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wombat140
Member Posts: 971 Arc User
What possibilities have you seen/thought of for things you can have the player do in a Foundry mission, other than talk or fight? I've been interested in that question for a while, and now I'm trying to write a non-combat mission myself, it's become a bit of a practical problem - I need something for the player's character to actually do, and to break up the walls of dialogue. Unfortunately the system isn't well set up for non-combat gameplay, other than the standard stupid "press F to do thing", but there are a few options. I've seen:
Running around:
* Follow-that-ship (Beneath the Skin) and even follow-that-alien (Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey).
* Tasks to be carried out WITHOUT running into nearby enemies. (Uninvited Guests, Mayhem Ep 1: Cute, Fuzzy Things)
* Threading a maze. (Beneath the Skin, Inner Space)
* Race tracks (You don't know when it's real)
Puzzles via the dialogue system, of course:
* Translation. (Spirits of Ramok Nor, Time the Enemy. Especially Ramok Nor. A seemingly quite unnecessary task (you can't fail) that made my hair stand on end.)
* Looking up clues to what's going on. (Time the Enemy, What Price Paradise?) Again, seemingly unnecessary, no skill involved, but there's nothing like slowly piecing together a story to make it hit home.
* Codes to crack, number puzzles. (Black Boxes, Spirits of Ramok Nor, What Price Paradise?)
* Could throw questions that need to be answered with real, basic science. Would be fair to warn people at the outset, though Wikipedia might well get you through in many cases. Has anybody done this?
Other:
* Conversation which may or may not lead to combat. (Renown Rendezvous)
* Which circuit to connect to what? (What Price Paradise? and others, but Renown Rendezvous is the only one where you actually have to make choices which affect the result, which is better.)
* Spot the odd one out - say, a slightly incompentent Changeling in a crowd. I just made this up - has anyone done this?
Any suggestions/comments/whatever? Have you come across any really good ones you'd like to share?
Running around:
* Follow-that-ship (Beneath the Skin) and even follow-that-alien (Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey).
* Tasks to be carried out WITHOUT running into nearby enemies. (Uninvited Guests, Mayhem Ep 1: Cute, Fuzzy Things)
* Threading a maze. (Beneath the Skin, Inner Space)
* Race tracks (You don't know when it's real)
Puzzles via the dialogue system, of course:
* Translation. (Spirits of Ramok Nor, Time the Enemy. Especially Ramok Nor. A seemingly quite unnecessary task (you can't fail) that made my hair stand on end.)
* Looking up clues to what's going on. (Time the Enemy, What Price Paradise?) Again, seemingly unnecessary, no skill involved, but there's nothing like slowly piecing together a story to make it hit home.
* Codes to crack, number puzzles. (Black Boxes, Spirits of Ramok Nor, What Price Paradise?)
* Could throw questions that need to be answered with real, basic science. Would be fair to warn people at the outset, though Wikipedia might well get you through in many cases. Has anybody done this?
Other:
* Conversation which may or may not lead to combat. (Renown Rendezvous)
* Which circuit to connect to what? (What Price Paradise? and others, but Renown Rendezvous is the only one where you actually have to make choices which affect the result, which is better.)
* Spot the odd one out - say, a slightly incompentent Changeling in a crowd. I just made this up - has anyone done this?
Any suggestions/comments/whatever? Have you come across any really good ones you'd like to share?
Post edited by wombat140 on
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Or Engineering puzzles: A Time to Search.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
My character Tsin'xing
I think that's the key -- if you want a highly interactive non-combat mission (a good thing!) then it's a matter of finding activities that are natural elements of the story-line. I would avoid the temptation to put in a puzzle because your mission "doesn't have a puzzle". Put one in because it supports the story.
EDIT: Oh and here are a few more things to add to your list (some are from a mission I'm currently working on where there's no fighting in the first half of the mission.)
