Mission Architect Tutorial
100 series - basics
103 - Adding a second mission (and beyond)
The Mission Architect file you've been saving is a .storyarc file. As the name implies, it doesn't have to be a single mission - and I'm willing to bet, more often than not, it won't be. An arc, of course, consists of two or more missions. You've likely run these either as mission arcs or strike forces, task forces, or trials.
Any arc you create can have from one to five missions in it (at time of I14 Open Beta. The restrictions may be changed later through various awards or at the whim of the developers.) This tutorial will expand the "World Domination 101" mission into a two mission arc.
As always, open the most recent local copy of the file on your machine (Tutorial 2) in the Mission Architect. Click on Save As... and save it as Tutorial 3. This is the copy we'll work with.
Creating a second mission
Adding another mission to your arc is very simple. Select Tutorial 3 and hit "Edit," then look at the editor window. If you look to the right of your mission "books you'll see a button that says "Add mission." Click that.
You will now have a new, blank mission called "Mission 2 (1-54)" ready for editing. These titles (Mission 1, Mission 2) cannot be changed, but they have no impact on how anyone else sees your missions. The 1-54, as you might have guessed, is the level range. This will be determined by the critters in your mission - it can change from mission to mission. We'll get into that in a later tutorial. For now, let's make a second, fast mission. Type in or select the following:
Enemy Group - 5th Column (1-54). Again, we're ignoring custom groups. Map type - Again, we want something small, but we'll pick something a bit bigger this time. Pick Office Abandoned - City of Villains Set. Map Length: Small Map: Office Abandoned - City of Villains - 8. This is a two story map.
Skip to Write Text, for now. If you want to play with the settings dealt with in 102, come back to do it. We want to get you a second, working mission. Under Write Text:
Mission Introduction Dialog - We've found more 5th Column for you to clean out. They're in a warehouse down the way. Go get 'em! Mission Send Off Dialog: Show those goons who's boss! Compass Active Text: Clear out the 5th! Still Busy Dialog: Are they gone yet? Return Success dialog: Great job, $name, you really showed them!
(We'll get into the dollar strings later.) Now click on either "Mission 2 Details" or the "2" page on Mission 2.
[ QUOTE ]
Oh, didn't I mention that? Yes, the "1" and "2" in the mission books actually have a purpose. You don't have to arrow through each mission! If you need to fix an objective in Mission 4 of an arc, you can just click on "Page 2" of your "Mission 4" book, and it'll jump right there!
[/ QUOTE ]
The first mission was a defeat all. Let's pick a different one - Fight a Boss, under Basic Mission Goals. We'll go over each basic goal in the next lesson. Right now, just fill in the blanks.
Boss name: Put in Bob. Because that smiling guy is just creepy. Boss Enemy Group: 5th column (1-54)
Optional settings will be explained in the next tutorial.
Click the checkmark to save your mission.
Testing your mission
Just click Save and Test, right? Well, hold on a minute.
Yes, our first mission was short, and wouldn't be hard to play through to get to your second mission. Before finally publishing an arc, you'll probably want to do just that - play the whole thing through. Right now, though, we just want to see mission 2. How do we do that?
We rearrange the books up top.
The books aren't just for show and quick navigation. If you've just finished Mission 5 of an arc and JUST want to see that, you don't want to play through the first four missions. So, click on Mission 2, hold down the mouse... and drag it in front of Mission 1. The cursor will indicate it's dragging the mission by turning into a hand clenching a bunch of pieces of paper. Anywhere on the "ribbon" in front of the first mission will do.
Now, click Save and Test. Go wipe that smile off Bob's face!
Remember to drag them back into order when you come back, then re-save the storyarc.
Deleting a mission
All right. So you want to delete a mission. Maybe it's so messed up a little tweak won't help. Maybe you accidentally clicked "Add mission" twice instead of once and now have a blank mission. So how do you do it?
For the purposes of the tutorial, click "Add Mission" again. You should now have "Mission 3" available.
Looking at the mission "books" up top, you should see a little red dot next to them. Click that, and it will delete that mission. Take a look at the mission first - click on the "1" on the book to see the first page, just to make sure you're deleting the right one. In this case, it will still be "Mission 3." It will disappear from your list.
I personally recommend saving your arc before you delete a mission, JUST in case. (Call it something like "Delete M3") - we're not going to do this for this tutorial, but when you really get into editing, just assume you WILL make this mistake at some point. This little precaution (if you don't use the various CVS systems suggested in open beta for versioning and archiving) will save you grief and headaches.
