Default Prompt + Story Board

allocater

Something interesting I found:

1) Give a default prompt to an NPC
2) Give a default prompt to a console (object)

3) Include the NPC in the story board as "Dialog with Contact".
4) Include the console in the story board as "Interact with Object".

Now the default prompt for the NPC will be replaced with die story-dialog when the objective is in progress. The default prompt will appear before and after the objective.

But the default prompt for the console will stay. It will appear before, during and after the objective. The objective thus becomes "navigate through the default prompt".

You could also change default prompt buttons based on whether you are before, during, or after the objective. So you can make some interesting interactive and responsive dialogs.

thegreendragoon1

Yes, there are a lot of interesting things you can do with default dialog/objective interaction. Just of note, since you can make objects visible/invisible, you can make a default dialog appear to change. Throw in map dialogs and the possibilities increase even further.

Understanding these interactions are often the key to good puzzles in the Foundry. Not everything has to happen in the storyboard and if you can blur the players awareness of what is and isn't tired to an objective, you can appear to contradict known Foundry limitations.

I've personally been playing around with ways to have things that aren't tied to the storyboard update objectives. It's not the simplest thing to understand but very fun when you can make it work.

pendra3780

If you are hardcore, you can make missions with storyboard text: Solve the case!
There, everything happens outside the storyboard. This means branching and lots of 1 star rates.

allocater

So the 'real' end-objective would have to be a reach/interact/talk behind a wall?

And the wall gets hidden by a series of outside-story-board-triggers?

Since most of the triggers from the actual reach/interact/talk are disabled and you can't hide itself.

pendra3780

That is the basic idea.

I tried hiding the actual objective interact for a while. Then I simply added an 'Abort mission' branch. I absolutely had to do it when I used 3 way teleportation the regular way and not the turbolift way.