Suggested text change for opposite-faction SG base zone teleporters

[RikOz]

Scenario: In one of my "hero" SG bases, alongside the the teleporters for all the zones heroes can visit, I added a teleporter for accessing Rogue Isles zones because my SG includes a couple vigilantes, and one hero-gone-rogue (she's not really a "rogue" - I changed her alignment because she has a vendetta against The Family and there seem to be more Family missions on redside).

 

I ran into a problem when setting up this teleporter, because it seemed to not be working. I was setting it up with a hero character, and when I tried to test it to make sure the beacons had connected properly, I just kept getting the "This teleporter has no destination beacons. To activate this teleporter, create a destination beacon and place it nearby" message. This led me to think that the beacons weren't properly connected, and I wasted a lot of time deleting everything and starting over, two or three times.

 

Needless to say, when I clicked it again, this time with one of my vigilantes, it worked properly.

 

So my suggestion is to add a message for the benefit of wrong-faction characters trying to use the teleporter. For example, show the zone list as normal, but pop up a "you can't go there" type of message if they click on a zone.

 

As it stands now with the current message, it just makes it appear that the teleporter is broken/not set up correctly.

[Rudra]

Since the way the teleporters work is you click the desired zone and are immediately sent there, that would entail modifying the code to add a pop-up asking if the character actually wants to go to the selected zone in order to have the proposed flag. That, or the ability to display the zone but have the selection greyed out.

 

I've run into the same problem in a few bases I was setting up where I would go to test the teleporters and see nothing. And then waste time troubleshooting because I was the wrong alignment. Easiest fix would be to just make your base edit permitted characters be vigilante or rogue alignment only. I am still in favor of this suggestion though. I just don't know if it could be implemented without overhauling the teleporter code.

 

Edit: Or here's a thought. Modify the code that brings up the no linked beacons message to run an if else statement. If the teleporter has linked beacons but the character is the wrong alignment to use all of them, then the message would be "This teleporter has no destinations available to your alignment." And if the teleporter lacked linked beacons, it gives the standard message. That would preclude the need to re-write as much code.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Rudra

[RikOz]

Yeah, I've noticed there are pop-up warnings when a vigilante or rogue exits a neutral zone like Pocket D or the Midnighter's Club, letting you know which "side" you're about to enter. So I was thinking of something similar for the base teleporters.

[Uun]

I have one base for all my characters on Excelsior. It has 4 teleporters covering 10 zones each. I put all the Rogue Isles (7) and non-coop Praetoria destinations (3) on one teleporter.

[Blackfeather]

It does sound useful to have something like that! Something that might help in the meantime is checking the portals in build mode, and seeing what teleportation points are attached to them - at least in my experience that does help with keeping track of things a bit. Combined with an arrangement that separates things a bit, like Uun's said.

[Rudra]

I've taken to putting in beacons alphabetically in groups of 10 on my base teleporters. That precludes this problem because when I go to test the teleporters, I will always see something and know it is working. However, I used to have teleporters split by destination. So I had 2 teleporters that went to hero zones, 1 that went to villain zones, and 1 that went to co-op zones. Being able to separate teleporters for purpose is nice too. Having an alternate message that comes up if you are the wrong alignment to use a teleporter as it is currently set up would help people like me not have to spend time trying to fix a problem that may not actually exist when testing new teleporters.