(Updated 3/30/03)

On starting the editor, you will be presented with the following choices:

CAMPAIGN EDITOR - Allows the user to create and edit Campaigns.

LEVEL EDITOR - Allows the user to create and edit Mission Maps.

ENTITY EDITOR - Allows the user to create and edit Entities.

MAP BUILDING GUIDE - General rules for good map building.

OPTIONS - Allows configuration of game options.

CREDITS - See the credits! Hold SHIFT or CTRL to reveal the Developer Quotes and Caption Competition.

EXIT - Exits the editor.

Home

CAMPAIGN EDITOR

USING NEW MAPS AND CAMPAIGNS

MENUS

FIELDS AND WINDOWS

EDITING MODES

To construct a campaign, it is recommended that you work within a different folder to core. Create a new directory in the same location as core. Then when you run your tools, use the -path command line option. Eg: FT Tools.exe -path MyPath You can then make your own version of campaigns\bos.cam You can also add / modify your own missions and entities and so on, and keep your new versions within your custom folder. Once you need to distribute your mod or campaign to users, you may do the following:

1) Can compress all your files within "MyPath" into one .bos file using WinZip or WinRAR, path names must be preserved.

2) Distribute your mod as a compressed file or installer that installs to the tactics install path, inside the folder called "MyPath" or whatever your custom path is called.

3) Users can then run your mod or campaign by running:

BOS.exe -path MyPath

Directory Structure

In order to leave the original game files untouched, but still make it possible for people to run your campaign and get your custom item descriptions, and various other things, here is what you must do.

You must create a new folder in this path:

C:\....\14 Degrees East\Fallout Tactics\

Name it whatever you wish, for this tutorial I will refer to it as MYCAMP.

This what you want your BOS.EXE file to point to when running your campaign. So if you want to run your campaign with all of your custom item descriptions etc, you want to run "BOS.EXE -PATH MYCAMP".

Inside of MYCAMP you want to make new folders with these names:

Locale
Tables

Inside of your new Locale folder you want to create new folders with these names:

Game
Gui

This will now enable you to edit probably all of the .TXT files you would want to.

For an example we will use the ITEMS.TXT file where many descriptions for items, recruits, etc reside. You can create your own ITEMS.TXT file from scratch, or copy the one from the original game and edit it. You want to put your ITEMS.TXT file here:

C:\....\14 Degrees East\Fallout Tactics\MYCAMP\locale\game

When running "BOS.EXE -PATH MYCAMP", it will use this ITEMS.TXT file instead of the original games ITEMS.TXT file. If you don't have an ITEMS.TXT file here, the game will automatically use the ITEMS.TXT file that is here:

C:\....\14 Degrees East\Fallout Tactics\core\locale\game

This goes for all files. If you are running your campaign, and it is looking for a certain file, it will first look through your folders. If it can't find it, it will look through the original game folders. If it cannot find it there, it will look in the .BOS files. If it is still unable to locate it, something bad will probably happen. :)

You can use any .TXT file located in the folders of the original game that correspond with the folders you created in your MYCAMP folder. As I said earlier, the folders I had you create have the .TXT files you will probably want to edit. The only one in the GUI folder you will probably want to edit is the credits, so you can tell everyone who worked so hard on your campaign! :)

Now you will be able to manipulate and use various things in the .TXT files without corrupting the originals, and also allow people who want to play your campaign, retain their original game files.

 

Using New Maps and Campaigns

Under the SINGLE PLAYER button there are now two new options:

CUSTOM CAMPAIGN

• This will bring up a Load screen, displaying a list of available Campaign files.
• From here the user can select a custom Campaign file.
• Upon selection, the file will load and the game will go straight into the Character Selection screen.

CUSTOM MISSION

• This will bring up a Game Configuration screen, similar to the Multiplayer

Game Configuration.

• From here the user can select a custom Mission file by clicking on the MISSION button.
• Once a Mission has been selected, the user can press START GAME to begin the mission.

!!!! Please note that all Multiplayer specific options in this screen will have no affect on the Mission to be played !!!!

General Definitions

• Campaign File - A Campaign in Fallout: Tactics is a way of presenting the player with a group of Mission Maps. Each separate Campaign is stored in a .CAM file. The .CAM file contains all of the campaign data, including Mission placement, Random Encounters, the World Map Image, etc.
• World Map Tiles - The World Map is divided up by squares or Tiles for the purposes of assigning random encounters.
• Mission - Missions are placed in the Campaign by first assigning them tags in an external campaign text file and then importing it. Missions include both Core Missions (Single Player Mission Maps) and Unique Encounters
• Campaign Text File - To change any data within a .CAM file, the data must first be changed in the Campaign.TXT file and then imported. Theis file can be found in TABLES\Campaign.TXT
• Random Encounter - Random encounters are different to Missions in that they may only be entered due to chance. They are also allocated in a different manner to normal Missions, using a percentage chance per World Map Tile as opposed to a direct location.

