[Caius]

Hiya

I've got a nice little campaign here in my head, already wrote 4 full sheets of paper (that's 8 pages ), 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  . How do I make transports docked with cargo at the very start of a mission?
Thanks, and prepare yourselves for thousands of questions  (in fact, I'm trying to find out most things from tutorials, but some just can't be found)

[karajorma]

Pick the transport, chose the misc properties option and you'll find the initial docking setting in there.

[IPAndrews]

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.

[Caius]

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 

[Nuclear1]

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.

[karajorma]

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

Must be going senile in my old age

[Caius]

Help me.....
I'm on the verge of going unpredictably nasty AND violent....  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

[karajorma]

How many ships do you have in the mission in total?

[Caius]

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 

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. 

[Goober5000]

What was the problem?

[Caius]

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.

[Goober5000]

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.

Do you have a previous version of the mission that you could upload?

[Caius]

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.  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  ). That will be ca. 8 hours from now.

[Trivial Psychic]

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.

[Caius]

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 

[Caius]

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.

[karajorma]

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.

[Caius]

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! 

[karajorma]

1/17 might be close enough actually. I think problems only appeared after the 20th.

[Caius]

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.