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Mission Editor Tutorial


Toyguy

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Glad I can help!. I think this is a very worthwhile exercise.

What I wanted to point out with the game logic window is something which I think people miss or misunderstand because of the layout.

What I think is important here is the brackets. In Math or logic the brackets mean {these things are linked together and will be evaluated first}. So in the above window there are 7 possible logic entries. Lets call them L1 to L7. If you stretch it out into a single line (including brackets) it looks like this:-

L1 AND/OR ( (L2 AND L3) OR (L4 AND L5) OR (L6 AND L7))

So if you wanted to build only OR statements you can have 4 statements. For example:-

L1 OR ((L2) OR (L4) OR (L6))

If you want to build only AND statements you can have 3 Statements. For example:-

L1 AND ( (L2 AND L3) )

Now of course you don't have to use all of the logic statements and you don't have to use them in linear succession. For example you could just do:-

((L2 AND L3))

or

((L3) OR (L5) OR (L7))

or

((L2 AND L3) OR (L7))

It may not be essential to understand this for your tutorial I just wanted to point out the way in which it can fit together. If I've muddied the water too much for you feel free to catch me on TS and I will try and clear it up

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Thanks Koen for the additional information on H-Hour. I have to confess it still doesn't mean much to me beyond the fact that the game could start some amount of time before the mission actually does. Is that all there is to it? Is it simply to allow for things like artillery barrages to soften up enemy positions before the main effort goes in?

Since the H-Hour can be conditioned I can think of several uses, such as restricting player access to support until a specified time or using it as a time constraint during recon missions. Still, the most practical application is in multi-player environments, allowing the Commander (and more importantly his subordinates) time for planning actions such as leader's recons, rehearsals, and establishment/proofing of BPs prior to mission start.

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Since the H-Hour can be conditioned I can think of several uses, such as restricting player access to support until a specified time or using it as a time constraint during recon missions. Still, the most practical application is in multi-player environments, allowing the Commander (and more importantly his subordinates) time for planning actions such as leader's recons, rehearsals, and establishment/proofing of BPs prior to mission start.

OK, so it appears that its real value would lie in the conditioned responses that are possible. That makes sense. I was thinking of it more like a switch - as if the CO might not be able to control his units before then. By default the game engine doesn't enforce that, but logic could if you chose to. That would be unrealistic, as I am sure real COs jump the gun sometimes, but it could be useful in the game context.

Thanks for the insight!

Edited by Toyguy
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OK DarkAngel, I see what you're saying, mostly :D

So what happens in this construct:

L1 AND ( OR (L4) )

Is this not equivalent to L1 AND L4 even if you cannot specify it precisely that way?

Yes in that case you are saying L1 AND L4 the OR's get ignored as there are no other statements to evaluate them with.

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It was about 115 degrees Fahrenheit here today. I'm generally lazy already anyway. I'd like to contribute something constructive to this conversation, but have very little energy. However, this link might be helpful vis Tony's (DarkAngel) comments regarding the game logic window:

http://www.steelbeasts.com/sbwiki/index.php/Events_Triggers_Conditions

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Part 5 online at

This part has been re-edited and is now a summary episode covering some of the recent discussion topics from the thread. Part 6 should be up later this weekend and will provide a new and better discussion of getting the Red units on the move.

If you've already watched this episode, you may want to review it again as there is some new information.

Dave

Edited by Toyguy
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Good one Toyguy. You probably faffed around too much in the middle there which shot your tempo on the vid.

Only one note for you. In the vid you went through and selected each unit to set its spacing and formation. That's not necessary, you can actually drag a box over the units to select them all and set it in one pass. Which would have helped the video tempo too. :eek2:

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LOS analysis tool. I found it usually helps people better to think of it as a threat analysis, with pink indicating that you are fully visible and threfore most vulnerable to an attack; white, that only your top 80 centimeters (about 2.5ft for you imperialists) can be seen (which usually translates to hull-down defilade). Notice also the LOS height slider, so you can adjust the value to the actual dimensions of your vehicle.

The LOS tool is most useful if applied with an "inverted approach". Think in terms of "if the enemy was here (click), where should I position my own forces to gain a line of sight (and to attack him). Typically sharp edges of pink changing to gray are best as they indicate prominent ridges behind which you will find cover and at the same time the enemy is maximally exposed. On the other hand, if you see lots of white, that indicates a strong position for the enemy where he can's be seen good but rule with his own firepower.

