Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => Wing Commander Saga => Topic started by: Haliwali on December 25, 2007, 11:02:16 am
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If anyone has read the X-Wing series, you may remember the Requiem scenario from the first book. In it, he Squadron had to defend 3 Medevac shuttles while they got the wounded off of a damaged ship. They faced waves of Ties and bombers, and a destroyer.
I thought this would be a pretty cool mission for the simulator, replacing the TIES with Darkets, Dralthi, and Gothris or Pahktans. Players would fly in a Hellcat or Thud, and the capship could be the Ticonderoga.
I'd like to do it my self, but some of the stuff like getting the shuttles to land and take off properly is beyond me :confused:. If I could get some help, or if anyone has any other good ideas, post 'em here.
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Sounds qefully lot like 'save CRV Korolev'... from original X-Wing...
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Sounds qefully lot like 'save CRV Korolev'... from original X-Wing...
I think that was the original title, but the pilots got so fed up the started giving it nicknames.
Anyway, what do you think about making that WCish?
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Go for it. If you get stuck, just ask.
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Indeed. Just go for it, and as you have questions, just fire them on the forums (see my posts for examples of my shining idiocy). But there's a lot to learn, and as you practice, you notice that each mission you make looks a little more polished than the last.
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Trust me, it is easy to learn FRED (although hard to master). You will be amazed how quickly you can produce good missions!
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I think the best thing to do if im going to get this thing in a playable condition would be I build the map any somone else shows me how to do the event and waypoints and other, more complicated things. Check back here tomorrow, I should have the map itself finished.
See you on the other side.
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Okay Ive almost finished with the map, but Im going to need someone to help me with the rest. Im going to popst the file here, then one of you can download it and repost it in its finished form. :yes:
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uh, what? ;)
You will have to do the mission on your own. That's the only way to learn. We'll try to help you in any way we can. :D
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Okay time for the noob questions
How do I get a shuttle to land in a hanger, wait for 2 minutes, then take off :confused:
How do I get the player ship to land at the end of the mission. :confused:
How do I set up objectives and waypoints :confused:
The noobishness will continue i'm sure :mad:
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I'm not going to write out the script for you because it's important to figure out what each little sexp does on your own. But here it is in laymans terms. Besides that, I just woke up and couldn't tell you what color my shirt is.
#1. Okay... you know when you're editing ships and it has the arrive/depart windows? In the depart window, you need to set up a condition (all enemy fighters destroyed? Player has accomplished a certain goal? Whatever it is...), with the result that the shuttle will depart. Set up the depart info for a docking bay, and select the capital ship you want it to dock on. When the condition is met in-game, the shuttle will head for the carrier. Getting it to re-launch? Create a new shuttle, with a point somewhere in space that you want it to launch to (make the name very similar or with an extra space or something, because you can't have two ships with the same name), and in the arrival window, put a delay of 120 seconds, and the arrival condition (the window on the bottom) is the "when-departed" with the old shuttle.
#2. Script an event that will end the mission when the distance between Alpha 1 and ship subsystem (choose a docking bay) is less than 60. (You can use another number, but I find 60 is a good distance).
#3. Objectives are just events that are "accomplished" when whatever sexp you set up becomes true. The details depend on the mission. Waypoints... do you mean autopilot? Until you get really deep in, I suggest you just use simple time compression autopilot. I don't have enough time to write it out for you right now... have to feed the kid breakfast... but I'll come back and give you an example. I'll write this one out for you because autopilot drove me @#$%ing insane for two weeks.
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Better yet - I have a simple three point patrol mission that has answers to all of your questions except the shuttle launch. PM me your e-mail address and I'll send you a copy.
NOTE: This was the first mission I had accomplished, so it's not terribly polished compared to my more recent works. But it's simple and it works to demonstrate the method.
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thanks for the help.
I should have this thing up by tomorrow or maybe late tonight.
just need to finish with the shuttles, for the life of me I cant get them working right. :shaking:
Check in later
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Here is an idea: place a waypoint inside the hangar, order a shuttle to proceed to the waypoint and once it is reached, to play dead. Then reactivate it after 2 min by clearing ai goals and assigning a new waypoint. You just have to place them carefully so that the shuttle does not crash. And, obviously, this will work only if the carrier is not moving.
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Would AI enemies still targetting the shuttle be disinclined to follow it in? Just wondering....
Tolwyn's idea is significantly schfancier than mine... but would look a helluva' lot cooler and be less potentially messy so long as it worked correctly. Go with his way if you can.
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well, add protect ship flag.
The trick here would be to place waypoints correctly. Might be a bit of trial and error.
