How to make hostages appear in a specific order?
By
Decorum,
Posted on: 2009-04-23 20:18 in Mission Architect
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I'm working on an arc in which the villain leaves a series of seven holographic messages for the player. Each holograph is actually a hostage, made to look like a holograph of the villain. As the player encounters each hostage, the hostage leaves a clue, which contains the message spoken by the villain. The messages need to be read in a certain order to make sense, so I'm trying to find a way to force the player to encounter them in order.
My first attempt was simply to put them all in the mission at once, setting the first three messages to "Front", the next three to "Middle", and the final one to "Back". Unfortunately, they tend to spawn out of order. Not only might I see, say, number 3 before number 2, sometimes I'll even see number 5 before number 3. (This happens even on large, four-floor maps.) My next attempt was to chain the hostages, so that number 2 appeared after number 1 was rescued, 3 appeared after 2, etc. That didn't work well either, as the last two or three hostages wouldn't spawn reliably. (Again, even on large, four-floor maps.) I also tried picking maps that were straight and narrow, without a lot of branching points, in the hopes that they would spawn in order and be encountered in order, but no luck-- hostages would still tend to spawn out of order. At one point, I even tried converting all of the hostages to allies to see if that worked any better, but it didn't.
So, I'm stumped. Is there any way to guarantee with 100% (or even 99%) certainty that the player will encounter hostages in order, and that all hostages will be spawned? Or should I give up on the whole "holographic messages" idea entirely?
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The only way you can force the clues to be discovered in a specific order is to chain them. What happened when you did that? You said it's unreliable but didn't elaborate.
However, if you chain them together, since we can't specify exactly where mission details will spawn, you may run into players having to backtrack in order to get the next clue.
One option would be to allow the player to get all the clues in any order without chaining, which they would then have to re-order and decipher (make sure you include the text in the Clue text fields so the player has a reference!). You could even make it a riddle or something similar that becomes part of the story.
Just thoughts.
I think the major problem here is the "seven". Pare it down to "three" and you shouldn't run into any more of a problem than finding a map that will spawn it like you want.
Dec out.
Also, if you place them in the mission in the order you want them to be read and deliver the details in a clue, the clues will show in the correct sequence in their clue window, no matter what order they obtained them. If you numbered them it would also show them gaps if they've missed one.
@Sumericon:
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The only way you can force the clues to be discovered in a specific order is to chain them. What happened when you did that? You said it's unreliable but didn't elaborate.
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Sometimes, the last two or three hostages literally don't spawn at all. (Or possibly, they spawn somewhere outside the map where they are inaccessible to the player.)
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However, if you chain them together, since we can't specify exactly where mission details will spawn, you may run into players having to backtrack in order to get the next clue.
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True. I had hoped to minimize that by having the first three spawn in Front and the next three spawn in Middle, so at least the player wouldn't have to backtrack too much.
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One option would be to allow the player to get all the clues in any order without chaining, which they would then have to re-order and decipher
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That's probably what I'll have to do, unless I decide to completely revamp how I have the villain deliver the message to the player. I'm not wild about that, though, as the villain is relaying a story to the player, which makes it look weird when the clues come in out of order.
On the other hand, perhaps I could turn that to my advantage. The villain is supposed to be more than a little crazy thanks to a traumatic event in the past. If I rewrote the text to emphasize this madness, and also made each clue a little more self-contained, the results might seem less like a story told out of order, and more like the incoherent ramblings of an insane person.
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(make sure you include the text in the Clue text fields so the player has a reference!). You could even make it a riddle or something similar that becomes part of the story.
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Not really an option here, unfortunately. The whole arc is actually set up as a mystery, with a couple of red herrings in the earlier missions, but by the time of the final mission, almost everything about the villain has already been revealed.
@Decorum:
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I think the major problem here is the "seven". Pare it down to "three" and you shouldn't run into any more of a problem than finding a map that will spawn it like you want.
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If I had 1000 characters per clue, I could do that pretty easily. (Did I mention that in high school, I was always the only one in my class who struggled to keep his essays under the maximum length, rather than making them meet the minimum length? 
) Unfortunately, with only 300 characters per clue, I've already pared things down pretty significantly. But perhaps I could removed one or two parts of the villain's story, and find some other way to deliver those particular pieces of information. That might help.
@CrazyCorsaire:
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Also, if you place them in the mission in the order you want them to be read and deliver the details in a clue, the clues will show in the correct sequence in their clue window, no matter what order they obtained them. If you numbered them it would also show them gaps if they've missed one.
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Thanks, I didn't realize that. That makes me feel a little better, since a player who reads all the clues after retrieving the final clue will be able to read the story in the intended order. Luckily for me, they're already numbered and in the proper order, so I'm good to go there.
Thanks to all of you for your helpful comments. I appreciate it!
Arc# 137705: Rage Within The Machine. A mystery in five acts. Robots are rising up and attacking hero and villain alike. Who is responsible? Heroic, Very Long, Story arc, no EBs or AVs, no "defeat all", no Ninjitsu. For level 30 and up.
I'm working on an arc in which the villain leaves a series of seven holographic messages for the player. Each holograph is actually a hostage, made to look like a holograph of the villain. As the player encounters each hostage, the hostage leaves a clue, which contains the message spoken by the villain. The messages need to be read in a certain order to make sense, so I'm trying to find a way to force the player to encounter them in order.
My first attempt was simply to put them all in the mission at once, setting the first three messages to "Front", the next three to "Middle", and the final one to "Back". Unfortunately, they tend to spawn out of order. Not only might I see, say, number 3 before number 2, sometimes I'll even see number 5 before number 3. (This happens even on large, four-floor maps.) My next attempt was to chain the hostages, so that number 2 appeared after number 1 was rescued, 3 appeared after 2, etc. That didn't work well either, as the last two or three hostages wouldn't spawn reliably. (Again, even on large, four-floor maps.) I also tried picking maps that were straight and narrow, without a lot of branching points, in the hopes that they would spawn in order and be encountered in order, but no luck-- hostages would still tend to spawn out of order. At one point, I even tried converting all of the hostages to allies to see if that worked any better, but it didn't.
So, I'm stumped. Is there any way to guarantee with 100% (or even 99%) certainty that the player will encounter hostages in order, and that all hostages will be spawned? Or should I give up on the whole "holographic messages" idea entirely?
Arc# 137705: Rage Within The Machine. A mystery in five acts. Robots are rising up and attacking hero and villain alike. Who is responsible? Heroic, Very Long, Story arc, no EBs or AVs, no "defeat all", no Ninjitsu. For level 30 and up.