I also recently remastered my very first mission, "Ghosts of War, Part I", to add a space-based puzzle. Maybe I'm playing the wrong missions, but I don't recall seeing a whole lot of object/trigger-based puzzles on space maps in Foundry missions (as opposed to mere dialogue puzzles that happen to take place on space maps).
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
The cool thing here is that even though all of these have very different story frameworks and should provide very different player experiences, they all involve the same Foundry mechanic: a single objective that must be satisfied by interacting with multiple interaction objects. :cool:
However, the map is full of lore about this alien people (that unlock several answer during several discussions), things to do, and people to talk to. You can either win or loose "diplomacy points" (IE being rude will make you loose a point, but knowing the lore and telling them something they want will earn you something).
Ultimately, the player will do the negotiation, and will win or fail, according to the choices he/she made before, and during the negotiations. Or he/she can just skip everything, and rush the negotiation. And fail. But the mission will go on no matter what.
The result is calculated using a NPC fight. "Good" choice spawn allies, "bad" choice spawn enemies.
So far I made it fairly easy, with optional tips you can ask to the ambassador, for those who like hand holding (optional conversations). I may make it harder, if the comments say it's easy. I'm still undecided, it's difficult to find the right... well, difficulty. I want to have both the people that like hand holding and the "explorer" happy with this.
Another thing I did in ATTS was a rooftop sequence with a jumping puzzle and what has been described as a parkour course. It is set in a very futuristic city with lots of sky traffic and peple milling about way down on the ground.
Edit: Can this thread be a sticky?
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
Can be kind of laborious, but if the computer entries are made interesing enough, it may keep attention
Also you can have fun with triggers on your fetch quests , say have two lockers, one has an objective interact, has to be done, the other may simply be tied to something else, say it might open a shortcut to bypass a puzzle or something later, reward your players for exploring
How do you add optional interactive objects? For example, in "Bait and Switch" there's a computer console that you can use to pull up people's personal files. However, it is optional and not listed as an objective. I LOVE that concept and totally want to incorporate it into my revamp of "Healing Old Wounds". I am not really big on "pew-pew" and like missions that call for lots of varied interaction.
Also, I know how to branch dialogue, but I played a mission once that had branched OBJECTIVES. (Maybe "Relics" or "The Syndicate Extraction"?) Anyway, it gave the whole mission a very "choose-your-own-adventure" sort of feel. Does anybody know how to do that??
(Also, a quick shout-out, please visit Starbase UGC for all your Foundry needs!)
Alisenkenra, start here: http://starbaseugc.com/index.php/sto-ugc-tutorial/back-to-basics-part-6-trigger/
Then go here: http://starbaseugc.com/index.php/noob-guides/tutorials-guide/
I would start by watching all the "Back to Basics" tutorials and then start running through KirkFat's list. Some of the stuff is out of date, but the concepts are the same with regard to triggers and standalone dialog elements.
By the way, you can't really do branching objectives (as defined by the Foundry, anyway) but you can do branching of activities that simulates it. Again, the key here is going to be TRIGGERS. Learn them well.
Thanks a million! So THAT'S what triggers are...:D
(Also, a quick shout-out, please visit Starbase UGC for all your Foundry needs!)
My character Tsin'xing
Yes but the interact text cannot be changed due to a bug....
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
My mission that I'm trying to write has an extended sickbay scene, and I'm finding it hard to sort out enough "business" to break up the dialogue, so thanks Lincolninspace and Donperk for telling me about "Collectiveness Strikes Gold". I keep seeing that one mentioned, then for some reason forgetting to play it. I'm definitely going to now you've told me that!
It doesn't help that I'm very new to Foundry editing, so I don't know all the things that are possible, or how you'd do them if so. I didn't know that you could turn off objective markers, for instance, and I'm not certain how you trigger an explosion - but I mean to find out.
Thank you. You just made a little Foundry author very happy. Not that most of it's my doing, of course - I'm as chuffed as anyone with the wealth of good ideas that have come in since I took my eye off the topic! Like Doffingcomrade says, in this game fighting is the only task that's DESIGNED to require any thought or skill, but we seem to be a wonderfully ingenious lot around here. If the engine ain't made to do what you have in mind, trigger it 'til it is!
