Mission Architect Tutorial
300 series - Custom Critters and Groups
301 - Custom Critters and Groups - Overview and discussion
Preparation
No real prep for this. This is going to be more of a discussion and overview of custom critters and groups, how to plan and what to expect.
What's a 'critter?'
Critter. Mob. NPC. Anything that's not a player, essentially, is a "critter."
No, I didn't pull this term out of thin air. It has been used before - but it's being used primarily because that's what the file on your drive for each one of these is called - a .critter file (from the extension used.)
These are your custom bad guys (or allies) that you create for your missions. They are not necessarily arc-specific - you can create critters and critter groups for multiple arcs.
Files - what inherits what from where
This is somewhat of a mini-version of another guide.
There are a few things you can bring in when creating a custom mob or group.
Costumes - From the tailor. The "Save" button will save a .costume file you can use later. Handy for copying your character's look in game to use as a critter later.
Critter files - Add a bit of extra information (such as name, group, powers and such) to the .costume file.
.CVG (CustomVillainGroup) file - Adopts all the critter and costume information from the .critter files. Piles them all together.
.Mission files - Brings in the entire .cvg or .critter file you use.
This comes into play when we consider mission size.
Mission size
Storyarcs cannot be larger than 100kb on the server. Now, if we look at the files on disk, they may *be* a bit larger there - the server throws away some of the human readable information and compacts it in other ways. Arcanaville, our Lady of the Numbers, did her typically thorough research into it, finding some of what changed, and what didn't. (For instance, a myth had started coming around that a black costume took less space - it doesn't.) I'll leave any real explanation of it to her.
That said, if your storyarc is taking up half or more of the available space, it's custom critters doing it.
Size, number of critters and stories - I feel it's best to mention this here.
Some people have put in one mission with their custom group and seen a 50-70k storyarc. They've then reacted, essentially, with "That's one story? How can I do all five? That's not enough space!"
There's one very important thing they're missing, however. Custom critters are only loaded once. At the very beginning of the arc. If you look back at the tutorial missions we've done already, most are very small - if any are 5k, I'd be surprised.
As I look at my initial batch of missions from beta - not counting the tutorials - I see my custom critter arcs. One has only a boss as a custom critter, and runs 31kb for five missions. One has a pretty full group of several minions, two LTs and a boss. Four missions, 61k. And another, with two custom groups (one with a minion, two LTs, a boss, and another group with a LT and Boss) - 63k for five missions total. The missions themselves are *small.*
Standard NPCs, though, are called with one line, since they don't have to be created piecemeal like custom critters. Keep this in mind.
Creating custom minions - whys and wherefores
I foresee much playing with custom minions. They're fun, and you can get combos that you just can't get elsewhere. You can make copies of yourself to fight against or alongside.
It's somewhat easy to gimp the critters - and even moreso, and tempting, to make them overpowered. Robotics/Radiation Mastermind, anyone? Mind/Illusion Controller? KINETICS mastermind? If you use them, play them with a variety of characters and ATs before publishing... and ask yourself honestly if they're fun or not.
Creating custom groups
The very first thing you need to ask yourself is, "Do I have to?" If the answer is yes, which I'm sure it will be... go for it.
With the filesize limits, assume you can't have more than 12 custom critters - and that's going to be pushing things, quite often at the expense of the story.
Several mixes have come up for "good" groups. 4/4/2, for instance, of Minions/Lts/Bosses - you may want fewer LTs and more Minions for more variety in spawns at all levels. A mix of range and melee, buff/debuff and attacking can be had with that size.
Now, the astute among you may have noticed my bolding of the word "Custom." You can, with a bit of thought, put pre-existing mobs in a custom group. Use them as filler mobs. Just be aware that, unlike with purely custom groups, they will affect your group's level range (and thus the mission level range. Pay close attention to that.
You may also notice I didn't mention putting an AV or Elite Boss in. I find you have a bit more control if you make them their *own* group. We'll get into this shortly.
Group management and working with size restrictions
So you have this wonderful, varied group you want to work on. Go for it! Make ten of each, minions, LTs, Bosses...
Just don't try to load it into a mission.
Save your group as a "name-Main" group. Then look over your critters when you're creating the story arc. Pick a good mix, and create a second set - a sub-group - to load into your arc. If they need fillers, use standard NPCs for variety. Save the "main" groups as libraries for future ideas.
Consider how you see, say, Council or Longbow at various ranges. You're not going to be restricted by range, particularly. You may have a rifleman, machine gunner, Eagle, specops and flamethrower for minions, the ever-popular Nullifier as a LT, and two or three Wardens or Officers as bosses (or LTs.) That's nine or ten critters, and they mix things up enough to give you a good fight.
With too many - especially with very flashy powers - it can be overwhelming, to the player or file size. Too few? Think of the levels with nothing but Sorcerers and Blue Ink Men, or Earth Thorn Casters as seemingly every spawn.
Find a good balance both of numbers and powers. This isn't something that can be told, just done through experimentation. And again, dont' be afraid of using preexisting NPCs to fill out your ranks, if you can find some appropriate ones.
Above all, look at what *others* have done before actually using your own groups.
