City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Question re: escorts who betray on arrival

dugfromthearth

By dugfromthearth,
Posted on: 2009-05-19 10:32 in Mission Architect

 

Posted

Is there any way to make defeating the escort a required mission objective? I'm trying to make a mission where instead of the escort betraying you, the wording has you betraying the escort...but it doesn't work so well if the escort attacks you and the player chooses to run away.

Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper

Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World

 

Posted

you can't force the player to attack the escort.
players probably won't like being told what they have done

 

Posted

We are constantly told we have interrogated the boss we just beat up, actually read whatever we found in a blinky, let a hostage go, etc.

I know it'll be tricky to pull off. I wanted essentially a boss defeat where the boss talks before you beat them up, rather than after, but I guess that's not doable.

Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper

Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Is there any way to make defeating the escort a required mission objective?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not directly, no. The only way I found to get around this was to add another mission objective triggered by the successful escort - e.g. run back into the warehouse and do this one more thing. The player could still run away from the boss, but the boss will follow them and keep attacking, so they'd kind of have no choice but to fight the boss, unless they went into stealth mode or something.

That doesn't really fit the mechanic you're going for of the player betraying the hostage, but it's the only way I know of to sort of force a fight.

(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon

 

Posted

You could build it into the story so by the time that the escort is attacking you; he's doing so because he believes you've already betrayed him.

Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars

 

Posted

What about this...

Objective 1 - free the hostage. You free the hostage and he/she says, "Thank you," and runs off.

Objective 2, triggered by freeing the hostage - click on the glowie. The glowie is a file cabinet, computer terminal, desk or some other object that contains information about the hostage you just rescued.

Objective 3 triggered by completing objective 2, and required to complete the mission - defeat the boss. A boss who looks just like the hostage, spawns back near the front of the mission and based on the info you found in the glowie you decide that you need to beat the snot out of him/her.

(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon

 

Posted

I didn't know they followed you. Thanks. The mission will have additional objectives, and the escort will be in the front, and it's a villainous mission, with the escort only helping you because she believes that "the enemy of the enemy is my friend," it would be pretty easy to establish through the dialogue that you are in fact just as evil, if not worse than her captors and prompt her to turn on you.

I'm trying in this arc to include villainous alternatives to "beat the tar out of everybody and hope somebody talks."

Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper

Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World

 

Posted

Just make sure you pick the right option. I can't remember what they are called exactly, but it's like "rescue" and "escort." One follows you to the door (escort, I think) and the other just runs away when you free them.

Also, on the escort, you can set them to different modes - passive, defensive, aggressive and one other I think. In passive mode, they won't attack you even if they are set to betray you and you attack them. In defensive they'll only attack after you attack them, and in aggressive they'll attack you a few seconds after you get to the door, even with no provocation. Of course which of these setting you choose wiill also determine how they will act to any enemies you encounter on the way to door - attack, defend themselves, or just stand there and take it.

(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon

 

Posted

Argh, that thing about the settings I did not know. I don't want the escort to be failed, since it'll fail the whole mission, and combat allies tend to be dumb aggro magnets....

Maybe I'll make her passive, say that she's been wounded by her captors and that's why she can't fight, and just suggest to the player that they should beat her up. Give you the option of being a big jerk.

Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper

Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World

 

Posted

I hate to say it, but this is starting to sound like something you just can't express in the MA the way you want. Unless the fight between the escort and the player is entirely optional to the plot it's going to be hard to represent this.

I'm sort of disappointed that the devs chose to implement the "betray on arrival" feature at all. It just seems of such marginal utility compared to, say, letting you lead an escort to a glowy instead of the door.

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

 

Posted

I kinda hope it continues to be a marginal utility because that was one of the compliments I got on the first mission of my arc that contains a betrayal - no one expects it because they haven't really seen it much before, so it ends up being a, "Whoa, WTH? Cool!" moment.

(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon