Ok, if you know a trick...pass it on

Surprise !
As a developer stated earlier.......if you want to have an enemy mob beam in
just as you approach...or warp in for that matter.
Stick a reach marker in just before you get to them AND before the kill objective in the story

Stuff is not triggering !
Check the story menu first...you will prob find the problem there.
EVERYTHING MUST HAPPEN IN ORDER

Reach markers are your friend
Use them to 'time' conversations...enemy spawns ect.

Need 'friendly' enemy?
Start with a friendly mob/NPC then reskin them

ASTEROID FIELDS KILL , -premade ones don't
If at all possible, don't drop in large asteroid fields, they will bring that map load to a crawl,
use a premade one, then stick a few singles for flavor....quicker load.

Pop up dialog on zone in...is unfun.
give them a wee bit of breathing room...with a reach marker

Save often !
...well, you know why :p

What was that device that Picard used to trap that gas thingy?......
google is your friend...Star Trek Wiki <thingy> if it is in any way related to star trek, its in there.

KAH' Glugn's FoGhas ! < no clue if it is a real klingon word by the way :p >
Just because you know Klingon doesn't mean your players do. Use Klingon words
S E L E C T I V E L Y and never if not knowing it's meaning will cause confusion on
an important mission point. Ka Pla !

OPSEY :p
If there is ANY kind of fighting on the map.....put a respawn point in !
Often forgotten and never required.....don't forget though.

..... thats all for me right now, you know a trick post it

and dont misspell Qapla' lest you be eaten by klingons. :p

LOL tells you how much Klingon I know :p
very little -

I will work on that....when I get around to writing Klingon missions.

Meow

Easiest thing to do if you're not great at speaking/writing Klingon is use an online Klingon translator such as http://www.mrklingon.org/

OK, with more time under my belt

>>> TWO <<< HOT TIPS

1st one
If you want just ONE NPC group member....check the top of the NPC list,
there is a single Klingon dog that is NEUTRAL.
Grab that....reskin to the NPC you want....TA - DA 1 NPC

2nd one Secret tip

So you want to have the player do things WHILE warping to a new location.
you can

Create a custom space map....with nothing but the respawn point.
place a reach marker in front of it...the longer you want the player to wait until the interaction
starts..the farther away you put it. < make it BIG> so the player will not miss it

next step...place a flash only beacon way ahead in the distance

ok, the secret...there is an enviromental effect...warp streaks north/south place in a good distance
ahead of the spawn point, pointed in the same direction as the player ship is

There ya go, the player will warp into this map and appear to be at warp, when they get
to the reach marker you can trigger all kinds of stuff...pop-up conversations or even better
a transfer to an Interior ship map

have fun with it

Meow

Time for a new tip

SO.....you want to set up an 1 squad ambush....you put each actor behind an asteroid
set the wander to max and..... ?? BLAH

1st, in space always set enemy ship on max wander to the move at least a bit.

OK the one npc group ambush....you need a poison pawn.

Take the lowest number actor and have it be the closest spawn to the player or if you have
the spawn triggered by a circle..has that lowest numbered one (being the lowest, it always spawns)
and have it spawn in thier face.

put the rest near by outta sight behind rocks and such.

Why does poison pawn work ?

as SOON as you agro 1...you activate the rest of the group, and they start coming

Don't make them too far away or they may stay dormant
rule of thumb, keep each actor closer than 10km (weapon range) from thier partners

.................................

More tips to come

Many people probably know this already, but after placing NPC groups on a map (example: Federation Squad Ensign Lt Cmdr 03), if you want the individual actors to speak during the encounter, click on each actor on the map. Under the map there is a box that will have information for each actor. In the box labeled 'Contact' you type in what you want that actor to say.

This way you can have one or more of the actors say different things during the encounter.

Actor 1: I knew I should have stayed in bed today
Actor 2: Game over, man! Game over!
Actor 3: This is for killing my wife!
Actor 4: This is for NOT killing my wife!

and so on.....

GOLD. pure genius comment there

I see that just dropping a defeat the squad encounter may become to predictable to the player. My method around this is to put a door before they enter the space.

Why do this?

It puts a trigger in the spot so the player has to go there first. Then what is on the other side of the door can be one of three things; Kill some people, talk to some one, or use and object.

Also, in the corridors, to prevent mobs from shooting through walls and prematurely exposing them to the player, the door trigger prevents this. Because the player has to click on the door first to get the encounter. I also place a actor in the hall to act as a trigger for an event or non event. Make the story long, so people cannot remember the chain of events. Remember, people remember things in three and sevens.

I try to mix it up and some times have nothing on the other side of the door. This is where my narrator actor comes in handy.

I think the key here is to keep the player on their toes. Give them a chance to prepare for action, but make it so, they never know what is behind the door. That goes back to the Scooby-Doo method.

this is an awesome thread guys, thanks so much for this 'work-in-progress' compilation!

hope to be able to add to it, too, soon!


d3n