I couldn't find an answer to this in the FAQ or by searching the archives. My apologies for the new topic.

I would like to make, for Nova, several variants of a mission with different text, so that the mission can conform to the major storyline that the player is doing. I would simply check the NCB that indicates that the player is in the Auroran storyline, for instance, and then have the appropriate mission begin. Here's the question: are mďsns checked in a predictable order? I need to have a default mission with generic text in case the player is not in any major storyline. Is it possible to set up the plug in such a way that that default mission will always be checked last?

I shall try to clarify. Three missions, where the mďsn is identical except for the description text. The first mission triggers if the player is doing the Rebel storyline, and the text is anti-Federation. The second mission triggers if the player is doing the Federation storyline, and is sympathetic to the Federation. The third triggers if the player is doing some other storyline or no storyline, which means that an NCB check for storyline would break the plug if the player was not in a storyline. So, the default mission cannot have an NCB check. That means that if the default mission is checked before the other two, it will be triggered, and the other two will not occur even if one of them should have been.

So, is there a predictable order of mission parsing? Or alternately, is there a tricky, ninja-like method of NCB coding to create the effect I'm looking for?

Thanks in advance for any help.

--Nathan

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Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.
--Gustave Flaubert, "Madame Bovary" (1857)

This may not be the answer you're looking for, but is there a reason you can't use the "not" operator to check that the player isn't in any of the storylines? For example, let's say b121 is set in the beginning of your Fed storyline, and b170 is set in your Rebel string. For the non-affiliated mission, put "!b121 & !b170" in the Available field (without the quotes, of course ). Or you can have every string set a certain bit at the beginning that is used solely for this purpose - that way all you need is a "!b121" or something.

-Matt

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If your missions are identical except for the text, I suggest you reduce it to just one mission, and have the dësc resources be mutable based on the NCBs that indicate which storyline the player is on. For more information about mutable dësc resources, I believe you should look in the section of the EV Nova Resource Bible on dësc resources.

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David Arthur
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Argh, of course. I believe that forgetting about those tricks qualifies me as a boogerbrain. It seems that a hiatus of a few months from plug-making makes one forget the fancy stuff that's possible. Thanks for the help, fellows.

--Nathan

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Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.
--Gustave Flaubert, "Madame Bovary" (1857)