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That's true... then just lift the flag when the shuttle launches again. See... this is why I'm an amateur. :-P
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That brings me back to 1 of my original questions, how do set up nav points for the shuttles?
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It is dead easy. You should read the fred tutorial provided on the website as it explains how to do it.
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Got it thanks. I'm almost done now, just need to fix the objectives and it'll be done. I now have a new appreciation for what you guys are doing. Lot harder than I thought.
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it is easier than you think! You just need to practice! :D
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There will be a slight delay while my dad uses my computer. I should have the mission posted by 11 ET. Ran into a few small problems but I think I can figure them out. This is going to be the most unpolished thing any of you will play for a long time, but I'm proud of it. :D
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FRED is one of those hours to learn, life time to master deals. I've been FREDding for over 7 years now and I still find new stuff I can do with it all the time (and that's not including times I cheat and add the code to allow it to do new things. :D )
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Okay, I set the waypoint to lead into the hanger of a Ranger class, so there should be plenty of room for the shuttles, but they keep hitting an invisible wall or something. They get right up to the hanger then BAM, they start jumping around and taking damage the further into the ship they get. Not sure what's wrong. Help?
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Congratulations, you've just run into FS2 collision detection system. You have to place waypoints carefully, otherwise landing approach will not work. If you do not want to bother yourself with waypoints, use departue que to have the shattles depart, then create new shuttles, which will appear in the hangar bay.
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I put the waypoints pretty much dead center on the hanger, is ther a better place?
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use departue que to have the shattles depart, then create new shuttles, which will appear in the hangar bay.
I know I've heard this one somewhere before... but where? ;)
Anyway... I hope my three point patrol showed you the basic autopilot. The autopilot template you can download is great... but it's complex as hell to work with. To be honest... I still haven't really figured it out. One day I'll use it. Maybe.
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Have a look at the FRED section of my FAQ if you haven't already. The variable and arguments sections should help a little as I suspect that's the complicated parts.
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This is taking longer than I thought, so I'll take the teams approach.
When its done
:lol:
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it's complex as hell to work with. To be honest... I still haven't really figured it out. One day I'll use it. Maybe.
it is not. I would write a tutorial, but then again, that template is outdated. ;)
With newer EXEs you could simply activate autopilot cutscenes. They do not work smoothly yet, but are easy to use for beginners. :)
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Last noob question: How do I post it?
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Use additional options - attach function (it is just above the "post" button)
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Alright, this is my first real mission that I've started from concept to completion. It took me about three days, and it's kind of lacking in polish but I'm proud of it.
This is based on the assumption that you've fouled up Defend Ticonderoga as many times as I have. :lol:
If any of you spot any problems tell me what they are and how to fix them. If you have any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them.
Download the file and unzip it to your WC Saga Prologue->Data->Missions folder
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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ok first little bug - when i died, i actually got the debriefing with winning text
Edit it was actually both winning and loosing text, you should work with debriefing sexps
I would suggest connecting them with mission goals. Also destroyed or departed delay should be used in spetial situations only, you should either use is-destroyed-delay or has departed delay.
problem 2: as all your mission objectives have "true" as therirs Sexp's, they are already done. this means, among other things, that you have absolutely no idea when the mission is over
Last. I hope you don't take this critics personnally. I just wanted to point out few things
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ok first little bug - when i died, i actually got the debriefing with winning text
Edit it was actually both winning and loosing text, you should work with debriefing sexps
I would suggest connecting them with mission goals. Also destroyed or departed delay should be used in spetial situations only, you should either use is-destroyed-delay or has departed delay.
problem 2: as all your mission objectives have "true" as therirs Sexp's, they are already done. this means, among other things, that you have absolutely no idea when the mission is over
Last. I hope you don't take this critics personnally. I just wanted to point out few things
Thanks for pointing that out. I'm going to go through the mssion very carefully and patch everything I can find.
By the way team, you know what would make me all warm and fuzzy inside? Seeing this on the Home Page :lol:
Maybe after I patch it...
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By the way team, you know what would make me all warm and fuzzy inside?
A puppy?
(Sorry... this bordered on spam... but it's an old inside joke with some very close friends that I just couldn't resist sharing with the world. Whether you got it or not. :D )
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Thanks for pointing that out. I'm going to go through the mssion very carefully and patch everything I can find.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/FAQ/fredcommonmistakes.html
The majority of that is applicable to any FREDded mission rather than just ones for FS2 so it should give you a good idea what to look for.
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By the way team, you know what would make me all warm and fuzzy inside?
A puppy?
I don't get it, do I eat the puppy?