Defend Object as a forced teleport proxy?

[CellyEl]

As I'm sure you're all aware, failing a required objective in an AE mission shunts you out of the mission with 'mission failure' post-mission text. Is there a way to force this state, by spawning a 'defend object' and an enemy spawn in close proximity to each other once a certain objective is completed? Would the spawn immediately attack the object with any degree of reliability? Would they need player proximity to kick it off? I've tried it before and it worked, but is that reliable or did I get lucky? Why would I make my players feel bad like this?

For a possible use case: writing an AE arc that takes place inside the Rikti ship in the RWZ 'while' a mothership raid goes on above, with the players 'force teleported' out like what happens to the raid participants once they finish their goals.

[cranebump]

I have never tried this. I don't use "defend object" much at all (I'm trying to recall the last time I had that as a mandatory objective). So I have no feedback on reliability of the effect. However, I think you might already have your own answer concerning its efficacy. If you tried it, and it worked on multiple, successive tests, with the same settings and the same map, then the answer to whether it's reliable is likely "yes-in that instance." If you've done it across multiple maps, then the answer is likely a straight up "yes." That said, I wouldn't discount "I got lucky." AE can be fickle.

 

That said, even if it does work the way you want, I'd think twice before forcibly exiting the player with a mish failure effect. They'll register it as a failure, whether it "actually" is or not. All the aftermath text I write isn't going to wipe away the big ol', shiny MISSION FAILED that just appeared on their screen. They don't like that, even if the actual consequence doesn't affect the story a bit. In the end, you get a (sort of) cool narrative effect, at the cost of inflicting a failure upon the player, in a situation where they had no opportunity to circumvent it. I think they'd perceive that as simply unfair. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by cranebump

[Frozen Burn]

@CellyEl, I agree with @cranebump in that forcing the player to fail to get the really cool result of being kicked off the map with big bright red MISSION FAILURE floating across the screen, is not ideal.  Players will wonder "what did I do wrong?" even though it is explained away in the story.  There will be people will go crazy trying to run that mish "successfully," even though they are doing what you want them to.  😄  We are just too ingrained to never see those dreadful red words float across our screen!  And what if by some chance, they run it again and have teammates camp the object spawn point and kill all the mobs and save it?  That would ruin what you're trying to do as well, and you'd have to come up with alternate exit text/story for that too.  

 

As an alternative, perhaps, after the player completes their objective on the map, have "Alarms ring" and lots of ambushes and make the player "Find Exit before shields go up and trap them inside!" - make them run to the beginning of the map to leave and fight through ambushes/spawns.  This creates a more positive exit experience (they can fight/stealth through as they choose).  Of course, there should be light mobs/patrols on map before completing objective, so that the spawns and ambushes are heavier when trying to escape.  ....just a thought.

[CellyEl]

So basically, only useful for Kobayashi Maru-age on account of giant red feelbad text, ya figure. Damn.