Allies and Bosses.

[d4verman]

there's a lot about the MA I don' know, but I'm trying to figure stuff out. that being said, I have more questions to ask of those who know more than I.

 

Is there a way to put an ally or a boss fight on a map without NPCs around them? If I want to put an ally in a story it seems like they have to be "captured" first. Is it possible to have them "meet you at the door" or is that just not something that can be done? 

 

The same goes for boss fights. I wanted to throw in a boss fight with a villain that just shows up for revenge. (not the main villain in the story). 

 

[cranebump]

Set the map enemy to “empty.” Guarding group set to “single” (though it will probably be empty anyway). Place them at front. Ally text will pop on entry and obj will be completed. However rescue text shouldn’t render til you approach them. 
 

Since mish is empty, you’ll need to populate with patrols, bosses, destroy object groups, etc.

[Ankylosaur]

What cranebump said, plus it can be good say something in the mission pop up to direct them. “Fred bolted into the first room. Why does he always charge ahead?” Or some such conceit. 

[huang3721]

Don't forget to change your ally's default animation to something else since no one is guarding them.

[d4verman]

Cool! thanks guys!

[cranebump]

On 3/12/2023 at 3:22 PM, Ankylosaur said:

What cranebump said, plus it can be good say something in the mission pop up to direct them. “Fred bolted into the first room. Why does he always charge ahead?” Or some such conceit. 

For sure. End up doing this ALL the time. So and so sprints ahead. Or Bob has arrived before you or Your team enters through varying points of ingress. And then you have situations where the boss has "TP's out," not not really. You end up having to put in text like "Emergency Teleport! Get me out of here" (boss dies, clue [or complete text] pops: "Unfortunately, Raging Cobra Butt teleports back to his Butt Copter. You'll have to kick his...agenda another time...")

 

It's REALLY annoying, but you get used to it.

 

And I second @huang3721's reminder about changing default animation. Always sucks to go into test mode and think, "Here we GO, and,....aahhhhhhhh sh*t. They're kneeling with their hands on their head, while saying You'll NEVER beat me!...(sigh)."

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by cranebump

[TerroirNoir2]

@Darmian has this crazy mission where the last thing you do is meet one of your allies and you need to lead him to the exit.  So he goes through and says something like "I'll scout ahead, see you inside", and then you take the next mission and he's already ahead of you.  I liked that a lot, though it kinda can't be used all the time.

[d4verman]

3 hours ago, TerroirNoir2 said:

@Darmian has this crazy mission where the last thing you do is meet one of your allies and you need to lead him to the exit.  So he goes through and says something like "I'll scout ahead, see you inside", and then you take the next mission and he's already ahead of you.  I liked that a lot, though it kinda can't be used all the time.

That sounds pretty cool, I'll have to check it out. 

 

I get a little frustrated with the limitations of the MA but then I have to remind myself how old it really is. And to my recollection it's the first Player Mission Builder in an MMO. (if I'm wrong, let me know) . Nort that I think these games are good, but I only played Neverwinter and Star Trek Online because of the ability to build missions. Once they took those out...well, I haven't really played either of those games that much since. And Neverwinter had an excellent MA. You could move items in 3D on an axis and have dialogue in mission with characters. 

 

IMO Champions Online really missed the mark by not building one in their game. They already lack a diversity of missions so having players make their own to share would only make the game more expansive. I guess without Homecoming the only hope is if City of Titans has an MA if it EVER gets done. At this point I'm thinking I'll be too old to care by the time they release that game, if ever. (and I'm already old...like AARP old). 

 

Sorry for the rant. It's late and us old people get grumpy when we're tired. 😉

 

[TerroirNoir2]

2 hours ago, d4verman said:

That sounds pretty cool, I'll have to check it out. 

I've been reviewing their stuff, and it's like one of the ones in an arc near the end of a long line of arcs, so it'd be tricky to find.  @Darmian? bit of assistance here?

[Darmian]

11 hours ago, TerroirNoir2 said:

I've been reviewing their stuff, and it's like one of the ones in an arc near the end of a long line of arcs, so it'd be tricky to find.  @Darmian? bit of assistance here?

That would be in Darkest Before Dawn Part 2.  So the 8th arc in a set of 9.