Mid Mission Convos w NPCs?

[Legacy247]

Hey I was just curious if there was a way to add NPCs into missions, strictly for dialogue? Kind of like the press conference at the end of who will die, or the peace talks during the Rikti Invasion Arc? 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Legacy247

[cranebump]

Not really. You can use Allies without any enemies on them, but their dialogue usually "pops" before you actually get to them. I'll freely admit I'm not the expert on this, though. 

[Legacy247]

2 hours ago, cranebump said:

Not really. You can use Allies without any enemies on them, but their dialogue usually "pops" before you actually get to them. I'll freely admit I'm not the expert on this, though. 

Thought that might be the case

[Kyksie]

There are some ways to creatively get around that. For example, in a mission I just reviewed, the player rescues an AI. Later, the player is fighting some robot foes, who say "Hi, this is the AI, I'm hijacking the robot's voice synthesizer", and use that to deliver dialog.

 

Failing that, you could just start the mission with a pop-up clue that says "Luminary follows you into the warehouse" or something. Then you fight a required boss, which gives you a clue, which reads "Luminary kneels next to the fallen Freakshow and examines his implants" or something.

[Take One]

You can set up Allies or Allied boss objectives who have their "conversation" in their Information field. You would have to give some meta-instructions in the mission briefing or the mission start popup to let the player know that they have to read the info to have the conversation.

[cranebump]

This isn’t a solution to the problem, but, in general, working with AE is often best approached using the “path of water.” Which basically means it is often better (or at least just simpler) to work with what AE gives you, rather than try to force it to do what it cannot easily do. Crafting a decent mission using the basic tools can be challenging enough. I often find myself adjusting my own goals and ideas to what I’m given, rather than the other way ‘round. It’s sorta like you’re making a movie, and you want to do ‘X,’ but you only have the budget for ‘Y.’ 

 

So, long story short: how can you accomplish the same or similar objective you’re seeking, above, given your “budget?” Do you have to have mid-mission dialogue? Or can this be something you can accomplish using clues, or your arc contact? What will your “budget” allow?

Edited July 19, 2021 by cranebump

[Ankylosaur]

You can do some creative things with escorts. They have a dialog option when you meet them and when they arrive at their destination, and can change behavior when you arrive (like wander off or betray). But its the kind of thing that works best in VERY specific situations and maps that have real front, middles, and backs in distinct areas - preferably different levels. 

 

One of my first successful attempts at this was in Rularularian Mission 4 - it worked better than I had even hoped. It uses the nemesis shard map which has a big outdoor area and small interior, and it goes a little something like this...

1. Setup
   1. Flynn, your contact says he will go in to the mission before you.
   2. Mission entry pop up says "Flynn talks to you in an earpiece and says 'Come meet me on the platform'" (Discovered if I filled all the slots, he always showed up in the same spot - I'm presuming it follows a specific load order. Will never touch the sequence I have the load items in as a result.)
   3. Flynn is an escort set to empty, and non combat - the map is set to empty and manually populated with friendly mobs.
   4. The outside area only has allies so that while you escort him he can't be killed so you won't fail.
2. The interaction
   1. You meet him and he says "Hi" and he has a destination set to another escort (Julian) inside that small room. 
   2. You lead him to that room following the waypoint and to Julian.
   3. Upon arriving Flynn is set to exit so he exits through the door to the small room saying "I'll step outside".
   4. Julian is an escort set to empty, who says "Hi, take me to that wall glowie." 
   5. Arriving at the glowie he says "click it."
   6. (In the same room are other glowies with optional info to keep the interaction going longer - you know something will happen when you click what Julian wants you to click, so you just might linger and try the optional clicks. When you do, as suggested above, the clue says "Julian tells you about this glowie." )
   7. And then you click the wall glowie.
3. The unexpected bonus
   1. Flynn comes back in from the outside!
   2. He is a Soldier/FF MM and set to trigger when the glowie is clicked and this time is an ally set to aggressive.
   3. He actually comes in through the door saying "we're under attack, let me call the troops"
   4. He then proceeds to summon his minions. 
   5. Outside wisps and some battles trigger too, so you go out with him and clean up.

 

So yeah - with some planning, the right map, some luck (like the platform and the door), and some finagling you can do some things, but it is surrounded with loads of qualifiers. 🙂

 

I have a few other missions where I managed to pull something like that off, even M3 of the same arc, but nothing as (surprisingly!) successful as that one.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Ankylosaur

[Darmian]

That mission is a damn good one, @Ankylosaur.

 

One of the things I've discovered along the way, much as @cranebump has pointed out, is the AE does what it does.  Now, you need to figure out how to make it look like you meant that to happen! 

 

You can assign an "expendable" ally to a player, one whose job is to spout useful information as they take damage, like "This guy is broadcasting some sort of signal! We'd better find the receiver."

 

But in general the type of dialog tree you're talking about simply isn't there. @Take One mentioned the meta approach where an info dump is contained in an ally's bio info, chats and so on. That's doable but you'd need to either signpost that in the mission brief or mission entry clue.