[Renegade Paladin]

In the help files for FRED2, it says that you add a new ship to the mission by selecting the ship you want to add, holding down ctrl, and clicking where you want the ship to go.  This is clearly a lie, because while this works for the first ship added, no more ships may be added after the first.  As I'm sure you're all aware, 1v1 missions get very boring very quickly, so I'd appreciate it if someone could help me fix this.   

[Dark Hunter]

Firstly, are you using retail or FRED2Open?

Not that I really think it would make a difference here, but it's always good to know.

I honestly don't know why it wouldn't be adding a new ship. Ctrl + click always works for me. Are you trying to put two ships in the same place, perhaps?

Oh and:

[Renegade Paladin]

The one that came with FS2 Open, so I'm assuming the Open one.  And I've tried adding ships literally a hundred kilometers apart; it has nothing to do with proximity. 

Is there just some sort of cap on the number of large capital ships?  Because while it won't let me add a second destroyer, I can put in a Fenris-class cruiser and then add a destroyer, but after a destroyer is on the map, no more ships can be added.  I'll do more extensive testing and post the results in a little bit. 

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Add the smaller ship it will let you and and go into the ship editor and change the class.  See if it will let you do that.

[Goober5000]

Before you accuse the help files of lying, consider that you yourself may be at fault.

In this case, you may be clicking within the bounds of a previously placed ship.  Zoom out a little, and click next to it.

[Snail]

May we have a screenshot? I'd like to see your settings (you may be in "blob" mode in which case you can't see where you're placing ships).

[Renegade Paladin]

Before you accuse the help files of lying, consider that you yourself may be at fault.

In this case, you may be clicking within the bounds of a previously placed ship.  Zoom out a little, and click next to it.

I moved the X axis 200 kilometers from where I'd placed the first destroyer.  If that's within the bounds of a Hecate, then something's seriously wrong. 

Anyway, here's that screenshot. 



When I click anywhere on the grid for any purpose (other than clicking directly on the Ulysses that starts off on the map) it automatically selects the ship I placed rather than doing whatever the click was supposed to do.  Additionally, I've discovered that I may add waypoints in addition to a ship, but only if the waypoints are placed first; after a second ship is in place, I can't place any more.

Furthermore, I may add any number of fighters, but as soon as a capital ship is placed, no more ships can be added to the map.  So apparently the problem is restricted only to capital ships. 

[karajorma]

Go to the view model and turn on the ability to see ship models (either in wireframe or solid)

[Dark Hunter]

Dude, those distances are in meters, not kilometers...

Turn on ship model viewing, like Kara said. It'll help a lot.

[Shade]

Yeah, you got the units wrong, that's all. It happens, and it's easy to fix At the bottom-right of the screen you can see the current units used for the grid which, in the case of the screenshot you've taken, is 10 metres - Placing the Hecate only 300m away from the starting ship and placing the entire screen well inside the confines of the model.

[Renegade Paladin]

No, I didn't get the units wrong.  I simply converted 20,000 meters to 200 kilometers for simplicity.     I took the map and moved it way on out there so that I couldn't even see the other ship anymore and tried. 

[Shade]

I'm still having a hard time believing it, as I've never seen or heard anything about a problem like this before. Could you show us that in a screenshot, too, and preferably with ship models (or at least outlines) turned on? I know I'm being bloody stubborn (and possibly annoying too, if so, sorry about that), but FRED movement controls are convoluted enough in the beginning that user error is really quite likely even from someone who is used to 3D editors and who has actually read the instructions.

[Snail]

Turn - on - ship - models.

[Mustang19]

Yes, the models are extremely, extremely close together, although you can't see it because you can't see the ship models. The scale reading in the upper right shows that you're only zoomed out a hundred units or so. Use the Z key to zoom out and the numpad keys to move your view around. Then try placing your stuff. So, some important keys:

Z = zoom out
A = zoom in
Numpad left/right/up/down = rotate camera

Also, mess around with the speed menu and adjust the zoom speed to something comfortable, if you need to.