This is a workshop for people who are interested in learning how to script missions and are completely new to Igor. I'm going to go through setting up and testing your very first mission. Anyone is welcome to join up and follow along.
It will take place on TeamSpeak and last maybe an hour to an hour and a half, getting through as much as we can. Here is a basic list of what I plan to run through. Whatever doesn't get done that night we'll meet again to finish later:
1. Opening Igor. 2. Creating a new mission file. 3. Setting up insertion and extraction zones. 4. Placing enemy patrols. 5. Creating objectives.
I don't know if this has been done before, but I think it's a great way to help people get into modding.
Personally, I don't mind getting asked questions here about mods, but obviously it's far better for those who are doing the mods if they can manage to avoid getting stuck in the first place!
Perhaps it'll encourage more people to start trying it, as there's no obvious official future development work for GR now, and GR2 still hasn't even been announced. We as a community need as much help as possible from thrid-party modders to keep a great game fresh and interesting, so thanks for your efforts!
Any chance you can start at little earlier? I have a feeling this workshop could easily stretch into 2+ hours if everyone starts asking a lot of good questions. How about 2000 EST?
jbaker2003, I've actually run the same workshop before. We ran about an hour and a half, but skipped number 5 because the people had to leave or got to that point where they'd learned enough for one day.
I definitely could see it running to two hours, but I think most people are going to start feeling a little overwhelmed after an hour or an hour and a half, so I don't plan on going longer.
If you or anyone needs to take off early, I'll give you some contact information and we can hook up privately to finish out the lesson.
Great! Hope to see you there. And be sure to check the link up top as there are some preliminary steps you should do before the workshop (just five minutes, real easy).
Hey baker, you may want to hop onto Tactical Gamer's TeamSpeak server and test that everything is functioning correctly. Check out the "More Information" link of my original post for all necessary info.
Yeah, I went to a server (the one you'll be using, actually) and I was able to get into a channel and listen to everyone talking. I didn't want to bother them by speaking, but I'm assuming I can be heard, since the circle lit up green when I spoke into the microphone (in a separate channel by myself).
I hope we can get to the objectives part during the workshop.
Objectives are easy! Have you used Igor at all before??
If so, there's no problem. In the Script pull-down menu, directly underneath where you edit the scriptblocks, there's a bit for objectives. You just set up your objectives in there (it's pretty self-explanatory when you see it). Then, in your scripting, set up whatever trigger you want to say that the objective has been completed (eg DeathVehicle), and then add the response "ObjectiveComplete". Set which objective you want to be marked as completed (eg Destroy Enemy Tank). This marks the objective as complete in the list (both when you hit Esc, and also in the after-action screen), and you can also do things like DisplayMessageBoxAll to have a pop-up window to say that the objective's been completed (you know, those blue messages you get in-game)...
Seriously, just have a play with Igor and look at the GR missions and/or the missions I've sent you. They may appear a bit daunting at first, due to the number of scriptblocks used, but if you look at the script one block at a time things start making sense...
I have only used Igor to modify an existing map. All I did was add some more enemies, but I'm not sure if that worked. I think just those new enemies showed up and not the old ones. (I'm such a noob.)
I'll take a look at your mods in Igor when I get a chance.
Those scripting boxes looked daunting at first glance, so I ran away like a frightened schoolgirl. Hopefully tonight's workshop will give me some courage.
H, thanks again for the workshop! It was very informative and flowed nicely. Too bad I had to turn in for the evening (work is for chumps!) or I would've done a lot more experimenting with what I learned.
One thing I forgot to test was the plan I set up for my team. You were cutting out a little on me during that explanation, and I had fallen behind a bit so I'm not sure I did this correctly. Here's what I did.
I selected the plan for the team, clicked on Plan in the Misc tab, then held down the shift key and inserted 4-5 points on a straight line path (I would left-click the mouse and release for each point). There was nothing between these points. Then I chose the Track button for properties. I thought you had said that the points on the path should automatically connect if there wasn't too much "geometry" involved. If this is the case, then I did something wrong, and I'll need you (or someone) to explain that process again.
Maybe we can do the next workshop a little earlier so we can have more time to apply what we've learned?
One last question. Is there any way to create/edit the terrain, and if so, what are the best (free) products to do this?
jbaker, if you used shift to plot the path points, there should be a line drawn between each one. It sounds to me like maybe you used control, in which case you would plot seperate paths each time.
If you want the last path point to connect to the first, then you have to select "Loop", not "Track". Track makes the tangos go from the first point to the last point, and then it reverses course and goes from the last points backwards to the first point. Make sense?
As for terrain editing, you're referring to Map making. The only program that you can do this with is 3D Studio Max, because that is the only program the compile plugins are released for. It is not a free program and the plugins do not work with it's free counterpart, GMax.
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