 

Menus

File menu

• New (CTRL-N) - Create a blank .CAM file.
• Open (CTRL-O) - Open an existing .CAM file
• Save (CTRL-S) - Save the current .CAM file
• Save As - Save the current .CAM file under a new name
• Quit (CTRL-Q) - Quits the editor out to the main menu

Edit menu

• Undo (CTRL-Z) - Undo the last action. Currently has infinite undos.
• Redo (CTRL-Y) - Redo the last action that was undone.
• Block Undo (ALT-Z) - Undo a block of similar actions. Basically checks the last action, and undoes all actions of that type, until it finds an action which is dissimilar.
• Block Redo (ALT-Y) - Redo a block of similar actions that have been undone.
• Undo Options - Set the options for Undo (number of undos, buffer size)

View menu

• Show Totals (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of the total average chance of a random encounter within a square.

Tools menu

• Import Image - Imports the World Map Image. This image must be in PNG format. This first opens the Tile Size dialogue (leave as default if your map is the same size as Fallout: Tactics), and then opens an file window.
• Import Data - Imports the entire Campaign.TXT file.
• Import Core - Imports only the Core Mission (mission maps used for Core Missions) data from the Campaign.TXT file.
• Import Special - Imports only the Special (Unique Encounter) Mission data from the Campaign.TXT file.
• Import Random - Imports only the Random Encounter data from the Campaign.TXT file.
• Import Landscape - Imports only the Landscape (mission maps used for Random Encounters) data from the Campaign.TXT file.
• Import Prefabs - Imports only the Prefab Characters data from the Campaign.TXT file.
• Import Recruits - Imports only the Recruits Pool data from the Campaign.TXT file.
• Import QM List - Imports only the Quarter Master inventory data from the Campaign.TXT file.  

Fields and Windows

  Status field

• File Path - Displays full path for current .CAM file.
• Res: - The first two numbers define the resolution of the area of effect (in tiles) that will be affected by a left/right click in the Main Window. The third number defines the percentage amount raised/lowered by each click.
• FPS: - The frames per second.

Modes field

• Contains the buttons for the different editing modes: Pos, Core, Special, Random and Landscape

Mode-functions field

• Displays different information and functions depending on the Editing Mode chosen.

Main window

• Contains a visual representation of the current .CAM file.
• Missions and Encounters are placed and manipulated in this screen.
• Operations within this screen differ between the different Editing Modes.
• Any operation involving a percentage will have that percentage displayed per tile, as well as have that tile color-coded dependent on the percentage (Green for 0% up to Red for 100%).

 

Editing Modes

Pos mode

• Allows you to select the starting position for the campaign (the place where the player will start when they first enter the worldmap).
• Left-click in the main window to select the starting position.

Core mode

• Contains a list of defined Core Missions.
• By left clicking on an entry in the list, you can then left click in the main window and position that Core Mission.

Special mode

• Contains a list of defined Special (Unique) Missions.
• By left clicking on an entry in the list, you can then left click in the main window and increase the percentage chance of the player encountering that mission per tile.
• The % chance is displayed in the main window per tile.

Random mode

• Contains a list of defined Random Encounters.
• By left clicking on an entry in the list, you can then left click in the main window and increase the percentage chance of the player encountering that mission per tile.
• The % chance is displayed in the main window per tile.

Landscape mode

• Contains a list of defined Landscape Maps for use by the Random Encounters.
• By left clicking on an entry in the list, you can then left click in the main window and increase the percentage chance of the player encountering that mission per tile.
• The % chance is displayed in the main window per tile.

