Having difficulty constructing a mission...

[Ultimo]

So, I wanted to build a series of missions.

The first one has the players visiting a shop (I planned to use a jewelry or pawn shop), where they would interview the two owners and their son.  There would be NO villains present until after the interviews, at which point there would be an ambush.

 

Ideally, the ambush characters would arrive, the player would have an opportunity to talk to them, and then the fight would happen.

 

But, I'm having problems.

To begin with, I can't figure out how to make a scenario with no enemies in it.

Then, I can't figure out how to put the NPC owners in the shop for the player to interact with.  I had thought to make them collectibles, or some such, and add their testimony as Clues.

Finally, I don't know how to make the ambush happen only after all three interviews have been done.

 

Does anyone know how to make this work?

[Darmian]

Looking at this I see that none of the Jewelry stores or Pawn stores allow either Free a Captive or Add an Ally.  So there's your main issue.  Unfortunately there's nothing you can do about that at all. 

 

But if you find a different map that suits you then having no enemies is easy enough.  Scroll down through the enemy types to populate your map until you get to "Empty". That will help.  Then make sure that any Ally or Rescued Captive also has no one around them in their set up.  That last bit will need testing though because SOMETIMES the AE borks and puts enemies in, so you have to check it.

 

Guided use of clues is good.  "The owner keeps glancing at a nearby bookcase" sort of thing.  And I sometimes use the entry pop up to let the player "overhear" something I want them to hear, which can be a better control over actually giving people "Unaware" dialogue, because sometimes that dialogue just shoots off when you enter the mission no matter what you do.  I normally leave that blank these days for that exact reason.  And especially for an ally that has no guards around them.  If they have no guards and you're near enough - and what the AI thinks is near enough can be a LOOONG way away - the game treats them as auto rescued/met and they spout their "Unaware" speech.

 

 

Edited November 7, 2022 by Darmian

[Darmian]

A POSSIBLE option - I experimented with this - is to have an enemy as your contact.  Bear with me!  You just ensure that they have absolutely no powers to hit you with. Give them whatever sets you like, just no powers IN the sets. They'll at least appear.  Unfortunately, you might have to shake them a bit to give up the goods, and that will kill them eventually.  It doesn't seem to match your idea, but just throwing it out there.  

[cranebump]

10 hours ago, Ultimo said:

So, I wanted to build a series of missions.

The first one has the players visiting a shop (I planned to use a jewelry or pawn shop), where they would interview the two owners and their son.  There would be NO villains present until after the interviews, at which point there would be an ambush.

 

Ideally, the ambush characters would arrive, the player would have an opportunity to talk to them, and then the fight would happen.

 

But, I'm having problems.

To begin with, I can't figure out how to make a scenario with no enemies in it.

Then, I can't figure out how to put the NPC owners in the shop for the player to interact with.  I had thought to make them collectibles, or some such, and add their testimony as Clues.

Finally, I don't know how to make the ambush happen only after all three interviews have been done.

 

Does anyone know how to make this work?

 

 

Scenario with no enemies: covered by @Darmian (set map to "Empty").

 

I'm not sure what you want to do is actually doable, or even approachable, on that map. Since you're wanting a chat, followed by a fight, that sounds like use of "Ally" with a betrayal trigger (an escort to a glowie, perhaps, bearing in mind that, once the escort arrives, the mish ends, if that's the last objective).

 

So, couple questions, one so I can better understand what you're attempting, the other to determine the necessity of the specific objective:

(1) What info does the player get from the PC?

(2) Do they have to get it from a contact?

 

Beyond that, I'd only say, go with what it gives you. If you're fighting the map itself, due to its nature, or #/objectives, or some such, find a better map (I can speak to this from recent personal experience).

[Ultimo]

So... the mission is the first of a 5 parter.  A local store is being shaken down for protection money.  The contact asks you to go talk to the owners, who will describe what happened, and who was involved (and the son will rant about it, setting up a rescue later).  After the interviews, thugs will appear and be easily defeated.  The contact will explain the implications of the testimony of the two owners.

 

I think they do have to get this information from the owners, but it doesn't have to appear as a dialog.  I had thought to have the information appear as clues.  I'd RATHER they be dialogs, but I don't know if that's possible.

 

Part of the point of all this is to create missions that aren't just "Go in, fight bad guys, repeat over and over."

[Ankylosaur]

I tried something like this recently with one of the shops, and had to forgo much of the dialog. My shop owner could fight though.  Went like something like this...

1. Map set to empty
2. Boss 1 - front - store owner. Spouts unaware text when you enter. He is set to empty
3. Boss 2 - PPD - surrounded by PPD with flashlights
4. The place has several objects with clues that the player can click on to investigate the scene.  In the description of the "Completed" text you can say something like:  The store owner looks at you funny and says, "There is a book missing from that bookcase now that you mention it." or something.
5. One of the glowies also triggers the ambush you are after.

Maybe there are pieces of that you can use? 

 

(If you want to see it in action is the very first mission in All That Glows 2.1: Nictus Among Us)