It's a matter of perspective. You can use it to analyze your own position choices, but I find it more useful to think in terms of enemy position vulnerabilities.

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I'm sure you all know what's going to happen next. ;)

As the platoons are starting in column formation in the forest, still facing east (or did you adjust that?), the departure from the deployment zone will be delayed significantly. I fact, there'a real danger that red 1/A will lose several vehicles in that pond next to the road.

You may want to show this disaster from the map view, zoomed in, with "Show | Vehicles" selected. It will immediately reveal in real-time where all the vehicles are as they haplessly try to find their way out of the forest and onto the road.

We have recently implemented a few tools into the Mission Editor to make the life of mission designers easier. Unfortunately it's a bit too early to feature these in your series right now. But I'm sure you'll learn to appreciate them. Among other things, you can now use a free-flight camera to observe your forces from the air while testing a scenario from within the editor.

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You can use it to analyze your own position choices, but I find it more useful to think in terms of enemy position vulnerabilities.

I must admit I use it this way to develop Engagement Areas - know the locations that influence a given area, rather than looking at several individual locations (and in the process running the risk of forgetting earlier iterations of the process) and see if their contribution overlaps.

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Yes, as Nils says you may need to spend a bit of time lining your units up on the road before they start off. The other problem you will face is that going from a normal speed route to the slow speed route (from waypoint 1) the tail end of 1/A will still be transitioning when 2/A comes barreling into it. This will cause a nice cluster f**k which 3/A will then become embroiled in. You may want to think about using this as a starting example of conditioned routes. Personally I would have added another waypoint say 500m after waypoint 1 (lets call it waypoint 2 ). Put 1/A, 2/A and 3/A on a stay tactic (which will also enable you to get them lined up on the road). Then give 1/A a route with an "Embark if" condition of (Co/A has reached waypoint 2). Give 2/A an "Embark if" condition of (1/A has reached waypoint 2). etc for 3/A and 2/A respectively.

One note with conditioned routes. You don't have to condition every route from a waypoint. Lets say for example that you have a waypoint with 2 routes coming from it and you want any unit which arrives at the waypoint to have a 50% chance of going down either route. You could do it like this:-

Route 1 "Embark if" (0 <= random new < 50)

Route 2 "Embark if" (50 <= random new < 100)

However the embark if on route 2 is completely unnecessary, you can leave it unconditioned. If the logic on route 1 is true it WILL take that route otherwise it will take route 2.

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In fact, I would, after lining up the units (at which point you will probably find out that the deployment zone is too small (which doesn't matter since the units are owned by the computer anyway... ;) ) probably assign a delay for their departure. 1/A can start right away behind the CO, 2/A should probably wait some 30...50 seconds, and 3/A about 60...90 seconds before embarking their route to waypoint 1. But I would still take the video with the bungled start-off to illustrate what can go wrong at mission start, especially with many units in close proximity, and forests.

There's hope that in future versions of SB tanks will learn to navigate better so that less time needs to be spent on details like this.

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You'd make me very happy indeed if all the little info nuggest could be put into our wiki, especially the scenario design page, which has articles about custom sky textures, deployment zones, the LOS tool and whatnot..

I will keep this in mind as the series goes on. I have just updated the Deployment Zone section with some of that information, as well as the 3D View section in order to document the Numpad+ NVG view command. The section on sky textures and LOS looked to be OK.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes, still actively underway. I am getting the mission design down to the point where I am happy enough with it, then I'll continue. It was going to be too long and drawn-out to go through all of the playtesting and tuning steps so I am doing that behind the scenes. I'll show a couple examples, but not the whole enchilada.

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  • 1 month later...

Part 7 now online at

It's basically a bit of a reset, undoing some things based on design decisions from testing and adding some additional Red forces. It does introduce a simple conditional route.

Part 8 forthcoming in a few days...

Dave

P.S. Is there any way to restore the ability to edit the first post in the thread? That button seems to have disappeared on all earlier entries.

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P.S. Is there any way to restore the ability to edit the first post in the thread? That button seems to have disappeared on all earlier entries.

Unsure, often that feature is removed after a set period to prevent people from re writing "history".

Also it appears that episode 5 hasn't made it to the YouTube SB channel. :)

Edited by Gibsonm
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