Mission Architect Tutorial
300 series - Custom Critters and Groups
301 - Custom Critters and Groups - Overview and discussion
Preparation
No real prep for this. This is going to be more of a discussion and overview of custom critters and groups, how to plan and what to expect.
What's a 'critter?'
Critter. Mob. NPC. Anything that's not a player, essentially, is a "critter."
No, I didn't pull this term out of thin air. It has been used before - but it's being used primarily because that's what the file on your drive for each one of these is called - a .critter file (from the extension used.)
These are your custom bad guys (or allies) that you create for your missions. They are not necessarily arc-specific - you can create critters and critter groups for multiple arcs.
Files - what inherits what from where
This is somewhat of a mini-version of another guide.
There are a few things you can bring in when creating a custom mob or group.
Costumes - From the tailor. The "Save" button will save a .costume file you can use later. Handy for copying your character's look in game to use as a critter later.
Critter files - Add a bit of extra information (such as name, group, powers and such) to the .costume file.
.CVG (CustomVillainGroup) file - Adopts all the critter and costume information from the .critter files. Piles them all together.
.Mission files - Brings in the entire .cvg or .critter file you use.
This comes into play when we consider mission size.
Mission size
Storyarcs cannot be larger than 100kb on the server. Now, if we look at the files on disk, they may *be* a bit larger there - the server throws away some of the human readable information and compacts it in other ways. Arcanaville, our Lady of the Numbers, did her typically thorough research into it, finding some of what changed, and what didn't. (For instance, a myth had started coming around that a black costume took less space - it doesn't.) I'll leave any real explanation of it to her.
That said, if your storyarc is taking up half or more of the available space, it's custom critters doing it.
Size, number of critters and stories - I feel it's best to mention this here.
Some people have put in one mission with their custom group and seen a 50-70k storyarc. They've then reacted, essentially, with "That's one story? How can I do all five? That's not enough space!"
There's one very important thing they're missing, however. Custom critters are only loaded once. At the very beginning of the arc. If you look back at the tutorial missions we've done already, most are very small - if any are 5k, I'd be surprised.
As I look at my initial batch of missions from beta - not counting the tutorials - I see my custom critter arcs. One has only a boss as a custom critter, and runs 31kb for five missions. One has a pretty full group of several minions, two LTs and a boss. Four missions, 61k. And another, with two custom groups (one with a minion, two LTs, a boss, and another group with a LT and Boss) - 63k for five missions total. The missions themselves are *small.*
Standard NPCs, though, are called with one line, since they don't have to be created piecemeal like custom critters. Keep this in mind.
Creating custom minions - whys and wherefores
I foresee much playing with custom minions. They're fun, and you can get combos that you just can't get elsewhere. You can make copies of yourself to fight against or alongside.
It's somewhat easy to gimp the critters - and even moreso, and tempting, to make them overpowered. Robotics/Radiation Mastermind, anyone? Mind/Illusion Controller? KINETICS mastermind? If you use them, play them with a variety of characters and ATs before publishing... and ask yourself honestly if they're fun or not.
Creating custom groups
The very first thing you need to ask yourself is, "Do I have to?" If the answer is yes, which I'm sure it will be... go for it.
With the filesize limits, assume you can't have more than 12 custom critters - and that's going to be pushing things, quite often at the expense of the story.
Several mixes have come up for "good" groups. 4/4/2, for instance, of Minions/Lts/Bosses - you may want fewer LTs and more Minions for more variety in spawns at all levels. A mix of range and melee, buff/debuff and attacking can be had with that size.
Now, the astute among you may have noticed my bolding of the word "Custom." You can, with a bit of thought, put pre-existing mobs in a custom group. Use them as filler mobs. Just be aware that, unlike with purely custom groups, they will affect your group's level range (and thus the mission level range. Pay close attention to that.
You may also notice I didn't mention putting an AV or Elite Boss in. I find you have a bit more control if you make them their *own* group. We'll get into this shortly.
Group management and working with size restrictions
So you have this wonderful, varied group you want to work on. Go for it! Make ten of each, minions, LTs, Bosses...
Just don't try to load it into a mission.
Save your group as a "name-Main" group. Then look over your critters when you're creating the story arc. Pick a good mix, and create a second set - a sub-group - to load into your arc. If they need fillers, use standard NPCs for variety. Save the "main" groups as libraries for future ideas.
Consider how you see, say, Council or Longbow at various ranges. You're not going to be restricted by range, particularly. You may have a rifleman, machine gunner, Eagle, specops and flamethrower for minions, the ever-popular Nullifier as a LT, and two or three Wardens or Officers as bosses (or LTs.) That's nine or ten critters, and they mix things up enough to give you a good fight.
With too many - especially with very flashy powers - it can be overwhelming, to the player or file size. Too few? Think of the levels with nothing but Sorcerers and Blue Ink Men, or Earth Thorn Casters as seemingly every spawn.
Find a good balance both of numbers and powers. This isn't something that can be told, just done through experimentation. And again, dont' be afraid of using preexisting NPCs to fill out your ranks, if you can find some appropriate ones.
Above all, look at what *others* have done before actually using your own groups.