day for three days now, and my guys just won't copy over.

Is there any trick to this? Any status page for the Copy Tool I'm unaware of? I've had instances before where it wouldn't copy, but I've never had it go on for days at a time.

I myself prefer it in the arc description. There's too much of a premium on file size to waste valuable story space reminding players what they were already told at the outset. At a max of five missions, most arcs can be done in an evening's playtime, and a warning up-front should be more than enough to last through the night.

I do have one mid-arc warning, to guard against a very finicky escort/waypoint functionality. Without a detailed tip on that fresh in the mind, the experience threatens to be annoying. I wanted to try to fend that off as best I could, especially as the escort is a trigger for something much cooler that I don't want the player to miss, and I'd hate for them to quit before that simply out of annoyance.

I read once that Stan Lee fostered a very basic formula that most Marvel comics relied on.

Act 1 - Hero loses, Villain gets away
Act 2 - Hero and Villain fight to a draw
Act 3 - Hero prevails.

It's very evident if you read a lot of Spider-Man, particularly the early ones. But it's such a simple formula; easy to stretch out over multiple issues, hang lots of bells an whistles on, and reliably results in a build to a climax.

...Sent you a PM, Svlad.

How about a non-required defendable object, with an enemy group attached that will surely take it out? Now that I think about it, I want to experiment with it myself...

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I understand what he's trying to say. Making my own custom group. I've resorted to using existing enemies to make up Evil Incorporated in order to save file space. However I don't want an enemy in my group with names like Crey Eliminator or Council Empire something or other.

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Yeah, that's pretty much it. It really hurts on groups like the Family, etc., that make such great generic thugs... but you can't change their name from the Family association.

...Then again, I guess you don't ever really leave the Family.

...Or keep the destructible object, and somehow make use of the chat fields attached to that object.

I have a detail where you have to destroy a transmitter before it contacts the enemy. At each stage of damage, I put 'radio' text, and each chat bubble was more and more of the message getting through. The last chat bubble, on 'BOOM' is the final part of the message-- it blows up at the exact moment that it is TOO LATE!

The thing I like about this method is it makes the player actually responsible for the object doing what the player is supposed to be preventing.

If you're doing a mystical thing, an altar (IIRC?), you could do 'voices from beyond' or somesuch.

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I'm not sure. Can we change the font style? I don't remember seeing that option, but I wasn't really looking for it, either. Most of the "strange" characters like Greek or Cyrillic are simply "alt+" standard options included in the more widely used fonts.

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You can change the game font, but it would only be visible to you. I think TweakCoH gives you an option to do it.

And I can add that I used the trademark symbol (™) in contact text, and I just copied it from the first Google result for 'trademark'.

I'd kill for a colored overlay on the maps-- like the red "tough zone" indicators on the city zone maps-- that indicates just what the heck is 'front', 'middle' and 'back'. As far as outdoor maps go, it doesn't seem to mean anything at all, unless there are buildings you can enter.

I'd kinda hoped by now that some obsessive-compulsive soul would have worked up something like that, at least in part. I know I'd go nuts trying to figure it out myself, though.

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Fantastic Ad! It could go up on the wall of my bathroom, where I have a bunch of laminated 50s alien invasion and monster movie ads.

Lewis

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I'll take that as high praise. I love paranoid 50's alien stuff.


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I did have problems with the escort, because I would exit even when I didn't appear to be standing in the red area.

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Yeah, bug with the map. That was annoying, and I hope they fix that soon.


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Yeah, those red cubes are so outdated now. How I long for a click-to-exit on those older maps. I bugged this with support, and I hope they fix it-- I hope they fix ALL those maps with red cube doors. I really hate having that escort warning in the sendoff text. Immersion breaking, and I couldn't figure out a good way to explain it in the context of the story.


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I never did find the help I was supposed to need to defeat the EBs.

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Oh, man. That last boss must've been a pain without those dudes. What I did before I found help was to lure the EBs over to the friendly spawns. Worked pretty well.

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We tried it with a big team, and found the the Tu'laari didn't last as long against the larger spawns. All our Tu'laari allies were wiped out by 1/2 health of the AV. We thought we were screwed, then we lured the AV into Tu'laari patrols and were back in business.


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(also I am a plant person from another dimension, what is this "monkey" you speak of?)


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The Vh'kiir are not known for their political correctness. Earth = monkey, Monkey!


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Okay, you seem to have mixed something up there. You have a zombie talking about Hank and Maria, and a trooper going FLEEEEESH.


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I think that's a byproduct of the new 'group-switching' bug. The lines are assigned to the correct groups in the editor. I haven't seen this happen, but I've been reading about it lately.


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Have I mentioned yet that the tanksuit is absolutely hilarious? What is that, another fine product of the random button?

