Mission Architect Feature Suggestions
By
BlueRaptor,
Posted on: 2010-05-15 21:57 in Suggestions and Ideas
I like all those suggestions, especially the numbered spawn point interaction. That's something that'd greatly help, as I find all my work in the MA tends to go off a little due to lack of control and having had NPC's that I've wanted at the back appear in the front.
Having made that purge suggestion dozens of times I can only agree. The rest of these are also great suggestions. Especially the numbered spawn points.
I also think there should be "invisible" sentries, and that the sentries should be able to "speak" when activated. That way we could replicate the communicator effect from the new arcs in Issue 17, where our contacts and enemies "talk" to us in the middle of a mission. It could be used for many other effects as well.
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If we're going that route, music triggers as well, please.
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Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg
I also think there should be "invisible" sentries, and that the sentries should be able to "speak" when activated. That way we could replicate the communicator effect from the new arcs in Issue 17, where our contacts and enemies "talk" to us in the middle of a mission. It could be used for many other effects as well.
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I'm not sure if this thread is intended to be just for the discussion of the suggestions you presented or an amalgamation of AE-related feature suggestions altogether, but if it's the latter, I would like to add custom/canon critter hybrids to the list.
These are all excellent suggestions. Most of them seem feasible, I'd be happy if even some of them were implemented, especially the purging of old disused arcs, even though it seems like an exercise fraught with peril.
There would be untold possibilities with spawn placement control and the trigger items mentioned above. If you could cue dramatic music upon opening of back door behind which you've placed a Boss, that'd be awesome.
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Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg
Having made that purge suggestion dozens of times I can only agree. The rest of these are also great suggestions. Especially the numbered spawn points.
I also think there should be "invisible" sentries, and that the sentries should be able to "speak" when activated. That way we could replicate the communicator effect from the new arcs in Issue 17, where our contacts and enemies "talk" to us in the middle of a mission. It could be used for many other effects as well. |
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Originally Posted by IanTheM1
If we're going that route, music triggers as well, please.
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Something else I meant to suggest but isn't as high priority is the option for failed missions to repeat upon failure instead of moving to the next mission.
I think you could clear out many stories from MA by tightening the rules for publishing. Stories that have one bad guy who you have to kill 60 times are a waste of time, and there are many of these. How about some new rules? Don't allow publishing if there is:
- no dialog (make many fields required)
- only one bad guy who is cloned all over
- no story- how about minimum field lengths vice just maximum for text about story and missions? More text fields required?
- only one element like 'kill everything'- require multiple elements- kill, guard, collect, patrol etc.
Of course, some would just type in 'xxdhufriuhiurebef' and call it their story so you would need to have the software check for real words to stop that.
MS is great and there are plenty of people making much better missions that what you face in the main game. Let's make it even better by separating the wheat from the chaff.
Pretty sure none of that would work. Be pointless putting in a "word checker" when instead of "uryoul;se" they'd just put "dog cat squirrel mouse horse". All those ideas would easily be dodged by the exploiters.
1. no dialog (make many fields required) - you'd just get non-dialog dialog
2. only one bad guy who is cloned all over - so now you have two guys cloned over and over and over.
3. no story- how about minimum field lengths vice just maximum for text about story and missions? More text fields required? - Again, goose chicken pistol hammer random verb cut paste repeat.
4. only one element like 'kill everything'- require multiple elements- kill, guard, collect, patrol etc. - Random patrol + kill all. It solves nothing.
Dec out.
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I tried to do that a while ago here http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=195282|
Originally Posted by Quinch
I'm not sure if this thread is intended to be just for the discussion of the suggestions you presented or an amalgamation of AE-related feature suggestions altogether, but if it's the latter, I would like to add custom/canon critter hybrids to the list.
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I even kept updating it but it somehow died. It's late and close to 100F in here now, but if you like I can add the suggestions that aren't on it yet some time on Monday when I get back from visiting friends for the weekend.
Some good suggestions here btw, just too hot to think about them in detail...
That would be awesome if people did that. Weed out the idiots faster.
MA has a fair bit of missed potential in allowing more control over arc creation. Some things seem very hard to do at face value so I thought of these and tried to think of possible ways they would be done easier (though I'm sure Standard Code Rant is rather heavily in effect).
Difficulty in searching for arcs has always been a problem with the AE experience. The best idea I've seen is not mine and I am not taking credit for it. However, I do heavily support it.