Home

 

LEVEL EDITOR

MENUS

FIELDS AND WINDOWS

EDITING MODES

BUILDING LEVELS

CHANGING EXISTING LEVELS

WAYPOINTS

SCRIPTING

SPEECH

MINIMAP

Q&A

 

General Definitions

• Mission Maps - Each single mission in Fallout: Tactics takes place inside a Mission Map. Each separate Mission Map is stored in a .MIS file. The .MIS file contains all of the mission data, including Tile and Entity placement, Scripting, etc.
• Regions - Each Mission Map is split into areas defined as Regions. A region is 256 World Units on a side (approximately 43 Floor Tiles) A World Unit is equal to 25cm in the real world, and is the smallest measurement possible in the Level Editor.
• Tiles - The geometry of a Mission Map is built up out of Tiles. Tiles are single pieces of geometry that can be placed together to form landscapes, buildings and other objects. Different Tiles have different physical properties. Most can be stood on by a character, but others can be seen through, shot through, climbed or even walked through. Each tile has a bounding box. This box is a three-dimensional representation of the space that tile takes up. This space is translated into collision data, meaning that tiles can block the way, stop bullets, etc. Tiles should not be allowed to occupy the same space as eachother. If tiles have intersecting bounding boxes, they will be displayed in pulsing red, as an indicator that there is a problem.
• Clips - A selection of Tiles in the Mission Map can be copied into the clipboard, and then saved out for future use. This selection is called a Clip. Clips can be saved, then loaded and pasted into a Mission Map. Due to a limitation in the editor, the clipboard is not usable between different maps, that is where clips come in handy.
• Tile Set - A selection of Tiles in the Tile List Directory can be built up and saved for future placement. This selection is called a Tile Set. Tile Sets can be saved, then loaded and used to place tiles into a Mission Map.
• Entity - Any object in a map that requires active interaction is an Entity. Entities can be of many different types and have wildly differeing properties depending on their purpose. Example Entities include Actors (the player characters and non-player characters), Weapons (from knives to mini-guns), Chemicals (including First Aid Kits and Mentats), Miscellaneous Items and Breakables.

Menus

File menu

• New (CTRL-N) - Create a blank .MIS file. This opens the "New Level" Dialogue.
• Open (CTRL-O) - Open an existing .MIS file
• Open Tiles Only - Open an existing .MIS file without loading entities.
• Save (CTRL-S) - Save the current .MIS file
• Save As - Save the current .MIS file under a new name
• Quit (CTRL-Q) - Quits the editor out to the main menu

Edit menu

• Undo (CTRL-Z) - Undo the last action. Currently has infinite undos.
• Redo (CTRL-Y) - Redo the last action that was undone.
• Block Undo (ALT-Z) - Undo a block of similar actions. Basically checks the last action, and undoes all actions of that type, until it finds an action which is dissimilar.
• Block Redo (ALT-Y) - Redo a block of similar actions that have been undone.
• Undo Options - Set the options for Undo (number of undos, buffer size)
• Cut (CTRL-X)
• Copy (CTRL-C)
• Paste (CTRL-V)
• Select All (CTRL-A) - Selects ALL visible tiles.
• Unselect (CTRL-U) - Selects nothing
• Delete Entities - Removes all entities from the map
• Delete Leaked Entities - A Development utility that has little use for map creation.

View menu

• Origin (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of the center of the .MIS file - Red Lines
• Region (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of the region boundaries - Blue Lines
• Camera Boundary (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of the area that camera movement is restricted by - Yellow Lines
• Place Height Guide (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of the current tile's bounding box extended to the 0 level - Light Blue Box
• Show Floor Tile Grid (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of the 6x6 unit grid that represents the correct placing of   Floor Tiles - Light Green Lines
• Placement Bounding Box (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of a bounding box around the tile currently selected for placement - Light Green Box
• Selection Bounding Box (ON/OFF) - BROKEN (this is supposed to toggle the little green box displayed on the cursor and the dragged out selection box to on or off, but appears broken or the option disabled - why would anyone want it off anyway)
• Show Tile Graphic (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of the actual bitmap graphic of all tiles
• Show Tile Bounding Box (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of bounding box for all tiles - Black Box
• Show Invisible Objects (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of all otherwise invisible entities (such as lights, spawn points)
• Level Ghosting (ON/OFF) - BROKEN (used to turn
• Level Color Ghosting (ON/OFF) - Colorises the tiles according to their position within the colored sections of the Height Field.
• Only show tiles on current level (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of only the tiles one the currently selected Level
• Reveal Cursor Position (ON/OFF) - Removes tile graphics in front of the cursor, relative to the cursors position on the current level. Tiles are replaced by their bounding boxes.
• Stipple Reveal (ON/OFF) - Works as Reveal Cursor Position, but stipples (draws every second pixel) the tile graphics instead of removing them.
• Enable Roof Popping (ON/OFF) - Pops roofs above the cursor, relative to the cursors position on the current level.
• Floor Hiding (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of all tiles that fall into the "floor" category (6x6 units, 1 unit tall)
• Enable Occlusion (ON/OFF) - Toggles visibility of tiles that are hidden by the generation of occlusion data (any tile that would not normally be seen without roof/wall popping).
• Antialiased Sprites (ON/OFF) - Toggles the alpha-channel for sprites.
• Antialiased Tiles (ON/OFF) - Toggles the alpha-channel for tiles.
• Dynamic Lighting (ON/OFF) - Toggles the visibility of dynamic lighting, including light entities and ambient light settings.
• Smooth Shading (ON/OFF) - Toggles smooth shading for dynamic lighting.
• Dynamic Shadows (ON/OFF) - Toggles dynamic shadows within the map.
• Show Mini Map - Opens the mini-map window. The mini-map cannot be turned off using this option.
• Show Tile Info Pop-Up (ON/OFF) - Toggles the visibility of the Tile Information Pop-Up display.

