Both of those are possible. I have the non-required boss who spawns ambushes in one of my missions. You can even set the nav window up to say "Don't fight X (optional)".
Your idea of ambushes was quite right, however, ambushes were "nerfed" IIRC so that they would not lend themselves to farming. However, if you make Bosses and their troops using power sets that have adverse negative effects and debuffs, think confuse, accuracy-debuff, endurance drainage and the likes... maybe people would follow the missions briefing more to the point. Thing is, some people would actually regard your mission as a challenge mission and simply go through it anyway... 
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Ah, NASTY non-objective bosses. Good one!
Perhaps once they've been "weakened" by other missions and objectives, present them as a mission goal, toned down somewhat.
www.paragonwiki.com is a great source of information for this game.
New or returning to the game? Want advice from experienced players who want to help YOU?
The Mentor Project: Part of the New Player Council.
Experiment with a Dual Blades / Radiation Emission Boss, surrounded by Mind Control / Dark Miasma Lieutenants and Electric Blasts / Energy Melee Minions... that ought to be fun 
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
I'd like to put in a vote *against* nasty non-required bosses.
Why?
Because we can't control exact spawn locations. Say that "non-required" boss spawns in a small corridor that you have to go through to get to the real objective. If you don't happen to have stealth, you're out of luck.
(Exception: if the boss doesn't appear until after the mission is complete, this is fine. Of course, that doesn't really work for rewarding the player for paying attention...)
Glowies or destructibles, on the other hand, would be entertaining. I'd put in a bit more of a hint, though, than just the mission send-off text - use the info for destructibles, or give the glowy a long activation time and an activation message that indicates it might be connected to an alarm...
If people aren't going to read, they won't read the second warning either. But if they just happened to zone out for a moment while reading the send off (or, worse, had to go do something else for a while before actually walking into the mission)...
Think about something like:
"Listen $name, all I know is that we need someone to get into the Council base and hack their systems... I did hear though that they've got this new wizkid who actually knows what he's doing, so if you use these passwords I gave you on the wrong terminals, expect trouble!"
Then, I'd do something in the mission itself to clarify to the observant players that certain terminals are going to spawn the unwanted ambush while other terminals are safe to hack using the given passwords.
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
... or isn't the leader and doesn't have time to read the full mission briefing prior to being pulled in...
One of my personal issues with playing CoX sometimes is how everything story-wise is so easily dismissible and everything revolves around getting to the next mob-spawn, beating it only to rinse-repeat until the mission is finished. Personally, and unless I'm dead tired, I'd prefer a mission that requires me to pay attention rather than just mindlessly fight through it.
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
I think this is a cool idea, and I have seen it done. It might be a good idea to put the "don't click this blinky" warning in the mission pop-up, the nav bar (instead of "click the blinky" it would say "don't click the blinky") or, if it's in the contact's dialogue, repeat it somewhere near the front of the mission, like maybe if you can be sure a captive or boss will spawn where the player has to go past them, add the warning to their unaware dialogue, so even a stealther will have the chance to read it.
Also, a lot of people don't know that you can right-click a blinky to see what it is, so yeah, I'd second the notion of having a warning in the activation bar. If it's a destructible, you can add the warning to the guards' dialogue.
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
Awesome idea, using the object description, Eva, thanks! 
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
On a mARC I unpublished I did this.
The first mission was to investigate why rikti were on a cargo ship. Your only purpose was to access the comm station to figure out what in the world was going on. Once you entered the ship, you came across strange devices. I had created a custom group with only rikti bosses (mentalists and heavies). I ran it on a PUG. A brute ran off and promptly spawned an ambush on top of him. It was beautiful.
Back when stacking objects worked, I had a mission where your job was to assassinate a particular person in the back room. Upon doing so, you had a HUGE ambush drop on top of you forcing you to bolt for your escape - a mystic portal in the front. (oh and the map was empty before you did the assassination so you had to fight your way back)
Another one had you going down into a dusty cave to clear it of the rikti infestation. Intelligence implied you had one assault leader to take out. Intelligence was dead wrong, and as soon as you took out the leader you found that the rikti were much better reinforced than you thought - several heavies spawned randomly on the way back, as well as a few more ambushes. The coolest thing was only seeing the rikti rifles in the dust of the cave off in the distance. It's a shame the map was so big because it got annoying after a while. But boy, was that cool.
I've actually done this. In my VERY light hearted noob vr training mission [just look up @damz], there are mini "traps".
The contact says to just collect certain objectives and then defeat the bosses that spawn from them. Do that and you finish the mission.
However there is also on the map a destructable object [car] which is titled "please dont destroy me". Obviously this would be VERY tempting for any player, but not keeping to your objectives and destroying it results in a hard ambush.
With the glowies i did the following.
Objectives = 3 safes [each one trigger a boss to spawn on the map to be defeated]
Fake glowies = 3 safes [collect all three and a hard ambush spawns once again]
Apart from or two spawning issues iv had VERY positive feedback from the way it works. Obviously though someone with a much better/fluent english language would do much better than me.
Heh, I did this on one of my arcs as well. In the third mission of "the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz" (1356), the player is dumped into what is essentially a Rikti zone invasion. The contact says to be careful and that if the player gets too much attention from the Big Bad prior to defeating him or her, the Rikti response will be swift and deadly - and it is. If the player defeats all the optional bosses, an ambush of Gunmen will teleport in right on top of the player and attack.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
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Heh, I did this on one of my arcs as well. In the third mission of "the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz" (1356), the player is dumped into what is essentially a Rikti zone invasion. The contact says to be careful and that if the player gets too much attention from the Big Bad prior to defeating him or her, the Rikti response will be swift and deadly - and it is. If the player defeats all the optional bosses, an ambush of Gunmen will teleport in right on top of the player and attack.
