NPC triggered events

lordmalak1

Does anyone know how to get an NPC mob to trigger an event while using the patrol waypoints ? I NEED the NPC's to trigger either a dialog or object spawn when reaching either a patrol waypoint or reach marker. Or is it possible to make an NPC mob interact with an object giving me a trigger to work with ?

I can make the NPC disappear when reaching a reach marker but I need to have mission success/failure hinge on the group arriving at the reach marker/waypoint. If they could spawn something when reaching that point I could work with that, but I must use the patrol waypoint system.

Any ideas ?

designationxr377

It sounds like you are doing an escort quest. I almost want to not help you out of principle, but...

There is no way to make a mission fail and tell the players. Which is a good thing IMO because despite the challenge people will rage at you if you have a fail mechanic. I did once, big mistake.

If you didn't mind a non-fail (which could break the illusion you want) there is a way now that contacts disappear, but, it's a little choppy. However, I've not tested around with patrols enough to decide if it will work as I expect it to. Foundry Patrols are still an emerging science to us.

If you still want to hear ideas that only -may- work, and do not fulfill your fail mechanic requirement I could maybe have a possible way to make something work like this. Also, I'd hate to use this on any custom map or map with multiple levels for the path. Beyond that you could be borked. Again, could be a make or break for you.

lordmalak1

Heh, 'out of principal' ?

Currently I have no way to fail, which defeats the entire purpose of the mission (as well as the illusion) but this mission is for me to train, and test ship builds. Let the others rage if they feel the need to.

I think I could build in an unmentioned objective using a common NPC spawn but I wanted to try tying it to the actual convoy I set up first, but I'm more curious as to how I can get an NPC's to trigger events.

I've already posted the mission for personal testing of the patrol system, but a non-failing mission isn't much of a challenge.

<edit> I just had a thought, perhaps I make a bunch more waypoints near the end of my mobs routes to effectively have them in a holding pattern until I complete the other objectives then force a conversation with the mob from one of my other principals. IF the mob no longer exists then the player cannot initiate the conversation with my patrolling mob.
>> can I converse with a freindly group on a patrol, or am I limited onto to contacts ?

curs0r

lordmalak1 wrote: »

Heh, 'out of principal' ?

Currently I have no way to fail, which defeats the entire purpose of the mission (as well as the illusion) but this mission is for me to train, and test ship builds. Let the others rage if they feel the need to.

I think I could build in an unmentioned objective using a common NPC spawn but I wanted to try tying it to the actual convoy I set up first, but I'm more curious as to how I can get an NPC's to trigger events.

I've already posted the mission for personal testing of the patrol system, but a non-failing mission isn't much of a challenge.

You could make the greatest foundry mission ever and there'd be some rage about it, good for you it's not worth worrying about. It's hard to take a rating seriously under a system that allows players to pick up your mission, drop it, and rate it without playing it for even 60 seconds anyway.

Using NPCs to trigger events could be useful in a few ways. I'm looking at the patrol waypoint implementation as we speak and they have no state info of their own. I think the foundry could handle this as an additional feature of the waypoints, I suppose by making it possible to select them as a 'component reached' like many other objects. No idea how hard that would be to implement, but I think it would be a good addition to the patrol mechanic.

I agree with you that a mission that cannot be failed is not a real challenge.

designationxr377

I was just making a joke about escort quests in video games with my principle concept. xD

Anyways, what you could do to make it look like that is just like you were catching on to; you run a patrol to a specific reach (or interact object) and give them a bunch of patrol points there so they hang around that spot or spin in circles. When that point is reached/interacted with the original patrol group is set to go invisible and the next leg spawns.

However, it relies not on the patrol but the player, mainly an illusion. And players can look at the map and just rush it quick. If the patrols explode they lose nothing. UNLESS you make those reach markers not sections of the objectives. And reaching the last point is what triggers an invisible wall barrier away from the actual objective shows up.

