Frequently Asked Questions about Mission Design
By
Amarsir,
Posted on: 2009-03-17 19:54 in Mission Architect
Great FAQ!
I have one further question?
How do I set dialogue for non-patrol mobs?
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How do I set dialogue for non-patrol mobs?
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There's no way to do that at this time. We started a wish list for "MA 2.0" at some point, and I seem to recall that adding additional dialog trigger points was in there; maybe someone should revive that thread...
Arcanaville, I think another question people are going to ask (particularly after running your Scrapper Challenge) is: How do I spawn an ambush of all lieutenants, or all bosses?
Answer: You need to create a group whose only members are of the rank you want (all lieutenants, or all bosses), then set that group as the ambush group. When it spawns, it will be all of that rank. Be warned: that group will be hard, especially if it consists of custom critters - the normal spawn mix rules will be voided. (I'm not sure anyone knows what the spawn rules are for this case.) [Also, Arcanaville, do you have confirmation that this isn't a bug? I hope it's intended, but if we don't know, people who design maps based on that trick could be disappointed later.]
And a related question: How do I create an ambush with a named/custom boss (or EB, or AV)?
Answer: Currently, you can't. Many people suggested this be added.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
One more:
Q: I created a custom critter as an ally, but when we fight, it doesn't seem to use all the powers at its disposal. Sometimes it just seems to sit there staring at the enemy.
A: This is a known issue, that seems to affect melee powersets in particular. We suspect it is related to the old Animated Stone bug/behavior of never quite closing to melee and simply cycling Hurl. Try changing up powersets and playtesting to find something that works.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
For "tips and tricks":
Q: How do I change the color, size, and attributes (bold/italic) of text in my missions?
A: In many contexts you can do this using an HTML-like markup supported in the MA Editor. For example, <i> </i> puts text in italics. The markup is not exactly like HTML, and it doesn't work in all contexts - text that ends up in the chat window, for example, is colorized by the chat window rules and can't be overridden.
You can right-click on text in the MA Editor and choose markup to apply, as well - this is a shortcut that merely inserts the correct markup into your text block, which you can then edit if desired (for example, to specify colors not in the default list).
Note that markup does take up space in the mission file size - see the note about newlines expanding to <br> above.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
Thank you for this information, it is going to be very helpful. I was tinkering with the MA creator this evening and becoming frustrated with the filesize limitation. I now know why, and will adjust my mission plans accordingly.
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Are powers kinda customizable? Meaning, say Waterspout, could I color it Redish & some fire effects, make it look like Fire Funnels of Spinning doom?
JJ
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How do I set dialogue for non-patrol mobs?
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There's no way to do that at this time. We started a wish list for "MA 2.0" at some point, and I seem to recall that adding additional dialog trigger points was in there; maybe someone should revive that thread...
Arcanaville, I think another question people are going to ask (particularly after running your Scrapper Challenge) is: How do I spawn an ambush of all lieutenants, or all bosses?
Answer: You need to create a group whose only members are of the rank you want (all lieutenants, or all bosses), then set that group as the ambush group. When it spawns, it will be all of that rank. Be warned: that group will be hard, especially if it consists of custom critters - the normal spawn mix rules will be voided. (I'm not sure anyone knows what the spawn rules are for this case.) [Also, Arcanaville, do you have confirmation that this isn't a bug? I hope it's intended, but if we don't know, people who design maps based on that trick could be disappointed later.]
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It doesn't appear to be a "bug" in the sense that its an unexpected occurance: making a group that contains no minions at all seems to be something the code deals with in the way we've seen: when you can't find a minion to put in there, keep looking upward until you find something. So while a group of minions and LTs will spawn with some minions and some LTs, a group with all LTs will probably spawn as a group of some minions and some LTs where the minions are automatically promoted to LTs because there are no minions.
I doubt its a bug in the sense of "the devs intend to 'fix' it, although you never know.
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And a related question: How do I create an ambush with a named/custom boss (or EB, or AV)?
Answer: Currently, you can't. Many people suggested this be added.
