Mission Architect Bugs and Problems list
By
Aisynia,
Posted on: 2009-07-16 13:51 in Mission Architect
I had the "back" and "middle" spawn location problem in the City (industrial) map for an arc I made yesterday. I am also having a problem with the ally I've created. Since the arc has 8 bosses and 1 Elite Boss (or Arch Villain depending on your mission toughness setting)that must be defeated, I put her in as a healer but she keeps disappearing on me only to appear somewhere else on the map. Its not so bad that she does this but she only does it during boss fights it seems. Kind of annoying since the boss fights are reason that she's there.
Liberty: Gold-Rush, Shriek, Deadly Mantis, Saffire, G'Laxia, Gamma Crush, Yephota, Battle Vixen 2.0, Gragori, Jenna Cide, The Purple Perfection, Xarak the Unholy, Dragon Moray, Sayomi, Vanilla Shake, Teresa, Hottie McBody, Mi'Sharai, Terrordactyl, Haywire, Ms. A, Khalima, Solarri Fak'al, Hi-Fi, Disgust, Chrono-Shot.
I use both battles and patrols in my missions to add more action. However, if I have an enemy group in a battle (battling my guys for example), then a patrol from that same enemy group, at times they kill each other though from the same group, or it happens with the battle that the main group (main enemy group listed in first part of mission) will fight the battle contestants if they run into them, again, even if both are the same enemy group.
How do we correct that?
Arc: 378122 "Tales of the Terran Space Marines -The Apocalypse Initiative" 5stars!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rgl4...687B0FC89F142C
Arc: 481545 "Twilight of the Gods - The Praetorian conflict"8000+ hits!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxJ6S...848B21E2350DCC
You forgot to put in "Files cannot be saved locally so the game so new files will not be permanent"!
This is kind of minor, but: For some reason, after going into the MA, my contact always does the "fishing" emote. It would be nice if we could set an emote for the contact, but that's NOT the one I would have picked...
Mission Architect is a wonderful system ... but, it would be more wonderful if it worked better.
When MA was first made available, I was very enthusiastic. Previously, I had used similar systems such as Strategic Simulations, Inc.'s Unlimited Adventures and Bioware Corporation's Neverwinter Nights. So, I eagerly tried out MA on the test server and later used it after live release.
However, after creating several arcs, I stopped using MA because I grew frustrated. The system continually would not let me do what I want. I don't mind limitations such as "only 1 Add an Ally event is allowed on this map" because those mechanics actually help me to structure my storytelling. What I object to is when I try to do something that should work--such as, I define an event that should be allowed per the map notes--and it doesn't work. Continually trying to find work-arounds for these frustrations drove me away. Why use a system that doesn't work the way it's supposed to?
The answer is, I guess, because creating a good story arc is fun and rewarding. After being away from MA creation for many months, I thought of a story arc that I wanted to create. The past few evenings, I tried to create the story arc but ran into similar frustrations.
I'm trying to create a mission similar to the final mission of the Mender Silos task force. Here's what I want to do:
- On a large outdoor map, the player(s) can rescue allies (not required) in the front and middle of the map.
- After progressing to the back of the map, the player encounters an elite boss and must defeat him.
- Defeating the EB triggers the spawning of an arch-villain in the middle of the map.
- When the AV is damaged, an ambush event is triggered, bringing more elite bosses to help the AV.
- When the AV is damaged further, an ambush event is triggered, bringing more allies to help the player.
- Defeating the AV triggers a destructible object event, where the player must destroy five bombs, completing the mission. (Ideally, I'd prefer to have a giant monster spawn after the AV is defeated; reportedly, giant monsters will be available in a future release -- Issue 17, I think?)
Unfortunately, I was dismayed to learn that outdoor maps (I picked Atlas Park Ruined) still do not recognize front, middle, and back. When I playtested, the elite boss (who I specified should spawn in the back) was the first NPC that I saw, near the entrance. The allies to be rescued were scattered randomly.
Worse, the chained events did not work as intended. Instead of the AV spawning after the EB was defeated and the destructible bombs spawning after the AV was defeated, the AV and the bombs were scattered randomly about the map when I entered, before the EB was encountered. Do chained events not work on outdoor maps?
I haven't yet added the ambush events, so I don't know if they will work as intended. But, I do know that the positioning of the Add an Ally and Defeat a Boss events did not work. And the chaining of events did not work.
Any ideas on how I can get these features to work as intended? Or find work-arounds to achieve the storytelling goal?
oops wrong thread
Sadly, the outdoor maps are notorious for not allowing character placement. I have been able to get chained events to work, either when the previous boss was completed or down to 1/4 health. But I agree with you about frustrations, my biggest is that I can't get all of my allies to show up in relatively the same place...
Arc: 378122 "Tales of the Terran Space Marines -The Apocalypse Initiative" 5stars!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rgl4...687B0FC89F142C
Arc: 481545 "Twilight of the Gods - The Praetorian conflict"8000+ hits!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxJ6S...848B21E2350DCC
Does anyone know if the Snakes level range problem has been fixed yet or not?