[Jeremy971]

I am working on a Freespace II level. It's just one single player level.
I'm having some difficulty with some of it though. I'll try to explain the best I can.

objective: Destroy "NTF Phoenix" ship.
In the directive box, it says at start it already was accomplished, but the "NTF Phoenix" still remains.

I can't seem to find where you have the wingmen box on the right side as well.

So my problems/questions are, How do you get the game to say what is accomplished when you actually perform that?

How do you have a ship enter right when one dies?
I understand some on timing, but not timing when one dies or leaves the area.

[Ransom]

To get that directive to work you'd need a SEXP that simply says 'when NTF Phoenix is destroyed, do nothing' (unless you want something to happen directly after that, like sending a message or something) and put the directive on that SEXP.

As for wingmen, as far as I know it just automatically puts Alpha, Beta, Delta, Epsilon and Gamma wings on there but I don't think there's any other way to put other wings on there.

[Jeremy971]

thanks. Ill give that a try. I do have alpha 2, 3, and 4. When I click on "c" then "ships" i see them on there, and I can tell them to attack a target and even depart. I just dont see the box on the top right.

[Ransom]

Are they set as a wing? If you've just named the ships Alpha 2/3/4 then it won't appear.

[Jeremy971]

I cant seem to set it as a wing. everything is gray and uncheckable when I try it.
yeah, lol, thats what i did, just name them as alpha.

[Ransom]

Select all the ships you want in that wing and hit Control-W or hit the button at the top called Form Wing, should come up with a box where you can type in the name of the wing. They'll be automatically named then.

[Jeremy971]

Alpha 1 says: EDIT ALPHA 1 - Ship name, Alpha 1. wing: none
Alpha 1 says: EDIT WING - Wing name Alpha

The other three say: wing - none
and edit wing: all grayed, nothing checkable

[Ransom]

Yes, do what I said before and include Alpha 1. It should ask you to reform Alpha wing then, since Alpha 1 is already in Alpha wing but the others you selected aren't.

[Akalabeth Angel]

How do you have a ship enter right when one dies?
I understand some on timing, but not timing when one dies or leaves the area.

    Click on the ship you want to enter when another dies, and go to the ship editor. At the bottom there are two boxes, for arriving and departing.

    In the arrival box, edit the sexp from "true" to a when, is-destroyed-delay and select the ship you want as the destroyed conditions and any delay you may want. Now that ship will only enter when the ship referenced in the sexp goes boom.

[Jeremy971]

This is starting to upset me. I dont see how hard it can be just to set the wingmen. I tried Ctrl+W, all it says is: "the name 'alpha' is already being used by another wing."

[Ransom]

You need to select all the ships you want to be in Alpha wing, including Alpha 1. It may also complain if you have the other ships named Alpha 2/3/4, try changing them to something else and try again if it still doesn't work.

[Jeremy971]

I just dont believe this. same thing! I changed the names just to V2, V3, and V4, so it wasnt anything like alpha, beta, gamma, etc, same message. I did highlight and mark them all at one time, and it still says it cant do it

[Jeremy971]

I decided to put Beta and that worked. so thats half sucess. now i just need to get alpha back. i think i can do that, hopefully...
ah yes. now it works! finally. thanks a ton for helping me out. I had to reset the name. I highlighted all 4 and put Beta. then I highlighted them and palced Alpha.
i guess it needed a reset

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Ransom Arceihn
You need to select all the ships you want to be in Alpha wing, including Alpha 1. It may also complain if you have the other ships named Alpha 2/3/4, try changing them to something else and try again if it still doesn't work.

Alpha wing works slightly differently from most wings in that you can't reform it. What you have to do is disband the existing Alpha wing (The button next to form wing). Then select all the ships you want and click the form wing button.

Changing the wing name as Jeremy did also works

Had this been an enemy wing the original advice would have worked

While I'm here how come no one has pimped the FRED Academy to this guy. Sounds exactly like what he needs

[Fergus]

Select Alpha 1, press Ctrl+D (disband wing) and then reform all the fighters you want into Alpha wing (must include player ship and max of 4)

[Black Wolf]

Have you done the walkthrough? If not, do it. It'll help you out immensely.

[Jeremy971]

I've been going through the walkthrough and it has helped me in areas, but in others I sort of feel too lost to get anywhere.
I understand that not many probably want to help this complete "level builder nob", but I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone can help me through this.

A little (boring?) background. I had originally released an old Descent I level through planetdescent in '02 called Vanguard.
About a month or so ago, I wanted to released "Vanguard Resurrection" for Descent I, but felt that the game itself is so old, with boring graphics and textures. It then hit me, why not Freespace? That's a LOT closer to what I want than Descent I. It has a little story you can tell others, the mission objectives, what's up and a battle field with other people.

I'll do my best to make it a "non so noob" level. If I get it all figured out, this may be pretty massive, hard to say yet.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Jeremy971
I understand that not many probably want to help this complete "level builder nob"

Follow the FRED Academy link I posted earlier. Not only are there a bunch of people happy to help you with problems but we'll actually look at your missions and tell you how to make them better.

The trade off is that we don't do it for just any mission. The people in the academy are working on one of a specific set of campaigns. The idea being that rather than going off and working on their own the people in the Academy work together and finish campaigns quickly.

I'm quite happy to help with questions posed on the forum but I'm only going to go through missions for new people looking for mistakes if their part of the Academy. Although I wish I did, I don't have the time to check every new mission that gets posted

[Jeremy971]

I suppose I understand. This is just one level.
I've been looking at the help for a while, now attempting to send a message when the ships are dead.
I'll get it soon, I'm sure.
Thanks

[Jeremy971]

I'm getting happy again. After some work, I not only got a message across the screen once the ships went down, but the ship saying it was highlighted in the gray box with the right name.
this is great. I want to thank you a lot for helping me. There is still a lot to do, but I imagine that once I get use to that one command, it won't be too hard to send more messages.
thanks !