I know there is probably no real way of making a single mission have secondary mission objectives, but I had an idea on the subject. Does anyone know whether it's possible to make a mission that activates automatically and without an option to turn it down or show any dialogs? For instance, if the OnFail section of a mission sets a bit, is there any way to make that bit automatically activate a secondary mission.

Like if a mission is to protect a ship and that ship gets destroye, can you amend the mission so that you need to chase down the people that destroyed the ship? (Sort of a revenge thing)

I'm probably not making any sense here, but I guess my real question is whether or not it's possible to make a mission that is activated on the setting of a bit without having to be accepted or even acknowledged?

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."
"No matter how much you polish a piece of crap, the best you can hope for is a shiny piece of crap."- Mac journalist discussing the delayed release of Win XP

Well, I can think of two methods:

1. (is the simplest) Have a mission where you are to escort a ship, and say in the dialog that if the ship is destroyed, go to such-and-such planet. The mission fails, you go the the planet, and receive a "Comm Message" to go after the pirates (or whoever) that destroyed the ship.

2. (is harder to pull off, but follows closer to what you want). Write two missions that are given back-to-back. Word the descriptions so that it seems as if you're being offered one mission with a long description and history. You are to escort the ship to such and such a place, and if it gets destroyed, you are authorized to kill the pirates that did that. One mission is to escort the ship. The other is to kill the pirates.

I haven't experimented with Nova missions much but it seems as if 2 could be feasible. Definitely 1 is possible.

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."

I guess my next question is whether or not you can cancel a mission without having the player need to abort it. The way I see it, though your choice number 2 would yield some excellent results if the ship was indeed destroyed, it would be a problem if it weren't because the seek and destroy mission would still be active. I guess I would have been asking this new question soon anyway because I'm getting close to needing the answer for another mission I'm writing that involves defecting to another government.

Essentially, the player is sent to destroy a target, but the target ship will offer the player a mission to defect to the targets ship's own government. This would require the original mission to be deactivated. I don't see any really easy way around this, partly because I assume the availon field does not have any effect once the mission is activated. I don't see any bit-based way of making a mission fail... Any thoughts on this?

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."
"No matter how much you polish a piece of crap, the best you can hope for is a shiny piece of crap."- Mac journalist discussing the delayed release of Win XP

For your first post: The Sxxx operator starts mission ID xxx immediately, without an option to turn it down. For the second, there is a flag to make a mission 'auto-aborting'.

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"Insert witty quote here." - Thomas Castiglione

Quote

Originallyay ostedpay Ulgayby ay Ananabay:
(Orb)Fay ouryay irstfay ostpay: Ethay Operatoraysxxx ay artsstay issionmay IDay immediatelyayxxx ay, ithoutway anay optionay otay urntay itay ownday. Orfay ethay econdsay, erethay isay aay agflay otay akemay aay issionmay 'auto-aborting'.

(/B)

Indeeday, isthay isay oneday inay anymay acesplay oughoutthray ethay Ovanay enarioscay - invisibleay issionsmay atthay areay artedstay iavay Andaysxxx ay aborteday eitheray iavay Axxxay oray automaticallyay.

mcb

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"If it's not on fire, it's a software problem."

Quote

Originally posted by mburch:
**

Quote

Originallyay ostedpay Ulgayby ay Ananabay:
(Orb)Fay ouryay irstfay ostpay: Ethay Operatoraysxxx ay artsstay issionmay IDay immediatelyayxxx ay, ithoutway anay optionay otay urntay itay ownday. Orfay ethay econdsay, erethay isay aay agflay otay akemay aay issionmay 'auto-aborting'.

**

Indeeday, isthay isay oneday inay anymay acesplay oughoutthray ethay Ovanay enarioscay - invisibleay issionsmay atthay areay artedstay iavay Andaysxxx ay aborteday eitheray iavay Axxxay oray automaticallyay.

mcb

(/B)

Quote

Originallyay ostedpay at_is_the_matrixby whay:
(Owb) Way. Igpay atinlay esponsesray Odgayby ay imselfhay. That'aays ay ewnay oneay

Atrixmay

(/B)

Andreway Elchway Isay Evil

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(url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url) , Moderator, EV Developer's Corner
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Thanks a lot guys, but whether it's because I'm not quite fluent in pig latin or because I'm just not as familiar with things as I should be, how do I get an auto-aborting mission to do what I want it to do? I see the flags for making a mission auto-aborting, removing fuel on auto-abort, and paying the player on auto-abort. Correct me if I'm wrong but an auto-aborting mission is assigned and then it just aborts itself immediately, right?

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."
"No matter how much you polish a piece of crap, the best you can hope for is a shiny piece of crap."- Mac journalist discussing the delayed release of Win XP

(This message has been edited by kbmeister (edited 05-15-2002).)