I'm trying to figure out the best way to create an objective where you rescue a hostage. All I could think of was putting the instructions to do so in the mission dialogue and then create an NPC contact that thanks you for rescuing them. Is there a better way to do this?

Also, is it possible to create a mission where two different objectives are active at the same time? Like would it be possible to rescue hostages and defeat enemy groups? When I tried this with the NPC contact, the objective to speak to the contact would only activate after the defeat enemy groups objective was complete. Any suggestions on what would be the best way to create a mission with multiple enemy groups and hostages?

I've been trying to do multiple different abjectives too with no success, I run into the same problem you have, it doesn't seem to be able to at the moment, but if I figure out a way, i'll post it here

I've done something similar, except instead of physical NPCs it was rescueing a NPC Ship. But if you mean to then say beam the NPCs away then I don't think it's possible yet.

So far I'm thinking about just creating several "speak to contact" objectives and surrounding the contacts by enemys without actually creating a "defeat enemy" objective. I'm going to create a test map like this and I'll post the name shortly for anyone who wants to take a look and tell me what you think.

The only thing I can think of is making it beam in neutrals who have the costumes of said enemy.

Which you can't do...I don't see a way to trigger any kind of spawn.

yes you can do two things at once

so for example you can set up a kill encounter and then if you drop another kill encounter or scan object or talk to contact on top of the existing kill encounter two routes open up.

you still have to complete both but you can do it in which ever order you like.

as for a hostage the best way is either to set up a contact that you have to talk to or you can set up a reach marker in the room where they are so when you hit the reach marker the dialogue then pops up thanking you. its pretty much the same. you i guess you could do multiple reach markers in multiple room by dragging them ontop of each other.

If you drag a new objective onto one that's already in your flowchart, it'll branch into what you're trying to do.

As far as getting NPCs to beam out, that functionality isn't in yet, unfortunately.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I created a test mission called "hostage test" using the branching objectives suggested in this thread. Please give it a quick try and just let me know if you think the mechanics seem sound enough for use in a real mission. Thanks!

Will try it out after these few missions I'm reviewing.