[Lucika]

I am trying to get into FREDding, but I am rather (totally) new to any kind of programming, my only sources are the Fred.doc of FS1 abd the FS2's freddocs.

And you!
And I have to rely upon you the most, since I have to ask so basic questions that I can't find any answers anywhere.


Question 1)

I'd like to make an event:
When the enemy ship called Polisher's hull gets under 50%, it sends a message named "Polisher_under_50%". This message would trigger the arrival of the enemy Orion called Toolshop.

I made the event located in the attached file.
If it is correct, then what do I have to do to make the Toolshop wait in subspace till' its called in?

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Angelus]

give every event a name!!!

Place the toolshop somewhere, and add a event to it's arrival cue ( ship editor ).

Is event true delay
     10   
    <enter thename of the event that will send the message>

The number in the event above is the amount of time after the toolshop will jump in, in this case 10 seconds after the message is send. Edit the value to fit your needs.

[Rodo]

that's right, just place the ship , then name it to toolship and check the arrival cue in the ship editor window (right click over the ship and Edit gtc toolship).

I would seriously recommend you to folow the freding tut that you can find in the help section, it guides you through the creation of an entire mission, that's the best way of learning.

Help->help topics->walkthrough

[FUBAR-BDHR]

That and look at how it's done in an existing mission. 

[Lucika]

That and look at how it's done in an existing mission. 

Ty for the help of both of you. Where can I launch an existing mission in FRED? The .vp files or what? 

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Extract the mission from the VP file somewhere using a program like VPView and just open it in FRED like you normally do. 

[Lucika]

My mission is... fine!
Seriously, creating a simple mission gives you a lot of experience!

Final question... for this mission : Why doesn't the music play?
EDIT: Got it, damn! Mission specs!

[Galemp]

Thrilling, isn't it?

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Seriously, creating a simple mission gives you a lot of experience!

Exactly. That's why I recommend going through the Extended Walkthrough in the FRED Help files It'll really get you to know FRED.

[Dilmah G]

Seriously, creating a simple mission gives you a lot of experience!

Exactly. That's why I recommend going through the Extended Walkthrough in the FRED Help files It'll really get you to know FRED.

So will trying to make you own post apocalyptic/Capella campaign (3 bloody times!), attempting to redo High Noon and turning it into a BoE (my current project), making a mini-campaign about the GTVA 'Top Gun' Fighter Academy (this was a year ago okay), and attempting to do yet another post-capella campaign in which the main character suffers from PTSD and several (highly inconveniant) flashbacks during/in-between missions. Once you've done that, you can look FRED-erick in the face and say you know him.   

[Lucika]

Just a few more things... Y'know, just not to end the topic.

1) How can I add directives?
2) For some unknown reason, all of my ships turned purple! Why?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Directive are just events with directive text.  For example

when
-->is-destroyed-delay
---->cancer
-->do_nothing
directive text "Destroy Cancer"

Most likely you change the ships team from friendly/hostile to unknown. 

[Angelus]

Click on the event that is supposed to trigger the directive, in the box below Directive text, enter the directive.

Purple ships? Never had that before.


EDIT: I thought you mean, your ships turned purple texture wise. My bad.

[Lucika]

Click on the event that is supposed to trigger the directive, in the box below Directive text, enter the directive.

Purple ships? Never had that before.

Now I solved the riddle of purple ships: I changed the ambient light. After I changed it, the ships were in different color, and when I had set it back to the original amount, it worked normally.

EDIT: How can I add a planet in the background in a fashion as Earth was in the very first mission of Cardinal Spear?

[Dilmah G]

Click on the event that is supposed to trigger the directive, in the box below Directive text, enter the directive.

Purple ships? Never had that before.

Now I solved the riddle of purple ships: I changed the ambient light. After I changed it, the ships were in different color, and when I had set it back to the original amount, it worked normally.

EDIT: How can I add a planet in the background in a fashion as Earth was in the very first mission of Cardinal Spear?

Backgrounds list (from the editors tab)

Under the nebulae list at the bottom you see planeta planetb etc etc, you can use the scale boxes on the right of that to increase it, then set divisions to about half the numbers you entered for scale (I think, don't quote me). For a fairly large, but not overly pixellated earth, recommend you set scale to a max of 6. Or ask Darius about the planet he used for the last Vishnan mission, because that was fairly large.

[Lucika]

How can I make an objective to protect a ship? (in fact, an installation)
I've done it with a warship that after it destroyed its target it departed and the objective turned completed but here it won't work.

Any help?

[nostro_pl]

I always make objectives like this in following method:
If we want to protect something, something must attack it For example it's a Sathanas juggernaut.  So our objective will be like this:
when
-is destroyed delay
-Sathanas
-1
When this ship will be destroyed, the installation will be safe. (Of course it don't have to be Sathanas, it can be anything )
But that's just my method 

[Lucika]

I always make objectives like this in following method:
If we want to protect something, something must attack it For example it's a Sathanas juggernaut.  So our objective will be like this:
when
-is destroyed delay
-Sathanas
-1
When this ship will be destroyed, the installation will be safe. (Of course it don't have to be Sathanas, it can be anything )
But that's just my method 

Okay, but it isn't a failure then if the installation is destroyed.

[nostro_pl]

That's right 
I suggest you to open one of the Volition's missions from original FS2 campaign and see how they found a way out of the problem. You can find them in root_fs2.vp or sparky_fs2.vp

[Galemp]

How can I make an objective to protect a ship? (in fact, an installation)
I've done it with a warship that after it destroyed its target it departed and the objective turned completed but here it won't work.

Well, that really depends on the mission. A simple not-is-destroyed-delay would trigger at the beginning of the mission, which you don't want. Instead you need to link it with another event later on that checks whether the installation is destroyed, such as:

and
-has-arrived-delay
--"Reinforcements"
-not
--is-destroyed-delay
---"Installation"

That would check whether the installation is destroyed at the end of the mission, when reinforcements arrive. Or you could set it to check if Alpha One has departed.