the #1 rule for using MA to make missions
By
Decorum,
Posted on: 2009-04-23 16:08 in Mission Architect
Agreed. The challenge of writing for a game is that you will never, ever be able to wholly match the vision in your head -- and you shouldn't try.
Don't ram a square peg in a round hole. Instead, design a round peg from the ground up. Don't make the story and then adapt it, consider the tools you have on hand and write a story based on those tools.
If you work with the system instead of against it, your work will be strong and the players will never feel like it's an awkward match.
Global @Twoflower / MA Creator & Pro Indie Game Developer.
Mission Architect Works: DIY Laser Moonbase (Dev Choice!), An Internship in the Fine Art of Revenge (2009 MA Award Winner!) and many more! Plus Brand New Arcs for Issue 21!
Some of the stuff doesn't really work very good though. I keep wanting to put an ally in the front. Half the time he ends up in the last room. Can't follow the rule if the rules change everytime you test it.
and you have to accept that.
Playing an arc where they expect the ally to be at the front and it isn't - leads to a bad experience.
You should be able to guarantee they are in the front (but not necessarily the very front) by choosing the right map and putting that objective first in your mission.
On outdoor maps the spawns are almost random - not really a front, middle and back.
Exactly. Work around the problems, work with the problems, don't just fold or try to force the issue. For example, if spawn placement matters greatly, use a map which is has better spawn placements; no outdoors or uniques, use the stock map sets and select one which has a clearly defined front area and is largely linear. I do that in my missions and it works out fine.
Yes, it'd be nice if these things are fixed. But it's entirely possible to write a compelling story using what we have right now.
Global @Twoflower / MA Creator & Pro Indie Game Developer.
Mission Architect Works: DIY Laser Moonbase (Dev Choice!), An Internship in the Fine Art of Revenge (2009 MA Award Winner!) and many more! Plus Brand New Arcs for Issue 21!
This last mission I have been working on for 3 or so days. I've changed maps a few times, I'm so close to get it perfect, and at times it is there.
I just need to figure what works, I guess thats why testing is so important. At least the bosses don't move around, just that one ally.
I've kinda accepted that until we actually get to pick the exact spot where we want it, it wont be perfect.
Same here, Ninja. The "perfect" ending map for my second arc was Forest Burning. But guess what? Destructable objects sometimes don't spawn right on that map. I considered making them optional, but then someone ran into another problem: a (very much required) glowie spawns inside a tree on that map.
I gritted my teeth and switched to Forest 02.
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Adapt! Improvise! Overcome! 
Or wait until there are tools to actually do what you want, I suppose. I've got a story on hold for that.
Dec out.
The slightly random spawning thing can be frustrating. I put a bunch of optional detail in my missions, and I want players to see it, not finish prematurely because the objective glowie set to spawn at the back shows up half way through the map.
The lesson I take from this is that my missions should be constructed to be interesting even if a player doesn't see all of it. It's my fault if that is not the case. Ego shouldn't get in the way of a good mission.
Hey I think I got it to work, I just ended up changing the map. Ofcourse the EB/AV still kills me but I'm working on that.
MA arcs are less a completed task and more a "process". 
Dec out.
TESTTESTTESTTEST and TEST your arc again.
Rule #1 - Put in the time and effort to make something YOU are proud of. If, say, a couple of your best buddies would enjoy playing it too, that's all the better. Then have fun with it. The rest is all BS... including necessarily heeding the self proclaimed and self appointed "experts" or critics that don't want to push boundries or have their own agenda, writing clicks, or set of rules on what an arc should or should not contain.
Rule #1a - Have respect for the efforts of others to include being original with your ideas and tolerant of even those who may do things that may not meet your definition of "good".
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom (or freem?) fighter; just as one man's exploit is another man's feature.
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Rule #1 - Put in the time and effort to make something YOU are proud of. If, say, a couple of your best buddies would enjoy playing it too, that's all the better. Then have fun with it. The rest is all BS... including necessarily heeding the self proclaimed and self appointed "experts" or critics that don't want to push boundries or have their own agenda, writing clicks, or set of rules on what an arc should or should not contain.
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Is that your opinion as a self appointed expert?
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Adapt! Improvise! Overcome!
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Submit! Surrender! Capitulate!
What? I wanted to play too. ;p
For Great Justice!
Clint Eastwood says you should get off his lawn. 
Dec out.
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But putting in all text for a rescue ally - and it plays all at once
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Im having this problem.
Seems like when I did a test mish it worked but now it won't.
Is this a bug?or am i doing something wrong?
@1st. Son
Help Agent Martin in: A Favor for Liberty
AE arc #381565
My 1st. Video: Agent Martin in the new tutorial zone.
bumpity bump
@1st. Son
Help Agent Martin in: A Favor for Liberty
AE arc #381565
My 1st. Video: Agent Martin in the new tutorial zone.
it's a bug. not you
Tyvm .Ill stop wasting time on that.
@1st. Son
Help Agent Martin in: A Favor for Liberty
AE arc #381565
My 1st. Video: Agent Martin in the new tutorial zone.
1) You have to make missions that work in MA
If you just want to make a pure representation of your vision uncompromised by reality - write a story. The point of making a mission in MA is to have a mission that runs in CoX - whether you publish it or not.
You will drive yourself crazy if you think of stories/missions and then try to warp MA into making them. You are crazy if you decide a mission is done when half of it doesn't really work because it doesn't really work in MA.
Now there is suspension of disbelief. It is a game. Players realize it. The ally standing there waiting to be rescued requires suspension of disbelief - players will do that.
But putting in all text for a rescue ally - and it plays all at once and at the wrong time - that's just annoying.
Or putting in /ninjitsu which one shots the player - because the "mission requires stealth" is foolish.
MA is a framework for creating missions. Use it to create missions. Make the best MA missions you can. But accept the limitations and work with and around them. Don't decide what is "required" and then ignore the fact that it doesn't work, is boring, unpleasant, or fattening.