Help a noob make an arc for noobs

[DougGraves]

I've decided to make my own arc after playing so many good ones.  I am going to make a level 1-5 arc, so I have something to do with all of my new characters.  I read Charlie's guide which told me about many things I had no idea you  could do.  I already had planned on using the atlas park fashion show for the climactic mission but now I want a crime scene investigation.

 

But my arc idea is simple.  First map is outdoors and you help the police face the standard AP villain groups.  But there are a few unusual villain groups mixed in: snakes, destroyers, and infected (could be different ones but those fit the low levels).  The question is who are these mysterious villains and what are they doing in AP.

 

Then you get 3 missions, one for each of those villain groups.  I will use thematic maps, snake caves, etc.

 

Then the final mission is a celebration in AP for you but with villains you have to fight.

 

So starting with mission 1:

 

There are several outdoor maps but is there a good midsize map of the city?  I don't want the AP maps of the statue since I will be using that for the final mission and it normally is not overrun by villains.

 

I want to use police officers.  I would like different uniforms for them, but the level 1 police all look the same.  Is there an easy way to make them look different? 

 

For police I can set up battles, but Charlie recommends setting them as ally bosses or something (I need to re-read that) instead.  Battles start as soon as you enter.  I tested a version and found that the battles tended to be over by the time I got there, so a different version might work better.  If you set up police as allies without a battle do they follow you around or just stand there? 

 

I want Flower Knight for the mission against the Infected - is she available somewhere in AE?

 

My basic plan for mission 1:

 

3 ally rescues are required.  Each is a police officer.  When you rescue them they tell you about a special villain type.  I have to decide if I want them to follow you, maybe have 1 or 2 follow you?  Each triggers a boss objective of the villain type.  So you rescue Officer Flint and have to then defeat a Snake boss, etc.

 

Civilian mobs to have civilians standing around

 

Allies that are civilians that have to be rescued from vahz

 

Defendable objects being destroyed by hellions

Defendable objects being destroyed by clockwork

 

Police battles or bosses set as allies

 

Any other bits I should add for flavor?  Or thinks I should know?

 

Testing - is there a way to just jump to later missions or to test mission 4 do I have to play through the first 3?

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by DougGraves

[Kyksie]

When you're testing the mission locally, open the "architect options" tab, it gives you a bunch of abilities. You can autocomplete missions, become invincible, etc.

 

I would recommend against using defendable objects. Sometimes the mobs start attacking them before the player even gets there, causing the mission to fail.

[DougGraves]

Thanks.  I was planning on making the defendable objects not required.  Just for flavor. 

[Darmian]

Hi @DougGraves.  As far as I can see Flower Knight is not in the AE.  I then had a go at making a version, but some of her look seems custom built to her.  Her face isn't in the list.  The design on the back of her robe isn't available and her bracers are not either of the two currently in the selection.  I did hash up an approximate, and I've attached it here if you want a look or want to tinker with it yourself.Flower Knight.critter

 

That file just needs to be copied into your critters folder in Architect where you have Homecoming/COH installed.  You can easily check by looking at the save path for a custom critter then dropping it in there.

Edited April 30, 2021 by Darmian

[Darmian]

Writing an AE for the first time is testing testing testing. And still getting it wrong, I know I did! Charlie's guide is a great outline starter, some lovely ideas in there. I don't agree with all of them but they're a solid jumping off point.

 

Some curiosities. You can set a battle to have only one side, which is handy for spawning an enemy that won't wander around like a patrol, and doesn't need to have a boss.

[Darmian]

What are you defining as midsize for a City Map?  Personally I'd look at Unique Maps/City Map 01 or City Map 03, for decent sized. (One appears to be Kings Row and the latter looks like part of Steel Canyon*)

 

Now, spawn points on outdoor maps are a PITA. But you'll see that as you test.  

 

As for Police?  Well, you can rename/recolor the Rogue Isles RIP into a custom group for yourself if needed, or, what many of us do, build your own.  It's just a matter of variety with minions/Lts/bosses etc.  Re-read Charlie's comments on the save path if you want different ones with the same names rather than a mass of cloned cops.

 

If you set up police as allies then they appear singly, and you have to set them to Follow, and you need to decide are they Aggressive/Defensive/Pacifist etc.

 

Civilian mobs aren't a thing.  Oh dear god I wish they were.  There being no civilian mobs is why you ran into a weird bunch of lawyers in one of mine.  Had to make them, and custom set them to have no powers (choose a power set - you can't not - but no powers in that set.)

 

 

* City Map 02 is a long narrow strip that people seem to like for farms but is IMO mostly useless for an SFMA arc.

