Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: Caius on February 15, 2006, 06:31:40 am
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Hiya
I've got a nice little campaign here in my head, already wrote 4 full sheets of paper (that's 8 pages :D ), but I lack experience in FRED. As I've already got the story and even decent (well... they serve their purpose) voice actors, and a unique concept, I'd like to ask for your help time to time in this thread. I said unique concept because I'd like to make it like a TV-series, releasing a ca. 10 mission "pilot episode", which is followed by 5 mission "episodes" every 2-4 weeks.
So, down to business, my question is probably very simple, it's just that I dont know the answer :doubt: . How do I make transports docked with cargo at the very start of a mission?
Thanks, and prepare yourselves for thousands of questions :cool: (in fact, I'm trying to find out most things from tutorials, but some just can't be found)
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Pick the transport, chose the misc properties option and you'll find the initial docking setting in there.
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I said unique concept because I'd like to make it like a TV-series, releasing a ca. 10 mission "pilot episode", which is followed by 5 mission "episodes" every 2-4 weeks.
What a wonderful idea. Inspired. Churning out 5 missions a month will be a challenge though. It's not something I'd promise.
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Thanks for the help. Yeah, it will take some time, but I'll try my best to keep up with the deadlines. I wonder what would be better, 5 missions per 4-6 weeks or 2 missions per 2-3 weeks....
EDIT: note the sudden change in deadlines compared to the first post. result of actually trying to do the missions :cool:
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Pick the transport, chose the misc properties option and you'll find the initial docking setting in there.
Actually it's in the Initial Status menu IIRC. The list is automatically filled with dockable ships, and from there you just need to select a ship, pick a dock port, and let FRED do its work.
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Yeah it is. I've got no idea why I wrote Misc. I even ran FRED to check I had the correct name for the button and then typed in the name of something else :rolleyes:
Must be going senile in my old age :)
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Help me.....
I'm on the verge of going unpredictably nasty AND violent.... :hopping: I've been working on this mission for almost 5 hours, when this... when THIS happens! The mission ran perfectly until now. After 35 seconds there's a wing of freighters jumping in, all docked with containers. Now, when they start jumping in (I hear the sound of the jump node), the game freezes. The only change commited between the latest stable version and this is about 10 time-triggered message events. What on Earth is doing this?! I've tried it with several builds and all crashed at this point. If I set the wing's arrival time from 35 to 0, it crashed during loading time.
EDIT: The wing is: 3 poseidons docked with one TC 2 each
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How many ships do you have in the mission in total?
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13+3 containers. BTW now I've deleted the containers, made them anew, and now the game doesn't crash but the ships and the containers aren't docked either :mad:
EDIT: Nvm, solved it. So, the campaign is on the way, some VO is already done, and the first mission is ready. Our future is bright. Oh yes. ;7
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What was the problem?
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As it turned out later, the problem occured again. I "solved" it by removing the cargo containers. The problem is that if the freighters and cargo are docked and they warp in at a given time (already docked), the game freezes. I've done it this way: set the arrival of both Iota wing (freighters) and the three cargos each to 35 seconds, and set the initial status of the ships to docked with their respective cargo. Any suggestions welcome.
You can download the alpha (or gamma or whatever) version of the first, "intro" mission of the campaign from here: http://hosted.filefront.com/Caius911
Voice acting is partial and shabby, the mission doesn't have an ending yet, and the command briefing text will be reviewed. But, it gives you an idea what is the whole thing about.
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As it turned out later, the problem occured again. I "solved" it by removing the cargo containers. The problem is that if the freighters and cargo are docked and they warp in at a given time (already docked), the game freezes. I've done it this way: set the arrival of both Iota wing (freighters) and the three cargos each to 35 seconds, and set the initial status of the ships to docked with their respective cargo.
Wait, what? I don't understand how this is different. :confused:
Do you have a previous version of the mission that you could upload?
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It goes like this: I delete cargos, make them anew, dock them etc., then save and playtest. Everything works. If I save again with the SLIGHTEST modification, it doesn't work. It gets corrupted, that's my best guess.
BTW, in case you were wondering, no, not all voices will be me. :D I'll be doing only the quarterdeck officer and Alpha 3.
EDIT: I'll upload a corrupted one when I'm back from school (no, not grammar school mind you :p ). That will be ca. 8 hours from now.
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I think I can guess what the problem is. In any instance when you have docked ships, one of the 2 or more objects docked together will be the dock leader. You set its arrival cues to whatever you need them to be. The object or objects docked to it however, need to have their arrival cues set to "false". FRED should do this automatically, and spew out a message telling you that its doing this.
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Okay, this is getting really weird. The cue was at false already. I've been using the latest CVS build fred (I guess this is the point when you guys all say "OMG!"). I fired up an earlier build fred, an when I load the mission, it gives me an error message "Ship Alpha 1 in wing should be called Iota 3", but then loads the mission. BUT, the whole Iota transport wing and all the containers are MISSING! And then, when I try to create a new Iota wing, it says it already exists! But, even when browsing through the editors there's no Iota wing or ship at all! I went through the convoy creation process yet again. Again, everything works in-game. Then, on a 2nd load it CRASHED, and shows the same error message! Seems like loading the mission in FS2open and playing it CORRUPTS the mission file. All I can say is: WTF :confused: :confused:
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Would you people try to give me some help? Otherwise I'll have to halt the whole project. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for the tips you gave, but no-one has said anything in more than 1.5 days. And let me quote this:
Too often new people join the community and work for a little while on a campaign before getting bored by the solitude of working on a mod singlehanded and leave.
