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How to create travel time on map between places??
aleniskendra
Member Posts: 95 Arc User
Hi guys!
I'm just figuring out how to transition between maps and I have some of it down, but I don't see how to add the ability to exit to Sector Space and have the player select the correct system and travel there. Instead, I just keep magically spawning at the next location, with no travel time. Help?!
I'm just figuring out how to transition between maps and I have some of it down, but I don't see how to add the ability to exit to Sector Space and have the player select the correct system and travel there. Instead, I just keep magically spawning at the next location, with no travel time. Help?!
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(Also, a quick shout-out, please visit Starbase UGC for all your Foundry needs!)
Post edited by aleniskendra on
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You should use the usual way to mimic warp travel. It is not too hard to do, but requires good knowledge of triggers. There are multiple tutorials on this, if you are interested.
That said, there are a few caveats. One is that for some reason there is no map transition dialog for going from a Foundry map to sector space, so the Foundry map will always end with the blank "Go to next map?" dialog.
Another is that time spent in sector space mid-mission is no longer counted toward mission completion time for rewards purposes (hence pendra's comment above about some players not liking it), so use this feature sparingly. In fact I'd only use it for making epic missions that go from one end of the Galaxy Map to the other.
I do this in "Ghosts of War, Part III", using sector space transitions to break that mission into three acts: One in Romulan space, one in Klingon space, and one in Cardassian space. Each act has its own doorway in the appropriate area of the Galaxy Map. This serves three purposes: (1) to give the mission an epic feel, (2) to allow the player to take a break from it and come back later (all told, it now takes over an hour to complete, even not including sector space travel) and (3) otherwise the player finishes the mission in Cardassian space and would then suddenly end up clear across the Galaxy Map back in Romulan sector space (where the first doorway is).
Last but not least, if you use sector space transitions, always remember to put the next doorway system into the map title for the next Foundry map, just as you would for the first Foundry map to begin the mission.
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It is not FUN. It is BORING. It doesn't add anything to the story. On the contrary, it distracts the players. It breaks up the story and you may lose the player's attention altogether(A.D.D. generation WTF).
You may see it as an immersion enhancing tool, but it is not. This inserts 5-10 mins of loadscreens and sitting and doing absolutely nothing. Practically wasting the player's time. If I wanted to roam around in sector space, I would just do the tour the galaxy mission over and over.
What I would do in this case is to use the triggery type travel time. The good parts of this are many.
You don't need trickery to do it, triggers are 100% supported by Foundry.
It looks way more authentic than sector space travel.
During this, you can insert story related dialogs so even the travel time is actively used for the story telling.
You can control the length of the travel. If you want longer, just add more story text to read. Or add some random bridge chatter. That improves immersion way better than sector space.
The mission continues normally after the "travel", the player will not get lost.
And no, Epicness doesn't lie in sheer numbers. 20 battleship groups don't make a battle epic. 20 mins of travel time don't make the mission feel epicly huge. 500 NPCs or 200 pages of script don't make the mission automatically epic. See Heaven's Gate for example. All these things can make a mission epicly boring or an epic waste of time.
It is the story plot, the good timing and pace, the twists, the reveals that adds the grand feeling. Babylon 5 was great in this.
Seing 100 ships beat the TRIBBLE out of each other to save the galaxy. Meh, I play 5 missions like this each day. I just can't relate to the 30th Oddy blowing up in front of me. If you can somehow make me feel for that Oddy through the story, the whole thing gets a brand new, epic layer.
Triggered warp effects are fine and dandy in most cases - but since they are usually done simply to save a space-map-to-space-map transition, they've become so commonplace in Foundry missions (including several of my own) that they've begun to feel like just another puddle-jump from one system to the next. That, IMHO, won't cut it for a story that goes from one corner of the Galaxy Map to another, and then another after that. The Alpha Quadrant is huge, and the overall look and feel of a quadrant-spanning mission (not just travel times) should reflect that fact.
Also, none of what you suggested solves the last problem I mentioned. The main reason why I added sector-space transitions to "Ghosts of War, Part III" in the first place was that it starts in Romulan space but ends in Cardassian space, clear across the Galaxy Map - yet as originally designed, upon completing the mission the player got punted back into Romulan sector space for no apparent reason, other than that's where the mission doorway is set. Again, this is OK for most missions, but not for a mission of quadrant-spanning scope. There, it breaks immersion even more than abrupt cross-quadrant travel does.
I should also note that when I did this, I also added a heads-up about the sector-space transitions to the mission description (and that my play-time estimate does not include sector-space travel time), so that players know up front what they're getting into. So far I've not had many review comments that specifically mention the sector-space transitions, but the ones that do have generally been positive.
Of course, it also helps that this is the third mission in a six-part series, and anyone who's been sucked this far into the story isn't likely to abandon it just because there's a little sector-space travel involved.
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Helm: Captain, message coming in from SFC. Now that the mission is over, they request the ship to resume the patrol of Romulan space.
Reply: Yes, plot a course to the .... system, warp 9. Engage.
And it is not a problem anymore if you spawn back in Romulan space.
Trigger Transition dialog 1:
Captain: Helm, new course. ... system, warp 10 on my mark.
Helm: Acknowledged. Coordinates locked, engines charged. The ship is ready, sir.
Captain: Mark.
Helm: Warp engines online. Estimated time of arrival, 5 days 18 hours.
Captain: Thank you Ensign!
...5 Days later...
Captain's log stardate...: The last few days were pretty quite, but I just can't stop pondering about the mission. Will we be on time? What shall we find when we get there? At times like this, I can feel just how huge the galaxy really is.
Trigger Transition dialog 2:
Captain: Helm, set course for ... system, maximum warp now!
Helm: Roger that. Engineering signals green, top warp factor in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Time to target at current speed: 8 days 2 hours.
Captain:...
Engineering: Captain, the warp drives operate on 130%. The coils are stable at the moment, but noone can tell for how long.
Captain: Maintain speed. Notify me in case of status change.
...5 days later...
Captain to the bridge, Captain to the bridge!
Captain: Yes, report!
Engineering: Sir, the warp field is fluctuating. The mixture in coil three is losing cohesion. We need to shut it down and decrease speed to warp 9.
Captain: Any alternatives?
--- Tiny little "find the good sequence" minigame here with 2 outcomes and a skip part---
Good: Engineering: Positive ignition, this should hold for 3 more days, 'till we get there!
Skip: Coil 3 offline. Slowing down to warp 9. New ETA: 4 days, 8 hours.
Bad: Engineering: Negative ignition, we had to take coil 2 and 3 offline. Our best speed is warp 7! 6 days till system.
Captain: Drop out of warp as soon as we arrive.
And if you want to be immersive, add a space battle for the late captains. Light for Skip and heavy for Bad. You can't do this with sector space travel.
This is immersion, you feel like the Captain who gives the orders and faces consequences. Not the helmsman, who navigates the ship though sector space.
In my case, yes it is a problem, because returning to Romulan space doesn't fit into the rest of my series arc at all. Part IV picks up where Part III leaves off, in Cardassian space. Once you leave Romulan space in the middle of Part III, you don't come back to it for the rest of the series, nor is there any logical reason to.
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It doesn't really matter whether they do or not. If they intend to continue with Part IV at all, immediately or later, they are going to have to schlep themselves from Romulan space to Cardassian space regardless. The sector-space transitions in Part III just incorporate this travel directly into the story.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page