the best single mission I've seen
By
American_Angel,
Posted on: 2009-04-20 09:08 in Mission Architect
Tempest is an SGmate of mine, I'll point him in this direction to see what insights he can share.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
If you want to see a very well done single mission I recommend A Tangle in Time (2622). You'll know which one.
I have tried to write a story that has some 'sequence of event' issues in it. The final mission has some do X to summon Y sorts of things that go with the story.
If you with to look at it, it is called 'Of whips and black leather'. I have no idea what the ID number is. It is for high level heroes - and I recommend a large group. Please give me some input if you do it.
It does make me want to up the ante on my next work.
My first mission "American Welcome" has a set series of events from mission to mission but not so much within each mission itself. That's an awesome idea because you could manage to milk the 'middle' and 'back' of the mission map to create much of what I already do with the 'end of mission/ report to contact' portion of my arc.
I kind of did that in Beer Bad which is in beta now (just search up Beer Bad and you'll find it), but it's still a work in progress.
hmmmn...a sequence of events...like collect "A" in front of mission...Collect "B" in middle of mission, then use "C" to combine them.
Is that what you guys mean?
yep.
instead of relying on 2 or 3 missions to tell the story - put it into 1 mission.
I haven't played very many single mission arcs, but one I enjoyed was:
The Cult of Madness
Arc ID: 4348
It was nicely done with pretty good atmosphere and a cool looking custom group.
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yep.
instead of relying on 2 or 3 missions to tell the story - put it into 1 mission.
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There's a small problem with that. It can make the mission seem a lot longer than it is advertised.
I did one that was 'medium' with not a lot of info. Figured I'd take a chance. First it was a Kill All coupled with a Destroy 5 altars. Okay, got it. But when that was done, it was 'track down boss', which wouldnt' be so bad but the map was pretty twisty turning (it was a CoH one), so I finally find boss and down her. Then pops up "destroy 5 portals", and these are of course scattered in the mission.
At that point my 45 minutes for a medium mission was looking like an hour and half and I just quit.
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yep.
instead of relying on 2 or 3 missions to tell the story - put it into 1 mission.
[/ QUOTE ]
There's a small problem with that. It can make the mission seem a lot longer than it is advertised.
I did one that was 'medium' with not a lot of info. Figured I'd take a chance. First it was a Kill All coupled with a Destroy 5 altars. Okay, got it. But when that was done, it was 'track down boss', which wouldnt' be so bad but the map was pretty twisty turning (it was a CoH one), so I finally find boss and down her. Then pops up "destroy 5 portals", and these are of course scattered in the mission.
At that point my 45 minutes for a medium mission was looking like an hour and half and I just quit.
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it is easy to chain a bunch of objectives - it is tough to do it well.
we may just need better tools to make it work properly
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we may just need better tools to make it work properly
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Something like the base editor perhaps? Where you place the objectives instead of table and chairs. (This would, of course, only be viable on non-random maps.)
being able to place objectives would be ideal.
but other things could work:
guaranteed front, middle, back placement.
leveled maps letting you choose for certain which level it is on (so a 5 level map would give you 5 areas of placement)
one guaranteed front of mission spawn (your ally could be there, or something you want them to see first).
triggering things to appear in the same room/spawn - so destroy an altar and the demon appears there, not an ambush and not in some random location
having clickies that trigger always appear, but just get made clickable when triggered - so you see the altar as you are going through even if you can't click on it. When you get told to destroy the altar you might remember where it was.
I have two missions in my arc that have mission objectives that are sequential, but not chained (I hate chained objectives that make you run back through the map). Even the clues the NPCs give, talking about other NPCs you meet further on, are sequential. It was tricky making that work and finding the right maps for it so that they always spawned correctly. Trial and error and good placement. It does not work on outdoor maps at all.
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I will add yours to my list to try.
My arc, #5381, "The Unborn Conspiracy: The Council of Thorns" also does a decent job of this, after much trial and error. Mission one has you rescue an NPC and lead her out, which has her doing an animation and dialogue on a "device" at the entrance which leads to the next objective, which is to destroy a device in the middle of the mission, which restores power to the base so that the NPC from objective one tells you where to find the boss, objective three. The third mission, likewise, has you rescue and Ally at the beginning of a map, who then "leads" you to a portal in the middle of the map where he views the way to complete your goal, which is located at the end of the map.
Here's a review of my arc from another user.
It took some work and some specific map choices, but in the end I think it was worth it. I'll have to try out the missions from this thread to see how others have done it.
it's in an arc called The Wages of Sin Part 1 or somesuch, by @Tempest Master (not me).
It's the 2nd mission, and it has a full story basically in the mission. You get X things, you do Y with them, that summons Z and you have a prolonged and dynamic conflict. And it does it in the order you go through the mission - you don't have to run around the map several times to go back and find things.
My arc is mostly outdoors maps, so I haven't been able to sequence events. Anyone else created or found a mission where it has a good sequence of events in the mission telling the story?