I had this idea that it would be interesting to make missions in the following format, except I ran into a little problem...

In Theory:
Enter bar.
Mission pops up, telling how some strange looking person is walking in your direction, giving the option to stay (accept) or leave (decline). Accepting leads to another mission through ncb. The person asks "Would you like to freight some goods?". "Heck no!" (decline) and "Sure" (accept). A ncb would be set for declining, otherwise accepting would continue with that mission. When declining, another mission would then activate on the basis of the ncb that was just set, in which the person asks if you would rather protect some freighters from pirates, with "sure" (accept) or "no thanks" (decline). Accepting here would then give an escorting type mission.

In Practice:
Enter bar.
Mission pops up, telling how some strange looking person is walking in your direction, giving the option to stay (accept) or leave (decline). Accepting leads to another mission through ncb. No mission pops up.

Leave planet, return, enter bar.
The person asks "Would you like to freight some goods?". "Heck no!" (decline) and "Sure" (accept). A ncb is set for declining, otherwise accepting would continue with a cargo mission. When declining, another mission becomes available on the basis of the ncb that was just set. No mission pops up.

Leave planet, return, enter bar. No mission pops up.
Leave planet, hyperspace out, return, land, enter bar, mission pops up.
Person asks if you would rather protect some freighters from pirates, with "sure" (accept) or "no thanks" (decline). Accepting here then gives an escorting type mission, declining ends the offer.

So, from this little experiment, it looks like mission availability through ncb is checked either when landing/takeoff, when entering the system, or when reopening the pilot.

Does anybody know of a way to make branches like this that don't require you to travel somewhere else for each option?

And, it did occur to me that a ncb could be set for a previous player action, and that would determine which branch was taken, but that wouldn't offer nearly as many options to the player.

------------------

get an editing tool and edit it

------------------
no one is a vergin because life has screwed us all. - my self
i have things to do and people to see, or is that backwards? - funpage alert

Make the mission branch by actually giving the player the next mission with the ncb expression operator. Go read the top of the bible for the specific operator (I forget which character it is).

Quote

Originally posted by Bluskale:
**I had this idea that it would be interesting to make missions in the following format, except I ran into a little problem...

In Theory:
Enter bar.
Mission pops up, telling how some strange looking person is walking in your direction, giving the option to stay (accept) or leave (decline). Accepting leads to another mission through ncb. The person asks "Would you like to freight some goods?". "Heck no!" (decline) and "Sure" (accept). A ncb would be set for declining, otherwise accepting would continue with that mission. When declining, another mission would then activate on the basis of the ncb that was just set, in which the person asks if you would rather protect some freighters from pirates, with "sure" (accept) or "no thanks" (decline). Accepting here would then give an escorting type mission.

In Practice:
Enter bar.
Mission pops up, telling how some strange looking person is walking in your direction, giving the option to stay (accept) or leave (decline). Accepting leads to another mission through ncb. No mission pops up.

Leave planet, return, enter bar.
The person asks "Would you like to freight some goods?". "Heck no!" (decline) and "Sure" (accept). A ncb is set for declining, otherwise accepting would continue with a cargo mission. When declining, another mission becomes available on the basis of the ncb that was just set. No mission pops up.

Leave planet, return, enter bar. No mission pops up.
Leave planet, hyperspace out, return, land, enter bar, mission pops up.
Person asks if you would rather protect some freighters from pirates, with "sure" (accept) or "no thanks" (decline). Accepting here then gives an escorting type mission, declining ends the offer.

So, from this little experiment, it looks like mission availability through ncb is checked either when landing/takeoff, when entering the system, or when reopening the pilot.

Does anybody know of a way to make branches like this that don't require you to travel somewhere else for each option?

And, it did occur to me that a ncb could be set for a previous player action, and that would determine which branch was taken, but that wouldn't offer nearly as many options to the player.

**

------------------
Kevin Ballard
(url="http://"mailto:kevin@sb.org")mailto:kevin@sb.org(/url)kevin@sb.org

Quote

Originally posted by Aranor:
**Make the mission branch by actually giving the player the next mission with the ncb expression operator. Go read the top of the bible for the specific operator (I forget which character it is).
**

Oh, ha, there it is, Sxxx...
Now I feel like one of those people who clutter up the boards with useless questions that are answered in the FAQ.

Sorry, and thanks for pointing that out.

------------------

Unfortunately, this doesn't work quite in the way you want it to.. I've run into this problem myself. Sxxx does not offer the player a mission, it simply starts it, as if they had accepted. So multiple questions in a row (at least, done that way) is a no-go.

------------------
"Insert witty quote here." - Thomas Castiglione

Quote

Originally posted by Gul Banana:
**Unfortunately, this doesn't work quite in the way you want it to.. I've run into this problem myself. Sxxx does not offer the player a mission, it simply starts it, as if they had accepted. So multiple questions in a row (at least, done that way) is a no-go.
**

Heh, I was finding that out when you replied.

Ah well, I suppose there's some other way to accomplish something similar, if at the sacrifice of the original plot...

------------------