Foundry Essentials - Kirkfat's Back to Basics Part VI

[gillrmn]

I guess I'm a little confused on what the difference between non-linear quests and branching paths are (if there is one). I thought non-linear gameplay was just playing quests/doing objectives in any order you wish to achieve one final goal, while branching paths ultimately meant multiple endings.

After reading gillrmn's examples, I have to agree that I might get confused when the next mission objective on the screen says "get past the rock", and then have 6 different sets of green arrows pointing everywhere except the rock.

And if one of the options has you destroying a town, how do you keep that consistent through successive questlines? And what if someone else in the party decided to take one path while you did another to progress the story? Haha! Just pretend I'm new here.....

The first one done would be considered.

About non-linearity I would simply say that nintendo's game Final Fantasy was non-linear and open world, right? You even had sub-quests which you can do but may just skip and go on ahead.

It should be possible to recreate that game using foundry.

[muzrub333]

Okay, one thing I wanted to do, was make a huge dungeon complex, that could not be done in a single, or even several play sessions. The problems I foresee are that, people want small bites of adventure they can do in an hour or so, and that it is unlikely you can "camp" in a mission, and log back in the next day in the same place. As a work around I plan on making several smaller dungeon crawls that can be done in a casual play session. My big question is; can I make completing a mission a requirement to open another mission?

Example: I have a dungeon that ends at a stone slab, (exit) which is really where the next dungeon will start. Getting to the slab and examining it flags you for entry into part 2, which you can enter at that time or later. If you fail the mission, or don't examine the slab, you will not be flagged for the next section. Basically a keying process to the next "chapter".

Is it possible? Can I hide missions from people until they actually complete the required previous missions?

Edit: From an STO perspective of course.

[kirksplat]

I don't know the answers regarding NW. It might have added functionality.

I remember reading somewhere that NW's Foundry allows a player to load into the map that they were last on. In STO's version, if a player exits a map, then he or she has to go back through each map to get back to the spot where they left. Each map is completed though, so it's usually just a bunch of loading screens until you get back to the last spot.

On your big question, that is not possible in STO. There was a lot of talk over the years about being able to "favorite" an author. That is a feature they'd "like to see" TM in STO. Maybe there is info in the links the mod posted. It might be in your toolset. I don't know.

A lot of STO authors make series of "My Mission, part 1" and "My Mission, part 2." They can be played by the players out of order, unless maybe part 1 is for a lower level and part 2 is for a higher level. I'm not sure how your game works or whether different enemies in your Foundry have different level restrictions. Even then, your Vice Wizards (or whatever they are) can still play your missions out of order, if it's like STO's foundry.

Regarding play-time: We're having a big issue with rewards, because it's set up where everyone gets the same reward if the mission is at least 15 minutes long. You can imagine what that has done. The 3 hour missions don't get played, and now the listing is full of quick grinders. According to old dev posts by Mapolis somewhere in this forum, your rewards system is completely different and actually based on some kind of timer mechanic. So, in theory, a longer mission gives out better rewards.

But those posts were a while back, so it might be different.

[tearingtheweave]

The more I read about the limitations of the cans and cant's related to modding here the less I am inclined to do so. I think at this point I will just play the game even though my heart lies as a builder. I'm just not feeling the idea that I am restricted to adventure building only. I prefer building persistent worlds.

[kirksplat]

The more I read about the limitations of the cans and cant's related to modding here the less I am inclined to do so. I think at this point I will just play the game even though my heart lies as a builder. I'm just not feeling the idea that I am restricted to adventure building only. I prefer building persistent worlds.

Well, it's not a modding tool. You don't really modify anything, unless we're talking about using the character creator to create characters or combining two different props to make something look different. The Foundry (at least for STO) provides a way to tell a story set in the universe of the game. You create the justification for a dungeon quest, or you do some kind of DD version of Romeo and Juliet. You do not mod, skin, texture, alter, or edit anything that is in the game.

As far as I know, it is not like previous tools associated with this franchise. In many ways, it is far more limited technically. But in other ways, it lets you tell stories in a way that you couldn't really do as well with actual mod tools. At least, that is my guess.