[Mattsworkname]

Hi everyone. Im a noob to fred, trying to teach myself the basics so i can one day try my hand at creating a campaign or 2. I've looked over the fred instructions that came with the program, but I still have a few questions.

1. Since im useing freespace open source, where do i save my files so I can run them in the missoin simulator for testing.

2. How do i make the battler area larger, it seems like im given a very SMALL area to work in. Is it possible to get a much larger area to work in?

3. How do I tell a ship to head to a jump node and then once reaching it warp out, while still telling it to defend itself?

Im working on learning the basics, and would like any help this forum can offer.

[Droid803]

1. Save them into data/missions
2. The battle area is infinitely large. Just move your stuff further away, or zoom out.
3. DO THE TUTORIAL. IT REALLY HELPS. From your questions, you obviously did NOT follow the walkthrough. Why, oh why, did you not do it?

[Mattsworkname]

Ok. just managed to run my first succesfull test. Nothing fancy, just started a mission with a destory, a Corvete, and 3 fighters for escort. As planned, a wing of pirate hercs jumped in right on time and were swiftly smashed. So far so good.

I find it odd that the Event editor doesn't have a speciifc option for setting up events based on having speciific ships reach specific way points, rather then following a specific way point path, but I can work with that.

Any advice about how to do better event scripting anyone?

[Droid803]

when
---<
-------distance
------------ship
------------waypoint
-------50

something like that will check reaching specific waypoints rather than their entire path.

[Mattsworkname]

Thanks for the info on the waypoint trick. That helps.

is it posible to see the layout for a specific ship, so that I know what to use when setting up "Beam Fire" events? I've got it workin well enough that it I can run a short escort mission with no trouble save for a few events not triggering cause the turrents are not facing the intended targets. Still, the mission runs normallys and can be successfully completed. 

guess thats a start.

[karajorma]

Pressing k allows you to cycle through turrets.

[Dilmah G]

Well I HAVE to stress this to you

DO THE WALKTHROUGH!

Or well, that is kind of hypocritical coming from someone whose never done it before, but I read the walkthrough fairly thoroughly before beginning FRED-work. To this day I still read through it if I don't understand what something means. Next best place is the wiki (www.hard-light.net/wiki) to search up on FRED and FRED terms.

Reading the walkthrough will save both yours and our time, highly recommended (Y)

[Mattsworkname]

Thanks, Spent some time with the walkthrough. Was helpfully in learning about event scripting. Still, if anyone has any specific advice they'd like to impart, I'm always open to suggestions.

Course, the thing im dreading most is that once I got enough missions together, is learning how to put them together into a campaign.

Also, any good ideas about where to find unique ship models to put in my mods?

[Mattsworkname]

Ok, I got a weird issue. While doing a Fred mission using Fred version 3.6.10, I have been able to use most common models in it's listing, but The Iceni seems to crash the system when i run Mediavps from the Launcher. If I run it with no mod, it works normally?

Anyone else run into that problem.

[karajorma]

Run the debug build (it's the one with _d in the name) and see if that pops up an error when it crashes.

[captain-custard]

Ok, I got a weird issue. While doing a Fred mission using Fred version 3.6.10, I have been able to use most common models in it's listing, but The Iceni seems to crash the system when i run Mediavps from the Launcher. If I run it with no mod, it works normally?

Anyone else run into that problem.

did you install your FSO mvps with tureys installer?

if so there is a chance one or more of your Mvps could be corrupted , if this is so you can download them manually ......;

[Droid803]

is it posible to see the turret layout for a specific ship, so that I know what turret to use when setting up "Beam Fire" events? I've got it workin well enough that it I can run a short escort mission with no trouble save for a few events not triggering cause the turrets are not facing the intended targets. Still, the mission runs normallys and can be successfully completed. 

It's 'turret'

And, for that, I would highly reccomend using PCS2 in addition to the weapon-swapper for checking turrets and armaments.
Open the model in PCS2 and you can easily look at which turret is which . Very useful for ships with odd turret configurations, like many ships do in Retail.

[Mattsworkname]

I wanna thank you guys for the advice. I've been working on some concept missions for a campaign and im getting the hang of writing fred scenarios. There not pretty, but they work and do what I ask them to. However, Im somehow not about to get certain events to specificly occur. I've read the walkthrough and it's helped, but im notsure if Im missing something or just not catching the info when it's given. So, heres whats been giving me trouble.

1. Objectives. I've been able to get my missions to display objectives, but I can't get them to move from one to another, they show them all or show none at all. Second, I can't get them to be grayed out when completed, even when the mission is run to completion.

2. I've got a scenario in which a ship goes from neutral to hostile, and should open fire on the player, but while the IFF does change, and the ship is shown as an aggressior, the ship only seems to half hardheartly attack, firing one or two turrents at the player. How can I get the ship to become more agreesive and present a real threat to the player?