Tools Menu

• New Occlusion Data - Forces the generation of new occlusion data. Occlusion data is used to hide any tile that would not normally be seen without roof/wall popping, increasing display speeds.
• New Group Data - Forces the generation of new occlusion data. Group Data is used in levels and roof-popping.
• Re-Sort Tiles - Refreshes the tile sorting data.
• Output Tile List - Creates a text file [with no extension] that lists all tiles used in the current .MIS file, including the full path name.
• Copy Min Tile Set - Copies all of the tiles in use in the current .MIS file to the folder \FALLOUT-BOS\CORE\MIN_TILE_SET.
• Make Picture - Outputs a full size JPG of the map, using whatever settings are active [ie, if you have invisible objects on, they will be part of the render]. Saves the JPG in the same place as the .MIS file. Been known to crash on certain machines. Having your virtual memory settings set to something large (400MB or more) will help.
• Import Sound File - Imports a text file that describes all the ambient sounds & music for the mission (.txt extenstion)
• Import Sound Zones - Import a sound zones file (.szn) Only really useful if you want your sound designer to be working on the ambient sounds while you are working on triggers etc so you can both work on the same missions at once.
• Export Sounds Zones - Exports any zones marked as sound zones so they can imported at a later date or into a alternate version of the mission.
• Update Tiles Used - Reloads all of the tiles in the current .MIS file. Useful for updating corrected tiles.
• Refresh Border/Grids - Updates the fading from black that appears at the edge of a map, relative to the camera boundary.
• Allows Shadow/Don't Allow Shadow - Flags the tile as allowing shadows to be cast on to it, or vice versa.
• Allow Popping/Don't Allow Popping - Flags the tile as not popping [never removed by the roof popping code], or vice versa.
• Ethereal/Not Ethereal - Flags the tile as transparent but not solid, or vice versa. Default flag for Floor tiles with large holes in them.
• Window/Not Window - Flags the tile as transparent but solid, or vice versa. Default flag for Window Tiles.
• Climbable/Not Climbable - Flags the tile as climbable [i.e., a character will be able to grip and climb it], or vice versa. Default flag for Ladder tiles.
• Invisible/Not Invisible - Flags the tile as invisible [will not be displayed in the game], or vice versa. Most used for plugging large holes in floor areas to assist the roof popping.
• Exit/Not Exit - Flags the tile as part of the exit grid for this level, or vice versa. The
• exit grid is toggled on/off in the game using Triggers.
• Dump Actors - Exports a list of Actor entity attributes to a text file on the root of C:. Only used as a rough guide to calculating the entire XP value for a mission.

 

Fields and windows

 Status field

• File Path - Displays full path for current .MIS file.
• Coordinates - Shows the coordinates of the cursors current position, relative to the currently selected level.
• Res: - The resolution of the "snap-to" grid that new tiles will snap to when placed. Entering a value of 99 allows the user to drag out a region to be filled with randomly spaced tiles.
• FPS: - The frames per second.

Modes Field

• Contains the buttons for the different editing modes: Select, Tile, Entity, Entity Edit, Auto Group, Man Group, Level (explained elsewhere)

Mode-functions field

• Displays different information and functions depending on the Editing Mode chosen.

Main window

• Contains a visual representation of the current .MIS file. Tiles and Entities are placed and manipulated in this screen. Operations within this screen differ between the different Editing Modes.

Height field

A graphical representation of all of the levels in the .MIS that can have tiles placed on them.

• Left-Click selects a height level to edit.
• Left-Click-Drag moves between height levels

With space held down:

• Left-Click-Drag (UP/DOWN) shifts the visible range up or down
• Right-Click-Drag (UP/DOWN) changes the scale of the visible range
• PGUP moves the height level up one unit.
• PGDN moves the height level down one unit.
• HOME moves the height level up one entire level.
• END moves the height level down one entire level.

