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Comanche Gold Mission Editor Manual
1. creating a new mission
a)
Select New from the Mission Menu. The New Mission dialog box will appear.
b)
Select Terrain Type from the drop down menu.
c)
Fill in Mission Briefing information (optional).
d)
Choose the Load Out Variables for the player’s helicopter.
• Check “Yes” or “No” for Realistic Loadout. With “Yes” selected, you will be limited to the actual number of weapons that can realistically be carried. Checking “No” gives the option of adding up to 255
HellFires and Stingers and 65,535 of cannon rounds and rockets, ignoring the actual hard points available.
• When Realistic Loadout is set to “Yes”, each weapon has a description of how many hard points it uses
when placed and there is a running total of the hard points remaining in the Hard Points Available box.
• EFAMS - This option determines whether or not you have EFAMS attached to your helicopter. This
option gives you more hard points to place weapons but also increases your radar cross-section.
e)
Select Mission Variables:
• Player Hitpoints - The amount of damage your helicopter can take before being destroyed.
• Line of Sight - When this option is on (YES), your radar will show only the objects for which you have
an unobstructed view of. When this option is off (NO), it gives you JSTAR support which causes your
radar to show all objects within radar range.
• Snow or Rain can be added to the mission with these options.
2. Objects
a)
Objects are all the various items which can be put into a mission such as the player, vehicles and buildings.
b)
The default object when you create a new mission is the player.
c)
Use the arrow keys or the right mouse button to move around the map.
d)
Position the cross hairs on the map where you want the current object to be placed and then click the left
mouse button to place the object.
e)
The Edit Object dialog box will allow you to set the object’s properties:
• Heading is the direction the object is facing in degrees (0-360).
• Pitch and Bank are used when you want to place an object on an uneven surface such as a mountain.
• Waygroup refers to the set of waypoints the object will follow.
• Waypoint refers to the first waypoint of the waygroup the object will go to.
• Player Goal and Enemy Goal determine whether or not the object is a goal of the corresponding
side. The player wins when all enemy goals are destroyed and vice-versa.
• Selecting In Map will make the object appear in the game’s Mission Briefing Map with the Map Label
assigned to it.
• Other properties can be assigned.
f)
To select a different object, press the Select button on the screen, Select Base Class under the Object
Menu, or ‘Ctrl-Z’.
• Selecting Next cycles through the various categories of object types.
• When you find the object you want, highlight the object and select OK. Now you can left click and
place objects of this type on the map.
g)
To change the properties of an object that has already been placed on the map, left click on the object and
the Edit Object dialog box will appear.
h)
Stamp Mode:
• Click on the Stamp Mode select box to turn it on or off.
• With Stamp Mode on, duplicates of the last object placed will be created when you left click on the
map.
• These duplicate objects will have the same properties as the last placed object so the Edit Object dialog
box will not appear.
i)
Moving Objects:
• To move an object, you must first select it. This is done by holding down the ‘Space Bar’ and left
clicking on the object. A green box will appear around the selected object.
• To move the object, use the arrow keys to move it and then press the ‘Escape’ key when it is in position or left click where you want the object to be placed.
j)
Deleting Objects:
• To delete a single object, left click on the object and select Delete in the Edit Object box or hold down
‘Shift’ and ‘Delete’ keys and left click on the object.
• To delete multiple objects, hold the ‘Shift’ key down and left click on the objects you want to delete. A
red box will appear around the selected objects, then press the ‘Delete’ key to remove them. To
deselect an object, hold the ‘Shift’ key down and left click on it again and to clear all selected items,
press the ‘Esc’ key.
k)
Due to certain restrictions, placing too many objects in a single mission can cause an error while loading. If
you experience one of these messages:
• “Mission Error: Too Many Object Parts”
• “Mission Error: Too Many Train Cars”
• “Mission Error: Too Many AI Elements”
• “Mission Error: Too Many Auto-Image Palettes”
or any other similar message, try reducing the total number of object types, not total number of objects in
the mission you created. Placing one instance of an object has the same effect as placing numerous instances. These messages only indicate that there are too many different “types” of objects not too many
instances of a particular one.
