Wait, what? Since when do ally clues drop when you enter the mission? Or is this an unguarded ally?
Besides, they changed it at some point so the ally doesn't count as "rescued" until you actually pick them up, for purposes of mission objective...I think it also applied to clues. It really annoyed me at the time because then I couldn't pull an ally's guards away and complete the objective without having an EB following me around and killing everything anymore. Did they change it back?
Either way, I wouldn't recommend putting critical information in anybody's bio. It's too easy to skip over.
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
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Nope, if the ally is unguarded the clue auto-drops at mission entrance as it is considered "complete". The only workaround to that is if the mission has an outdoor/indoor element (i.e. the breakout map) and the ally spawns inside. Since you start outside the clue won't auto-drop and will only hit when you "interact" with the ally. So that is one workaround but gives you a limited number of maps you can work with.|
Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
Besides, they changed it at some point so the ally doesn't count as "rescued" until you actually pick them up, for purposes of mission objective...I think it also applied to clues..
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There really isn't much you can do, but one thing I will tend to do is use the ally as an escort or, if you want them to be combat-ready, find another way to introduce the clue. What I will do sometimes is have a glowie so that I know it will spawn further into the mission than the ally, then have the glowie nav text say "Meet <person>, then lead them to <glowie name>." Technically the meeting of the person isn't necessary, but from the nav text it appears to be, then have the glowie be something where the ally "explains" their story to you and that way you can give the ally a clue. It's a horrible and annoying workaround for a bug that should be very very very easy to fix but of course AE gets the bottom of the work-order because you can't trick freedumbers into buying new toys with AE so it's not making them money. AE used to get slow fixes before freedumb, now fixes are almost non-existent...
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Yep, unguarded. Nope, can't use that sort of map at all for the mish I have planned; didn't know that though, so thanks anyways. |
Originally Posted by Evangel_NA
Nope, if the ally is unguarded the clue auto-drops at mission entrance as it is considered "complete". The only workaround to that is if the mission has an outdoor/indoor element (i.e. the breakout map) and the ally spawns inside. Since you start outside the clue won't auto-drop and will only hit when you "interact" with the ally. So that is one workaround but gives you a limited number of maps you can work with.
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Originally Posted by Evangel_NA
There really isn't much you can do, but one thing I will tend to do is use the ally as an escort or, if you want them to be combat-ready, find another way to introduce the clue. What I will do sometimes is have a glowie so that I know it will spawn further into the mission than the ally, then have the glowie nav text say "Meet <person>, then lead them to <glowie name>." Technically the meeting of the person isn't necessary, but from the nav text it appears to be, then have the glowie be something where the ally "explains" their story to you and that way you can give the ally a clue.
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Originally Posted by Evangel_NA
It's a horrible and annoying workaround for a bug that should be very very very easy to fix but of course AE gets the bottom of the work-order because you can't trick freedumbers into buying new toys with AE so it's not making them money. AE used to get slow fixes before freedumb, now fixes are almost non-existent...
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But who the bloody hell wants to buy a "consumable" for an under-supported system?
Purchasable arc slots are also why we'll only see a meager few DCs handed out - a DC means the author gets an extra arc slot without paying for one, so it's just not in their "best interest". At this point I'm ready to delete old arcs to make way for new ones, rather than buy another slot.
Anyways, rant over.
Making an unguarded ally "dead" or "unconscious" presents a new problem in that when an outside force "interacts" with them they stand up and just stand there like idiots. In that situation one workaround would be to make them bosses set to ally that way you can't "interact" but can use the unaware text (which is 300 characters just like a clue, I believe) to have them speak to you when you approach them. I have done this in a yet to be published arc and it works great.
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Right, because who wants to buy add-ons for a shoddy product?|
Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5
Purchasable arc slots are also why we'll only see a meager few DCs handed out - a DC means the author gets an extra arc slot without paying for one, so it's just not in their "best interest". At this point I'm ready to delete old arcs to make way for new ones, rather than buy another slot.
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Actually the lack of DCs is more likely due to apathy, because THERE'S SOMETHING SHINY OVER THERE!!! Didn't I say, when they started that MA Thrusday thing, that I gave it six months, tops, before they got bored and stopped doing it? How many weeks in a row have they skipped now?
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Originally Posted by Evangel_NA
Making an unguarded ally "dead" or "unconscious" presents a new problem in that when an outside force "interacts" with them they stand up and just stand there like idiots. In that situation one workaround would be to make them bosses set to ally that way you can't "interact" but can use the unaware text (which is 300 characters just like a clue, I believe) to have them speak to you when you approach them. I have done this in a yet to be published arc and it works great.
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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
Quote:
Sadly that is the case though no matter what route you go. At least this way the player won't be responsible for activating the unconscious person. A patrol or even nearby boss set to villain definitely could though. One workaround is to make a custom character (unless you specifically want a signature character from game that is impossible to reproduce) and make the character have no attack and some stupidly low defense. That way if they accidentally are interacted with they will be killed relatively quickly and will go back to being dead. Of course that would mess up their text and they would eventually disappear.|
Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
The downside is that if an enemy approaches they will get up and fight.
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It's sad that there is no option for something like this. I know it's a relatively unique request but when AE was released it was all about allowing the user to be creative and the tagline was always "you can't do that... yet!"
I feel like "yet" never came...
Brief update: one can tie the enemy-less ally to spawn after another mish requirement has been completed. It's of course hard to guarantee that the ally will spawn in the same room as the completed objective, but sometimes 'close' is close enough. Astute use of the auto-spoken lines and the then-dropped clue could be put to good use by a crafty writer.
Which doesn't still help my above arc, but I'm currently working on a shorter one and was faced the same problem and though y'all might like to hear this...
So I'm working on a new arc and in one mission I have about five clues that drop, each one advancing the story along in chronological order until the last one. Trouble is, two of them drop from an ally you rescue, which means that as soon as you step into the mission, boom, you've acquired ally and the clues drop, thanks to the on-going bug (wonder if they'll ever fix that, it's been there since day one). In my testing I found this spoiler-riffic, which sort of destroyed the atmosphere of slowly building suspense I was going for.
To solve it, my first guess is to move the clue info into the ally's bio, I believe I can squeeze it in there. I don't mind eliminating a dropped clue anyways, I'm finding more and more than "clue clutter" detracts from my enjoyment of a story rather than adds to it, it's too much of a crutch.
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But then I wonder if anyone is going to read the info there in the bios? I know some of us hardcore players go though and carefully scrutinize any and all available texts, but I'm wondering you think enough people will check to make this work - or will I end up with lots of "what? I didn't see anything anywhere that told me who killed" type comments?
Maybe some of you wise MAers have a better work around suggestion?