Comrade, you're an aspiring comrade hero mission engineer, correct?
I--
--am hugely excited at the prospect of making a mission? Excellent! Take this file. It contains almost everything you need.
I--
--would love to know more? Allow me to assist you further, comrade, by explaining the contents of this file in more detail.
I--
--certainly want the detail? When you unpack this file you will find it contains a mission folder, to be placed in your profile's /MPMissions folder for further editing.
Wait, is this like F2?
Excellent! Yes. It is a copy of F2, the F2 OA Folk build to be exact. However, some things have been done to it:
- The Folk ident has been included
- The AI skill selector (coop version) has been enabled
- A visual filter has been added
- The briefing file has been started
- The platoon will be insertioned by hueys
- Ending #1 is pre-configured
- JIP slots are enabled
- Defensive and patrolling enemy group examples are provided
--want to know more? Of course you do! Your enthusiasm for the challenge is commendable, comrade! Here are the details:
Okay, so what do you want me to do?Folk ident: When the mission begins, comrade players will briefly see the Folk logo in the top left of their screens. This will motivate them to fight harder for our agrarian socialist utopia.
AI skill selector (coop version): Read more on the F2 wiki, but in essence this provides a mission parameter that will allow comrade players to set the skill of enemy AI in the game.
Visual filter: The mission will be set in the 1980s, and this filter attempts to reproduce the look of footage from Soviet Afghanistan. In the event that brown pixels are rationed, comrade players can toggle it off via the mission parameters.
Briefing file: Again, you can read more on the F2 wiki; the file you will need to edit is: /f/common/f_briefing_tk.sqf The file has been edited a little to get you started (see the Situation and Execution > Movement sections), including the addition of a marker reference.
Insertion by Hueys: When the mission starts all playable units (excluding the JIP ones) are aboard some AI-crewed Hueys. The Hueys have been given waypoints (and invisible Hs) that will cause them to land, unload the players, and fly off to the southern airbase.
Ending #1: Using F2's Casualty Cap component, ending #1 has been pre-configured to fire if all the players in the non-JIP groups are dead.
JIP slots: The JIP slots have been placed at the southern airbase, with some spare Hueys on the apron. Remember that JIP players can use the OA Folk JIP Reinforcement Options component to select their loadout and fireteams to join.
Defensive and patrolling enemy group examples: In the village of Karachinar (in the far north-east of the map), you'll find two pre-placed groups of TK Locals (the enemy). If you look in the INIT lines of their leaders you will find code calling one of two very useful BIS functions. The southern group usesBIS fnc taskDefend (a static weapon has bee placed nearby). The northern group uses BIS fnc taskPatrol. You might want to look at using these functions as a quick and easy way of populating an area with angry enemies.
This is merely a mission stub. The platoon inserts via Hueys and ... well, that's up to you, comrade mission engineer.
Er ... so ... can I change things?
Sure. Change any and all of it. By all means change the location of the mission (just drag the Hueys, their initial waypoints and the invisible Hs). Have the platoon face off against angry farmers, angry farmers with tanks, angry farmers with helicopters, angry farmers with ... well, you get the idea.
Okay, where do I start?
Think of an awesome (but short) name for your mission, then edit the folder name and the relevant line in the mission.sqm file (see the F2 wiki if you are unsure of what to do). You may also want to read the Writing missions for Folk thread to learn our mission naming guidelines, or comrade Tigershark will become upset.
Right. Okay. How long have I got?
The deadline is Sunday June 12th Sunday 3rd July. After that, the commissars will be sent to your location.
Can I ask more questions here?
Of course.
Here's one: why is this called It doesn't have to be complicated?
Studies by our bureau of mission engineering suggest that 95% of aspiring comrade hero mission engineers begin with hugely ambitious goals, often thinking they need to write new scripts or incorporate complicated community-written ones, just to realise their ideas. Then they encounter the steep learning curve and die. Or fail to finish their mission. One of the two. Taking this mission stub and turning it into a full mission could be as simple as:
- Thinking up a name
- Picking some nice terrain for the action
- Carefully placing a dozen enemy groups (and using the BIS defend / patrol functions)
- Placing a few extra markers
- Placing a larger trigger that fires ending #2 when no enemies are present
- Writing a nice briefing
- ...
- Profit!
