Multi-part missions?

turbomagnus · October 2013

Some of the offical Cryptic missions feature entering one system, doing part of a mission, returning to sector space, moving on to another system, entering and continuing the mission; the Federation "Klingon War" storyline mission 'Task Force Hippocrates', for example.

Is the Foundry capable of supporting that ability yet?

sampa4 · October 2013

I once played a foundry mission that feature this kind of set up! Forgot what it was called, though...

crypticarmsman · October 2013

turbomagnus wrote: »

Some of the offical Cryptic missions feature entering one system, doing part of a mission, returning to sector space, moving on to another system, entering and continuing the mission; the Federation "Klingon War" storyline mission 'Task Force Hippocrates', for example.

Is the Foundry capable of supporting that ability yet?

As someone who wanted to do something like this, and couldn't get it to work (at least for space map Foundry doors); no, the Foundry doesn't.

You have three options:

1) Design the overall mission/story so that there's enough to do in each system to make them separate missions.

2) make an interim 'warping to system <insert name here>' map with some sort of warp effect (IE the players ship is flying to an interact point on the map, but you use the warping starfield effect - and once the player ship reaches the interact point; you have the Interact be 'Enter System' - and transfer to another map.

3) Just do a plain old direct map transfer to another map and have a character ( or the Interact prompt read: "Warp to <insert name here>".

adverbero · October 2013

I think its possible to do this, but its not smooth

It might be worth using the Star streak effect if all you want is to have the player warp between systems, but if your aim is to have the player go to the place specifically it can be done, the real question is how will the player respond to having to go there, and how far do you expect them to travel

I once tried out sending the player all the Way to the Myrax System ( all the way in Zeta Andromedea on the far left of known sector space ) after they started the mission at ESD, the idea i had was to enforce the feeling that you would be far away from home and on your own for the mission, However i found that while the journey could be completed in just 5 mins the trip was not all that well recieved by testers

lincolninspace · October 2013

The more you pop out into social areas the more chance the player will drop your mission.

turbomagnus · October 2013

The rough concept is that the player would get the assignment in the Journal Foundry tab, go to Starfleet Academy for a 'briefing', then travel through sector space to the actual starting point of the mission proper (T'liss system in Alpha Centauri Block), if that helps.

drogyn1701 · October 2013

You can do that. pull over a Cryptic Map from the storyboard right side menu and put a talk to contact on it, select someone at Starfleet Academy. Then make a custom map and pull that into the storyboard after the Cryptic Map. There should be a button where you set the entry door and you should be able to put it anywhere you want.

captainhunter1 · October 2013

lincolninspace wrote: »

The more you pop out into social areas the more chance the player will drop your mission.

This is true.

The ability does exist in the Foundry to actually travel around on the Galaxy social maps - in fact the latest Spotlight "Purity" chapter (part 5) does this...but I almost didn't end up finishing the mission because of it. I got distracted with Doff missions while traveling, then dropped by ESD to sell some stuff, and then got caught up in some Fleet business. By the time I got back (remembered I was doing) the mission, I almost didn't know what was going on in it - lol.

The other huge downside to what should be a cool feature (using real travel time to different 'real' systems) is that the time spent in 'social' areas no longer counts toward mission length for mission rewards (thanks exploiters! :mad: We can't have nice things because of you! :mad:)

Hope that helps answer the OPs question somewhat.

turbomagnus · October 2013

So, possible, but not recommended without there being a good reason for it. Got it.

adverbero · October 2013

if you still want them to go out to the system you could just put whatever dialogue the breifing had into the grant mission dialogue , say your officer says you recieved an Encrypted data packet or something

I'd be happy as a player to go out to the far away systems, I actually like traveling around the sectors, If not for those missions with starting points far away i probably wouldn't go anywhere but ESD and that would be boring

But as is said above, they cut out the travel time from the mission time, damn exploiters, not only do we have enough trouble getting new stuff, they take away the nice things we already had

turbomagnus · October 2013

Unfortunately, starting at SFA is integral to the storyline I have, so the mission has to start there.

drogyn1701 · October 2013

Do what the story requires. If some players can't be bothered to play the whole the mission, that's on them.

adverbero · October 2013

I say go for it then, If its important to the Story then its worthy of inclusion

I certainly don't mind a short trip ( it takes only a few minuites end to end of sector space, i timed it when i was playtesting my mission on Holodeck , even less to hop via a Fleetstarbase Transwarp gate to a nearby system to the start point )

paxfederatica · October 2013

My mission "Ghosts of War, Part III" returns to sector space not once, but twice. This is because the mission literally spans the galactic map, from Romulan to Klingon to Cardassian space, and now takes well over an hour all told, so I broke it up into smaller chunks. Traveling across the galaxy in sector space mid-mission also has the added bonus of making the mission feel that much more epic.

lincolninspace · October 2013

The big caveat with starting on esd is the extremely long load times it can suffer. I am still using it for a project I have in the works but I have had the load screen hang for over two hours there!

pendra8080 · November 2013

I actually do mind if the mission starts in social zones. Especially if it involves SB1. 90% of the time, it is completely unnecessary and deals with the panel next to the transporter room.
I think I played 1 (one) mission so far, where the use of the social map was more or less justified.
It is the 26th century and my ship has a freakin radio in it.
Why do I have to fly all the way back to base from the edge of the galaxy, read the billboard and then fly back to the edge of the galaxy to play the mission?

turbomagnus · November 2013

Different, but related question;
Is the new Academy Shuttlebay from the updated tutorial in the Foundry yet or will that be Tuesday... er, November 12th when it becomes available?

(Sorry, Enterprise-B moment there...)

starswordc · November 2013

I agree with the consensus here: best to just use a regular map transition unless you've got a pressing story reason to go back to a social zone in mid-mission. However, people don't seem to mind us using a social zone for a mission briefing and then traveling to another system to actually start the mission.

turbomagnus wrote: »

Different, but related question;
Is the new Academy Shuttlebay from the updated tutorial in the Foundry yet or will that be Tuesday... er, November 12th when it becomes available?

(Sorry, Enterprise-B moment there...)

Sorry, the only new thing the Foundry's gotten since at least August was the fix to preview mode loading times (BTW, thanks again, Cryptic).

Multi-part missions?

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