Tile info pop up

When the cursor is placed over a single tile and left for a short time, the Tile Info Pop-Up is displayed.

• Tile Details: - Displays the full name of the tile.
• Bounding Box v1: - Displays the coordinates of the tile's bottom, closest corner.
• Bounding Box v2: - Displays the coordinates of the tile's top, farthest corner.
• Ycoord: - Displays the Level the tile has been placed on.
• Flags: - Displays any flags that the tile has built into it.
• MGrp: - Displays the name of the Manual Group that the tile is a part of.
• AGrp: - Displays the name of the Auto Group that the tile is a part of.
• UGrp: - ???? For debug only.
• Occl: - The group that must be popped for this tile to become visible.

Mini Map Window

Displays the map for the current level, built from tile data. Different tile and entity types are displayed using different colors.

• Map
Walls - Bright Green
Objects - Dark Green
Stairs - Yellow
Actors - Team Color
Vehicles - Blue
 
• Scale - Displays the current scale of the map. Useful values range from 0.1 to 5.
• OK Button - Closes the Mini Map Window.

 

Editing Modes

 Select mode - F1

Select allows the user to manipulate tiles that have been placed in the world. Hidden tiles cannot be selected, even as part of a Drag-Select operation. Displays the following buttons in the Mode-Functions Field.

• Load Clip - Loads a clip from an external .CLP file into the clipboard. From there it can be pasted into the world (CTRL-V).
• Save Clip - Saves the clipboard to an external .CLP file. A selection of tiles must first be selected, then copied (CTRL-C) into the clipboard.
• Update Bad Bounding Box Info - This option searches for all the "bad" intersecting tiles and tells you how many there are. They will be highlighted in pulsing red on-screen.
• Delete all bad tiles - This option deletes the "bad" tiles that have been found. There are two selection modes available:
• Use Bounding Box - Left-Click selects the tile on the current level in the cursors position.
Left-Click-Drag selects tiles on the current level within a rectangular selection area.
ALT-Left-Click-Drag selects all tiles on all levels within a rectangular selection area.
• Use Visible Check Left-Click selects the tile the cursor is over, irrespective of the level the tile is on.
• Editing Tiles
CTRL-DEL will delete any selected tile.
CTRL-C will copy any selected tile.
CTRL-V will paste any selected tile.

Holding CTRL and using the arrow keys will move the selected Tiles. To change the number of units that the Tiles are moved, type a new number in the "Res:" field.

CTRL-PGUP will move selected tiles up one unit.
CTRL-PGDN will move selected tiles down one unit.
CTRL-HOME will move selected tiles up one entire level.
CTRL-END will move selected tiles down one entire level.

Tile mode - F2

Displays the following buttons in the Mode-Functions Field.

• Selected for Placement: - The number of tiles currently selected for placement. By holding shift and selecting multiple tiles, you can build up a selection of tiles [a Tile Set] to place.
• Load Tile Set - Loads in a previously saved .TSE Tile Set file.
• Save Tile Set - Multiple selections of tiles can be saved out for future use as a .TSE file.
• Tile Screening Toggles - To speed up the display and navigation of the Tiles List, the user can screen which ones are displayed.
ALL: Shows all tiles in the directory selected.
N/S/E/W: Shows only the tiles that face a particular direction.
NONE: Shows no tiles
• Tile List Scale - This number represents the size at which tiles are displayed. Default is 0.5. Full size is 1.0.
• Tiles List/Directory Structure - A list of directories and the tiles within them.
Left-Click on a tile selects a single tile to be placed in the world.
Shift-Left-Click multiple tiles allows the user to add to their selection.
Double-Left-Click on a directory opens that directory.
The UP button moves up one level in the directory structure.
• Placing Tiles - Tile placement occurs in the Main Window.
Left-Click in the editor places a single tile.
Left-Click-Drag in the editor places multiple tiles.

Placing one tile over another tile with the same bounding box dimension will replace the latter tile.

!!!! PLEASE NOTE: There are occasional errors where the flags attached to Tiles are not brought in when that tile is initially placed in the map. To fix this problem, ALWAYS use the TOOLS\UPDATE TILES USED and then the TOOLS\NEW OCCLUSION DATA tools (IN THAT ORDER) before saving a map for public consumption !!!!

