Mission Designing Questions

[TRoe13]

Hey everyone. I am just curious where you get your ideas or inspiration for making a mission? I've made a few missions already now, but I seem to be having "writers block". I was just curious how you guys who put out an awesome mission or 2 a week come up with ideas for these missions? Thanks

[Speed]

Well, this probably won't be much help to you, but most of my recent missions have come about as the result of me needing to test various scripts I made. The first mission I released was just a general test of scripting and line of sight functions. Next one I made and released was a simple mission I made for a squadron ATO that was a test/demonstration of the chatIOlibv1 script I made. The one I am getting ready to release (maybe this weekend) started off as a simple defense of a town mission, but ended up being a test of an automatic artillery engagement script (autoarty), and chatIOlibv2 which includes a parallel tasking system and automatic and dynamic calls by ground forces up to A-10s, reporting contact with the enemy (giving coordinates) and requesting CAS.

 

Unfortunately ground unit AI is so bad about getting stuck still that at least half of the time spent developing the mission is trouble-shooting why they decided to just randomly stop moving and pile up in a location, and wait for the A-10s and autoarty to finish them off.

 

So the next mission I plan to work is some kind of large, long-duration battle on fairly flat terrian where AI ground logic has an easier time not getting stuck. I will likely implement a "avoid collateral damage" script that will detect if you kill too many civilian buildings. Also possible would be my first attempt at a dynamic tasking system, where the mission's tasks are generated dynamically based on battlefield conditions.

 

So for me, it's utilizing scripts I have created and plan to create that generate the most ideas of missions for me.

[Cibit]

My last mission was made because of my love for the AFAC/JTAC things and after making it have started reading A10's over Kosovo. The pleasant thing about it is my mission almost mirrors the stuff in that book.

 

I am also making an air racing mission because I love that shnizz too:)

 

I have just spent a pleasant hour flying round looking for big P.O.L. dumps for making a bombing mission and trying to destroy the dam with Mk82's. Oh and I also want a nice route for a re-enactment of 633 squadrons WWII exploits:thumbup:

[Weaponz248]

Most of my mission were created foe training. I either wanted to train on a certain weapon or wanted to train on a certain aspect of the ME. The rest of my missions are my imagination and real life experiences combined.

[McVittees]

One thing you could consider is creating a scenario. Think about the goals of both sides involved and the organisation of the forces (i.e. disposition and equipment types). Once you have that, you can then start thinking about what sort of sorties need to created based the player's sides objectives. I like this method because it means the scenario leads the mission creation and everything has a logical basis.

[dsobbe]

I'm creating a Black Shark mission in which a cargo ship is moving on the water, pursued by enemy gunboats. I would like to show some smoke on the cargo ship to simulate battle damage. The only trigger action I've found that works is "Explode Unit". However, that action also causes the ship to sink and I don't want that to happen. Anyone have a suggestion?

 

Thanks

[johnv2pt0]

I'm creating a Black Shark mission in which a cargo ship is moving on the water, pursued by enemy gunboats. I would like to show some smoke on the cargo ship to simulate battle damage. The only trigger action I've found that works is "Explode Unit". However, that action also causes the ship to sink and I don't want that to happen. Anyone have a suggestion?

 

Thanks

 

 

Not sure if it's available for ships, but there is a moving trigger zone that you can attach to a units. If it's available for ground/ships (i've only used it on aircraft) you can slap one of those on and then use Smoke Marker in trigger zone.

[jeffyd123]

I like them to be "pressed for time" and have a decent sized force attacking a smaller allied force.

 

Currently, Im trying to dev a mission where infantry is being attacked by enemy infantry (the infantry AI isnt very good unfortunately). It hopefully will spawn in 4 different locations and have customized audio CAS calls depending on aircraft position.... hopefully... the triggers are being twitchy.

[dsobbe]

Not sure if it's available for ships, but there is a moving trigger zone that you can attach to a units. If it's available for ground/ships (i've only used it on aircraft) you can slap one of those on and then use Smoke Marker in trigger zone.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. But, when I attached an explosion or flare to a vehicle moving trigger zone the zone would not attach to the assigned unit. I tried it on a moving truck and on the ship. The flare and explosion did display, but at the starting points of the vehicles rather than their actual locations.

To check that I had assigned the moving trigger zone to the correct vehicle, I replaced the flare and explosion actions with a message. The message did display at the correct rule distance from the vehicle, even though it was triggered a long way from the its starting location. So, it appears to be an editor problem with the explosion and flair actions used in moving trigger zones. But, I could be wrong. (?)