City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

New Interaction Mechanics for Mission Architect?

DeathSentry

By DeathSentry,
Posted on: 2011-01-24 24:17 in Mission Architect

 

Posted

I searched for this topic and couldn't find anything but wasn't exactly sure what to search for so hopefully this isn't a dupe.

But I was wondering - are there plans to bring the new character interaction tools into mission architect? I'm talking about how in many new missions in CoX you click on a character and hold a "dialogue" with them, and then they can either become an ally, betray you, etc.

There is no easy -- or even hard -- way to duplicate this with any satisfaction in MA. Are there plans to add this feature soon or sometime down the road. It would be neat to allow us to have the same story-telling mechanic that so many of the new CoX stories have, and would allow players to have more freedom in making unique missions!


Thanks,

Evangel

 

Posted

Actually, is there mention of any updates planned for MA? I assume in I20 we would get access to War Walkers to be used in our stories but I too was wondering about new interactions. Also, as an aside, when I look at the powers of the clockwork (have them in my arcs) and the fact that their attack emanation points include chest beams and the electrical backpack, wondering if we would eventually see emanation points added to the list of options in the costume creator for both real toons and those in MA

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

 

Posted

Not even just updates, but fixes?

I'm revamping original arcs to try out the new and "improved" features of MA but finding most of them to not be improved at all... in fact some are worse.


Escorts are buggy, betrayals work only half the time, destructible objects don't always work right, some speech is never displayed, etc. I went back to improve arcs and am now having to fix arcs that originally worked! And how can we attempt to be creative with what we have when what he have doesn't work right to begin with?


I hate to whine about MA but I feel like it has become sort of a joke in CoH largely because giant holes were exploited and devs spent so much time filling those holes that they haven't actually worked on things that could make MA more enjoyable from story standpoint. Even just a list of some upcoming ideas would be nice, or some proposed fixes coming in future updates. I'm not expecting an entire issue to be dedicated to MA anymore, but would love to at least know there are plans...



-Evangel

 

Posted

AE is probably one of the biggest pulls for me in this game. I love making stuff in it, whether it be enemy groups or compelling missions. But damn it that thing is frustrating to work with at times. The amount of bugs I've come across is ridiculous. Wouldn't mind it if someone decided to sit down and dedicate all their time to just fixing the AE.

On the subject at hand, I would definitely love for the NPC dialog option, but I doubt we'll be getting that any time soon. Seems like it'd be a pain to simply code and distribute for everyone. If we do get it, we'll probably get branching dialog for our contacts at the same time. We'll see.

 

Posted

Yeah, after the release of Going Rogue, i was really hoping they would implement some of these innovative features in the Mission Architect. At the very least, they could add a "faction change" trigger. The next arc i want to create would greatly benefit from being able to talk briefly with a few npcs before they suddenly doublecross everyone on the map. This way, you get slightly more connected to the characters and story, as well as letting you know in advance where your boss fights are going to be located.

I'd also love to customize the power colors of custom mobs. Kind of irritating when you have a color scheme all planned out and then the power set is stuck with the defaults.

And while this really isn't the thread for it, i'd like to ask the Devs to start adding more maps. There are tons of locations in game (oil rigs, industrial parks, the snow covered map from the Baby New Year event, etc) that would really be useful to us designers. Using the same caves, tech bases and office buildings over and over gets pretty old. Layout and graphics variances aside, when you've played in one, you've pretty much played in 'em all.

Ok. I'm done ranting.

Check out my "Rule Britannia" series if you feel like something different. The arcs are #19599, #20575, #23977, #134775, #134923 and #144543. The series is complete, but spinoffs are in the works.