Entity mode - F3

• Player Index - This number refers to the player controller [found in the LEVEL MODE]. The name to the right of this field is the name of the relevant controller. All entities will be placed as part of the controller that this number is set to [ie, if it's set to 0, the entities will be placed as part of the Scenery controller]. The Player Index number can be edited using the ENTITY EDIT MODE.
• Tag Field - Allows you to place entities with a tag already attached to them.
• Entity List/Directory Structure - A list of directories and the entities within them. Use the UP button to move upwards through the directory structure. Note that you cannot move outside of the BOS\ENTITIES directory.
• Placing Entities - Entity placement occurs in the Main Window. Left-Click in the editor places a single entity. Note that the entity will only be placed on "valid" positions within the map. For example, it cannot be placed on open space where there are no tiles for it to rest on.

Entity edit mode - F4

• Overview - Every entity has different properties, so this window will reflect the properties of whatever entity is selected.
• Editing Entities in the Main Window. - To select a placed entity, Left-Click on it. To drag an entity around, Left-Click and drag it. Note that the entity will only move to "valid" positions within the map.

 

Auto group mode - F5

Displays the groups that are automatically generated by the code. Each group has a number and name. By default, these automatic groups should be left alone as generated by the TOOLS/NEW OCCLUSION DATA option.

• Select Tiles in Current Group - Selects all tiles in the currently selected Group.
• Enabled All Groups - Turns the visibility of all Auto Groups to on.
• Auto Groups List - Double-Left-Click toggles the visiblity of the selected group.

Man group mode - F6

NOT USED - Displays groups manually created by the user. These groups were originally used as editing tools.

• Add Selected Tiles To Group - Adds all currently selected tiles to the currently selected group.
• Remove Selected From Group - Removes all currently selected tiles from the currently selected group.
• Select Tiles in Current Group - Selects all tiles in the currently selected group.
• Enabled all Groups - Turns the visibility of all Manual Groups to on.
• Manual Groups List - Double-Left-Click toggles the visibility of the selected group.
• New Group - Creates a new group with a name defined by the user. All currently selected tiles will automatically be added to the new group.
• Delete Group - Deletes the currently selected group, never to be seen again (no undo!). This DOES NOT delete the tiles associated with that group.

Level mode - F7

Contains various settings for the World.

Camera Bounds Buttons

• Set Top - Left-Click in the Main Window sets the top-most limit of the Camera Extents.
• Set Bottom - Left-Click in the Main Window sets the bottom-most limit of the Camera Extents.

Time

• Force Start Hour - When this option is check on, the map is forced to start at the hour in the Start Hour field when the player enters the map.
• Start Hour - Defines the start hour (in a 24 hour clock) and thus the light level of a mission. To test a level's lights at night, set this field to 22 and click on the Force Start Hour toggle, then refresh the screen (by pressing R).
• Game Type - Used to define the type of Mission Map. Single Player Mission Maps are flagged as custom by default. Multi Player Mission Maps must be flagged as the appropriate type of mission desired.
• Max Players (Multiplayer) - Sets the number of players (not characters) that can join this map in Multi Player.
• Nuke Triggers on Exit - For Single Player Missions Maps. When the player leaves the mission map, all scripting triggers are removed.
• Is Bunker - For Single Player Mission Maps. Flags this map as a Bunker Map.
• Allow Vehicles - Allows the player to enter this map with any vehicles that they have taken into the World Map. All Mission Maps flagged as Bunkers should also have this flagged.
• Minimap - Opens the Minimap window, where the user can select and configure a map for the PipBoy (see elsewhere for details)
• Team - Allows you to set the alignment matrix for different teams.
• Player - Allows you to create, edit and remove Player controllers.
• Speech File - Allows you to select the appropriate speech file for the mission. The Chat and Speech nodes used in Speech are built from this file. The current speech file is displayed at the bottom of the LEVEL MODE area.
• Speech - Allows the user to create, edit and remove Chat and Speech nodes. These nodes are then assigned to different actor entities within the map.
• Triggers - Contains the Triggers used for scripting. All Triggers are made up out of Conditions [which must become true before the rigger will execute] and Actions [which will execute once the conditions become true].
• Speech File Display Field - Displays the name of the speech file for the current mission map. Only one speech file can ever be assigned at one time.

Zone mode - F9

- Allows you to create, edit and delete Zones.

- A zone is a 3D volume used for scripting purposes. They appear as colored boxes in the Main Window, with the name of the zone displayed in the bottom-most corner.

- It is best to place a zone on the same height as the floor tiles for a particular level.

 

Add - Add a new zone at the center of the screen.

Remove - Remove the currently selected zone.

Top - Set the top-most corner of the zone.

Bottom - Set the bottom-most corner of the zone.