That way, if a patroling group gets destroyed before they reach the marker; player is lost and would need to run around to find the markers. It would in a way give you your fail mechanic and the look you are after with needing to follow a group to get to where you are going.

Just, advice from someone who once had a fail mechanic in a mission: Warn them first, and expect to turn away a few people. If you're willing for that to happen, then you should be fine.


Edit: You can only converse with Contacts, which don't patrol yet. But you can set up pop up dialogs at each reach point if you need conversation points as they go.

nagorak

Maybe I should add a failed mechanic to my missions... Can you imagine? 1 hour 30 minutes in, some insignificant NPC dies and you have to start over.

In all seriousness, maybe you could do this in a custom interior map. Have a little trap door where the NPC falls into if they get to the location way before the player. Then have a reach marker that not only despawns the NPC but closes the trap door when the player arrives.

This gives me a good idea on a map I'm working on though. Maybe I'll spawn an NPC to lead someone from the transporter room after a dialogue that says they'll lead the way. But in that case I'll probably just leave them cycling the patrol route.

We really need more control over the patrols. Like we need to be able to add "wait points" and "animate points".

psycoticvulcan

Why not just have the NPC despawn and respawn at the beginning of its path so you have to start that part of the mission over?

lordmalak1

psycoticvulcan wrote: »

Why not just have the NPC despawn and respawn at the beginning of its path so you have to start that part of the mission over?

How do you do that ?
The patrol route will always be circular so there's no beginning or end. best I can do is make them disappear but even that has no consequence other than they're invisible. Even if they're destroyed before reaching their destination there's no trigger to force a mission fail, or even a notice saying they've been killed.

I'd sure like to see cryptics transport raid mission, to see how they rigged their kill counter and mission sucess / optional success dialogs.

zorbane

Cryptic doesn't use the Foundry. They have their own tool for building missions. That's why they can do all this funky stuff that we can't

lordmalak1

Ya, I miss the days where one could script what they wanted then feed the mess into a compiler.

This linear task progression and 'target only' NPC's are killing me.

curs0r

lordmalak1 wrote: »

Ya, I miss the days where one could script what they wanted then feed the mess into a compiler.

This linear task progression and 'target only' NPC's are killing me.

I know what you mean. I got used to the mission editor for armed assault 2. Spoiled am I.

lordmalak1

designationxr377 wrote: »

I was just making a joke about escort quests in video games with my principle concept. xD

Anyways, what you could do to make it look like that is just like you were catching on to; you run a patrol to a specific reach (or interact object) and give them a bunch of patrol points there so they hang around that spot or spin in circles. When that point is reached/interacted with the original patrol group is set to go invisible and the next leg spawns.

<snip>

KK, I thought about this last night (Ohhh, you evil genius) and it sounds like it'll work as long as hidden reach markers will still trigger.

Thanks for the idea.

lordmalak1

designationxr377 wrote: »

I was just making a joke about escort quests in video games with my principle concept. xD

Anyways, what you could do to make it look like that is just like you were catching on to; you run a patrol to a specific reach (or interact object) and give them a bunch of patrol points there so they hang around that spot or spin in circles. When that point is reached/interacted with the original patrol group is set to go invisible and the next leg spawns.
<snip>

I set it up like you suggested and tho it works I believe all those extra patrol points may have borked one critical enemy group encounter as they don't spawn like they used to and remain stationary instead of following their patrol route. I may have to remove some points as I think there might be a limit one can use before the patrol system gets wonky. I may have to remove the group from it's task and let them spawn (or not) on it's own. Though the transitions are still a bit sloppy the mission works, and also keeps the player in mission for the proper amount of time whether they try to run it faster or not. Fail notice included in mission brief.

See what you think, but remember it's still quite a bit away from being called 'finished'.

Mission: Supply Lines 1

Another question tho- the pop-up dialog icons: when placing them on the map where exactly does the pop-up get triggered from, the little point at the bottom/left of the symbol or somewhere else, and how big is the trigger area ?