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Working on missions?

Horst18519

Horst18519

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Hi everybody.
First I want to say a big "Hello!" to you all, as I'm now moderating the mission-forums here at the FSDeveloper.
I hope we will have a lot of productive talk here and many people out there will start to create missions for FSX, for I expect that to become an important part of the fun we'll have with FSX.

First of all I'd like to ask who of you is working on missions allready?
 
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iltestina

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ciao guys...

we are "converting", so we are re-makeing all our fs9 flights for fsx.
we think to add the new fsx feutures inside our new flights, AI control,animations...and of course our REAL ATC
 
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archtx

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Hopefully we will hear from the guys at fsadventures.net. They did some terrific work before getting a serious case of burn-out. Their Socal approach is one of my favorites that I have flown dozens of times!

The missions addition is the singlemost anticipated feature of FSX for me. I am really looking foward to seeing the SDK. I might even read that before flying around! (nah!!!!)
 
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Rats404

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Yep - I'll be working on missions as soon as FSX is released - I was not lucky enough to get the beta to evaluate.

I would like to work with aircraft and helicopter developers in creating missions to bundle with their releases.
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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Rats404 said:
I would like to work with aircraft and helicopter developers in creating missions to bundle with their releases.
Click to expand...
I think there's a lot to do there. For somebody who specializes in mission-creation (and has the skill and the creative "blast" :D) this could become an interesting point of coworking.
 
P-12C

P-12C

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I think some developers are keeping their mission development plans pretty quiet, but I'm excited to see both developers and end users excited about the possibilities. :D

If you haven't seen it yet, there is also a a new forum site for end users that are interested in mission creation. I think it's great that this forum exists for developers and maybe this other one will help the end user that wants to play around with mission creation.
 
scruffyduck

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P-12C said:
I think some developers are keeping their mission development plans pretty quiet, but I'm excited to see both developers and end users excited about the possibilities. :D

If you haven't seen it yet, there is also a a new forum site for end users that are interested in mission creation. I think it's great that this forum exists for developers and maybe this other one will help the end user that wants to play around with mission creation.
Click to expand...

Not seen it - is there a URL? :)
 
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archtx

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Mission help

I am working on my first mission. So far, everything is going well...I haven't had any real trouble with the mission kit, thanks to a much better tutorial than we've seen in the past with the SDKs.

I have 67 different dialog files. I am not really interested in recording 67 audio files, plus it makes for a pretty large sound folder. So, for now, I am just going with text messages. My problem is that the text messages are quite small and their screen position sometimes makes them difficult to read. Does anyone know if there is a way to increase the font size and maybe screen position? I have noticed that in several instances of the default missions you get a semi-transparent box that pops up when you have the option to make a choice. Anyone know how to do that...and could I use something similar for my text messages?
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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Hi,

good to know you don't have much troubles. :)

The popup is the menu-trigger. You can use it to give the user to make decisions. Actually you really could use it for messages, you just have to assign a "OK" or so as the only menu option and link this to maybe an action like "deactivate message-menu-0?". :)

As far as I know you can't change the behavior of the text messages. But you can enlarge the time it shows up by assigning a muted wav-file of your choice.

As for my own, I'm working on my 5th mission at the moment - and I have to say: They're getting more and more complex. :D
Only problem is that sometimes I have so many activators/deactivators/triggers/... that I start to forget what the heck I wanted to do with them... :eek:
 
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archtx

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Thanks Thorston!

I did figure out that the length of time the text message is displayed is also the length of the audio file (if there is one). I have temporarily solved my dillema by playing a little chime.wav with 10 seconds of silence added, to alert the mission user of a text message. Being able to hold the message on screen now for 10 seconds makes the size and location of the text less important.

I also looked at the menu object, but have decided for now that it is too intrusive for a lot of the messages.

It is interesting that you are already into such complex mission building. I hope you will post your "undocumented" tips and tricks for the rest of us!

Thanks, Arch
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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Now, after a couple of months with fsx I'm quite surprised that only very few missions have made it to AVSIM.
I flew (or better: tried) all of them and must say: where are the guys to show us what the mission system is capable of?
I couldn't find one mission that can keep up with the default fsx-missions, and I think ACES will agree that there's much more possible in atmosphere, depth and skill of missions.
After all, I was not the only one to think that missions would be the point where fsx really gives us more fun than all previous fs-versions.

So, is anybody out there actually working on missions? ;)
 
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archtx

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Thorsten:

I follow all of the Missions forums that I can find, and my opinion is this; there are fewer people working on missions than you might anticipate. The mission tool seems to be very difficult for many people to master, and I believe it has discouraged a lot of talented people from jumping into the process. It may be a while before you see the quality of missions you are talking about until someone produces a more user-friendly tool. Then they will concentrate more on content than the mechanics of building the mission.
 
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mikesflight

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Hi Thorsten
One of the main reasons I bought FSX was because of Missions and I had quite a number of ideas for new missions. I have one mission that I started on in November and it evolved steadily but as Archtx states, the tool is not simple. I guess more out of frustration and unfamiliarity than anything else I put my mission development aside.

I then moved over to creating aircraft for FSX as I have enjoyed using GMax and creating AI aircraft in FS9 with LODs and low poly counts. The new FSX requirements for aircraft are significant and I have now finished my main model and need to work on the LODs, but here it is February already and I still haven't finished something that I can readily handle.

At times I have gone back to FS9 for an hour or so to compare some aspect or other with FSX, and the simplicity (and familiarity) of FS9 is tempting to return on a longer basis. I think about it, say no, and return to slogging through the FSX parameters. To me FSX came out unfinished and we are copping the problems. Yes there will be more patches and eventually FSX will probably shine. I think there have been some significant improvements with FSX which is why I continue to work with it, but it is interesting to note that if you visit Avsims library how little new work is being created for FSX. I assume that all of us as developers are being taxed by the newer requirements.

One day I may even find time to complete my first mission!
Cheers
Mike
 
scruffyduck

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I still have plans to develop a more 'user friendly' mission building tool but it will need to wait until my scenery design engine project is completed :)
 
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archtx

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That is good news, Jon.

Have you had a chance to play with the FSX tool to see what is "broken"? When you get back to the project, I will be happy to provide any input I can as to where improvements could be made.
 
scruffyduck

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To be honest I haven't looked at it yet - it is on my 'todo' list. I am not sure how much more time is needed for SDE but I will get to the new project as soon as I can. I built a missions developer for FS9 but stopped development on that a year or so ago when I heard that there would be something in FSX.
 
n4gix

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Horst18519 said:
Now, after a couple of months with fsx I'm quite surprised that only very few missions have made it to AVSIM.
I flew (or better: tried) all of them and must say: where are the guys to show us what the mission system is capable of?
I couldn't find one mission that can keep up with the default fsx-missions, and I think ACES will agree that there's much more possible in atmosphere, depth and skill of missions.
After all, I was not the only one to think that missions would be the point where fsx really gives us more fun than all previous fs-versions.

So, is anybody out there actually working on missions? ;)
Click to expand...

Er, yes there is someone "out there actually working on missions..."

Here is one gentleman who's quietly producing missions that put ACES to shame!

http://fsxmissions.blogspot.com/2007/02/all-new-mission-earthquake.html

His "Palm 90" mission is nothing short of stunning! :)
 
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