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Thats the kind of stuff which gets a high rating and feedback with "i love you".
The only missions i ever remember are ones with things that you dont expect. For example theres a great arc from an EU player [highly rated over here in the EU] where after you rescue the hostage, an ambush of titans comes after you. Now you think you have time before they get to you since they spawn at the start of skyway bride . . . . . but soon as you turn around . . . . those missiles come flying! The range is immense! But for the pure WTF?! moment its always stayed in everybodys mind.
More traps/wtf moments please
If anybody knows any arcs with stuff like that please send me a message!
(QR)
I've done sort of the reverse thing (although with the current state of affairs in AE missions, I think my narrative was ruined by improper placement controls, but I digress) and in the end-mission of my story-arc, I've "hidden" an ally that will help you defeat the main baddie if you read the dialog and try to figure out how to obtain the ally and where it's spawned.
Not that the story-arc required that ally to begin with, but some feedback from people who couldn't solo the arc convinced me to add the ally, and she does add a bit of hilarity to the last mission.
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
[ QUOTE ]
Also, a lot of people don't know that you can right-click a blinky to see what it is, so yeah, I'd second the notion of having a warning in the activation bar.
[/ QUOTE ]
I remember a mission where someone has set the interact text on a blinky to say "You really don't want to click this".
Am I the only one who when they read this topic had "DO NO PURSUE LU BU!" pop into their head?
[ QUOTE ]
Think about something like:
"Listen $name, all I know is that we need someone to get into the Council base and hack their systems... I did hear though that they've got this new wizkid who actually knows what he's doing, so if you use these passwords I gave you on the wrong terminals, expect trouble!"
Then, I'd do something in the mission itself to clarify to the observant players that certain terminals are going to spawn the unwanted ambush while other terminals are safe to hack using the given passwords.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh I'm so "borrowing that idea"....
My level 50 Dominators:
Madame Mindbender 50 Mind/Energy
Fly Agaric 50 Plant/Thorn
Nate Nitro 50 Fire/Psi
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Heh, I did this on one of my arcs as well. In the third mission of "the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz" (1356), the player is dumped into what is essentially a Rikti zone invasion. The contact says to be careful and that if the player gets too much attention from the Big Bad prior to defeating him or her, the Rikti response will be swift and deadly - and it is. If the player defeats all the optional bosses, an ambush of Gunmen will teleport in right on top of the player and attack.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thats the kind of stuff which gets a high rating and feedback with "i love you".
The only missions i ever remember are ones with things that you dont expect. For example theres a great arc from an EU player [highly rated over here in the EU] where after you rescue the hostage, an ambush of titans comes after you. Now you think you have time before they get to you since they spawn at the start of skyway bride . . . . . but soon as you turn around . . . . those missiles come flying! The range is immense! But for the pure WTF?! moment its always stayed in everybodys mind.
More traps/wtf moments please
If anybody knows any arcs with stuff like that please send me a message!
[/ QUOTE ]
I wish. Thus far, all it's done (AFAIK, at least) is drag the ratings down since those Gunmen will pursue the player practially anywhere - something most people aren't used to and can't adapt to, so I get 'impossible not to die, this sux' kind of feedback. Same deal with people who don't read the briefing and then get jumped by Scirocco in the 4th mission of "Hunting the Dark Dragon" (2922).
I am glad to see that I'm not the only one that enjoys some unexpected challenges, though. I was fairly sure I wasn't alone, but to actually see it confirmed does make me feel better.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
[ QUOTE ]
I wish. Thus far, all it's done (AFAIK, at least) is drag the ratings down since those Gunmen will pursue the player practially anywhere - something most people aren't used to and can't adapt to, so I get 'impossible not to die, this sux' kind of feedback
[/ QUOTE ]
Gunmen arent exactly the biggest challenge in the game though are they, you could have easily been evil and throw in a few bosses. As it is, a gunmen ambush would be a welcome suprise but something that if you are half decent, should be able to handle.
MA is my challenge mode anyway, push the limits of our characters! 
[ QUOTE ]
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Think about something like:
*
"Listen $name, all I know is that we need someone to get into the Council base and hack their systems... I did hear though that they've got this new wizkid who actually knows what he's doing, so if you use these passwords I gave you on the wrong terminals, expect trouble!"
*
Then, I'd do something in the mission itself to clarify to the observant players that certain terminals are going to spawn the unwanted ambush while other terminals are safe to hack using the given passwords.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh I'm so "borrowing that idea"....
[/ QUOTE ]
Be my guest, and drop me a line when the arc's published, I want to see how you implemented it and then steal that implementation and improve upon it!
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
I'd like to write a mission where the objective is made harder by players not paying attention to the mission briefing.
My first thought is non-objective bosses, which spawn ambushes when defeated. Briefing: Don't fight Boss1 if you can. He has a lot of friends.
My second thought is non-objective glowies or destructible objects (that explode!) which trigger ambushes. Briefing: The Circle has left mystic traps. Avoid them if you can.
Which of these are possible?
Also, in what other ways can the mission be made harder by players doing/not doing what they are supposed to do, outside of the normal objectives?
Basically, I want the players to have an easier time of it if they actually read stuff.
Yes, I understand that some players will see these as additional sources of xp.
www.paragonwiki.com is a great source of information for this game.
New or returning to the game? Want advice from experienced players who want to help YOU?
The Mentor Project: Part of the New Player Council.