[666maslo666]

I have been playing with FRED a bit. Here are some suggestions that would IMHO help the user experience a lot:

1. A way to copy ships (preserves every setting except the name and wing). Currently if you want to make a ship with similar configuration to one you already have, you have to do it all from scratch.

2. When you select turrets with "k", in addition to the turret number, weapon assigned should also be displayed next to it (and perhaps even AI class). This would make editing turrets less of a PITA, since you dont have to memorize every ship's turret numbers and locations or constantly jump from the ship model to Edit weapons window to look up which turret has which weapon.

3. Editing turrets on multiple ships at once (assuming they are the same class), just like fighter weapons can be now would be convenient.

4. A way to quickly jump from Edit wing window to Edit ships (with the wing ships selected) would be cool.

5. The ship model visible on screen is not aligned with selection model (where the model is according to your mouse if you want to select it). Its a pretty annoying bug.

just my 2c. 

[mjn.mixael]

1: you can do it in notepad, just be sure to edit the 'total number of ships' count. (missions are just text files)

2: iirc, in the Ships Editor you can view the ship's TBL info right in FRED. That + "k"s turret number should let you figure out what weapons are where pretty quickly.

3: this would be useful.. but depending on how many I'm altering, I'll just do it in notepad as well.

4:You can have both the Ships Editor and Wings Editor open at the same time. I do it all the time. The Ships Editor can even modify all the ships in the wing at once (or rather, it modifies all ships in the selection if they have matching information. The Wings Editor auto selects all ships in the wing. But editing ships like this can be a little funky.)

5: Never noticed this one myself, but it could be because I'm just really used to FRED's quirks by now.

[Axem]

If you ctrl+drag a ship it will clone it and most of its settings. If you clone a ship in a wing, FRED will ask if you want to add it to the wing.

[Lorric]

If you ctrl+drag a ship it will clone it and most of its settings. If you clone a ship in a wing, FRED will ask if you want to add it to the wing.

He he, you're doing it again. Another great time saving tip.

Here's a question. If I want to swap the player into a different ship, I can't do it. Yet there's a tickbox in the ship editor for "player ship" which is greyed out but ticked, and beneath that another box that's also greyed out on any ship that says "set as player ship". Is there any way to get that to work? In the end I had to delete the ship I wanted to be the new player ship, and move the player ship to the location the deleted ship had been in and change it's class, then create a new ship to replace the ship which used to be the player's ship. But all that could have been avoided if I could have just swapped the player into the ship I wanted the player to be in...

This is something that would be very useful for me to know, as I'm trying to make my missions playable for both sides, thus the need to put the player in a new and different ship.

[MatthTheGeek]

Those boxes are actually there for multiplayer. You can try making your mission coop. Or simply switch the player IFF, depending on what exactly you're trying to achieve.

[Lorric]

Those boxes are actually there for multiplayer. You can try making your mission coop. Or simply switch the player IFF, depending on what exactly you're trying to achieve.

That solves my problem. I just tested it. Simply changing the mission to multiplayer, checking the box on a new ship to be a player ship, unchecking the box on the previous player ship, and then changing the mission back to single player does the job easily.

Thanks. I wondered if it was something that had had to be cut for some reason as FRED had been changed over the years.

[FelixJim]

1: you can do it in notepad, just be sure to edit the 'total number of ships' count. (missions are just text files)
5: Never noticed this one myself, but it could be because I'm just really used to FRED's quirks by now.

You don't actually need to edit the object count as far as I'm aware - it's a comment. FRED seems to update it automagically if you just open and save the mission file.

5. The ship model visible on screen is not aligned with selection model (where the model is according to your mouse if you want to select it). Its a pretty annoying bug.

I've noticed this - mainly with waypoints. You seem to need to select the upper left corner of waypoint's name in order to select it, not the purple blob itself, and this can get annoying.

If I want to swap the player into a different ship, I can't do it. Yet there's a tickbox in the ship editor for "player ship" which is greyed out but ticked, and beneath that another box that's also greyed out on any ship that says "set as player ship". Is there any way to get that to work? In the end I had to delete the ship I wanted to be the new player ship, and move the player ship to the location the deleted ship had been in and change it's class, then create a new ship to replace the ship which used to be the player's ship. But all that could have been avoided if I could have just swapped the player into the ship I wanted the player to be in...

The tickbox is just for multi missions where you need several player ships.
"Set as player ship" works fine for me - is the new player ship in one of the Starting wings (Default Alpha, Beta, Gamma)?

[Lorric]

The tickbox is just for multi missions where you need several player ships.
"Set as player ship" works fine for me - is the new player ship in one of the Starting wings (Default Alpha, Beta, Gamma)?

Ahhhhh...

I just tested that, and it works. Never saw that, since I was changing the sides. I was just making the hostile ships friendly, then trying to make the change.

Thanks.

[666maslo666]

2: iirc, in the Ships Editor you can view the ship's TBL info right in FRED. That + "k"s turret number should let you figure out what weapons are where pretty quickly.

That seems to be better than going to Weapon Editor, but still requires alternating between the ship model and the TBL Info to figure out where what weapon is located. Having such info displayed next to turret name would save a lot of trouble.

[666maslo666]

I am trying to set up a variable IsDocked(0) that should be equal to 1 whenever the player ship is docked to a certain Elysium and 0 otherwise. But my event doesnt work. Any idea why, or is there a better way?

Code: [Select]

$Formula: ( when
   ( true )
   ( when
      ( is-in-mission "GTT Elysium 1" )
      ( when
         ( = @IsDocked[0] 1 )
         ( when
            ( has-undocked-delay
               "GTF Ulysses 0"
               "GTT Elysium 1"
               @undockcount[1]
               0
            )
            ( modify-variable @IsDocked[0] 0 )
            ( modify-variable
               @undockcount[1]
               ( + @undockcount[1] 1 )
            )
         )
      )
   )
   ( when
      ( is-in-mission "GTT Elysium 1" )
      ( when
         ( = @IsDocked[0] 0 )
         ( when
            ( has-docked-delay
               "GTF Ulysses 0"
               "GTT Elysium 1"
               @dockcount[1]
               0
            )
            ( when
               ( true )
               ( modify-variable @IsDocked[0] 1 )
               ( modify-variable
                  @dockcount[1]
                  ( + @dockcount[1] 1 )
               )
            )
         )
      )
   )
)
+Name: Is docked
+Repeat Count: -1
+Trigger Count: 999999
+Interval: 2

The mission also requires scripting.tbl

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