Custom Mission Help

[Serious Potato]

Is there a way to give the reward of a mission to the named_character who completed it?

I created a custom mission that has you kill random generals by any means (so killing in battle is a viable option) and would like to give the succeeding killer a trait as reward. The problem:

- LeaderMissionSuccess only triggers on the leader
- AssassinationMission only triggers on assassins
- MissionFinished does not export a character record at all

Can anyone think of an event-condition combination that might help identify the actual killer?


Thank you in advance.

[Gigantus]

The descr_mission readme suggests that it is possible to give traits via null_payback arrangement, but I have no idea how.

[Serious Potato]

Via these triggers, but they only fire on the leader:

Trigger papalmission1
    WhenToTest LeaderMissionSuccess

    Condition MissionID return_papal_settlement

    Affects AdoredByPope  1  Chance  100

So they are not of much use to me, unless there is a fancy way to transfer a trait from a factionleader to the actual killer behind the scenes. There is the FactionLeaderTrait condition, but that still does not allow me to specify the killer.

[Gigantus]

I am talking about the 'rewards' in descr_missions:

payback_list pope_rome_min_penalty_only
{
    reward
    {
        null_payback    HUGE_PAPAL_STANDING_REWARD        
        null_payback    VNV_ADORED_BY_POPE
    }
    penalty
    {
        null_payback    SMALL_PAPAL_STANDING_PENALTY
    }
}

Not sure if this actually gives a trait or if it is just a message display (see data\text\missions)

Edit: doesn't look like it, the trait gets triggered as per your example.

[Withwnar]

If you killed him in battle then both of these events should fire: LeaderMissionSuccess & PostBattle. If LeaderMissionSuccess fires first, and I have no idea if it does, then you could set an event counter in there signalling that the next-occurring PostBattle should treat this as a mission success.

Script:

monitor_event PreBattlePanelOpen
  ;turn off the 'signal' in case it is still on from a previous battle
  set_event_counter mission_general_killed 0
end_monitor

monitor_event LeaderMissionSuccess PaybackID your_payback_id
  set_event_counter mission_general_killed 1
end_monitor

EDCT:

Trigger papalmission1
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition FactionIsLocal
      and I_EventCounter mission_general_killed = 1

    Affects your_trait 1 Chance 100

That's the idea anyway.

[Serious Potato]

Thanks for the idea, unfortunately the order of execution is: PostBattle -> LeaderMissionSuccess -> MissionFinished.

Was thinking about a different concept:

1) always add a hidden trait in PostBattle
2) set the event_counter in LeaderMissionSuccess as you did
3) a third event to remove the hidden trait if the event counter is 0 + turn it into a visible trait if the event counter is 1

But I cannot think of an event that would allow 3) to happen "instantly" (don't want to resort to CharacterTurnEnd). If only MissionFinished would export a character record.

[Withwnar]

I like the thinking but yeah...

But I cannot think of an event that would allow 3) to happen "instantly"

...I don't think there is one.

How much time is there between the two events firing? If it's really short then there might be a way.

Try this...

monitor_event LeaderMissionSuccess PaybackID your_payback_id
  log always ******** LeaderMissionSuccess ********
end_monitor
monitor_event PostBattle FactionIsLocal
  log always ******** PostBattle ********
end_monitor

...and check the log after you kill him to see what the timestamps on the pair of log entries are. From that you can calculate how many seconds difference there was between them.

[Serious Potato]

The time difference is about 1.1 seconds.

I was thinking about a wait command already, but considering the PostBattle event has to be in the EDCT, I just ruled that option out. Might have missed something here.

Eager to see, if you can come up with anything.