3. The first major part of the missions takes place in a nebual, and I was wondering if I should bother to put planets or nebula in the background or if I should just use suns for light and leave it at that.

4. Lastly, Im gonna start throwing in some more complex missions, which the walkthrough has given me some advice on how to handle it. However, I want to keep the missions combat focused, and avoid doing lots of docking and capture missions except for 1 or 2 specific missions. Any suggestions on how to keep the missions interesting?

Ok, thanks for your help in getting me started. When my campaign starts to take shape, I'll offer missions online to those who'd like to try them out.

Oh, one more thing. Is it possible to use models and items from other mods I have on my system, such as blue planet and such, and if so, how do I import them into my campaign that im building?

thanks in advance. 

[Dilmah G]

I wanna thank you guys for the advice. I've been working on some concept missions for a campaign and im getting the hang of writing fred scenarios. There not pretty, but they work and do what I ask them to. However, Im somehow not about to get certain events to specificly occur. I've read the walkthrough and it's helped, but im notsure if Im missing something or just not catching the info when it's given. So, heres whats been giving me trouble.

1. Objectives. I've been able to get my missions to display objectives, but I can't get them to move from one to another, they show them all or show none at all. Second, I can't get them to be grayed out when completed, even when the mission is run to completion.

2. I've got a scenario in which a ship goes from neutral to hostile, and should open fire on the player, but while the IFF does change, and the ship is shown as an aggressior, the ship only seems to half hardheartly attack, firing one or two turrents at the player. How can I get the ship to become more agreesive and present a real threat to the player?

3. The first major part of the missions takes place in a nebual, and I was wondering if I should bother to put planets or nebula in the background or if I should just use suns for light and leave it at that.

4. Lastly, Im gonna start throwing in some more complex missions, which the walkthrough has given me some advice on how to handle it. However, I want to keep the missions combat focused, and avoid doing lots of docking and capture missions except for 1 or 2 specific missions. Any suggestions on how to keep the missions interesting?

Ok, thanks for your help in getting me started. When my campaign starts to take shape, I'll offer missions online to those who'd like to try them out.

Oh, one more thing. Is it possible to use models and items from other mods I have on my system, such as blue planet and such, and if so, how do I import them into my campaign that im building?

thanks in advance. 

1. I'm assuming you're talking about directives. Are you using these properly? For example, if you have "Destroy Leimnos" set to when-destroyed GTCv Leimnos, the directive will grey out when Leimnos has been neutralised. The directives will show up as soon as it is possible for them to become true. If you want to set an event to only become true after something else has become true, you can "Chain" events (look at the tickbox in the centre), this applies to the directive as well, as directives really are part of the event.

2. Have you ticked "beam-free-all" in the mission specifications dialogue? If you can't see that, make sure you're using the most recent version of FRED. Ships will not use their beam cannons unless they have been "Beam-Freed", which can be achieved via sexp use or the handy option in the SHIFT-N dialogue as I said before.

3. No planets in the nebula. Suns however need to be strategically placed, 2-4 suns should be sufficient to provide adequate lighting in the nebula if they are placed properly. Look at compass points for reference, however move them a bit off to one side so when the player looks to the right at the beginning of the mission he isn't blinded

4. I assume you mean mission types? Escorts, behind the lines surgical strikes, special operations and recon missions, list goes on mate

EDIT: Regarding ships from other mods, right click your FRED icon (not the debug one!), open properties and insert mod(space)(name of mod as it appears in the FS2 Root Directory e.g. its folder name) after the "target" under the "shortcut" header

should look something like

C:\Games\Freespace2\fred2_open_3_6_10r-20090129_r5055.exe -mod the exodus,mediavps

[Mattsworkname]

Awesome, that explains why some of the stuff I have wasn't working. I'll have to try that chain thing later when i'm not about to pass out on my keyboard. Thanks for your help. It's nice to have someone to turn to for info when I can't find it on my own.  Especially nice people who offer help and not act like jerks ((Like some other forums i've been to in the past. Everyone on hard light seems to be really friendly))

Sounds like I'll have to start planning my story out in deeper details down the road.

[Dilmah G]

Awesome, that explains why some of the stuff I have wasn't working. I'll have to try that chain thing later when i'm not about to pass out on my keyboard. Thanks for your help. It's nice to have someone to turn to for info when I can't find it on my own.  Especially nice people who offer help and not act like jerks ((Like some other forums i've been to in the past. Everyone on hard light seems to be really friendly))

Sounds like I'll have to start planning my story out in deeper details down the road.

No worries mate

Telling you to f-off with a bizarre sexual act in between doesn't help anyone

We were all n00bs to begin with


The thing is with FRED (IMO)

It's not a huge learning curve, it's just a long one

The large part of the curve being right at the beginning, going from having nothing to do with it to actually FRED-ing