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To be precise, the problem is that we cannot state unequivocally how many things are in the ambush. If we could say "single" for ambush and it would only spawn one thing, this would be possible. Because we cannot, if we try to spawn an ambush with a named boss, we're likely to get four of his clone brothers with him.
On a related note and slightly off topic of a FAQ, sometime soon (if not already) we should be getting updated code that will try to make sure that if we make a custom group with eight minions in it, we won't get spawns with three of one and two of another, and never see the other six minion types. The spawn logic will attempt to "evenly" spawn things for maximum diversity. I think some elements of this code are already in there, so while we cannot spawn a single custom boss in an ambush, we can get moderately close to spawning a *team* of critters, with one of each thing (if the mission decides to spawn more entities than we make critter types, you will still have duplicates though).
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One more:
Q: I created a custom critter as an ally, but when we fight, it doesn't seem to use all the powers at its disposal. Sometimes it just seems to sit there staring at the enemy.
A: This is a known issue, that seems to affect melee powersets in particular. We suspect it is related to the old Animated Stone bug/behavior of never quite closing to melee and simply cycling Hurl. Try changing up powersets and playtesting to find something that works.
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There's supposed to be some code that will help address this. I showed various critter oddities to pohsyb, and I believe he was able to justify addressing these issues as a potential exploit matter (I could create critters that were unlikely to significantly fight back, which is problematic, like an AV that never actually used a damaging power). Hopefully when that patch arrives critters will be a little more "random" in how they choose what powers to use, and in an ironic twist appear to be more intelligent (because slightly random is always better than predictably choosing badly).
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Are powers kinda customizable? Meaning, say Waterspout, could I color it Redish & some fire effects, make it look like Fire Funnels of Spinning doom?
JJ
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No power customization additions exist in the MA. The only things we can do are make customization changes to custom critters that we can currently make for our own characters on live (meaning primarily custom weapons).
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Section Two: Maps
Q2.1: I'm having trouble placing things in my mission map. I told it to place "Middle" but it keeps showing up at the end of the mission.
A2.1: Two possibilities. First, many maps are unfortunately buggy, and most of the "Middle" spawn points are designated "Back" and vice versa. Don't be surprised if Back = Middle and Middle = Back for some maps (but not all).
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TIP2.1: Here's how you can tell what is considered front, middle, or back for maps -- Create a simple mission with three objectives and make each objective a collect object (click the glowie). And make each collect object have 3 objects in them. Name the three collection objectives under navigation text, 'front', 'middle', and 'back'. Choose a different item for the three objectives. So, for example, you might have Ancient Pitchers for front; Bookcases for middle; and Crates for back (A, B, C).
Since this is just a test mission, quickly fill out required text with any old throw-away text so that there are no more errors. Chose a base group that can't see through stealth, because, you'll probably want to use a character with stealth to run through the map to find where the objects are placed. Or use a the tricks mentioned in this guide or elsewhere to create an empty map.
Now, chose the map you you're interested in and then Test the mission.
You'll be able to see by the placement of the glowies and their labels what that map thinks is front, middle, and back. It's rather simple to change to a different map and Test the same mission to determine the placement parameters for that map.
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Really Nice Write Up. Some fixes for ambushes are comming down the line too.
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Hm, is there a way to rename/rewrite the description for the currently existing NPCs?
Could I make a few unique monsters for my "Killer Tomato" group, and then drag/drop some DE into it. THEN give them all the same background info and theme names?
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Hm, is there a way to rename/rewrite the description for the currently existing NPCs?
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Not unless you make a new custom group and simply drop all of an existing group into it.
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Could I make a few unique monsters for my "Killer Tomato" group, and then drag/drop some DE into it. THEN give them all the same background info and theme names?
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Yes.
Might be worth pointing out here that 'Front, Middle and Back' do not apply on outdoor maps.
The 'front', 'middle' and 'back' of a mission map are determined by reference to rooms, and an outdoor map is one big room. This is why objective placement on outdoor maps sometimes seems screwy.
Thanks for the info and the nice write-ups!
Go Team Venture!
