The Context:
Each character and area in the game is unique, which means there's infinitely many concepts for new missions. However, a good mission takes a blend of the characters and area(s) involved and turns it into an experience that is not only fun for the player, but gives the story a place to progress.
Since the Demo mainly takes place within Sector V (The Future), the missions in that area reflect the state in which the area is in.
The heroes mainly control the Sector V Treehouse and Hero Square, however in order to complete (and find) every mission. You'll have to explore the whole area! Some fun landmarks of Sector V include the KND Training Area, the fountain, and the residential area in the back.
The characters themselves also have their own goals in the game, and the missions should reflect who the character is. For example, Gumball wouldn't be researching thermonuclear energy in his show and Samurai Jack wouldn't be searching for buried candy without a good reason.
The Planning:
After the characters are all set up in their areas, the next thing to do is brainstorm ideas for mission concepts. Making a mission concept includes providing:
- The name of the mission
- The mission's level
- What NPC/object/event gives the mission
- Any required missions to complete beforehand (example: for a (part 2 of 2) mission, the (part 1 of 2) mission would be a required mission)
- The Difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard, Devan, Impossible, Future, Lamborghini (Since this has absolutely no effect on the code, the difficulty can be literally anything)
- The mission ID
Out of those, the mission ID is probably the most important step. If two missions were to have the same ID, the game would get confused and everything would blow up. Fortunately, I keep an organized list of every mission, and use spacing between the IDs so missions don't overlap. For example, Demo missions start at 10001. This doesn't mean there are 10000 other missions already made, the spacing is used so that mission IDs don't overlap and cause issues.
While these things are being figured out, I use a table like this to sort out each required feature of a mission. As you can see, Dogon and I both work on the same table, and for good reason. Once I fill out all the required information, I write up a quick summary of what the mission would be about. Once Dogon reads it and gives it the A-OK, the mission is mine to write. Although most of the time, Dogon gives me a nice suggestion in order to make the mission more unique and fun.
For example, this mission went in a completely different direction once Dogon reviewed it. It is honestly now so much better and I cannot wait for you guys to try it out.
The Base Writing:
Once Dogon approves the mission, I can start writing everything out! When doing this, we made a simple format to follow. I'll try to explain how it all works.
Most of the stuff on there is self-explanatory, or it says what it is right next to it. However here is a quick list of things about the mission template.
- Tasks basically run the mission. 1 task is equal to 1 step of a mission. For example a mission that has you go defeat 5 fusion spawns and come back would have 2 tasks. One to take down the spawns, and another to come back for reward.
- The same goes for NPC messages. If two characters were to send you a Nanocom message, you would have to set the number as 2. They behave a bit similar to the number of tasks while working in Unity
- Any time you physically talk to anything on a mission, you need to include the NPC ID. This could be an actual NPC or an item you need to interact with to progress in the mission. They all have IDs
- When fighting monsters, you also need to include the monster ID. Some monsters appear in the demo and full game, but the IDs are totally different between them
- The things like coordinates are super important too, but those aren't used in the base writing
Now, I can start writing the basics of the mission. This includes the general info (which is already done via the table), the dialogue, and the journal entries.
When you guys are playing the Demo, please be sure to read your journal occasionally. I made sure to make every journal entry unique depending on the task you are currently on. That's an average of about 4-5 different journal entries per mission. Be sure to read em, as it's a lot easier to fit things like references and story trivia in them than it is Nanocom messages.
The Expanded Writing:
This is probably the most fun part of mission development, and the most tedious. This mainly features finding the coordinates where the waypoints will be located. This part involves flying around the world, placing the mission coordinate marker on where ever the waypoint on the map should be, and recording the coordinates.
Here is an example of a simple "Find the Fusion Spawns" waypoint I threw together for this devblog.
I record those coords in a document, so it's super easy to refer to when actually creating the mission in Unity.
The final thing I'll touch on for expanded writing is the mission objects. Since I can't add mission objects myself (Dogon has the models), I need to create a reference so Dogon can add the mission object to his build. Here is an example of one of my requests.
The thing is, this mission in the Demo will not have a waypoint on the map. So take note of this area! It might be important.
The Future (No reference intended) (OK maybe a little reference intended):
As we move forward in Legacy's development. I always look for ways to tweak the systems which would allow for better immersion in the game world and an all around better experience. Dogon, Funske, and I have been discovering a few new ways to give players missions instead of having every mission start off by talking to an NPC with an exclamation point above their head. These are a few of the new mission structures that may take effect sooner or later:
Environmental Missions are missions that, instead of being given out by an NPC, are given out by a world object. The best example of these in the original game are the "Days of Knishmas" missions. This would reward exploration around the world, and give benefits to players that viewed the game world as an actual environment, instead of as a mental map with monster spawns and NPC locations. Look for environmental missions in off-the-beaten-path areas, especially areas away from a major hub. However, there also may be environmental missions in world hubs, so just explore, explore, explore!
Event Missions (not to be confused with things like holiday missions - those are different) are missions that are automatically given to you after a certain event happens in the world. Nano missions are primarily event missions, as the "event" that gives you the mission is the player leveling up. While these shouldn't be as common as NPC given missions or environmental missions, they are one of the best ways to immerse players in the story of a game. Look for more information about these in the future once I have more examples of missions to show.
Detective Missions are, for lack of a better name, missions that require knowledge about the world and assets in the world. The most distinguishable feature of one of these missions are that there are no waypoints on the minimap. The clues to the mission are given via NPC text, or features in the world, and requires you to go full-on Encyclopedia Brown in order to finish the mission. While these are much more difficult than other missions, the feeling you get when you complete one on your own or with friends is one of the best feelings you will ever have.
Overall, I want the missions of Fusionfall Legacy to be something that the player wants to do. Instead of seeing them as tools to fill your FMM, I want them to be something where you have fun reading and exploring in order to accomplish them. I also want to give generic NPCs a chance to shine, giving them personalities and plenty of missions to do. After all, we're gonna need all the help we can get if we're gonna win this war!
I hope you enjoy the rest of the devblogs we have coming your way, and stay tuned even after they stop! You never know what we might pull out.
I am definitely excited for all of the new mission types! my favorite part of FusionFall was the missions, and its nice to see a little change to them.
-Plants10000
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