AE Questions (Geez, that's original!)

[Retroman]

I'm completely new to the Architect, but I wanted to try my hand at creating something simple.

 

Basically, I set it up as a Defeat All Skulls, Check the Safe, and Arrest BoneBreaker.  After some thought, I decided to add a Rescue Hostage to the mix.  I named the hostage, etc then saved and entered the mission.

 

The Nav window looks like this:

 

 

First off, the hostage isn't even mentioned.  I turned on Invisibility and walked to the mission end room.  No hostage at all.  I looked everywhere on all 3 floors for the hostage . . . Nothing.

 

Secondly, look at the smaller print in the window.  What the heck does 1 Safe, Bonebreaker, Defeat all enemies mean?  Where did I go wrong?  And how do I fix this?

 

Help!  😕

[Take One]

Hm... looks like you wrote "Defeat all Skulls, Check the safe, Arrest Bonebreaker" in the "Compass Active Task Text" field in your mission editor.

That place is more suitable for a general reminder what your mission is about, or perhaps a general description of the location, like "Investigate the office" or such.

Each objective you add to the mission will have its own text that shows up in the navbar. If you don't enter this yourself, the AE will put something like what you see in your screenshot.

 

I will use a Boss objective as an example, similar to your Bonebreaker.

Here is how my objective's Boss Text section is set up.

Navigation Text (Plural) and (Singular) are the fields you need to look for. If you have just one boss, just add text in the singular field. "Defeat Bonebreaker" for example.

If you had two bosses you could write like I did, and the AE would automatically prepend a number in front of that line. I have three bosses so in my mission it shows up like "3 fire-stealin' horses to catch", and as you defeat each boss, the number goes down. When there is just one boss left, the Singular text is shown instead.

 

Your other objectives work the same way, but may have different text boxes depending on what kind of objective they are. But all of them should have a pair of Navigation Text fields.

 

As for what happened to your hostage, I think you may have been editing your autosave-file, and gone to test another one. Make sure that you are editing the correct file. The filename is visible at the bottom of the editor, right above where you see your file size:

 

In the screenshot my filename is PWNY07. If it had been my autosave file, it would have said AUTOSAVE. So make sure you are opening and editing the correct file, and just leave the autosave file alone unless something breaks in the file you're working on. Personally I save copies of my arcs all the time, in case I decide that I liked an older version better or if I delete a lot and decide that I needed those things after all. 

 

Good luck, and feel free to ask more questions.

 

There is also a great guide pinned to the top of this section of the forums which has lots of information: 

 

[Retroman]

Well, now I'm totally confused . . .  😕

 

Here's a pic of the Mission Detail Screen:

 

 

As you can see, I eliminated the Defeat All.  Also, notice the Rescue Captive in the Summary column.  Also notice that I am using the correct file (not the autosave).

 

When I enter the mish, this is the Navbar:

 

 

Sophia Calhoun (the hostage) isn't even mentioned.    Running to the back room shows that she isn't in the mission.  🤬

 

I've been reading the guide that you recommended (that's why I removed the Defeat All).  The guide has given me an idea, but I want to get the hostage into the mission first before I proceed any further.  🤓

 

Any and all help is (as always) greatly appreciated.  😁

[Take One]

Each map only allows a certain number of the different objectives. If your hostage doesn't "fit" when the map spawns are populated, it might just simply not show up. This is not supposed to happen but the AE will do whatever it wants sometimes.

 

What map are you using?

 

Another possibility is if you set the hostage to not be guarded by anything (if you set the enemy group to "empty"), it might instantly be "rescued" and no longer show up in the navbar. Sometimes.

[Retroman]

18 hours ago, Take One said:

What map are you using?

 

Office Standard - City of Heroes Set - 3

 

Here's a look at the Rescue Captive screen:

 

 

As you can see, the Surrounding Enemy Group is set to Skull (1-14) so she is being guarded.  It must be the map.