I think
$hisher and $sirmam
are also in now for gender pronouns
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You'll be able to see by the placement of the glowies and their labels what that map thinks is front, middle, and back. It's rather simple to change to a different map and Test the same mission to determine the placement parameters for that map.
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Note, this does not work for all maps. There are a few indoor maps that seem to define front, middle, and back differently for objects than they do for critter spawns.
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You'll be able to see by the placement of the glowies and their labels what that map thinks is front, middle, and back. It's rather simple to change to a different map and Test the same mission to determine the placement parameters for that map.
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Note, this does not work for all maps. There are a few indoor maps that seem to define front, middle, and back differently for objects than they do for critter spawns.
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Also on maps with multiple levels, "back" doesnt always mean the final floor. Out of 4 floors its possible that it still sends the goal/objective to the 2nd or 3rd floor.
Thanks for the info.
Tho I have to say, I'm really disappointed about the restriction amount on the number of customes critters you can have per arc... 14 just isnt enough...
That piece of information alone just shot down all 3 of my planned arcs...
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I have a local mission created and edited with no errors, but it says I have a 'invalid level range' when I try to test it. I have a set of villains set level 20-34.
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HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.
How do you create custom critters that share a name - say, like in Cimerora, where you have male and female Legionarii and Centurions?
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The "invalid level range" thing is a validation bug that had several of us ripping our hair out. It's all pohsyb's fault 
It should be fixed sometime in the next patch or three.
The most common cause is using a battle where the second group restricts the level range of the mission, but currently that check is not being made correctly. Swapping the order of the groups may help. There are, however, other more esoteric things that can cause it.
Sorry, a bit of a hijack, but I don't suffer from uniqueness often. I am sure others appreciate the headsup. I do have a fight in my mission.
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Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.
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But be warned: every custom critter takes about 6.5% of your *total* mission file space. You're not going to be able to get more than about 14 custom critters into a single mission arc - 15 if they all stand in a phonebooth and don't speak.
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Please clarify; 14 per mission? or 14 per arc (14x5=70 total)?
Got surprised a bit by the open beta: I thought there would be one more build to go. Anyway, this is a work in progress: its just my notepad notes written up a bit. I'll try to refine this as we go along, and also incorporate questions I read or hear in-game. This is just an early draft to try to anticipate as many common questions as possible. There's no way to answer them all in a brief FAQ: there's just so much to learn about the MA that authors will probably have to learn through experience.
Frequently Asked Questions about Designing Missions with the MA
Section One: Critters
Q1.1: How do I restrict the level that my critters spawn at? I want to make a critter that only spawns from level 15 to 25, but custom critters seem to spawn from level 1 to 54 always.
A1.1: At the moment, you cannot do that. However, it may be possible to force the *mission* to spawn only in that range by adding something to the mission that only spawns in the desired range, like a rescue objective or an ally. If the mission is forced into that range, the custom critters will obviously be forced to stay (at least roughly) in that range also.
Q1.2: What does "Standard, Hard, and Extreme" mean?
A1.2: These are difficulty settings for the critters. When you design a critter, you pick a primary and secondary powerset for that critter. Each powerset has settings that specify which powers are usable by minions, LTs, and Bosses (or higher). Lower ranks generally get less number (and weaker) powers. In addition, the difficulty scaler can be used to reduce the number of powers that a critter gets to use. These two settings (Rank and Difficulty) are independent: a critter can only use what its rank allows *and* what its difficulty allows.
Note that these settings (both Rank and especially Difficulty) are not fully implemented correctly yet: you may see unusual sets of powers becoming available or not available with these settings: they were a late addition to the MA feature set.
Q1.3: What's the purpose of the difficulty setting anyway?
A1.3: Seriously, you need to make some critters and find out for yourself. Originally, critters just used everything, and I mean everything. This means every Thugs minion spammed Gang War, and every Willpower critter rezzed at the end of the fight - with no way for the player to have any say in the matter. Also, Bosses would be hitting far harder than players expected, because they now had *our* powers. Critter powers are generally limited to Scale 2.0 damage - even the critter version of total focus hits for only Scale 2.0 damage. But now they have our version, which hits at 3.56 scale. This means critters are capable of hitting 70% harder than ever before. On top of that, they now have Build Up with alarming frequency: a critter that uses BU + TF can hit nearly four times harder than any other critter of the same rank generally hits with *any* attack in the standard PvE game.