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I have another villain, Overlord of Crime, who's sort of a whimsical Dr. Doom. His third costume is Alien Battle Armor (which he doesn't know the origin of, or even how to turn it on). I was trying to do a take on Lex Luthor's battle armor; that's where the purple and green came from. Beyond that, I just tried to make it 'alien'.

When it came time to make Vh'kiir LT's, I figured I'd make the goofy armor of Vh'kiir origin... and finally see what it can do with somebody who knows how to operate it.


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It's kind of sad about the tents, they actually block out that energy beacon so I was still running around trying to find a dude.

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If i really hated the player, I would have left it on the original map, City 03 (the one with the parking garage). I was crying during testing.


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Why not just use the tighter Steel Canyon map, the one Bobcat and Mother Mayhem show up on? Even worse problems with an escort?
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I think this is why not tighter Steel Canyon. Not enough room for all the epic.

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Bingo. I started out by choosing map possibilities based on number of spawn points, and types of spawns available. The current map allows lots of everything. That, and the tents with the circus music playing added an extra dose of goofy. It does suck when the escort spawns next to a tent though, I've had that happen. Other times he spawns right in your sightline as you enter.

As far as outdoor maps go, though, this one has good sightlines in general, and enough variety in the landscape to keep it from being boring (I'm looking at YOU, Office Park), while avoiding a lot of nooks and crannies that obscure objectives. You still can't make something spawn in the 'perfect' spot, though, no matter how you try.


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Another thoroughly enjoyable ride, ARH.

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Thanks man.


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...Of course, my experience with this may not be typical, as: a) I fought him before spawning the allies...

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...Shine on, you crazy diamond.


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My problem with the ambushes was that I didn't realize they *were* ambushes.

I saw all these red bolts passing over my head as I was peppering the boss with arrows, and thought "Oh, good, more help." Took me a while to figure out that they were just misses....

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I'm just loving all the different ways this one is playing out. I keep hearing new stories.

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so im new to MA. just came back to the game after a three year hiatus, my boss dialogue is not functioning in my missions, the chat box, dialogue is working fine, but the ingame boss dialogue is not. anyone else having that problem..

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It sounds like you have chat bubbles disabled, if the text is appearing properly. Or, it could be that the boss is taking damage so quickly that the game doesn't have time to get the bubbles out; I've seen that. One other thing could be is a piece of geometry obscuring the boss might be blocking you from seeing the bubbles. That can happen at weird angles.


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Also do i have to run thru my whole arc just to see if everything in mission 4 is spawning appropriately. or can i just run mish four to see if the advancec mission cascading events are occurring correctly. thanx for any help

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In the mission editor, up top, you'll see your missions as little books; you can drag the books into any order, so you can put your current test mission first, then put it back when you're done. It was a tough couple of days before I learned that.

Thanks, JJ! The final boss has been tested and fixed. Sorry about the DEEP HURTING.

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Ok, the first mission hasn't even finished loading and already I think you deserve 5 stars just for the contact's opening pitch. Hilarious!

*edit* Mission popup: also pure win!

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You're too kind. But now I really feel like I'm hijacking Metatron's post. Here's my Invasion on Earth BX1132! thread.

Still looking forward to chatting with Metatron.

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I feel like the last mission should just be a cake walk for fun. The penultimate mission is the real gem here.

Good job!

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Thanks very much, JJ, and sorry about that last mission. That was a pure oversight on my part. You read it right, it's meant to be a cakewalk (compared to the last few, anyway) but I screwed up in how I added the final boss. I only meant for one of him to appear, and I must have forgotten to test that mish on anything other than Unyielding.

That's fixed now. Now do me a favor and edit the final boss's name from your post?

THIS is the forum you want to visit.

Personally, I use Paint Shop Pro, and I sorta taught myself back when I was making skins for Freedom Force.

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I'm not sure precisely HOW he did it, but one of the missions in this arc achieves that effect pretty darn well.

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If I add 20 Patrols, this *suppresses* the normal spawning of baddies. For example, after setting up patrols to be triggered on the glowie, upon entry to the map there were almost no baddies present.

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Tell you what... I'll tell you how I did it... But first you have to play Invasion on Earth BX1132! and tell me if that's the sort of thing you want.

Ah-HA! The old bait-and-switch. Kinda. It's not very long, if you kill all, it just pushes 2 hours. Under an hour if you only do mish complete objectives.

I'm just not comfortable with publicly showing where all the wires are yet. I kinda stumbled upon it, and the first time I tested it I was blown away. As my good friend and SGmate Mighty Pain put it, "that third mission is pure awesome-sauce". Truth is though, I got lucky.

