MISSION EDITOR
This Mission Editor tool is a slightly modified version of the actual tool used by NovaLogic Mission Designers. Although some of the campaign programming has been disabled, you will find this tool extremely flexible when it comes to designing your own missions. This manual will only cover the basic requirements for successfully creating a mission. Because mission design has so many complex components, this tool is intended for the advanced user.
Use at your own risk.
Table of Contents |
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Section 1: Navigating the Tool .......................................................................................................................... |
2 |
Section 2: Creating a New Mission ................................................................................................................... |
4 |
Section 3: Editing General Information & Mission Briefings............................................................................... |
5 |
Section 4: Groups and Layers........................................................................................................................... |
6 |
Section 5: Waypoints ........................................................................................................................................ |
7 |
Section 6: Inserting Items................................................................................................................................. |
8 |
Section 7: Area Triggers and Events ............................................................................................................... |
10 |
Section 8: Exporting and Playing Missions...................................................................................................... |
11 |
Section 9: Hints and Tips................................................................................................................................ |
12 |
Appendix A: Terrain Types............................................................................................................................... |
13 |
Appendix B: Trigger List.................................................................................................................................. |
16 |
Appendix C: Sample Mission .......................................................................................................................... |
18 |
The Mission Editor Tool requires a minimum screen resolution of 800x600. For best results, we recommend that you set your resolution to at least 1024x768. It is also recommended that you have at least 160 megs of memory free when using the tool.
Section 1: Navigating the Tool
There are a number of keyboard controls and toolbar buttons that will help to create missions more efficiently.
Mouse Commands:
Left Button – Selects or unselects an item in Select Mode or Inserts a new item in Insert Mode. You can left click on the Unselect All button or you can hit the U key to unselect all selected items. You can select more than 1 item at a time. As you select items the attributes of the most recently selected item will appear in the lower left side window in the tool. While an item is selected you can left click on the Selected Information Box in the left corner to pull up the Item Attributes window. Left Button with SHIFT held down – Selects everything within the box you create.
Left Button with CONTROL held down – Unselects everything within the box you create. Right Button – Brings up a menu for copying, pasting and selecting.
Right Button with SHIFT held down – Click and move right or left to quickly zoom in and out of the map. Right Button with CONTROL held down – Centers the map at the point you clicked on
Keyboard Commands:
Keypad 2,4,6,8 - Scrolls map down, left, right and up respectively.
Page Up, Keypad 9, Keypad Plus - Zooms map in.
Page Down, Keypad 3, Keypad Minus - Zooms map out.
INSERT - Toggles between Insert Mode and Select Mode. DELETE - Delete selected items.
ALT – Hold to use hotkey listed in the toolbar menu. For example, pressing ALT + E pulls down the Edit Menu. After that, pressing ALT + I will open the General Information window.
ARROW KEYS - Move the objects you currently have selected in very small increments. Using Control + Arrow keys will move objects in greater increments.
U - Unselects all selected items
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Screen Buttons:
C – Character Map – Press this button or the F1 key to show a full color representation of the terrain.
H – Height Map – This button and the F2 key will bring up a topographical view of the terrain where the lighter the color the higher that part of the terrain. Solid dark areas are usually low, flat spots which is good for bases or airfields.
D – Depth Map – This view simply shows the contour map of the terrain. The closer the lines are to each other, the steeper the grade. Solid black represents perfectly flat areas. You can also use the F3 key to see this map.
P1 – Page 1 – The Delta Force: Land Warrior Mission Tool allows you to have two different missions open simultaneously. This feature is good for comparing missions or for copying/pasting elements out of one mission into another.
P2 – Page 2 – Press this button to display the second mission that you opened. Note you must be on this page when you open the second mission or it will replace your page 1 mission.
XY Coordinates – This gives you the grid location of the center of your screen. Click on this to type in new coordinates and the screen will center on them. The units are in meters.
Layers – This option brings up a box that allows you to select which layers you would like to see and which ones are hidden. See Section 4 for more information on Layers.
Unselect All – This button (or the U key) will automatically unselect all items.
Grid – Items that you insert while the Snap box is checked will move to the nearest grid intersection. This is particularly useful when you want to line items up precisely. The View box will toggle the grid overlay on and off. Use the Plus and Minus symbols to increase and decrease the grid resolution (size).
Show – By checking the appropriate boxes, you can choose which items you see and which are hidden from view. This is useful for finding specific items in a map full of various item types.
Selected Information Box – When you select an item, its most important statistics appear in the lower left corner of the screen. Click anywhere in this area to bring up the Item Attributes window.
The red box on the terrain map displays the maximum size of the terrain. Any items you place outside the red box will be forced to the inside edge of the red box when you export that mission. The green box shows you the suggested area in which to make your mission. Placing items outside of the green box may make the mission excessively long.