Interesting if the Scrapper Challenge makes you yawn. Otherwise, its instant death to a lot of other players. Thus, it was important to allow players to tone down critters if they so chose. If you still want maximum firepower, you can still set your critters to be "Extreme."
Q1.4: Can I "reskin" existing critters, or give existing critters different powers?
A1.4: Nope. Custom critters use a version of the player costume editor for creating their appearance: basically, if you can't make yourself look like it, you can't make a custom critter look like it either. Nor can you edit existing critters and change their powers. Essentially, you can make player characters into custom NPCs.
Q1.5: Can I make my own custom villain groups?
A1.5: Sure; they are called custom critter groups. You cannot edit any existing critter groups, but you can add both custom critters and existing critters to custom groups. So if you want to make your own version of the Vahzilok with additional zombies, you can make a custom critter group, add all of the Vahz, and then add your own supplemental critters.
But be warned: every custom critter takes about 6.5% of your *total* mission file space. You're not going to be able to get more than about 14 custom critters into a single mission arc - 15 if they all stand in a phonebooth and don't speak.
Q1.6: Why can't I use capes/auras/My Ultra Cool Talsorian Sword?
A1.6: All unlockable player costume content must be unlocked again for the MA by purchasing with tickets earned while playing MA content. Fortunately, the costs relative to the earning rate are low. The reason this was done was because it was problematic to allow players to edit MA content with multiple alts, all of which might have different things unlocked. The MA basically requires all unlockable content to be unlocked account-wide for the purposes of the MA, thus the need to unlock specificially for the MA.
Note there are other things that are unlockable, like certain maps and critters (see below).
Section Two: Maps
Q2.1: I'm having trouble placing things in my mission map. I told it to place "Middle" but it keeps showing up at the end of the mission.
A2.1: Two possibilities. First, many maps are unfortunately buggy, and most of the "Middle" spawn points are designated "Back" and vice versa. Don't be surprised if Back = Middle and Middle = Back for some maps (but not all).
Second: order is significant: when you create a mission and start placing objectives into it, the mapserver will instance your mission map by placing each item or set of items in the order they are listed in your mission definition. This can be significant because if you have a map with three front, three middle, and three back spawn locations, and you make an objective for 7 "Patrols" to spawn "Random" those will randomly take up seven of those nine points. If you then add a Boss objective set to spawn "Front" the three front spawn points might already be taken up. In that event, the mapserver will start looking from front to back looking for the nearest available spawn point. Your boss could end up anywhere.
In general, add the things you actually care about placement first, and the rest of the stuff last.
Q2.2: Can I reorder objectives to deal with the above issue?
A2.2: At the moment, only by hand-editing the mission file.
Q2.3: I need map XYZ and its not here; why?
A2.3: Some maps had certain problematic issues and were removed until those problems could be resolved. Its not always clear what those problems were for all removed maps. In addition, some maps might require unlocking and you didn't unlock them yet (see unlocking content above).
Section Three: Mission Building
Q3.1: What's the maximum size mission arc I can make?
A3.1: The maximum length of a mission arc is five missions. In addition, there is a 100k size limit on mission arcs. Note: this is not *exactly* the same as the file size on your computer: the local file can be as much as 20% larger than the amount of actual "memory space" that the mission takes up.
Q3.2: My mission was just under the 100k/100% limit, but after I saved and reopened it the mission claimed to be over the limit. What happened?
A3.2: A couple of things could have happened. First: newlines in text fields are replaced with "<br>" codes and they take up four characters each: a two-character NL-NL can expand to an eight character <br><br>. That can cause files to expand after being saved. Its also possible that other expansion takes place: try not to flirt with the limit too closely unless you know your mission arc file won't expand after saving.
Q3.3: I only have one mission and almost no details, but my mission arc is already over 100%! What happened?