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I suspect that your problem is that you're not dealing with the most stable version of FRED. I still use the 16/01/2006 build of FRED for any serious FREDding cause I've had some problems with more recent version.
You might also want to try taking those frieghters out of the wing. I've seen all manner of weirdness occur from having wings of ships that aren't meant to be in wings.
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I've only got the 1/17 build. Could someone post a link for the 1/16 one?
EDIT: BTW thanks, dissolving the freighter wings did the trick, at last! :yes:
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1/17 might be close enough actually. I think problems only appeared after the 20th.
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Now I have a simple problem, thank God. I'd like to make a ship hostile at a certain point in a conversation. The convo is scripted with send-mission-list. I can't find any SEXP which checks whether a message has been sent. The time the convo starts is not scripted, but triggered by a wing warping in. Thanks.
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You can't actually check whether the message has been sent or not. Your only choice is to simply work out when the message will be sent based on the timings in the send-message-list SEXP and have the change in IFF occur at about the same time.
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In other words, if the message is sent about twenty seconds into the conversation, you should have the change in IFF come either a second or two before (if you want the message to be a sort of "I'm sorry I have to do this") or a second or two later (if you want it be more of a follow through on a threat or the like).
-when
--is-event-true-delay
---MSGlist
---22
--change-iff
---Ship
---Hostile
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--has-time-elapsed
---30
--send-message-list
---Alpha 1
---Blah1
---High
---10000
---BlahShip
---Now You Die
---High
---10000
The IFF change will occur after BlahShip says "Now You Die."
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An important note about send-message-list, the time figure is in miliseconds, not seconds. For 10 seconds to have elapsed, you'd need to add 3 more zeros after it. Also, for each message set, the time figure happens before that message. So, if your event happens after 30 seconds have elapsed, and you have a 10000 figure as part for your first message entry, that 10 seconds will be applied 10 seconds after the event becomes true, so after 40 seconds has passed. Be sure you're using that sexp correctly.
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Why, of course. What do you think I did? :nervous:
:D
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Thanks. The first mission is coming along. I'll post it once I've got a normal version. Still, you might want to check out the command briefing of the mission I uploaded earlier (nvm the actual mission, I revised it quite a bit), it tells the basic setting of the campaign.
EDIT: actually I can't remember if the CB is included in the uploaded one
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Okay, looks like first mission is ready. Voice-over is partial. Available for download from here (http://rapidshare.de/files/13632467/traditions.zip.html). If someone has the time to playtest it gameplay and story-wise, I'd be glad. Thanks.
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Excellent. I'll make this part of my FS binge tonight. :)
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Ok, a question and a comment I guess. Can this be used with FS_Open or is it retail only (although in about 20 mins i guess i'll find out the answer when the DL finishes?)
Also, I'll keep a log of anything I find problems or otherwise :)
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Typically there isn't anything that would fall under the category of "retail only", as all of the features in retail are present in FSO.
I say typically because S:AH seems to hate FSO.
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Ok Downloaded and I tried using the FSO 367 first and I got many errors. I have no mods installed and many errors came up. Now I'm no Fred'er and have no idea what some of them mean, I'll post em all here in a sec. Second I tried clean copy of FS and it did not load either, just mission failed to load press OK button (this happened both in FSO and Retail).
EDIT: Took all these errors out cause it was solved by a later build than the one I had. Testing now.
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You need a more recent CVS build Dan1. Check the recent builds subforum in SCP.
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Alright I did lots of different things to this (Got it to work from later build thanks karajorma!)
I did multiple different things and read through all the scripting (although it's 11pm here I might've missed something) and I will try to be as detailed as I can. Here goes:
1. Opening on the 2nd page. Is a minor spelling error Evem should be Even
2. Something I did like...you HAVE to follow your objectives closely when they come up because even though the cargo looks to be undocked visually they are actually just in the "process" of undocking and it takes a few seconds so don't be overzealous like I was and scan it too early.
3. I liked the voiceacting (Who all was supposed to be voiceacted...everyone or just a few of the transmissions?)
4. Only real problem I encountered was after I disabled Virgo 2 I had achieved that objective np. Then after scanning the cargo (before I was supposed to but after disabling Virgo 2) I get told that the mission had failed. (This is neat cause you have to be careful) However upon the mission ending I get the exact same message twice saying not to scan the cargo. So I click the recc button and I get 2 seperate messages. The first was saying not to scan the cargo like normal. The second one however had something about waiting till Virgo 2 was disabled before scanning the cargo.
This is very minor really but if the Virgo 2 objective is completed do you need to be getting the second message (since it's the same as the first and the only new information is about disabling virgo 2 which was already done?)
All and all...this is a very neat mission and GJ for making it. Looking forward to more.
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Thanks for the comments, I'm really more than happy you liked it! :) :) Voice-acting is partial 'cause I couldn't get the crew to my home yet. From now on, work will proceed on two seperate ways: voice-acting, which will be done after a mission is created, and creating the next mission. So, by the end of the week we should have Mission 1 fully VOd and a Mission 2 without VO, and so on.
Will correct typos, thanks for spotting it.
Will correct the weird error with debriefing.
Thanks again guys!
EDIT: If I forgot to address something, please ask again