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Section 2: Creating a New Mission
This section outlines the minimum amount you have to do to start making a mission for Delta Force Land Warrior. Refer to Appendix C to see an example of a simple mission.
Step 1: Start the DFLWMed.exe program. You can find it in your Delta Force Land Warrior folder.
Step 2: Select General Information from the Edit menu at the top of the screen.
Step 3: Make up a name for your mission and type it in the Mission Name box. (Example “The Longest Road”)
Step 4: Select a Mission Terrain and Mission Type from the list and click “OK”.
Step 5: Press the Insert key to enter Insert Mode, select a location for the player to start and left click the mouse.
Step 6: In the Insert Item window, select “Markers” in the left hand column, then “Start, Player” in the right hand column, then click “OK”.
Step 7: Press the Insert key again to change back to Select Mode and use the left mouse button to select the “Start, Player” icon. Now click anywhere in the Selection Information Box on the lower left of the screen. This will bring up the Item Attributes window.
Step 8: Change the AI Variable Group to “1 - Blue Players” and change the Team to “Good (Blue)” then click “OK”.
Step 9: Go to the File menu and select Save to save your mission.
Step 10: Although you could export and play your mission at this point, it probably wouldn’t be very interesting. You are now ready to begin placing enemies, setting mission events and determining mission goals. As you place them refer to the appropriate section of this manual for more details.
Don’t forget to save your work often. Mission Designers will typically keep several back-ups of the files just in case they make mistakes on their current file.
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Section 3: Editing General Information &
Mission Briefings
Under Edit in the Tool Bar, select General Information to set the basic mission details. Select Briefings to edit the text that players will see on the mission briefing screen before the mission begins.
Mission Name – This is the unique name that people will see when selecting your mission.
Mission Designer – Put your name here.
Mission Terrain – Consult with Appendix A for a list of all terrain available and select the one that best fits the location of your mission.
Item Colors - Items choose from 3 different camouflage styles: Green (for grassy terrain), Brown (for desert terrain), or White (for snow terrain). Choose the one most appropriate for your mission. All items with multiple camo settings will use the one color selected here when the mission is exported.
Default Equipment – Select the gear that is most appropriate for the player (by character type) in your mission. The player will be able to change this gear before entering the mission or at an armory if one is available.
Primary Teammate - This is the character that will be used if you place a teammate on the map.
Secondary Teammate - If the player chooses to be the same character as your primary teammate, this indicates the character the teammate will change to.
Map Type – Select what type of mission you are making. For single player missions, select “Cooperative”.
Terrain Overrides – You can raise the water level in your mission (measured in 1/2 meters). We recommend that you do not go over 130 for most maps or the entire mission may take place underwater. If you want fog in the mission, select its level here (1-7). 0 is off, 7 is extremely thick and 1 is so thin it appears as an overcast day. Between 4 and 5 is best for missions with fog. You can also alter the color of the fog by manually setting the Red, Green and Blue settings. Fog is best when Gray (50,50,50). Other examples of colors:
Bright Red = 255,0,0 |
Yellow = 0,100,100 |
Medium Green = 0,120,0 |
Black = 0,0,0 |
Dark Blue = 0,0,25 |
White = 255,255,255 |
Sky Settings – With these settings, you can add weather effects such as rain or snow and set the position and brightness of the sun or create a night mission. Be sure to check the Night box in addition to selecting a night sky, as this will properly adjust certain art elements.
Win and Lose Conditions – You can set up to four win or lose mission goals in this area. The win and lose conditions are for goal information text only. The actual win and lose conditions are set up through the events (see page 10).
Fire Missions Available – Indicates the number of artillery support strikes the player can call with the laser designator.
Wind Settings – If you want wind to play a part in your mission, set the wind speed and direction here.
Light Wind = 25 kph, Heavy Wind = 50 kph, Hurricane Wind = 90 kph
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Section 4: Groups and Layers
The most important part of building a good mission is organization. You can quickly get lost in a sea of meaningless numbers unless you take the time to properly label things. A little work in the beginning saves a lot of headaches later on.
Groups
Groups are used to classify related items such as a squad of enemy soldiers and set an identity for Events and Waypoints. It is often better to give each unit its own orders so that it doesn’t interfere with other units. However, placing multiple units in a group may save you time setting up the mission. You can rename
the group to any name you want and automatically select all units within a group from the Group window, under Edit. Click Print List to save the list to a text file for printing.
Layers
Layers are vital to sorting out all of the items within a mission. You can create up to 32 individual layers for sorting. Under the Edit menu, you can change the Layer Names to whatever has meaning to you. Some examples of names are Enemy Base, Friendly Waypoints, and Foliage. When you just want to see a certain layer of items, hit the Layers button on the main screen and check the ones you want to see.
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