Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: TopAce on August 10, 2006, 05:56:45 am

Title: How do you test your campaign missions?
Post by: TopAce on August 10, 2006, 05:56:45 am

Now that I am in the last phase of developing ITHOV, I noticed that I am doing the same that I did with my other two campaigns in this phase: spending an entire day with a single mission, testing it as many times as I can, writing up things I would like to change during testing, and finally changing them.

I'm wondering to my fellow FREDders: How do you test your missions before releasing a campaign?

Title: Re: How do you test your campaign missions?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on August 10, 2006, 06:11:14 am

Sometimes i make a mission completely before testing it, Other times i test it phase by phase, Ie after setting up initial "Atmospheric" events-bustle etc, and then after adding each objective and directives.

I heartily reccomend the latter over the former as som much cack can go wrong..... :hopping:

Title: Re: How do you test your campaign missions?
Post by: Dark Hunter on August 10, 2006, 01:11:13 pm

With every major change I implemment, I test out the mission to make sure it's working. Sometimes it takes as many as a dozen tries to get something right.... but it makes the mission very very polished in the end.

Most designers usually offer a few people a chance to test them, in preparation for a final release. This allows to get insight on things you might have missed when testing them yourself.

Title: Re: How do you test your campaign missions?
Post by: Mobius on August 10, 2006, 04:33:27 pm

Although I'm not expert in campaign releases,I'll post here some hints anyway.
Sometimes I put many messages and most of the event present in the final version,sometimes I just give the ships some orders, watch how the mission works and then add messages.

I noticed that re-adjust old missions made when I was a Noob Fredder it's difficult,I'm spending a lot of time with it. Sometimes I think it would be better if I restart the mission(sometimes I did it).

Title: Re: How do you test your campaign missions?
Post by: CP5670 on August 10, 2006, 05:50:22 pm

I more or less completely finish a mission first, except sometimes the debriefing, and then play it over and over again trying out different things (beating it normally, failing, trying to make stuff screw up, using different loadouts to check for balancing issues, revising small things in the text parts, etc.). By the time I'm fully satisfied with it I have generally played through it at least 50 times.

I leave FRED2 open in the background and fix any bugs I want to right when I encounter them, so I don't forget about anything.

Title: Re: How do you test your campaign missions?
Post by: PotzUK on August 11, 2006, 02:59:02 am

Quote from: CP5670 on August 10, 2006, 05:50:22 pm

I leave FRED2 open in the background and fix any bugs I want to right when I encounter them, so I don't forget about anything.

Aye, thats what I do to - play FS in a window and just alt-tab to fred, tweak, and back to FS again.  Then when the mission's played, I start over til I'm happy

Title: Re: How do you test your campaign missions?
Post by: Nuclear1 on August 11, 2006, 09:24:12 am

I'll have to agree with CP's method, although I always restart the mission every single time I come across something that needs fixing. However, that may just be because the bugs I come across are usually show-stoppers or mistakes that otherwise need correcting before the mission can go on.

I also have several different people look over the missions as well. As the designer, you know what the outcome's going to be, and therefore you play it exactly how you designed it to be played. Testers, on the other hand, can accomplish the mission through other methods, and they might uncover some bugs or errors that you may very well have missed along the way. Always great to have some extra eyes and ears. :)