Mission Architect Tutorial
100 series - basics
103 - Adding a second mission (and beyond)
The Mission Architect file you've been saving is a .storyarc file. As the name implies, it doesn't have to be a single mission - and I'm willing to bet, more often than not, it won't be. An arc, of course, consists of two or more missions. You've likely run these either as mission arcs or strike forces, task forces, or trials.
Any arc you create can have from one to five missions in it (at time of I14 Open Beta. The restrictions may be changed later through various awards or at the whim of the developers.) This tutorial will expand the "World Domination 101" mission into a two mission arc.
As always, open the most recent local copy of the file on your machine (Tutorial 2) in the Mission Architect. Click on Save As... and save it as Tutorial 3. This is the copy we'll work with.
Creating a second mission
Adding another mission to your arc is very simple. Select Tutorial 3 and hit "Edit," then look at the editor window. If you look to the right of your mission "books you'll see a button that says "Add mission." Click that.
You will now have a new, blank mission called "Mission 2 (1-54)" ready for editing. These titles (Mission 1, Mission 2) cannot be changed, but they have no impact on how anyone else sees your missions. The 1-54, as you might have guessed, is the level range. This will be determined by the critters in your mission - it can change from mission to mission. We'll get into that in a later tutorial. For now, let's make a second, fast mission. Type in or select the following:
Enemy Group - 5th Column (1-54). Again, we're ignoring custom groups.
Map type - Again, we want something small, but we'll pick something a bit bigger this time. Pick Office Abandoned - City of Villains Set.
Map Length: Small
Map: Office Abandoned - City of Villains - 8. This is a two story map.
Skip to Write Text, for now. If you want to play with the settings dealt with in 102, come back to do it. We want to get you a second, working mission. Under Write Text:
Mission Introduction Dialog - We've found more 5th Column for you to clean out. They're in a warehouse down the way. Go get 'em!
Mission Send Off Dialog: Show those goons who's boss!
Compass Active Text: Clear out the 5th!
Still Busy Dialog: Are they gone yet?
Return Success dialog: Great job, $name, you really showed them!
(We'll get into the dollar strings later.) Now click on either "Mission 2 Details" or the "2" page on Mission 2.
[ QUOTE ]
Oh, didn't I mention that? Yes, the "1" and "2" in the mission books actually have a purpose. You don't have to arrow through each mission! If you need to fix an objective in Mission 4 of an arc, you can just click on "Page 2" of your "Mission 4" book, and it'll jump right there!
[/ QUOTE ]
The first mission was a defeat all. Let's pick a different one - Fight a Boss, under Basic Mission Goals. We'll go over each basic goal in the next lesson. Right now, just fill in the blanks.
Boss name: Put in Bob. Because that smiling guy is just creepy.
Boss Enemy Group: 5th column (1-54)
Optional settings will be explained in the next tutorial.
Click the checkmark to save your mission.
Testing your mission
Just click Save and Test, right? Well, hold on a minute.
Yes, our first mission was short, and wouldn't be hard to play through to get to your second mission. Before finally publishing an arc, you'll probably want to do just that - play the whole thing through. Right now, though, we just want to see mission 2. How do we do that?
We rearrange the books up top.
The books aren't just for show and quick navigation. If you've just finished Mission 5 of an arc and JUST want to see that, you don't want to play through the first four missions. So, click on Mission 2, hold down the mouse... and drag it in front of Mission 1. The cursor will indicate it's dragging the mission by turning into a hand clenching a bunch of pieces of paper. Anywhere on the "ribbon" in front of the first mission will do.
Now, click Save and Test. Go wipe that smile off Bob's face!
Remember to drag them back into order when you come back, then re-save the storyarc.
Deleting a mission
All right. So you want to delete a mission. Maybe it's so messed up a little tweak won't help. Maybe you accidentally clicked "Add mission" twice instead of once and now have a blank mission. So how do you do it?
For the purposes of the tutorial, click "Add Mission" again. You should now have "Mission 3" available.
Looking at the mission "books" up top, you should see a little red dot next to them. Click that, and it will delete that mission. Take a look at the mission first - click on the "1" on the book to see the first page, just to make sure you're deleting the right one. In this case, it will still be "Mission 3." It will disappear from your list.
I personally recommend saving your arc before you delete a mission, JUST in case. (Call it something like "Delete M3") - we're not going to do this for this tutorial, but when you really get into editing, just assume you WILL make this mistake at some point. This little precaution (if you don't use the various CVS systems suggested in open beta for versioning and archiving) will save you grief and headaches.