Anything is possible.
Arc 1144 (shameless plug, sorry) starts with a no-enemies mission. I expect there are other maps where most/all spawns can be replaced with patrols/bosses which are only spawned once a non-combat goal is completed. Look for maps with lots of patrols/bosses allowed compared to the map size. At the least, you can keep the number of "fist-wavers" to a minimum.
Using a lot of bosses (a "boss" can be just another minion, doesn't need to be an AV) you can control the animations of the enemies and the boss, to avoid fist-punching. I have had a little trouble getting boss animation to work in some cases, but I can get the surrounding group doing all kinds of stuff if they don't have better things to do (like power up defences upon spawning).
An ambush of unique enemies is harder, since an ambush is a group. Size and makeup of group will depend on player's difficulty setting and team size, which you cannot assume.
An obtuse "single AV ambush" would be to have the AV as an escort that "Betrays on Arrival" - and starts attacking when you get him to the door. That's pretty limited scope of storylines.
Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!
I am wanting to do this for one of my missions.
I can have civilians. So I am going to see about adding in a bunch of rescue or ally missions set to "single" so the person has no enemy around them. That should make some more spawns be enemy free.
[ QUOTE ]
Anything is possible.
[/ QUOTE ]
Good to know. Can anyone tell me how it's done then?
I think airhead tried to explain it, but let me give it a shot. It's a bit subtle.
The basic idea is that there is a fixed number of spawn points on every map. Those spawn points are filled with regular spawns, but only when nothing else is occupying them. So as you add details, you're not increasing the total number of spawns on the map, what you're doing is replacing generic spawns with your details.
So if you have a map where every spawn point is also capable of holding a customizable detail, say a patrol, then you can put in that number of details (again, in this example, patrols). Then you set those patrols to only spawn when an objective is completed. When the player enters the map, there's nothing there, because all spawn points are "occupied" by the patrols even though they haven't yet spawned.
You can do the same trick with boss details, which allows you to leave the spawn standing still and also gives you control over animations. As airhead said, you don't have to make the "boss" a real boss - you can make them a minion or lieutenant for the purposes of filling the map.
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
Ah thank you that makes sense. Looks like I'll have to experiment a bit to get it how I want it, but I should be able to pull it off.
I guess I'm just not catching it. Here is what I'm trying to do...
Possibly on the Jewelry store map...
I'd like the place to be empty, except with patrols if neccessary. The hero retrieves something from a safe, suddenly there is an ambush. I would then like the bad guys to start attacking the generator that powers this building, this was an unknown item before they entered the mission. They must now defend said item from the bad guys. Upon completing the defend object... if it's possible, another ambush would spawn. End of mission.
I'm really not sure if this is doable, and if so... how?
Totally lost, I've played with the AE for about two hours now and can't get it to replicate this idea.
Any thoughts, or helpful hints would be welcome.
- J
You want:
- Collectible Object (the safe)
- First Ambush
- Defendable Object (generator)
- Second Ambush (triggered by generator)
* either the First Ambush or the Generator, but not both, can be triggered by completing the Safe
After you've placed these, look at the description of the map you've chosen. It will tell you how many "special spawns" you can have (patrols, ambushes, etc.) You've already used up some of those spawn points; now add enough patrols (or other things) to use up the remaining spawn points.
I'd like to know if it's possible to create a mission with no enemies in it until some objective has been met. It doesn't make sense for one of my missions for enemies to already be standing around everywhere. Patrols would be ok, in fact I'd like to have some. I just don't want the usual fist-punching spawns.
Besides that I'm wondering if it's possible to have an ambush with unique enemies. By that I mean I'd like it to have a custom boss in it, but it just wouldn't make sense for there to be more than one of them. The rest can be random minions and lieuts, but I don't want the boss duplicated. Based on the looking I've done so far it seems like that's not possible, but I'm hoping I'm wrong about that.