How do I...?

colonelmarik · October 2016

Well, I've been working on tweaking a mission I wrote some time ago, and I've been trying to do something I can't quite figure out. Perhaps someone here can point me in the right direction.

The mission is called "Rome" if you want to try it out and see what I'm talking about.

There are a couple of points in the mission where the player is offered a "choice." In the first, they encounter a Romulan ship who demands they leave the area. They go to a new map, the briefing room, to discuss it with the bridge crew, and then decide whether to stay and fight the Romulan or agree to his demand. Later, a similar thing occurs when they are asked to help with a coup d'etat, an act which would violate the Prime Directive, meaning they might refuse to help.

In each case, it's expected the player would carry on in the mission. However, I would LIKE to make it possible for the player to actually end the mission at these points. I just haven't got it worked out HOW.

In each case, they are in the briefing room talking to an NPC. My thinking was to have each possible response send them to a different new map. If they choose to fight, go to space battle map. If they choose to leave, go to space departure map. Each map would have the same geography, but the objectives would differ. The combat map would load and the objective would be to defeat the enemy. The departure map would load, and the objective would be to reach the exit point. The same sort of thing would happen with the request for aid. Agree, map 1. Decline, map 2.

However, I can't seem to figure out how to direct the game to load the appropriate map. Is there a way? If so, what is it?

duncanidaho11 · October 2016

In short: what you want to do is impossible (as stated). The Foundry follows a linear path of objectives, except when you allow the player to pursue multiple objectives simultaneously. There is no way around this. You cannot have the player chose which map they transfer to next.

The only way to create a branching path is to use non-mission dialog to trigger changes to your current map which corresponds with your plot idea. For example:

Location marker
Dialog pop-up (tied to reaching that component)
Two dialog choices: one triggers NPC mobs to spawn between them and their current objective
Player proceeds to that objective, only now with combat

Hunt For a Viper by Johnny Snowball is a great illustration of how far you can go with this (3 different chains of non-mission triggers and dialog, the end of each removes just enough of a 3-piece barrier to allow the player to reach the real mission objective) but there are a couple points to keep in mind.

The player will not be able to see their "true" objective in their objective list, only the one that allows mission progression (since this is all slight-of-hand with triggers and non-mission prompts).
None of the choices the player makes on one map can be made to automatically carry over to the next map.

There's a lot you can do with this approach, but you will need to scale your ideas to the limitations of the Foundry.

markhawkman · October 2016

Also choices made can't directly continue across maps, so you'll have to either write it to not care, or add a dialog choice to the next map to carry it over.

Unknown · October 2016

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markhawkman · October 2016

given that CRYPTIC missions don't do that, I'd say the engine isn't able to support it.

trennan · October 2016

As much as I wish I could do this. When i'm building a mission, I keep in mind that the majority of STO players prefer to be lead around by the nose.

Though I do wish i could set up choices, even if I had to make extra maps for them. That way you could present a choice to the player. With the number of maps you can make per mission, 15. That could give you three diverent paths of 3 maps. That assuming 1 intro and 1 for exit.

Of course this would be much easier done with "interact with contact or object". You can pull this off with dialogue and triggers. The player just won't be lead around by the nose with map markers. With the triggers setup, you can have the player do a great many things outside of you story. But, inside the "story" itself, it is a straight line. ~grab player by nose and lead them around~

This is one of my many annoyances with the foundry. Wishing I could do divergent paths in the same story. But with the limitations they have on the amount of stuff you can use for a mission. I can see why they want it to be linear.

If they gave me a mission with divergent story pathing, 1000 maps, and unlimited everything else. I could build an entire sector. Including full worlds with missions and stories to go with them. You can already do this. As long as you limit yourself on maps used for planets. Say, 3 planets in one system. Each 1 gets 1 space map and 4 ground maps, or a mix there of. 5 maps total for that planet.

Unknown · October 2016

This content has been removed.

duncanidaho11 · October 2016

colonelmarik wrote: »

Ya, even if it just let you end the mission early. That's really the choice I wanted to give the players. Do you violate the Prime Directive, or do you stay out of internal politics? Do you violate the treaty and save the Kobayashi Maru, or do you leave them unaided?

What's wrong with presenting weighty issues as characters' choices in linear narrative? Players choices (IMO) work best in a videogame when it's a matter of gameplay style, tactics, and moral judgements on single characters at the end of their arc (basically, just asks the audience to articulate a natural reaction). When it comes to major story points that can split progression (ex. Fallout, Bioware), allowing choice can create false parity. Anything you do will continue the narrative. Events may change, certain characters may die, but things keep moving. The stakes become moot (unless you're invested exclusively in the small details), and the choice presented ultimately becomes one of desired story tone.

The content behind the choice isn't as well served as if you (as the author) made a statement about how characters would react in a given situation (which is the core of human storytelling.)

trennan wrote: »

If they gave me a mission with divergent story pathing, 1000 maps, and unlimited everything else. I could build an entire sector. Including full worlds with missions and stories to go with them. You can already do this. As long as you limit yourself on maps used for planets. Say, 3 planets in one system. Each 1 gets 1 space map and 4 ground maps, or a mix there of. 5 maps total for that planet.

An alternative to this is also making multiple missions. That does allow you to better refine how their components work together (given that you only have to think around one pathway.)

thelunarboy · December 2017

One thing I did in an episode I wrote, was have a situation in the third act where you have been potentially betrayed by a character and you have to decide what to do with them... whether or not to trust them. In the fourth act, you warp in and a dialogue box comes up and asks you what your choice was (this relies on the player's honesty). Depending on the outcome of this, you get some support in a fight against an enemy blockade.

Now what I think you could do is something similar. Take this example - have one map... and one final objective (say, get in transporter range of planet). Have a dialogue box at the start of the map and ask the players to click what their choice was. If your player has acted favourably, they just sail through to the planet. If not, place an enemy fleet between you and the planet. You still only have to reach the transporter range, but you've got a fight between you and the objective (I really don't think players are going to fly to the edges of the map just to avoid it... and you can probably funnel them towards it anyway). You don't even have to make it just an unscripted fight either. You can have the fleet appear and put it behind an invisible wall and have a dialogue box pop up just before you reach that wall (and further branch your mission based on dialogue options). Say you talk them out of the fight, the enemy fleet warps out when the wall drops. Say you convince them to help you, the NPC is replaced with a friendly ship/fleet. Say you fail, the wall drops and you fight. There you have been given several options on a single map and all you need to do to start the process is have some dialogue when you warp in.

Does that work?

How do I...?

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