Question for peeps wiv too much

[veston pants]

...time on their hands...

I'm about to attempt to try to make a mission, but some of the parameters I've set are way beyond my understanding, but I guess trial and error on this are all part of the learning process, I hope some peeps out there can help me with this.

O.K....mission parameters:

The mission starts with the player as a civvy in an occupied town, he has to sneak from the town undetected and meet up with a resistance player who will equip him with weapons and camouflage fatigues (this scenario is set in Kegyets winter Nogova).
After he has met and acquired his gear, he has to move on to a certain town in the map and rescue a single prisoner. Once he has the prisoner he then has to get him and himself back to a certain point on the map.

I want to start the mission as a civvy in an occupied town, I also want to have to sneak from the town undetected, if I'm discovered an alarm will sound and bring a whole load of trubble my way,especially saying as I am unarmed. This is a problem for me with alarm triggers, and getting the enemy to consider civvies as enemies, the scenario is set at night and the town is under curfew so any civvy seen out on the street will be shot.

Meeting up with the resistance my characters weapons and clothing have to change, so from a civvy to a fully kitted resistance op. Is there some way of doing this?

The rescue of the prisoner is something I've looked at but don't fully understand, how to get the prisoner to join once he is freed.

Finally, a time limit will be set on the rescue time and once the prisoner is rescued, a time limit on getting him to his end destination.

Reasons for these are...well...heres the briefing  

A resistance op. has been captured and was on his way to be interrogated, fortunately adverse weather conditions caused the convoy transporting the prisoner to stop at a town a mile or so away from the port where he was was captured. Weather conditions are improving but the roads are still too treachorous to use in that area of the island so a chopper has been dispatched to pick him up. The chopper will be there in around 30 mins time.
You will start the mission with no weapons and no camo fatigues. First objective is to sneak from the town and get equipped, 2nd is the rescue of the prisoner, 3rd is to get him to safety.

Once the prisoner is rescued I need a time limit set for his return as adverse weather conditions will cause him to die out in the cold. In my scenario I have set the roads to be too dangerous to use, travelling across country is very dangerous due to enemy patrols.
I would like to set 3 possibilities for the rescue:
Rescue the prisoner without activating the alarm and return him x-country.
Wait for the chopper picking him up to land then attempt to take control of that.
Once the prisoner is under your command set off the alarm on purpose so the troops in the port come rushing to your current position, leaving the port lightly gaurded where you can sneak in and grab a boat and make your escape.

If any of you chaps have any good missions where some if not all of these elements are incorporated I'd be happy to take a look.

Finally, I'm after some arctic camouflage air unit addons but have been unable to locate any, and arctic comouflage weapons with the specifications. If anyone could point me in the right direction I'd be greatful.

Thanks for any help.

[macguba]

Well this is all very do-able apart from the changing clothes bit.    This is impossible for a player unit.   (Obviously its trivial for AI, you just swap one unit for another while the player isn't looking.)    The workaround is to make a mini campaign, and this whole thing sounds like it would lend itself to being a mini campaign.   However that would make it a larger project.    If you want to keep it as a genuine single mission you have to lose the changing clothes bit.

If you like Artic kit you must have Kegetys Winter Nogojev, which I think now includes the artic units.   My Kegetys link is dead so you'll have to search.

At the risk of self advertisment, I strongly recommend you study the Tutorial Mission in the Editors Depot.   It has working examples of many of the things you need to make a good mission.     Choppers are tricky:  there are several scripts and tutorials to help you.

To get the civvy on the right side you'll probably have to make him East or West:  group him under an East (or West) group leader who has his probability of presence set to 0.

Freeing prisoners comes up regularly:  use the forum search function.    You'll need setCaptive and join commands.

Also search the forum for tips on alarm triggers:   use variables to control the trigger that has the sound, otherwise it goes on forever and drives the player mad.

For time limits you can use dayTime commands or countdown field in a trigger.  In both cases you'll need variables as well, to turn the mission failed triggers on and off.

If you want to give the player a choice of how to extract, use switch triggers controlled by the radio or action menu.   If you want to get cute you can use dialogues but that's something else to learn so get the whole thing working first and see if you think its worth it.

You sound like a relatively new mission designer, so whatever else you do spend plenty of time in the Tutorials - Getting Started section of the Ed Depot.  