That reminds me, another non-combat "task" I really like is when you get to navigate your ship in 3d, like in the excellent "Transwarp Trouble". Flying from point to point turns into a game of skill like it should be rather than a chore, spotting your target against the stars and homing in on it, or using the scanner if you're puzzled. This seems to be a controversial one, though - Transwarp Trouble had about a dozen in-game reviews lambasting the author for that very thing! If playing this one, you just need to watch the view, not the minimap... and the wheel, not the girl ;-)
_
Space gameplay is what I really want to build on. My first mission has very little of it.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
I have no doubt i could manage the necessary triggers and such for a mini exploration zone with dialogue opening up by means of exploration, where finding something will enable you to then ask an NPC more about the curious item you have found and progress the investigation into whatever story the plot demands
BUT i seriously doubt i could create a map with enough detail to make it interesting with the object limit, but then i'm only minorly experienced with custom maps, as i mostly set dress the existing ones, are there any skycastle builders out there with thoughts?
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
My character Tsin'xing
But heres what i'm thinking, Somekind of Stranded in space type mission, Where you scavenge and trade for parts perhaps.
One initial idea is a deep space diplomatic mission gone a bit askew, an accident renders you unable to return home, and you must either Trade/Diplomacy your way to the parts you need getting you home , OR you could blast em up, with disatrous results for your diplomatic mission
Maybe even use the Nebula that drops shields to sell the whole broken ship feel, for those who like immersion and to discourage the blast em up route as your in a vunerable ship
Or another idea for a stranded space map, is a Ship Mothball yard, Like in the Voyager episode where theres a trader dealing in broken down ships, and you'd need to find the parts you need, then make a trade/or guns blazing, blast your way out of there/ use stealth to slip away
An alternative would be Surplus Depot Z15.
Other tricks to create mission choice include carefully pathing mobs so that players that are so inclined can sneak between them instead of blasting everything. (See one of the ground levels for lincolninspace's "A Time to Search" for an example: He put patrolling Breen on the map without tying them to objectives, and pathed them so you can sneak past instead of engaging.) Assuming the Kirkfat tutorial I watched last night is accurate, you can even reward the player for stealth by triggering it so that engaging and killing them causes an alarm to go off and more mobs will spawn. (Kirkfat said Component Complete on the attacked mobs would trip the trigger when the group was dead. Haven't tried this yet.)
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
There are "static interference" assets that each have different areas. The do the effect and drop shields and sensors but there is no accompanying nebula.
And yeah "Component Complete" triggers work off objects and NPC Groups when all the members of a group are dead they are considered "complete".
That's what I thought. It's two assets put together (interference + nebula).
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
thats a real useful link, thanks
I think it was "The Syndicate Extraction". IIRC the trick there was, there was only one objective (go here) but two ways to achieve it (be sneaky or blast your way in). This is done by not tying hostile mob groups to kill objectives.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Doing this is a great way to almost sandbox a level, You could have one objectve to meet with a contact in a Bar, say the managers office
But you can throw up so many types of obsticle on the way there, Surely Bouncers, Barfights, shady Smugglers making deals you can interupt , A seductive Orion waitress if you so desire, the possibilities even for that one scenario can be wide ranging, and all can be avoided, or completed,
One mission i played even had the player wake up in the brig of a ship if they took part in a fight that was interupted by ships security
it doesn't matter how, just as long as the reach marker is reached
I'm laughing at this because in "The Sins of the Fathers" you have alternative ways to get OUT of the bar. The object is just to make it out of there -- how you do it is up to the player.
I just finished drawing up the outcome graph for "A Bridge Too Far: Survival". This mission will have four very different outcomes and over forty unique decision paths the player can follow. A few of those paths are non-combatant paths using a mixture of dialog and interaction trigger points.