My lil idea/question..

[beaut666]

...so I'm busily working away on this new mission in the Ring, and when it's done it'll be a fun lil romp for lower players to see what the Ring can do.
Thing is, I started to make another act, butfrom whatI can tell, instead of an act, I can just trigger new behaviors.
So really the only point of a new act would be if it was in a different location? I think that's right...right? lol
Beau

[tr808]

U can make creatures, buildings etc permanent, if i understand it right this will make them show up in ur next act, not sure thou

[beaut666]

Yeh I figured that part out. I guess the next "act" would be to switch locations, or to show major changes...hmm..
I lose sleep at night thinking of things to make in the Ring lol..
Beau

[calel]

Well not necessarily Beau. The Act's can be seen as chapters to your story. If you have a static location with little changes to storyline, npc behaviour etc... then yes, a single Act will most often do.

However, developping storylines will often require you to divide your scenario in multiple Acts. This being due to certain limitations in the mechanics. Timers and triggers will most often not be working over different Acts, but your entity placement allowance will reset, giving you another 300 entities to place.

The way I see it it offers both players and RM the opportunity to divide the 'playground' and still keep it tidy so everyone knows what's going on.

My personal preference for using Acts is at keypoints in a plot followed by an outcome. We wrap up puzzle 1 in Act 1, the result is shown in Act 2 and you get to puzzle number 2.

[rushin]

Acts are useful in both cases, moving location to a new map doesnt need explanation, but changing the act and keeping location can as calel mentioned free up you entity budget, but also enables you to create new triggers - conversations, quests, etc with the npcs, maybe move or add mobs, that sort of thing.

you can with some patience create a nice branching storyline by moving to different acts depending on player choices, just dont expect to do it overnight

still want some global variables to use though -)

[frakel]

Acts are useful in both cases, moving location to a new map doesnt need explanation, but changing the act and keeping location can as calel mentioned free up you entity budget, but also enables you to create new triggers - conversations, quests, etc with the npcs, maybe move or add mobs, that sort of thing.

you can with some patience create a nice branching storyline by moving to different acts depending on player choices, just dont expect to do it overnight

still want some global variables to use though -)

Using acts to free up entity budget is a great idea. Limiting certain triggers and events to specific acts also makes your scenario easier to manage.

Global variables can be made by making certain triggers or timers permanent.