[veston pants]

Cheers for the info.

It actually is part of a mini-campaign, unfortunately I have a load of ideas for certain scenarios, but not the knowledge to carry out the design structure of 'em...

The campaign is set (partly) in Kegetys winter Nog and even tho' there are a number of cammoed units there are no air units, so I really need air addons (East) in particular, along with cammoed weapons, if anyone has any links I'd be greatfull.

I've read a number of gettin started tutes and have a basic grasp of how to create a mission, I just need tutes that are specifically relative to the above mentioned probs, and if at all missions I can dePBO so I can have a look at the construction of such missions (it would be handy if the missions I download don't have numerous addons), if anyone can recommend where I can get such missions or recommend such tutes it'd be appreciated.

Another 2 probs concerning mission ideas were:

1. How to follow a certain unit without that unit becoming aware of your presence. This would be a kind of investigate/sneak mission, but how to make it difficult for you to tale the target without being noticed.(I'm not too sure if OFP will have tricks/tips in coding for what I have in mind)
2. Low-level flying. How to set parameters so that whilst flying in a chopper you have to remain under a certain height to avoid detection.

Any tutes or missions covering these 2 points would be appreciated.

I've also tried searching for units equipped with skiing equipment, and semi-dressed units (to add a little realism to the fact that grenade you toasted a guard with has woken the entire garrison) but haven't had any luck, anyone know if there are any units available or any ideas for such in the pipeline?

Thanks.

[macguba]

Ah, well, if you're already doing a campaign its easy - the player is a civvy in one "mission", he goes in to a tent to get changed, blackout, cutscene, blackin and although the player feels its the same "mission" in fact it is a new one.


1.  Not quite sure what the probem is, but its a mission designer's job to set up the hunt properly so that you can do what's required.   You would have a trigger something like this:

Condition:     hunted1 knowsAbout hunter1 > 1.5
On activation:    mission failed or whatever

If you want to make it hard, have other enemy units in the area and if they detect you you fail.    Or make the hunted stop and look round now and again.    This problem fundamentally has a mission design solution, not a scripting solution.


2. is easy.    Trigger:-

Condition:    getPos chopper1 select 2 > 30
On activation:  whatever

Syntax not guaranteed for anything I post in the forums, ever.

There is some kind of ski addon somewhere, but exactly what or where I don't know.   Search the official forums and ofp.info for clues.


I would recommend to you a three phase approach to this whole thing.    Phase one is getting basic mission design skills and there are 3 ways to do this:   you must practice all three.   Tutorials, studing missions, and playing with ideas in the mission editor.

Phase two is to make a very small, very simple mission.   Like most people, when I was learning I made the mistake of being far too ambitious with my first mission.    The point is that you will learn all the "bits" of mission making, from description.ext to the Overview pic.  

Having done it once you will do Phase three, making your campaign, much better and it will be easier and more fun.

[veston pants]

Cheers fella.

I've had a look at a number of tutes and was wondering which 1's peeps would recommend (as there is loads of em) as well as the missions.

And finally, I understand that OFP2 is in the pipeline, but I wonder if it will incorporate the same mission building/editing techniques as the current OFP, or if all these mission building skills will be obsolete in the next vers.

Does anyone have any idea which direction OFP2 will be heading in?

Thanks for anyhelp yooze can give about the possible tutes/missions I can have a look at.

[macguba]

My guide to mission editing for beginners has a list of recommended tutorials, in a suggested reading order.     You should certainly be familiar with all the tutes in the Getting Started section:  there is some duplication so you don't need to study all of them, but they were carefully selected to provide as wide a base as possible, with as few tutorials as possible.

After you have exhausted it, use the Browse function and expanding menus in the Ed Depot to find the tutes covering the areas you are interested in.

Very little is known about OFP2, not least because it hasn't been made yet.    BIS are very supportive of the mission/addon making community and have said they want to keep OFP2 as compatible with the original as possible, but we'll have to wait and see.   The right place to discuss OFP2 is on the official forums at www.flashpoint1985.com

[veston pants]

Cheers for all the info.  

Now if you don't mind, I've hit a stumbling block as I can't seem to lay my hands on tutes covering the faces and name changing of characters, as i'm hoping to build a small campaign this will be necessary.