* Create a new "freshness" classification for arcs. An arc can be "fresh" or "stale".
* A newly published arc is marked "stale".
* An arc is marked "fresh" if someone (including the author) plays through the arc from beginning to end.
* An arc is marked "stale" if the author republishes it. (But becomes "fresh" again if the author playtests it.)
* Every patch (or possibly only patches that affect MA) automatically marks all arcs "stale", except for honored arcs (guest author, dev choice, hall of fame). Honored arcs are permanently "fresh".
* Add a "freshness" search criteria allowing users to search for "fresh" "stale" or "don't care" on freshness.
* Set the default search to only search for "fresh" arcs.
Advantages:
* Automatically expires old arcs that are not maintained, without actually deleting them. (However, you can save a beloved arc whose author has vanished by playing through it on your own.)
* Encourages authors to playtest their own arcs after each republish and after each patch. (This is a good practice in general.)
* Low development effort (at least, I think so)
* If you vanish for a year and your arc goes stale, you can come back and it's still there, though it may need some sprucing up.
This doesn't address the exp issues, but would address the clutter issues. Not sure if cleaning up the arc clutter is even on dev radar at this point (I'm sure there's a lot of bigger fish to fry), but thought I'd put this forward just in case.
Greater control over spawns has been heavily requested for a while. However, there's any number of problems ranging from difficulty in setting it up to potential exploits. What I think may work is a numbered system.
From what I can tell from using Test mode, spawn points and objectives are actually internally numbered. So, in addition to Front/Middle/Back, we could get a brand new "Numbered" option that creates another drop down list that allows us to select a spawn point by its internal number. Add in a visible highlight to the editor's mini map so the player doesn't have to zone into the map every time. This would seemingly avoid player error of sticking a spawn in a wall and would also lessen exploit-ability due to being spawn points the devs have already created.
This feature would not only open up the door for other features that would otherwise be unfeasible, it also has the 'two birds in one stone' factor of clearing up a lot of other spawn problems. This would give control over outdoor spawns which is a godsend for creators. It would allow you to place enemies in specific places to act as sentries for a stealth mission. It could also solve the often requested feature of having a specific unique enemy guarding a hostage. And it give players the power to "solve" buggy spawn points by allowing the player to set required objectives in places where they won't get stuck in the geometry.
This is connected to the idea of precise spawn points. With more spawn control, we can now lock certain doors and give keys to enemies while making sure they are in the right place. Sentries would be a new objective that would be a non-moveable camera like the ones in the pawn shop Mayhem mission that triggers ambushes. The sole purpose would be for it act as a trigger for other objectives. It allow the writer to spawn ambushes or perhaps even allies if the player is seen. Sentries would come in a few visual styles based on cameras an SG base defense weapons that already exist so that they are easier to match up with an arc's setting. Ceiling and floor variants would allow these to be indoors or outdoors.
With more spawn control and various sentry and lock+key systems in place, this opens up the path for Environmental Effects. For this objective, the writer would be able to select Front, Middle, Back, or a Numbered spawn point and the effect would be placed in that area. You could use visual fog, fog with an actual visibility debuff, fires, CoT crystals, repel fields, and more. This with previous things in place would allow arc writers to actually craft events within their arc instead of just linear fights.
Something requested often is the ability to have ambushes that have a specific unique boss leading the charge. Mayhem missions and the redside cape mission are the best examples of this. Rather than altering ambushes, add a new option to bosses for them act as an ambush. This would allow the option to exist and it would also avoid clogging up the hard cap of ambushes per map. Bosses should also gain betrayal options that go both ways (ally to enemy or enemy to ally) and a new selection in the defeat condition for Objective Complete Upon Betrayal. This allows you to defeat a boss by converting him/her to your side due to either chickening out before they lose all life or perhaps finding a clickie that remove your ally's brainwashing, etc.
Their powersets have been requested in the past for Mission Architect but not granted. Presumably there's a quirk about them that prevents their inclusion. One suggestion is to allow them as entire, non-editable sets based on the NPC versions of Arachnos and the PPD Kheldians with a 'blank' secondary as a placeholder. Using NPC powers helps assure that they are balanced while allowing players to make thier own custom outfits as needed, especially if the full SoA outfit pieces are made available. The interesting thing about doing whole NPC sets like this is that it actually opens up room to use it for other NPC powers like the various gunner/slicer/chopper variants you see lowbie gangs using and isn't available in the MA since we can't use two weapon sets.
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