A couple of questions...?

[Ultimo]

My first question is, does anyone know of a map I might use to represent the site of a crashed spacecraft?  A meteorite or some other such thing would work too...

 

Second, is there a way to copy elements?  For example, I have a collection already set up, with text and everything.  Rather than making the next collection, which should use the same text and variables all manually, is there a way I can just duplicate the first one?  I seem to remember reading somewhere that it's possible.

 

Third, when in the mission, the two collections appear on the Nav bar as "Find 4 debris, find 5 technology."  Is there a way to set it up so that text doesn't appear?  I don't want it telling the players how much they have found or are supposed to find.

 

Finally, not really AE related, is there an alternative to Mids?  I'm using my old PC while my regular one is in the shop, and I find that the current version of Mids won't run on Windows 7.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Kyksie]

Missions are saved locally as a text file. Just open Notepad and copy/paste.

[SupaFreak]

On 5/28/2025 at 4:36 AM, Ultimo said:

Third, when in the mission, the two collections appear on the Nav bar as "Find 4 debris, find 5 technology."  Is there a way to set it up so that text doesn't appear?  I don't want it telling the players how much they have found or are supposed to find.

 

If they're not required, just leave the Navigation Text (Single) and (Plural) blank.  If they are required, you can optionally put "Evidence Pieces to Find" in (Plural) of each one and "1 Evidence Piece to Find" in (Single) of each one.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe if they are required, something needs to be there otherwise it will default to Objective Name.

 

Edited yesterday at 03:32 PM by SupaFreak

[Ultimo]

16 hours ago, SupaFreak said:

 

If they're not required, just leave the Navigation Text (Single) and (Plural) blank.  If they are required, you can optionally put "Evidence Pieces to Find" in (Plural) of each one and "1 Evidence Piece to Find" in (Single) of each one.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe if they are required, something needs to be there otherwise it will default to Objective Name.

 

So I put text in the relevant boxes, and it still says something like "9 Search for clues," presumably because there are several items to interact with.  The issue is that I don't want the NUMBER there... and I'm not sure how to be rid of it.

 

Also, in the second mission, I have an encounter I'm having some difficulty with.  I'll describe what I want, perhaps someone can suggest how best to make it happen.

 

The players are to search an area for an alien who has crashed on Earth and is somewhere in a residential area.  When they find him, he's supposed to be in the middle of a fight, or about to fight, a group of other aliens (the ones who made him crash).  The player should defeat his attackers, but then HE will turn on them.  While he is fighting the player, a third party, members of the villain group the Doomsayers, appear on the scene (as an ambush), telling him to flee while they delay the player.  The idea is that the alien is SUPPOSED to escape.

 

Initially, I made him a Boss objective, but then he fights alongside the aliens who are supposed to be his enemies.

So, I tried making him an ally, to be rescued, only for him to betray the players and attack them.  The problem with this is he cannot be set to FLEE at any point, so he won't run away and just stays until he's defeated... which doesn't serve the story.

 

So I'm kind of stuck...  Any thoughts?

 

Oh, and another issue I'm having... when I include him as a Boss, I set him to run away at 50% health, but he won't GO.  He gets to that point, says his line about retreating, but then stands there and stops fighting.  I've no idea why.

Edited 11 hours ago by Ultimo
Additional info

[SupaFreak]

There's little you can do to hide the true amount of Required objectives.  A number is going to automatically be placed for multiples - no way around that.

One option to add mystery:

For Collections / Bosses / Allies / Etc ---- whether required or not --- set all single and plural navigation to "???" or something vague.

[Ultimo]

8 hours ago, SupaFreak said:

There's little you can do to hide the true amount of Required objectives.  A number is going to automatically be placed for multiples - no way around that.

One option to add mystery:

For Collections / Bosses / Allies / Etc ---- whether required or not --- set all single and plural navigation to "???" or something vague.

Ah, that's too bad.  I actually have 3 collections, one for one sort of evidence, one for another, and one that is not relevant to anything.  They all LOOK the same, and all have the text, "Search the area." for navigation.  The result is that it says "21 Search the area." at the top.  It's adequate.  They could find all the actual evidence before doing all 21 anyway.