A3.3: The most likely cause of this is that you created a custom group that included a lot of custom characters, and then used that group in a way that caused the mission editor to add the *entire* custom group - including its custom critters - into your mission file. In general, you should *never* add a custom group to any part of a mission design unless you fully intend to use *all* of the critters within that group.
The exception: designating a custom group from which to pull a single critter to use in a place where exactly one critter is asked for. For example: selecting a boss for a boss objective. Nevertheless, be careful about the use of custom groups in missions. A sudden jump in file usage is often a signal that a custom group was used incorrectly.
Q3.4: Can I change contacts in the middle of a mission arc?
A3.4: No.
Q3.5: I made a mission, and its empty! What happened?
A3.5: One thing to note is that all mission objectives involving critters - Boss fights, rescue Ally, Battles, Patrols - all of these actually take up spawn points normally occupied by regular mission spawns. Each one burns up a place that critters would ordinarly spawn when the mission instances. If you use enough of these, you could take up all of the spawn points in your mission, making it seem "empty." In fact, its worth noting that these objectives take up spawn points even if they aren't on the map to begin with. If you make seven patrols, and set them to be "triggered" based on a blinkie, those seven patrols will "allocate" seven spawn points which regular spawns can't use. Even though when you first enter the mission that blinkie isn't clicked, and those spawns aren't there yet, they will still prevent the map from generating seven regular spawns.
This can sometimes be a good thing, if that is what the designer intended. But be warned that mission objectives do not come for free (collection objects seem to take up a completely different set of spawn points, and do not generally take up mission spawn points - they do not "empty" missions as a rule).
Q3.6: I made an ambush, and when I trigger it nothing seems to happen/it comes but doesn't attack/it spawns incorrectly with the wrong critters!
A3.6: This is a known bug. Sometimes, ambushes don't spawn. Sometimes, they spawn in a weird way and never come to you. Sometimes they spawn, come to you, and then stop short of you and never attack (unless you go and engage them). Sometimes they don't spawn as the group you specified, but rather as the default mission group. All of these bugs were detected in closed beta, but do not appear to have simple solutions to. See the next question.
Q3.7: Why can't I make an ambush be a "Required" objective?
A3.7: See above. Ambushes are not 100% predictable. If they spawned incorrectly, they can sometimes be non-completable. That would make any mission that required them to be impossible to complete. For that reason, as a safety precaution Ambushes are not allowed to be designated as Required.
Q3.8: Why can't I add more than one ambush to the same trigger?
A3.8: This is an exploit precaution. Its too gameable to make a trigger spawn a large number of a weak critter like Family and just mop them up as they charge like lemmings. Its arguable that the limit is too low (3 ambushes per mission total, and only one per trigger), but if its determined to be too low, it can always be increased by the devs later (it would be much harder to lower the limit after release).
Also: the limit is one ambush per trigger. It is possible to make two ambushes respond to a single *objective* so long as the triggers are different (i.e. you can make one ambush trigger on BossX 1/2 health and a separate one trigger on BossX 1/4 health).
Q3.9: How do I see the source code for someone else's mission arc? I would like to figure out how he/she did X.
A3.9: You can't. You'll have to ask them.
Section Four: Tips and Tricks
Q4.1: How do I make a set of blinkies, only one of which is actually required?
A4.1: Make one collection with one item that is required, and another with a bunch that is not. Then make sure that the single and multiple display text is *exactly* identical for both. The mission will combine identical text, and you'll have only a single set of text show up in the NAV for both sets, but only one of those items will be actually required to complete the mission.
Q4.2: How do I get the mission contact or other NPCs to speak the player's name?
A4.2: Although this is not 100% fully implemented everywhere yet, most text fields honor the substitution variables $name, $target, $archetype, $origin, $supergroup, $level and the gender-sensitive pronouns $himher and $heshe. There might be others that I'm not aware of at the time of this writing.
Note: $target is literally the NPC's target. This may not be what you think it is at the exact moment the NPC utters the comment (he could be targetting a controller pet, for example).
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