I guess you can do something a bit similar already.
You put an objective and accomplishing it triggers an ambush. Defeating this ambush could be set to trigger another one and so on...
Interesting idea... There are a couple detail types that allow for a relatively static ally: ally boss, captive w/ ally surrounding group, and ally w/ "Nothing" behavior. The only things missing are the ability for players to have any control over where details are spawned, and some resource limiter that would force them to choose what to spawn out of a larger pool of possibilities.
If the devs added a "Here" spawn point, you could link the spawns to collection details. But of course you'd need to be able to have some control over the spawn point of collection details. You'd also need to preferably set ambushes to ambush to a point other than the player. So you could set up collection details where you wanted them, say in a room of a cargo ship, set each collection detail to spawn a different type of static ally, link the collection detail to an ambush that runs through the room, and you'd have a pretty damn good tower defense simulator.
Neat.
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Uhm, can someone explain to me what is this "tower defense" you speak of? The thing James_Joyce described sounds sort of interesting.
Just google tower defense. It's a game setup based on something from... I want to say Warcraft III, but it might have been II.
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
Defendable objects can already be used, but I don't know how many waves they use. If I had to guess I'd say it's like the Skulls mish where you defend the artifact and there're about 3 waves or so.
Also, you can't trigger an ambush from an ambush, as far as I know, can you?
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Uhm, can someone explain to me what is this "tower defense" you speak of? The thing James_Joyce described sounds sort of interesting.
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The basic idea is this:
1 - You have an object that you need to defend
2 - A wave of bad guys spawns and rushes forward to attack the object.
3 - Shortly after you defeat the wave, another wave attacks, but this wave is slightly stringer
4 - Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the object is destroyed.
This is pretty much how the Terra Volta respec trial works hero side. There is a reactor in the middle. Waves of freaks spawn and attack it. You have to defend it. At first the waves come in one at a time, then two at a time, I can't remember if they ever come in three at a time. After about 10 iterations of attacking waves, the trial is over. It's a good time.
I assert that the Mission Architect needs to be able to accommodate this behavior. The three or four waves we are currently limited to just aren't enough.
The only way I can think to simulate the increasing power of each wave would be to use destructible objects across multiple small maps. Set up the first encounter to be easy, the next to be a bit harder, etc. once you have used up all of a maps spawn/ambush points, go to the next map and continue.
The problem I've hit is that I can't figure out how to make the waves progressively harder in such a way that you creep across the line from 'hard' to 'impossible'. All my efforts so far have gone from 'medium' directly to 'impossible' - and that's no fun.
I'll keep plugging away at it. Once I have something that isn't crap, I'll publish it.
http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/Game3.asp
That's the version I'm familiar with.
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The basic idea is this:
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One key part you missed is that you're setting up a gauntlet of immobile weapons that the ambush runs through to get to the target.
Try a typical one here
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Curiosity... satisfied! Thanks guys.
That would be cool to have.
I was actually looking forward to making a mission like the Terra Volta trial through MA, I was a little disappointed that the system doesn't really let you do it on a single map.
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Put a defendable object in a room that can hold many defendable objects. As well, put a boss in the same room with 3 ambushes attached to him. This would have to be an indoor map, because outdoor the items spawn in random locations. Attach an ambush to the defendable object, which will give it a total of two, and the boss will have 3. You can then add one or more other defendable objects which will create more ambushes. When u run out of ambushes, fill the rest of the room with destructible objects with the groups set on medium or hard. All of this will make a ton of enemies be around if the room is big enough/there are enough objects close to each other in the room.
It may not be exactly a tower defense, but it comes close, especially on large teams. I made one of my mishs in Abandoned Office 11- Hero offices- I believe, which only has two floors and the last room has places for quite a few destructible and defendable objects, as well as room for a boss. I tried using Hro'Dotz or whatever the Rikti AV's name is so that he would summon his own ambush as well, but he never uses his transponder power.
There are probably better maps with better rooms, but this was just an example.
Is there any way to simply make enemies more prone to attack the actual object? I've been testing a Defendable and the enemies tend to target me more than the object (a "getaway car" in this situation). They punch it once and then hunt me down. If I get out of the non-ambush enemy's line of sight, they just go back and do nothing. Barring that, I might be forced to create customs with high damage AOEs to increase the chance of the object getting destroyed.
Do I really need to say more?
Come-on! Would this not be the coolest? Like the Terra-volta reactor, but with UNLIMITED and INCREASING waves!
It would be AWESOME!
I'm not talking normal 'awesome' I'm talking "SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY MMMMMONSTER TRUCKS AT THE ARENA!!!" awesome.
Am I right or what?