Height - How tall the zone is. A setting of 1 is usually adequate for a single-level zone.

Name - Enter a name for the currently selected zone.

Color - Select a color for the currently selected zone.

SoundZone - This flags the selected zone as one that interacts with ambient sound.

 

Entity list window - F8

Lists all of the entities placed in the level (and I mean ALL, down to the non- removable punch entities used by the actors).

  

Building Levels

Introduction

This is a guide to creating new levels and modifying those that are already built. In general, the measurements in this document are based on floor tiles.

Starting a New Level

• Number of Regions - When creating a new mission, use the default 10x10 regions. Regions with no tiles in them take up no space.
• Boundary Tiles - Allow for 12 tiles on each side of your map to be sacrificed to the camera boundary. Place your boundary on the inside of these tiles, essentially in the middle of the 13th tile.
• The 66/33% Rule - Ideally, the floor-space of any room should be at least 66% clear and free for gameplay [i.e. clear so that a character can walk around in it]. The other 33% can be taken up with objects, walls that obscure the floor, etc. Remember that the front wall on most rooms takes up about 10% of the room [dependent on size, obviously].
• Think Bigger

General

• One of the overall problems is the amount of floor-space we have and the sizes of rooms. So we need to think bigger.
• The 66/33% Rule helps, but in general buildings need to be larger than you would logically expect them to be. Reality has no place here :).
• Corridors - Corridors must be a minimum of 5 tiles wide. Underground, natural corridors [like caves] should be 5 tiles wide, except for deliberate choke points.
• Wall Heights - If you want a 2-story-tall room [for example, a warehouse that is 2 stories tall but has no 2nd-floor floor tiles], then you'll need to compensate for the amount of space that the second story obscures by enlarging the room.
• Road Width - Roads need to be a minimum of 8 tiles wide, a maximum of 12.
• Catwalks and Walkways - Must be a minimum of 2 tiles wide.
• Stairwells - Stairwells should be a minimum of 2 tiles wide and 3 tiles long. Allowing for the roof-caps that will cut into the space this provides, it still means that there is 10 world units of width to a staircase, just enough for 2 people to walk past each other. Always facing the camera. Never build stairs that slope away from the camera [and thus conceal themselves from the player].

 

Fleshing the level out

Less Clutter - Keep the 66/33% rule in mind when populating a level with objects. Remember, you probably only have 20% left of the floor-space to put objects on. Keep it subtle: 2 bookcases will usually do the work of 3.

Floor Tiles - Because we can't take up floor-space with objects, we need to take it up with interesting floor-tiles instead. If a room is looking a little bare and plain, use some of the various floor tiles to flesh it out.

 

Changing Existing Levels

Reclaiming the Floor - If you need floor-space back, don't just delete your objects. See if there is a way to enlarge the room that they are in instead.

Expanding the Level - If you need larger rooms but cannot get them into the space you have, then expand your level to take up another region.

 

General rules

• Avoid Line-Up - Corridors that are one floor unit wide are too thin. Corridors that are three units wide will visually have the top of the front-edge wall line up with the bottom of the rear-edge wall in a confusing manner. Avoid this at all costs!
• Lights - All lights should be tagged with the "night only" tag, unless they are underground or otherwise out of direct sunlight. This is to avoid the bleaching affect that lights have on daylight maps.

 

Setting up actors

An actor is any living (or once living) object in a map. Robots, Raiders, Human characters, anything. It also includes corpses if you want to add a few to a special map. Actors are controlled by an AI Controller and also by their Nature.

 

Player Index

• The Player Index is a way to group several actors together under one type of AI. If you have a group of raiders on patrol they would be one player index, the guards at the gates would make a second index, and so on.
• The human player is always player index number 1 (Human).
• Player index 0 is a special index for any scenery entities such as lights, waypoints and spawn points
• Name each player index something informative and make sure it is set to computer control (except for index 0 and index 1)
• Setup each index AI as needed.

