Mission Creation Guide

This is a guide about what kind of missions to create, and how they should be
structured. It is not intended to go into the specifics of how to use the
mission editor, that information can be found here.

Missions for the Vendetta Online universe should embody a few fundamental
features:

	1) Missions should tell a story, or in some way provide exposition on an
	individual, region, faction, history, or some other subject relevant
	to the game universe. It doesn't have to be a big involved story,
	just something minor that refers to larger arcs within the game
	universe. For instance, a simple mining mission doesn't need to
	relate a vast mining-related plotline, it can just say that the
	resources are needed for a specific function, and then in a later 
	mission that function might be discussed in more detail, so a picture 
	emerges. This fits in with the next rule..

	2) Missions should always explain "why". Telling the player "go do this
	repetitive and boring task for no apparent reason, and you will
	Progress Within The Game" is not acceptable. Some of our existing
	missions do this, and it's bad. You should always tell the user Why
	they are doing what they're doing, and if "Why" is a secret that
	will be revealed over the course of the story exposition, then at 
	least drop some hints so people can be intrigued. You, the mission
	author, should always have a fully constructed reason "Why", even if
	you only tell the user in small bits and pieces.

	3) Missions should be as re-usable and broadly applicable as possible,
	at least in the short term. We have such a deficiency of missions
	that, for the time being, we would prefer missions that are
	universally re-usable. This doesn't mean they have to be available
	at every single station, but at least make "mining station" missions, 
	or "Itani Faction" missions. Not "specific mining station in the far 
	corner of Itani space".

	4) Do not include references to characters other than persistent
	NPCs, or to organizations other than established factions within the
	backstory. Ie, discussing the conflict between corporations is fine,
	but mentioning particular users or guilds is not. The game has
	already outlived many guilds, and we would rather not have missions
	which archive references to long-dead guilds. Other specific
	factions that have no current presence in the game, such as the Order 
	of Akan, should only be referenced with explicit permission from 
	Incarnate.

	5) Mission headings should all be different. Do not re-use the same
	text between multiple missions. In general, try to look at it like
	each mission is posted by a different person. Even if the
	functionality of several missions is in common, try to vary the text
	a bit, so when one sees a board of many similar missions, it doesn't
	look like "Choose your arbitrary gameplay!", where the options are
	limited to "Go shoot bot type A!" or "Go shoot bot type B!". We're 
	trying to avoid that sort of thing.. it would be better to concoct some
	general plot for why the world needs to have less "type A's" in it,
	and then progress to another mission building on the "relationship"
	between player and faction, requesting their help in reducing the
	population of pesky "type B's".

	Obviously, the exception to #5 is cases where no "identical"
	missions will ever be displayed to the same character, like in the 
	case of having several similar missions.. each of which is specialized for 
	a different faction.

Storylines

	We totally support people writing their own stories, but they need
to be heavily rooted in the existing backstory. Making small-scale stories
based in the already-established game universe is no problem. Ie, the sort
of "Story" where certain station needs something mined because they've had a
large order from a nearby "Research" station, and the Research station may 
also offer a related mission to help test something or conduct espionage on a 
rival corporation, and so on. These are relatively low-key plots which are 
flexible within the current framework, and can send the user from place to
place, interacting with different NPCs with different attitudes and
behaviours.
	Plotlines which require major story exposition, introduction of
specific NPC characters, or make "new" statements about backstory or layout
of the universe.. this sort of thing should be OK'd by Incarnate in advance.
We do not want to have to deny anyone's hard work, and making sure anything
like that is approved in advance is the best way to be sure. Everything that
goes into missions has to be "within canon" and examined to make sure it
flows with intended developments and works within the game universe (both
established and planned). The backstory of the universe is intended to be
contiguous, so examination and approval of anything modifying/building on
that backstory is required.
	In general it is better to write missions from the perspective of
"rumor" rather than from fact. As in, those giving the mission don't 
necessarily know exactly how/why something is occuring, but might mention their 
theories. The intention is to give the player an impression of cloaked 
undercurrents, rather than expressing hard facts. They should "discover" the 
universe over the course of many missions, not have things defined in black 
and white. The real world is rarely black and white.. usually things are a 
confused mess of perspective and perception. Our universe should be no 
different. If a certain set of "facts" are assumed, then write from the 
perspective that the particular faction, or person giving the mission, might 
have on those "facts". Slant things through the views of the storyteller, and 
then give a different or opposing view somewhere else. Let the Player put 
together what actually did or did not happen on their own. This makes the
universe a more interesting place, built from characterizations and 
interpretations of historical events, rather than presented as a sterile set
of pre-ordained facts.

	Storylines or plot devices that exist in the backstory, but have not
yet been seen in the universe, such as the Order of Akan, are generally off
limits, although anyone is welcome to email Incarnate and pitch their idea.

	Recommended plots:

	Itani/Serco war, history of conflict, cultural differences.

	UIT trading to both above parties, history of blockade running and
	smuggling.

