[SaberUnit]

Hi,

I've been toying around with the editor, hoping I can create a campaign of "epic" proportions. This is a long term pet project I intend to contribute as a fan of your mod.

However, my editor is crashing when i try to save the map, so I'm just "drawing" the layout of the map with pen and paper until I figure out what is wrong. 

My vision for this campaign is simple: a ten-mission campaign about a planetary invasion and you as newly appointed commander of the 1st BattleMech Division. Each mission is a *HUGE* battlefield, designed to accommodate as many units as possible from both sides fighting in an urban environment filled with destructible objects that impedes movement and line of sight. The basic goal of the player is simple: To complete each mission you have to destroy a designated amount of enemies (and force them to "retreat") and the mission will fail when your ally sustain heavy casualties. Each mission is long and "more difficult than exodus as possible" with multiple secondary objectives which has incentives for the player to complete. But the mission can also end unpredictably faster (and failing the mission) due to the nature of each mission where you are in the middle of an epic battle of mass tanks, mechs and infantry within the city proper.


I am going to use a 120x120 size map filled with forests, mountains and river systems. There is a city situated in the middle, complete with commercial, residential and industrial sections. Military complexes are located in the outskirt of the city linked by bridges and roads. Turret Controls and Generators are located in deep depressions in the mountains as well as the "armories" of the army assigned to defend it. There will be commercial and military airfields as well situated in flatter areas of the map fore realism.


There will be three factions all throughout the campaign: You, the blue and the red. The Blue is your ally, possessing the most number of tanks, mobile artillery and infantry but with fewer mechs and limited technology. The Red is the invaders,  with superior technology, fewer but more powerful units such as battle armors and mechs, with the most number of air-assets. These factions will battle it out inside the city, with your allies marching from those bases mentioned earlier and your enemies coming out from Dropships that "landed" behind mountains and forests.

The red will attempt to destroy the bases of blue and the blue will attempt to destroy the dropships. I plan on limiting the commander retinue with just airstrikes, custom chopper, beagle probe and minelayer/sweeper, because the repair bays are available behind the frontlines anyway. There will be no salvage craft, but salvage screen is always available, but C-bills will be short and most of them will come from completing secondary objectives.


Whew. It is easier to type this lol. I hope you like this concept.

Some Questions


0. My editor keeps crashing when I save. Why?

1. Is there any way to simplify the clicking demanded by the mission editor? Even though it keeps crashing, I am using the retail version of the editor to practice and explore the tool.

2. Just how many objects can the game support without crashing ingame? I haven't tried this because I am still in the process of decorating the map and making sure that the city is well designed and very obstructive for mechs and tanks (making those infantry/armor peskier) before I start putting in units. Take note that I am editing this on the retail version of the editor(for practice).

3. How does the skill of each pilot increase ingame? Is there a hardlimit on how many points each skill increase per mission? I am planning on editing this later once I am satisfied with the map itself to increase the experience gained by pilots and balancing it to the whole 10-mission campaign idea.

4. I toyed with the objectives editor and found out that while I can set the number of enemies required to be killed to complete the mission, i cannot set the number of allied units killed to fail the mission. Why is it so?

5. Can I set the AI to be on the offensive? That would really help a lot in telling the story since it is an invasion and i want at least the AI to commit all his forces (except for a few defensive ones) into the fight to put pressure on the player to assist their ally while doing the objectives.


More questions will be posted here if I encounter them in the future.

[Starman01]

Hey !

sounds like an interesting concept to me, but wont be easy, you will have to learn scripting for that I think, just because the editor is limited in this part, as you already noticed. If you can wrap up a good story for that, it could really become interesting

I try to answer a few of your questions :

0. My editor keeps crashing when I save. Why?

Impossible to say without any more information, or a look at the mission. I had this sort of crashing, when I ported old missions over to MCO, and it had bad mission goals, that aren't compatible. Try removing the goal, and then try if it is saving.

1. Is there any way to simplify the clicking demanded by the mission editor? Even though it keeps crashing, I am using the retail version of the editor to practice and explore the tool.

i don't understand that question (language problem). Could you please rephrase, or give me an example ?

3. 

Sorry, I cannot answer that. I was wondering that myself. We are thinking about changing that anyway, but I don't know how it is currently calculated.

4. I toyed with the objectives editor and found out that while I can set the number of enemies required to be killed to complete the mission, i cannot set the number of allied units killed to fail the mission. Why is it so?

Yep, i'm also not satisfied with the available goals. What's not in there, can only be done with scripting. Each mission can have their own scriptfile. Unfortunately, I have virtually no experience with that.

Can I set the AI to be on the offensive? That would really help a lot in telling the story since it is an invasion and i want at least the AI to commit all his forces (except for a few defensive ones) into the fight to put pressure on the player to assist their ally while doing the objectives.

That's possible with the brain files. You can have mechs with delayed powerup, and then patrol, or move to capture or move to destroy or simply move to guard an area. Also works for tanks and air units and the allied group

[Karl]

Editor crashing upon save? Have you installed XNA?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=53867a2a-e249-4560-8011-98eb3e799ef2

[TheOldMan]

Retail Editor will crash often, so you would be better off downloading MCO and using that Editor for testing.  It will be more suitable to your needs, as the eventual design will be for MCO.

Objective limitations, will make it necessary to do a lot of scripting.  This will be easier if you have some background in programming, or scripting.
If not you can check out :
http://www.freewebs.com/therealcmunsta/MCG_Guide_Files/MCG%20Campaign%20Builder%27s%20Guide%20II%20%28Rev%200.3%29.pdf
Pay attention to the "Basic ABL Syntax and Workings" section.  It talks about the structure of the code, and the meanings of the basic language commands.  Most of the Document pertains to MC Gold Scripting, and may or may not be useful, as all Functions from MCG do not work in MC2 and it's derivatives.
If you have to, take a Basic Programming course at your local College.

There are also plenty of references in this Forum and other on the net about Mission Design, and Scripting.  Take some time to read these, and take notes of what you find.  Trust me, it will help.  I can't even calculate the time I wasted trying to re-find information that I knew I had read on one of the Forums.

There are plenty of "Brains" out here to get information from, ABL and Human.

Above all else, have fun with this.  Try not to get too frustrated.   

There's always help out here on the Forum.  There isn't one of us out here that knows everything, but once we put our "Brains" together, we can solve most problems.