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How to plan a Foundry mission?
borg9870
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
In my two years of playing STO, I have only ever created and published one foundry mission. I think the main reason for this is that I have so many ideas on what to do and I am more likely to finish things like this if I have a start-to-finish plan, so I was wondering, does anyone have any tips for creating a simple plan for a foundry mission?
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Well, it's really all going to depend on your writing process honestly. Some people make it as they go, some plan months ahead.
If you want to plan, try writing a basic script or outline of how you want the mission to run. Brainstorm how many maps you want and what they will encompass. You can also try writing a basic script of the main dialogue then go from there.
I love working on a story, but what helped me to keep my creativity is not to be bound to my story.
I create an outline of the story, but creates everything that happens inbetween as I go.
I call it, the Stoutes paradox.
First I jot down a description of the mission. This is usually just a couple paragraphs, sometimes it has background of things leading up to the mission, sometimes it just described the mission itself in very simple terms. In the case of this as-yet untitled mission, it was mostly background.
The Foundry is very much geared toward self-contained maps and progression from one map to another, so I find outlining very helpful. Each Roman numeral is a map, and each letter is something that happens within that map.
From there I can start designing, cause I know what I need on each map, and I can start writing the dialogue for each map at the same time. I like to write most of it in a word processor before hand and then copy it into the Foundry, but you certainly don't have to.
By the time I finish one or two sets, the ideas crystallize, until I know why I'm building what I'm building.
The story is the hardest part for me. Building is just kind of therapeutic busy work for somebody with OCD-like issues.
First I typically write a rough mission "treatment" w/ pencil and paper, then convert that into an outline broken down by maps, objectives and storyboard dialogue placeholders (including any specific lines that come to mind). I then convert the outline into a storyboard script. I've even made a template ODT (OpenOffice Writer) script document so I can write out the entire storyboard offline, then copy/paste it all into the actual mission later.
I usually build maps during the outline phase of this process, so they will be ready to go when I finish the storyboard script.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
My character Tsin'xing
Not sure what others do, but this is my process?
Before even logging into the foundry I start in MS Word and outline a synopsis of the mission. i.e. 'On a routine survey mission in the [Sector name] you receive an emergency hail from another Federation starship being attacked by Klingons. Once you arrive at the coordinates you find only debris and no sign of any Klingon threat. You scan the debris and notice some irregularities - just before a Reman ship uncloaks and attacks'
With the basics down you can then start to map out your objectives for each map using a simple bullet point style.
MISSION START:
* Receive emergency hail
* Warp to coordinates
SYSTEM SPACE:
* Locate debris
* Scan debris
* Defend from Reman attack
And on and on until you've mapped out the entire mission.
Once that?s done, then you can go into the foundry, create your mission and create the maps. IMPORTANT: I have always found that creating all maps BEFORE actually starting to fill in the 'story' side of things is helpful? then create your story, any special characters, etc. Once you?ve completed a map, play it. Look for any issues, typos, etc. on that map before moving on to the next. Trust me, this will save you time later on. (also, I am not the greatest typist so I create all of my dialogue, etc. in Word then paste it into the dialogue box in the foundry - saves a lot on searching for typos later on).
Once the maps and story are complete, play the entire mission from the beginning... Make sure it all makes sense, that players can pick up the mission easily enough and all objectives are straightforward enough as not to allow the player to get lost or confused. If you notice any issues, write down exactly where/what and fix them later - if it pays through the way you want and it all seems fine, save and publish it.
Last but not least, Zorbane has a thread on these forums where players can submit their creation for reviews/feedback in exchange for playing and reviewing other posted foundry misisons. You can find this at http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=816401. I suggest when you've published yours to visit this thread.
Good luck!
That's how I work, at least.
Then I start building the mission, leaving the dialogues as placeholder until the map is done. I also write the ideas of what I will talk about, even some sentences I find cool.
When I build the mission, sometimes I have something that was not planned, and I use it in the story, make it grow in that direction.
For example, I used the "Alpha" map (it's the only map that look like a jungle, and I needed a jungle). And there is a crashed BoP on it. My mission involve Klingons, but I never planned to have them crash or even be there on this map. So I changed my story accordingly, added a BoP crashing, and why, and make it a part of the plot.
As to have a lot of ideas and all that, that's also true for me, and I imagine, for a lot of Foundry authors. But I always work on 1 project at a time, never more, until it's published. It's a way to "force me" to go through the last part of a project, IE checking for typos, grammar and playing the mission several time to see if everything works. And I hate that part. If I have ideas for another project while I'm working, I write the ideas, but never go to work on the other project.
My character Tsin'xing
Yea, in the finale of my Borg series, I randomly though of a twist to put on the spot while making a boss battle. That wasn't even in the original plan but it worked and created a better story overall.
This is why I have started projects that I never finished.
Unlike some here, I am not a huge fan of building complex maps from the ground up. That's not my thing.
I have a story I want to tell and without fail I run into some limitation that makes it harder than it should be, if not impossible.
In a lot of ways, I really miss CoH's Mission Architect. You couldn't do a whole lot with the setting itself and couldn't control placement of anything at all. But making stuff happen was not a problem and they had many different objective types that could be pieced together. You could get very complex interactions between players, NPC's, and objects.
You can do that in the Foundry, too, but it's not nearly as straightforward.
That said, I think the Map Outline is probably the best way to go. It doesn't pay to write complex dialog trees if you can't string the basic objectives together.
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When I build my maps, I don't get into exact detail at first. If I know I need a space map, ground map and interior map I build those and decorate them. I don't add objectives, etc. at this point (save that for the story). But one thing for certain is know exactly what you want to accomplish on each of these maps.
i.e. ground map - need some terrain and buildings. Player will have to fight through groups of enemies and scan a few buildings until they find the right one. Once they have, they need to enter the building? or do they have to go back and do something else first?
Another example, in the mission I am writing now, it is mostly interior maps as most of the action takes place in a station - player starts on one floor, goes down, has to go down AGAIN, then back up. This means I need FOUR maps with one being a duplicate. On one map, they have to access the station's power core. it's offline - so they have to go elsewhere to bring it back online. Then have to go BACK to the core and scan it, etc. before heading back to the upper floor to leave the station. It sounds convoluted but works for the purpose of the story and had I not at least created the maps before I began I may have missed some details or something...
And yes, the number one rule is BE FLIXIBLE! Your story may evolve or change as you're writing it. The most important thing is to have fun and enjoy yourself. If you find that this leads you to coloring outside of the lines, then do it.
starting point
end point
anything major in between
and I figure out how I want to go from one point to the next.
My character Tsin'xing
I think the best success in the Foundry comes from being able to say to yourself: "OK, so I can't do this, but how can I accomplish roughly the same thing in a different way?"
Only after having done all of that did it occur to me that we don't have any of the New Romulus maps available in the Foundry yet. :eek:
I wound up having to improvise big-time. I made a very rough custom approximation of the New Romulus space map for a critical sequence in orbit of the planet, which I will duplicate in Part III for the aforementioned epic space battle. For the confrontation with Sela, I moved its setting from the New Romulus Command Center to the bridge of a Federation starship orbiting the planet. As I noted in the mission description, if/when we ever get the proper New Romulus space, ground and interior maps to use in the Foundry, I will rebuild those segments of the mission using the proper maps.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
My character Tsin'xing