[Withwnar]

I think this will be too unreliable but here goes...

script:

monitor_event PreBattlePanelOpen
  ;turn off the 'signal' in case it is still on from a previous battle
  set_event_counter mission_general_killed 0
end_monitor

monitor_event LeaderMissionSuccess PaybackID your_payback_id
  set_event_counter mission_general_killed 1
end_monitor

monitor_event PostBattle FactionIsLocal

  if I_PlayerHasMission your_mission_id
    campaign_wait 2.0  ;wait for LeaderMissionSuccess if it's coming
    if I_EventCounter mission_general_killed = 1
      e_select_character
    end_if
  end_if

end_monitor

EDCT:

Trigger general_killer_trigger1
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition I_PlayerHasMission your_mission_id

    Affects candidate_trait 1 Chance 100

Trigger general_killer_trigger2
    WhenToTest CharacterSelected

    Condition Trait candidate_trait > 0
      and I_EventCounter mission_general_killed = 1

    Affects candidate_trait -99 Chance 100  ;clear the candidate_trait points
    Affects real_trait 1 Chance 100

candidate_trait = hidden trait marking the character as "fought a battle while the mission was still active".
real_trait = the real trait to be gained when he kills the general.

The sequence is, after a battle:
1) EDCT gives the candidate_trait to your general who fought the battle
2) script waits to see if the mission success message comes in - if it does then it selects the character who fought the battle
3) EDCT trigger 2 fires giving him the real trait and removes candidate_trait

My concern is the flakiness of e_select_character. And also that it won't select him until 2 seconds after the PostBattle, in which time you might have already selected somebody else so script auto-selecting this first guy might be strange and annoying behaviour.

It should also work if you manually select your general any time before another battle, which is no way guaranteed to happen.

AssassinationMission definitely does not fire on generals/NCs for this kind of mission?

[Serious Potato]

Fancy! It does indeed work. Did not know e_select_character works within if-statements. Assumed that it would lose track of the character the monitor fired on, good to know.

I tried AssassinationMission without any further conditions and did not fire. Maybe it only checks the assassin character record or it does not consider "killed_by_any_means", i.e. killed in battle, as a valid completion.

2 seconds are not too bad considering the animation times of the strat models and possible post battle decisions, might even risk going a bit lower with the wait duration. Could disable ui functionality during the small pause as well, just to make sure.

Regarding your linked thread, I gather that the only problem would occur if the mission target attacks a settlement with more than one governor and the defenders kill the mission target. At which point e_select_character would not select either of the garrisoned characters and nobody gets the reward trait... well sucks, but not the end of the world. Then the next selected general (who has fought a battle since the mission was active) would get the reward. Might be able to prevent that rare case with a reset of the event counter just after e_select_character.

This is what I got so far:

script:

monitor_event PreBattlePanelOpen
    set_event_counter grudge_target_killed 0
end_monitor

monitor_event LeaderMissionSuccess MissionID dwarf_grudge
    set_event_counter grudge_target_killed 1
end_monitor

monitor_event PostBattle FactionType poland
    if I_PlayerHasMissionType GRUDGE_MISSION
    campaign_wait 1.5
        if I_EventCounter grudge_target_killed = 1
            e_select_character
            campaign_wait 0.1
            set_event_counter grudge_target_killed 0
        end_if
    end_if
end_monitor

EDCT:

Trigger temp_grudge_settler_vnv_trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition FactionType poland
        and I_PlayerHasMissionType GRUDGE_MISSION
        and Trait TempGrudgeSettler < 1

    Affects TempGrudgeSettler  1  Chance 100

Trigger successful_grudge_settler_vnv_trigger
    WhenToTest CharacterSelected

    Condition FactionType poland
        and Trait TempGrudgeSettler > 0
        and I_EventCounter grudge_target_killed = 1

    Affects TempGrudgeSettler  -1  Chance 100
    Affects GoodGrudgeSettler  1  Chance 100

Trigger remove_temp_grudge_settler_vnv_trigger
    WhenToTest CharacterSelected

    Condition FactionType poland
        and Trait TempGrudgeSettler > 0

    Affects TempGrudgeSettler  -1  Chance 100

Will need to test the system some more, but it seems to be doing its job, thank you very much for the help!

[Withwnar]

You're welcome. I'm also not sure if e_select_character works during turn end, as I'm fairly sure even select_character doesn't. If not then this won't work if the target is attacking you in their turn.

AssassinationMission: ah well. That would have been too easy. I do wonder why it bothers exporting character_type because that will always be "assassin" and therefore redundant.

[Serious Potato]

Yeah, you are right. Guess that's the nail in the coffin of that system.

Unfortunately will have to resort to other rewards then. The clunkiness and unreliability is probably not worth it.

Still, learned a lot, thanks for that.