Originally Posted by Raymac
Good call. I've been wondering how specific missions can be, so it will be interesting to see how it is implemented. For example, if some of those short term targets need to be written up in a mission briefing, I don't know how much it would really be used. However, if they can do things like laze or highlight targets on the fly, then that could be pretty epic.
Also, I knew that Higby would be all over Terra Nova. Part of me thinks it would be funny to Google "dinosaur fetish", but the more I think about it, the more that idea scares me. I may never be able to erase the horrible images I may find. Some stones are better left unturned.
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I'd be pretty shocked to see a "written mission briefing" as it were.
I'm expecting kind of a bullet point, important highlights thing, not some quest dialogue.
When they talk about designing missions, what I see in my head is the commander opening up a map window. From there, he can zoom in (perhaps further, or getting recent ground-level views of things like CE built emplacements and standing forces or whatnot if there's been recon missions completed in the area; that'd be sweet) and then right click highlightable targets (based on what skills he has in the mission-creation section of the command tree) like bases, gates, doors, turrets, and terminals. If he doesn't have an appropriate skill, he can still click to make waypoints, but waypoint-centric objectives offer lower rewards since they can't be tied to completion flags like "destroy" or "breach." Once a target is selected, the commander can choose from a list of target-appropriate objectives. "Breach gate," "neutralize forces in courtyard," "Destroy generator," as examples.
So, when a player accepts a mission, those simple bullet points show up on their HUD, with a waypoint on their HUD or minimap.
I would be simply shocked if generating a mission required typing in a briefing. "Intelligence gathered half an hour indicates the Vanu are staging an assault on Asa from Bomazi. The attack seems to be primarily heavy armor; as such, in order to undermine this offensive, we need to cripple their Auraxium reserves with a strike on known Auraxium stockpile located at Honsi. Infiltrate the courtyard, breach the base doors, and destroy the generator."
Few would bother to enter that, and fewer still would bother to read it. At best, a "briefing" might be algorithmically generated if the devs wanted to be cute and clever, but I think it's unnecessary. It would certainly be a nifty aesthetic touch, but I can't see them substituting even that (provided they can do it) for giving the players a concise list of objectives with a standardized format.