I was hoping to be able to add a bit to the above missions structure where whilst rescuing the captive, if alarms are sounded 1 of the locals, a woman, offers to hide you and the peep you've rescued.
At this point I need a choice option as to wether you will accept her offer and attempt to be hidden in her house, or decide it would be too dangerous and carry on with the original escape plan.

I was also wondering if it's possible to get AI's to perform action commands on opening and closing doors to houses?

Theres a whole load of stuff I've read, theres a whole load more I need to look at to be able to implement some of the ideas I have, so a point in the right direction from anyone on these matters would be appreciated.

Oh, and thanks macguba for all the help.

[Mud_Spike]

At this point I need a choice option as to wether you will accept her offer and attempt to be hidden in her house, or decide it would be too dangerous and carry on with the original escape plan.

There are alot of ways to do this. Some are:
1) Add two actions to her, if you are close enough you will get two new Action menu (the yellow-label thingie in the bottom right corner) choices. Lets say 'Hide us!' and 'Thanks but no thanks',
which will call two different scripts  hide.sqs or legIt.sqs.
See addAction in the command reference.

2) Have two radio triggers show up (SetRadioMsg) when you've gotten this far in the mission and
then add appropriate code to the OnActivation fields of the triggers.
See SetRadioMsg in the command reference aswell as general trigger tutorials.

3) Like 2) but with general triggers checking if you got in to a truck within a certain amount of time.
Trigger Condition: player in truck_0, where truck_0 is the name of her truck.

(edit: typos)

[macguba]

Glad to be of help.    

Names and faces of characters are handled by description.ext.    Example in Tutorial Mission.  

You can fake the AI opening and closing doors by, for example, having a trigger with a very small area over the door, and carrying out the appropriate animation if there is a loon in the trigger area.     Depending on what you want the trigger may need other terms in its condition line.

Remember that AI can't make decisions:  you the mission designer have to make the decisions for them.   You do this by setting up appropriate conditions and consequences in triggers, scripts and waypoints.

[SilentHunter_764]

yo all.

This sounds like its ging to be a very interesting mission, someone once said to me that the resistance needed more covert-op missions. Good job thinking it all up!  :cheers: :thumbsup: :wave:

Just 1 Q, are you going to make that other resistance uy part of th mision? e.g. make a trigger from radio alpha that makes him attack when you tell him to?

LK  ;D

[veston pants]

Cheers Mud Spike.

'Ow do LK, which other guy? The 1 you rescue will hopefully follow your commands *if I can get the join bit to work.. *, the resistance guy you meet for your gear will probably just disappear in his boat after you've got your gear off him.

Cheers all.

Back to the tutes :'(

[Bart]

to get the east shoot at civvys is simple:

open the 'mission.sqm' file with notepad or something

then search the unit (the easiest way to do this is giving the civ a name in the mission editor)

if you've found the civ then change (side) CIV into GUER

so the civ becomes a guerilla at the beginning of the mission

look out for east thou they will fight with you like you're west or something  

[veston pants]

Cheers Bart.

I was just looking at a tute that enables you to create objects via editing the mission.sqm file, apparently you can edit the actual units, so changing a civilian to: SoldierGFakeC3 makes him a resistance soldier in civil clothes.

Thanks for the info.  

[macguba]

This does work.   However, if you subsequently edit the unit he reverts to his original side which can be tedious.    An easier way to make a loon on a particular side is to group him under a group leader of the appropriate side:  set the probability of presence of the group leader to 0.

[veston pants]

Cheers Mac

BTW whats a loon?..

Has anyone come up with a mission that involves a car chase, where the persuers will try to ram you off the road?
Just wondering if it's possible?
A hi-speed car chase at night where you can't use your lights would be pretty rivetting.

[macguba]

loon = moron = AI unit = computer sprite = dude = cannon fodder

It's a Scots word meaning a young man, particularly one who is stupid, worthless or mad.     "It's where you left it, you daft loon."    

Appropriate,  I think.    ;D

[Planck]

Of course you could always use 'quine' instead.

It's the female equivalent of 'loon'.

On second thoughts, better stick with 'loon' in order to not confuse the issue.

Just ignore me.....I'm havering.


Planck

[veston pants]

sheesh, as if mission building isn't confusing enough, somebody goes and throws scottish terminology into the mix

So what about the chase scenario? anyone have any solutions/ideas? d'ya ken?