[Nimiria]

Hi all

I am very interested in making a long campaign, and hope that somebode here could give me some instructions and tips how I make missions, briefings, and so on

So if anybody wants to help me, please answer here (and perhaps say what you want to teach me/what you want to heltp).

I hope this is the right region for such a topic - if not please move it where it belongs.

So I hope that some designers will answer here

[Angelus]

Well, the best way for basic ( and advanced ) stuff is Karajormas Freespace FAQ, you can find it here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/FAQ/fred.html

he also made a FREDding guide on how to make missions, it is for BtrL but you can use it for any FS2 Mod/ Standalone game.
It is for MP missions, but it also applies to SP missions and there is also the FS2 Wiki.

http://www.game-warden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2822

Check also the FRED Academy on this page, there are a lot of useful tips and tricks.
If you need anything specific, post a question.


Hope this helps.

[Dark Hunter]

My advice is to take the walkthrough in FRED's help files. This will aquaint you with all aspects of the mission builder, and is extremely helpful.

[karajorma]

That's the first thing my FAQ says to do, but it also gives a lot of other advice too.

[Mobius]

You can learn a lot if you open missions coming straight from the main campaign

[Nimiria]

Okay I will try to read all this stuff

Two questions I have then for now:

Where can I find the campaign missions exactly? Even in the modded campaigns the Fred editor does not find anything to open :/

Second: Making a mission is one thing, but how do I make mission briefings/command briefings and how do I take all missions into one campaign later?

Edit: And another question: How do I enable the window for the missions that players can choose their ships, weapons etc. and how do I setup what they can chose

[Mobius]

1) Do you have programs able to extract files from the VPs(like VPView)? You can easily get them...

2) With FRED you can also create briefings and command briefings. There also is the "campaign editor" that allows you to sort your missions in a campaign

[Angelus]

Mission files are usually in a *.vp file, you need tools to open and extract them, you can find 'em here, scroll to the tools section:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/FAQ/fred.html

or get them here:

http://addons.teamwars.org/index.php?id=12

I suggest you make a mission first before thinking about briefings and such, you can add them later.
Both links i posted, and in your game\...\data folder should be a folder called 'freddocs', with a walkthrough, this provides you with all you need to start.

[Nimiria]

Okay I have found those in the editor and am downloading some tools now

So I now just need to know how I make it that players can choose ships/weapons befor starting a mission

[Angelus]

How to do that is shown here, scroll down a bit, it's the part with the Teamloadout:

http://www.game-warden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2822

BEFORE you check out this thread ( read the entire thread!! ), do following:

go to your freddocs folder, search for a file called 'walktrough', doubleklick it.
Your browser opens, you see the FREESPACE 2 FRED WALKTHROUGH and following points:

    *  Planning the Mission
    * Stationary Objects
    * Large Ship Movements
    * Directives and Objectives
    * Messages
    * Background
    * Fighters and Bombers
    * Team Loadout and Mission Specs
    * Debriefing
    * Briefing

Team loadout is where you can decide which ships/ weapons the player can choose, but you have to make first a mission, set the ships you
want in FRED.

Most of the stuff in the FRED WALKTHROUGH is self-explanatory, but read the entire documentation.

[Nimiria]

Okay thanks I will look then

[karajorma]

I really do suggest actually doing the walkthrough rather than just reading it though. You'll take a lot of the new stuff on board that way.

[Goober5000]

a long campaign

I recommend against this.  It's far too easy to underestimate the amount of work involved, and you might be setting yourself up for frustration.

I recommend releasing a single mission first.  Then you might want to either release a short campaign, or divide up your longer campaign into chapters.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.  Blaise Russel started off his time at HLP by releasing two separate 40+ mission long projects.

[Nimiria]

a long campaign

I recommend against this.  It's far too easy to underestimate the amount of work involved, and you might be setting yourself up for frustration.

I recommend releasing a single mission first.  Then you might want to either release a short campaign, or divide up your longer campaign into chapters.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.  Blaise Russel started off his time at HLP by releasing two separate 40+ mission long projects.

Of course sometimes it will be frustrating sometimes, but I love this game, it is great, and after playing it once more and playing some player campaigns now I really want to make one myself

The idea to do the walkthrough (making this sample mission with the NTF) is a good idea. Just reading won`t be enough for me, because I come from Germany and so it is difficult to understand all the things that are wrote down there ^^

[Dark Hunter]

Of course sometimes it will be frustrating sometimes, but I love this game, it is great, and after playing it once more and playing some player campaigns now I really want to make one myself

Nothing wrong with that, Goober is just saying that it will be much more time-consuming and work than I bet you're thinking it will be now. I would recommend a mini-campaign first... a small five mission affair, just to get a feel for it, before tackling some 30 mission monster.

[Nimiria]

Yeah, I just worked several hours now on the sample mission from the workout and still have not all elements in. Making a mission without a walkthroug would be taking even more time

I still want to make a big one, but when I have 5 missions I will try to make them to a "demo" campaign so I can see if it works +

But before I go to questions like how to make them to a campaign etc. I will finish them first

Perhaps somebody then even wants to test them

[Vidmaster]

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.

just be sure that you want to be one of those exceptions. Be damn sure because even after releasing the work is not finished 

[Nimiria]

Hehe ^^

When I have my first 5 missions, I will try to load them up here so the expert could tell if they are good or not

[Nimiria]

Okay, now it`s a little bit too much for me. These transports in the walkthrough mission..

I just could copy all the things/orders there in the editor und be happy that they are doing it, but this will bring me nothing. Could perhaps some experienced mission builder tell me in easy, detailed words, what is the clue in all that?

How to make these docking operations with taking over ships, docking and warping out, making the next ship doing it then and, what is really confusing me, the correct work with this counter (for IFF change after finished docking).

[karajorma]

A few people have problems with using variables and as such have trouble with that particular part of the mission.

Since most FREDders aren't from a programming background the first thing that needs explaining is what a variable actually is. One simple way to think of a variable is as a box. The box has a name written on the side of it (the name of the variable) and inside the box you can put a single number (The value of the variable).

When you make a new variable you always create it with a default value. It's impossible to have an empty box. There is always a number inside the box (although the number can be zero!). FRED will remind you what this default value is. Whenever you use the variable you'll notice that it's followed by the default value in brackets. While the mission is running there are only two things you can do with a variable. You can either open the box and take a look at the contents, or you can throw away the contents and put something new in its place. Every single time you see a variable being used in a SEXP no matter how complex it is it will be doing one of those two simple things.

That should make it a little clearer what is going on. All the counter is doing is keeping track of the number of ships that have docked successfully. The game starts out with the value of 0. Every time a ship docks successfully it adds 1 to that number, once the required number of ships has docked (2 in this case if I remember correctly) the event that says the Orion is captured triggers.

Read the rest of this if you're still having trouble.