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Darmian

[DougGraves]

1 hour ago, Darmian said:

Civilian mobs aren't a thing.  Oh dear god I wish they were.  There being no civilian mobs is why you ran into a weird bunch of lawyers in one of mine.  Had to make them, and custom set them to have no powers (choose a power set - you can't not - but no powers in that set.)

 

You can create custom NPCs and have them appear as a boss encounter but set as allies.  They will fight villains if they run into them but are allied to you.  It works reasonably well for having civilians standing around.

 

I do need to figure out Charlie's method of having them all have the same name.

 

Through testing I have found with spawns of "civilian" allies I can put them as a lot of the spawns on an outdoor map so there is a lot of running around but only half as many enemies to fight.  Makes it a lot less painful.

[Darmian]

7 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

You can create custom NPCs and have them appear as a boss encounter but set as allies.  They will fight villains if they run into them but are allied to you.  It works reasonably well for having civilians standing around.

If you don't have them as an actual mission objective though they may not follow you even if you chose that option.  AE can be peculiar that way.  Just a heads up.  And even if they do once, there's a good chance they might not on a second or third test.

[DougGraves]

I don't want them to follow.  I just want them to stand around so it looks like there are civilians in the city and it is not just hellions everywhere.

[Darmian]

Having them all with the same name is fine.  The large name you give them in their bio screen, for example POLICEMAN ALPHA, just set that once and don't worry about it.  Go to the bottom of the screen and click on the save path, then when you see where POLICEMAN ALPHA is written, for the next one you change that to POLICEMAN ALPHA2.  Now you have two variants of POLICEMAN ALPHA.  The player sees two different minions with the same name, the internal game engine sees them as separate entities.

[Darmian]

I've replied as well, @DougGravesin your other thread.  

[Darmian]

My experiment with the lawyers that you met was slightly different than yours, in that I wanted the player to experience things getting out of hand as innocents got caught in crossfire.

[Cruiser_7]

On 4/30/2021 at 5:29 PM, Darmian said:

Having them all with the same name is fine.  The large name you give them in their bio screen, for example POLICEMAN ALPHA, just set that once and don't worry about it.  Go to the bottom of the screen and click on the save path, then when you see where POLICEMAN ALPHA is written, for the next one you change that to POLICEMAN ALPHA2.  Now you have two variants of POLICEMAN ALPHA.  The player sees two different minions with the same name, the internal game engine sees them as separate entities.

 

Just wanted to thank you for this advice. I too was looking for this solution and your post is right on the influence.

[Ankylosaur]

On 4/30/2021 at 3:11 PM, Darmian said:

As far as I can see Flower Knight is not in the AE. 

She is in AE under pets - you can add as an ally or rescue from the pets group - but she is first level. 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Ankylosaur

[Darmian]

1 minute ago, Ankylosaur said:

She is in AE under pets - you can add as an ally or rescue from the pets group - but I think she is first level. 

AH!  Nice catch, @Ankylosaur!  I never considered looking under Pets, fer Gawd's sake, LOL.

[Ankylosaur]

that way you get the fancy back to her jacket 🙂

[Darmian]

Plus her face.  Because there's actually a missing Young Face in the female list, might even be hers.  Around 12 or 13.

[DougGraves]

What is in pets?

[Darmian]

Flower Knight!  @Ankylosaur found her there!  Odd place I know.

 

So when you choose an Ally or Person to rescue, you can choose her from Standard/Pets.  Although that version is only Level 1.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Darmian

[cranebump]

Man, would I not use an outdoor map for your first mish script. Spawn location is usually pretty random. But I see Darmian already warned about that. The main thing is test, and with different ATs if possible. Some will cruise. Some might crash. You’ll get a good indication of how balanced your arc is if multiple ATs can handle it.

[Darmian]

On 4/30/2021 at 10:26 PM, DougGraves said:

I don't want them to follow.  I just want them to stand around so it looks like there are civilians in the city and it is not just hellions everywhere.

A weird thing is, if you have an Ally to meet but they're set to not follow then they won't...initially.  But if you pass by them again then they may very well follow you and stand around judging your abilities, eating popcorn and thinking they could do better. Okay, not all that but they have been known to follow if you link up with them a second time. Best to have them able to defend themselves or untouchable in that case. Ask @cranebump!

[Darmian]

Oh, and a thing I recommend to everyone writing an AE for the first time: Pick the map you want, set it to Empty for Enemy Type, Set a single collectible to get as an objective and then go in and walk the map. Get to know your space, because sometimes, more than you'd expect, the spawn points in the actual mission map might not line up with the ones on the creator/writing screen.