Toss me a tell and/or PM after you've checked it out and I'll give you a layout of what I did. Bring somebody who can put out some good damage and can take some too, and be prepared to ditch the stealth.

Oh, and, thanks again, suedenim!

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I think only a few select maps (Atlas Park) actually contain rampant civilians.

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Yeah, and the problem I ran into was that as I encountered civilians on that map, they were just doing their "goin' to the store" walk-- they wouldn't actually freak out unless mobs got near (if at all, I don't remember actually freaking them out at all now that I think about it, but it may have just been bad luck in pathing).

...But even in Atlas, that's a pretty lackadaisical attitude in the middle of an alien invasion. I switched maps and told the civilians to STAY IN THEIR HOMES!

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Where is the map just outside of the Giza Casino? I know it's in the game somewhere as a friend of mine used it.

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Unique - Outdoor - St. Martial - The "something". I forget the name. But if you get as far as Unique - Outdoor - St. Martial, the "something" will be obvious.

I'm looking for the Abandoned Tech Map that is just the single boss room. I know I've run into it in MA missions, I just can't find it myself. If you've run the whole Faultline arc, the map consists of just the one room where you fight Captain Castillo.

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<QR>

This has been asked for in the Base Construction Forum ever since Architect was first announced. (Back at I13)

Absolutely no response from the Devs.

This feature would do multiple things for improving SG/VG Base Activity.

As it stands now, the Base is pretty much...useless...aside from Storage.

The Mission Computer has always been Useless, since the Cathedral Ban.

People are screaming for something to help get their SG members into the Base more, and having AE SG designed Missions available on the Mission Computer would do just that.

I want it, most of the other Base Construction Forum folks want it, now everyone is asking for it.

Devs!!!! Ahem *COUGH*

I wont hold my breath though.

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Well, get the base guys over here to sign it! Maybe there'll be more attention paid to it in this forum, with I-14 still having the new car smell.

As a prolific base-builder m'self, I dig how the bases are constantly overlooked, and it does feel like a lot of good ideas go unnoticed in Base Construction. And yet, Base Construction is still one of the friendliest and most supportive boards we have...

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That's a pretty sweet ad.

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Thanks, Dumpleberry! I love 50's sci-fi posters. That one was fun to do.

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Is this normal CoH escort behavior? I can't recall ever seeing that happen before, and I almost always have stealth on with Ashley. Maybe it only happens with pure "civilian" escorts? Though I'm pretty sure I've done that a lot too. I know Fusionette and the like have never had difficulty with my stealth.

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It won't happen with allies like Fusionette, but yeah, with civilian escorts, stealth will cause them to lose you. Two of the characters that I use for testing have stealth IOs in travel powers. I'd be flying around, killing everything to save the guy, then we'd have to camp out two minutes 'til he could see me.

...Otherwise he just kept ranting at me.

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Sounds like a good way to hide contact that might be reported for one reason or another.

For that reason alone, I don't think it will happen.

Is there a reason you want to hide the arc from the rest of the community?

Or are the AE buildings that hard to get to?

I understand that the missions computers are pretty useless at this point.
Mission content designed for Sg's seems like what this would have been usable for. It seems like the Pillar of Ice and Fire or what ever it is called - some how was created and given missions before the mission computer was.
There could be lots of cool SG related content for the Mission Computer - but since their isn't the MA is the way to go. Just because other people play the mission doesn't mean it isn't designed for your sg's own use.

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Oh, no no, I wasn't meaning to suggest that the SG mission computer would hold content that was otherwise unavailable. I did say "published arcs' at the outset, but it was easy to gloss over. The intention was two-fold:

1) Bring the SG Base Mission Computer to life, and turn the base into more of a meeting place to go out and do missions;

2) Streamline the MA mission selection so that SG members' missions are the only ones featured.

Any of the mishes that are on an SG mish computer would have to be already published arcs. The SG computer would just limit its database to a smaller pool of missions-- currently published missions submitted by SG members, and placed on the SG computer by an SG leader of the appropriate rank. The SG computer would show only the MA missions whose arc numbers are on its list, but it would be pulling from the entire database of published missions. That way if an SG has an exploit or farm arc referenced on its computer, it will be inaccessible once it is removed from the live servers.

I'm as anti-farm as you'll get. I just saw this as another way that missions could get more play (an easy to access list of just your SGmates' material), and a way to liven up bases, making them more of a true 'base of operations'.

...You'd make a great Accounts Payable Auditor.

Heh. Not quite. They were forums specific to I-14, and issue-specific forums never last long after the issue goes to live. They're really meant most for beta feedback. The posts that are hold useful information get moved to the permanent forums that are the closest match.

...I could see how you could think that, though, assuming you've ever been to Suggestions & Ideas.