	The Hive

		Fear of spreading

		Regional safety concerns

		Economic impact on mining and manufacturing

		Rumors of unknown Valent/BioCom black-project origins (no
		specifics on project)

		Research/study interest

	Corporate Wars

		TPG keeps wars in check and prevents further conflict when
		possible.

		Valent and Axia maintain a cold war which occasionally
		sparks hotter. Spying on one another, attacking one another
		clandestinely with "plausable deniability" and the like.
		BioCom generally sides with Valent.

		All corporations spy on each other (other than TPG, which is
		generally pretty responsible) for espionage purposes.

		Xang Xi has unspecified ties to Corvus, and largely stays
		out of the wars, but is happy to profit from them.

		Corvus is completely enigmatic, but sometimes demonstrates
		completely new technology.

	General Activity

		Mining stations provide resources to Research and Commerce 
		stations, which manufacture goods which are then often 
		delivered to Capitols and Barracks. Military contracts often 
		deliver to Barracks.

		Important dignitaries, celebrities, colonists and other
		personnel require escorts (a few fighters to escort a
		Constellation full of refugees, for instance).

How to Structure Missions

	Generally, missions should follow the same basic structure as
writing any kind of story: Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell
them, then tell them what you told them. In this case, give the user a good
idea of what they're getting into with the initial intro text, so they have
a choice of whether to accept or not. This should include if failure has any
negative repurcussions. Then, during the mission, expound on the structure
or story. Finally, wrap up at the end of the mission, briefly retelling what
happened and proving any faction-specific thanks or congratulations, then
finish up with a "Complete This Mission" button.
	This structure does not mean that you can't spring surprises on the
user. For instance, if you're writing an escort mission which then has
enemies spawn and attack the escorted ships in the middle, this is ok. The
user is expected to have a certain amount of understanding that the reason
why they're needed to "escort" is to fend off potential attackers.
	The structure does mean that you should generally stick to the basic
idea of whatever mission you present to the user initially. No one wants to
sign on for a quick jaunt to do some simple task that then becomes a
45-minute nightmare trek across the galaxy, ending in eventual failure. That 
level of the unexpected is ok in small doses, but can be very annoying if it 
crops up very often. The most frustrating thing for many players is the 
feeling of having spent a lot of time and effort with no gain. Thus, having 
missions that present as simple, but then require a lot of time and have a 
high probability of failure, will result in more impatient and irritated 
players. On the other hand, if the mission is say.. the third or fourth of a 
tree which has been building in complexity, and gives some non-specific 
ominous foreshadowing in the mission description or previous missions, then 
it's reasonable to spring some epic thing on the user.

Mission Rewards

	Most missions (like, 90%) should reward with money and XP. The XP
should be relevant to the expected tasks allocated to the user in the
mission. Obviously, if it's a mission where they go mine passively mine
stuff, a reward of combat experience doesn't make a lot of sense. However,
if they go mine stuff in a dangerous, hive-infested locale, then some combat
experience (but still mostly mining) would be logical.
	Calculation of the amount of reward is kind of done by the seat of
the pants at this point. Consider the requirements of the mission, the
expected level of the user, and the scale of that level in terms of XP.
Progression to the 3rd level of any given skill should be relatively easy. I
give 1010 combat/light weapons for completing the Basic Flight Test, which
pushes the user up to level 1 in both of those skills. Subsequent missions,
which require level 1, give maybe ~450 XP, to give a boost, but without
instantly allowing immediate level progression. As the levels get higher and
the missions more difficult, XP rewards still increase, but are a much
smaller percentage of the overall level. Thus, the exponential climb through
the levels.
	In all missions which give money and/or XP, thought must be put into
possible exploitation. If there's a simple/trivial way to complete a
mission, and it can be taken over and over again, it can easily become a
money-farm (or worse, XP-farm). Missions of this kind should either be very 
well tested, to make sure no exploits are possible, or (preferably) have some 
hard limit on the number of times the mission can be taken. In my missions I 
usually have an Accomplishment that is incremented at the end, and a 
requirement (must be less than) at the beginning. Other accomplishments that 
are used for a "mission tree" effect are handled separately. Testing alone
is usually not enough to guarantee that a tree is not exploitable, as some
future minor gameplay change may have unforseen ramifications which open up
an exploit hole with a specific mission.

	It is the rare, infrequent, and highly unusual missions which will
actually give out a totally new item, new ship, or other new equipment. I
don't mean to say that this will be unheard-of, in fact much of the new
equipment that's made from now on will probably be made available through
a mission tree. But, for the purposes of making your missions, do NOT make them
dependent on some special gift at the end. Adding equipment to the game is a
whole other ball of wax, with its own complexities, balance issues, and
technical problems. PCC-created missions should be able to stand on their
own, and require no interaction from the development team other than
approving and propogating the missions into production. If we need a crazy 
mission tree that makes a new addon or ship available, we'll either post a 
request asking people to make such a thing, or we'll make it ourselves. The
average PCC-mission should just reward with further story exposition, XP and
money. In the longer run, we'll probably add Faction Standing too, but don't
depend on that for now.