enigma6584 Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 I've got a question for all you superb mission makers out there. I'm asking MBot, uhoh7, Wags, and the many others out there who create these gems.:thumbup: I've been starting to make some of my own and I've been wondering what is the mental procedure you use to create your missions? Do you use books or online news coverage of recent conflicts to give you ideas? Do you start off by setting up ground units and test them for their positions and actions and when satisfied, then add in the player controlled helicopter? What makes you pick the area of the map you use in your mission? I'm just curious and looking for any tips and hints I can find.:megalol:
MBot Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 (edited) I usually build the missions around a central expierience I want to show. First I figure out what that should be, for example ambushing an enemy force from behind some trees. Then I scan the map for a suitable area to play out my basic idea. This is actually a lenghty process that can take up hours because I want a piece of terrain that supports my vision for the mission. Then I lay down the order of battle and begin setting up the units. If I was the ground commander, how would I position or maneuver my units? After I have figured out the basic plan for both sides I begin to orchestriate the ground war. Once the ground battle works I add the player helicopter and start testing the setup. I fly just the shooting part of the mission over and over again, adjust the threat level, measure what the player can accomplish to determine appropriate mission goals and generally tweak to mission to achieve my target expierience. Once I am happy with the combat part of the mission I start adding the complete route for the player, populating the player's base, add little "events" along the players route that give the impression of being in something bigger etc. And of course then there still remains the writing the briefing, painting maps and record the radio messages. A lot of it is actually just designing it in my head without touching the editor. I am looking forward to start again after the patch. With the expectation that missions wont work after the patch and the (faulty) assumtion that the patch is pretty close, I stopped doing more missions months ago. Edited July 7, 2009 by MBot
enigma6584 Posted July 7, 2009 Author Posted July 7, 2009 (edited) Thanks Mbot. Pretty close to how I do it as well but instead of just adding the "shooting part" of the player controlled aircraft, I do the whole thing which I now believe to be a mistake. Will try it your way. The most frustrating part for me is just trying to set the ground units on the map just exactly where I want them. To have to constantly run the mission in full just to see where the ground units actually place take way too much time (like you said...hours.) I miss the old "satellite view" from Lockon where you could switch map to a top down view where you could see tree lines and such. Made placing ground units much, much easier. What software do you use to record your voice messages? Edited July 7, 2009 by enigma6584
Recommended Posts