 

Also, I noticed while playing the real game (not AE) that there IS a Skull Boss by the name of Bonebreaker.  Is there a way to use him in my AE mission, or just go with what I have; some generic-looking Skull dude with the same name?

 

I looked through your AE missions, @Take One.  Do you have any for a solo squishy (L12 Kin/Rad Defender)?

 

Please forgive my ignorance, but what does the acronym SFMA mean?  😕

[Take One]

SFMA means "Story Focused Mission Architect" - i.e. "not a farm".

 

I think any of the low level ones could work for a level 12 Defender, so maybe "A Taste For Evil" or "A Clockwork Romance" or "The Tangled Weave". Some of them are intended for villains, specifically for villain epic archetypes, but if you just pretend to be villainous they should work fine.

 

As far as I can remember, the 'real' Bonebreaker IS a generic Skull boss with that name, so your version should be fine.

 

I can't really tell what might be wrong with your mission from the screenshot, unfortunately. 

 

I would have to look at the map in the editor and see how many objectives it's got but an office map sounds like it should work fine, so I don't know, maybe that map is broken. Have you tried another map just to see what happens? If it doesn't work on any map there's something weird going on.

 

Edit: I just noticed that your hostage is set to spawn when Bonebreaker is defeated - did you make sure to defeat him and all his minions (if the boss is set to that - there's a dropdown for it) - before you went looking for the hostage?

Edited August 7, 2021 by Take One

[Retroman]

On 8/6/2021 at 11:28 PM, Take One said:

Edit: I just noticed that your hostage is set to spawn when Bonebreaker is defeated - did you make sure to defeat him and all his minions (if the boss is set to that - there's a dropdown for it) - before you went looking for the hostage?

 

That's what the problem was.  It's now fixed, but Bonebreaker and Sophia (the hostage) aren't even in the same room.  I want Bonebreaker to be threatening Sophia ("Give me the combination to the safe or else!").  I guess he could yell it down the hallway or something 😆

 

 

On 8/6/2021 at 11:28 PM, Take One said:

I think any of the low level ones could work for a level 12 Defender, so maybe "A Taste For Evil"

 

I tried that one, but man, those Snakes hit hard!  I got through the first mission (barely), and started the second, but the Vahzilok were merciless.  2 minions took me a couple of minutes (not to mention all of my Inspirations) to beat, and they almost dropped me.  We were even-conned (both L12) so I quit.  I gave you 5 stars though . . . It was fun!  👍

[Take One]

7 hours ago, Retroman said:

I want Bonebreaker to be threatening Sophia

 

Yeah the AE is a crude tool that doesn't allow for even the most obvious and simple setups that we see in the rest of the game all the time. Your best bet here is to find a map with a small "end room" with space for one hostage and one boss, so that if you place both of them in that room you can have the boss threaten the hostage without looking like he's doing it over an intercom. Otherwise you'll just have to let him delegate the job to his underlings, who are guarding the hostage.

 

7 hours ago, Retroman said:

Snakes hit hard!

 

They do, but they are low-level mobs. As are the Vahzilok. Granted, they are probably some of the toughest ones at that level. I can only recommend a liberal use of inspirations when facing them. Thanks for playing anyway, and I hope you will try again when you've grabbed a few more levels perhaps.

[Retroman]

I might be about ready to (*gasp*) publish my first AE mission.  I'll just run through it a couple more times to make sure.

[Retroman]

After some minor tweaking, I have published "Office Building Mayhem".

 

Please be kind.  😆

[Kyksie]

VERY short and simple. but no flaws. The decorative NPCs were a nice touch. Nitpick; the "Praetorian Office" set feels out of place.

 

[Retroman]

1 hour ago, Kyksie said:

Nitpick; the "Praetorian Office" set feels out of place.

 

Yeah I noticed the picture too . . . I just couldn't find a Tiny Office map that I liked in the CoH or CoV. 

 

Heck, I even looked at the Kallisti Wharf Office Map.  That Tiny map is HUGE!

 

Glad you enjoyed it!  👍