3. Waypoints
a)
Press ‘F6’ to open the Waypoint Manager.
b)
Waygroup A is always the player’s waygroup.
c)
Other vehicles can be assigned to waygroups B through P.
d)
Select the waygroup you want to add waypoints to and select OK.
e)
Press ‘F7’ to go to Waypoint Mode.
f)
Press the left mouse button to place a waypoint.
g)
To exit Waypoint Mode, press the ‘Escape’ key.
h)
To move a waypoint:
• While in waypoint mode, left click on the waypoint you want to move.
• A green box will appear around the selected waypoint.
• Left click on the new position for the waypoint.
i)
To remove a waypoint:
• Press ‘F6’ to go to the Waypoint Manager.
• Select the waygroup which the waypoint is part of.
• Click on Edit.
• Highlight the waypoint and click on Delete.
• To remove all the waypoints from a waygroup click on Clear.
• To remove all the waypoints from all waygroups click on Clear All in the Waypoint Manager.
j)
When adding the player’s waypoints, a name for the waypoint must be input. The names can be edited by
selecting Player Edit in the Waypoint Editor dialog box.
k)
The maximum number of waypoints allowed in a waygroup is 10.
4.0 Wind Gusts
a)
A wind gust is a change in wind direction and/or speed.
b)
Select ‘F8’ to open the Wind Manager.
c)
Input the information about the wind gust and press Add when you are finished to store the information.
d)
The maximum number of wind gusts which can be input is 24.
5.0 Depth Map
a)
Press ‘F3’ to toggle between the Depth Map and the Terrain Map.
b)
The Depth Map shows the altitudes of the terrain with white being the highest altitude and black being the
lowest.
6.0 Preferences Pull Down Menu
a)
These allow you to select what is shown on your map.
b)
The world is made up of multiple identical terrain tiles.
c)
The small map can be toggled from looking at all the tiles or just the one you are working on. The small map
is changed by selecting ‘Page Up’ or ‘Page Down’ on your keyboard or by selecting Show Entire World or
Show Current Tile in the Preferences Menu.
d)
Selecting Show True Direction draws a line in the direction the object is facing. This is useful since the
object icons only point north, south, east or west.
7.0 Saving Your Mission
a)
Select Save under the Mission Menu which will open the Save As dialog box.
b)
Name the mission and then click on Save.
c)
The first time you save the mission it will ask you for a name for the object file.
d)
Name the object file and then click on Save.
e)
The object file stores the information about the objects in the mission.
f)
Anytime you save after the first save, the object file will automatically be updated.
8.0 Exporting Your Mission For Play
a)
The player object must be placed before a mission can be exported.
b)
Select Export Data under the Mission menu.
c)
Name the exported mission resource file and then click on Save.
d)
If the export is successful, you will receive an “Export Complete” message indicating how many objects were
exported.
e)
This is the file which will be loaded in Load User Mission from the game’s Main Menu.
9.0 Helpful Hints
a)
Do not start the player inside the first waypoint.
b)
Avoid overlapping waypoints.
c)
Do not name your object file “template”. This will overwrite the default template.
d)
Non-player vehicles will not follow player waypoints.
e)
If all the objects disappear for no reason, check your world view to see if you are in the correct tile. The
arrow keys move the large window’s view to different tiles at minimum magnification (0.519x).
f)
Try to keep all objects within the red box in the world view.
g)
Do not place objects on top of each other.
h)
Do not have ground vehicle’s waypoints lead them through other objects.
i)
You can’t target neutral targets in the game.
j)
When saving files, be sure and save all of them in the same directory as where Comanche Gold and the editor
are located.
10.0 Good luck and have fun!