 

AI Controllers

• Each player index has a controller type, changed by using the "Setup AI" button.
• Any AI setup under this button will affect any actor using that player index.
• Controller Type defines what the actors do when they are not in combat. This can be following a set of waypoints, standing still, wandering around, etc.
• Move Target Tag is used when the controller type is set to waypoints or random waypoints. It tells the AI which waypoints to use.
• Move Type Priority tells the actor how determined they are to do what the controller tells them too. If you set this high the actor will ignore anything around them to try to follow its orders. If set above 8 an actor will run rather than walk.
• Working Zone is the area the actor spends most of his time in. This is not mandatory.
• Retreat Zone is where the actor will flee too if in trouble. If this isn't set they will flee to the edge of the working zone.
• Never leave zone. If this is set an actor will NEVER leave the working zone. Be careful about using this, as it can cause some strange AI behavior, such as refusing to take that last 2 steps so they can punch the player.
• Aggression states how likely the actor is to attack an enemy, and how likely they are to chase them down if they try to flee.
• Communicate dictates how far around them the actor will inform friends when they are attacked or when they see an enemy. 10 means the entire map, 0 means the group doesn't communicate.
• Mobility dictates how often the player will move when set to waypoints/random waypoints/perimeter. If set at 10 they will constantly walk the path, 1 means they will take a few small steps towards their next point and wait before moving again.

 

Entity Edit

• After placing the actors in the map it is possible to refine their AI more.
• Click on entity edit, and select an actor.
• Level is a base added to the characters current level. This modifies skills as well so a higher level actor will have higher skills.
• Race Type is the type of actor. There is little need to change this flag.
• Gender should be fairly easy to understand. If not, seek help :)
• Start Posture is what pose you want the character to default to. Useful for solid emplacements or ambushes. Note that some characters done have the ability to go crouched or prone.
• Random Speech is the actors floating text. I'll go into more detail in the speech section.
• Click Speech is an actors speech when talked too.
• Enable Scripted Events sends a message to the trigger handler any time this actor performs an action using a skill. More details in the trigger section.
• Is Recruitmaster/Quartermaster are both fairly self-explanatory, and shouldn't be played with.
• Can Barter/Can Gamble once again is to enable Bartering/Gambling for a specific character
• Tag Name is used to track specific actors and entities. Can be used in triggers to select a single special actor in an otherwise normal player index. It is also used to link keys to doors and switches to anything else. More in the trigger section
• Broken
• Player Index lets you change an actors player index inside the editor. The name associated with this player index is also displayed at the top of the entity edit column.
• Animation Rotation is the direction a character is facing. Most useful in stationary actors to have them facing a useful and realistic direction.
• Base/Skin/Hair/Team let you change an actor's colour clowning so that not everybody looks the same.
• Nature is used to make a character behave in a certain way. See natures section
• Tactic is also covered in the natures section
• Use Cover defaults to on. When checked this actor will seek out cover when attacked.
• Use Sneak defaults to off. When turned on the actor will try to sneak if out of LOS from the human player.
• Sleeping defaults to off. This AI will sleep until woken by an Alarm, damage, or close proximity to the player.
• Item Tag is used for "looter" type characters. It specifies the tag name of the item the character should try to get. Rarely used.
• Taunts enables combat taunts (should always be set to racial unless you specifically need a character to be silent during combat)
• Trap allows you to add a trap to an item. Useful for doors and chests. Trap entities can be found in \weapons\traps
• Always Friendly means a character will never turn on the player (regardless of how much you torment them :P)
• Make Dead changes the actor to a corpse.
• Start Burrowed is used for scurry robots only. It will start them hidden under the ground, and they will pop up within a 10 metre radius.
• Death Type lets you specify how a "Make Dead" character died.
• Unconscious knocks the actor down. If the unconcious time is set to -1 the actor stays that way until woken by healing. Otherwise, it will count in seconds from when the mission starts
• Immune friendly means that specific character will not be harmed by friendly fire.
• Injuries can be added to an actor. Be careful, as a character cannot walk with two broken legs, or fire a weapon with a broken arm.
• Hand/Armour overrides allow you to give a different weapon or armour to vary your characters a bit more. Be reasonable with this, don't give raiders power armour, etc.
• Inventory items can be added to special actors from here as well.
• Count is the number of the selected item (yellow) the entity will have.
• Non-lootable is the number of the item that the player cannot loot. If you have 30 bullets and you only want the player to see 5, then this should be 25.

Nature

Each actor can have an individual nature, chosen from the entity edit menu. There are currently 8 natures to choose from.

• Default does not affect the way an actor reacts or acts.
• Dummy makes the actor do nothing, sitting there and taking blows.
• Critter is used for roaches, rats etc.
• Coward actors are less likely to charge into combat, and more likely to run away if they are having trouble hitting the enemy in combat.
• Aggressor will attack the enemy, no matter how likely they are to get cut down.
• Squeelers will run to an alarm the moment they see the enemy, and then act as an aggressor. If an alarm is triggered it will wake up any actors who have the same player index as the alarm.
• Patrol will investigate corpses that belong to an ally. They walk over, look at the corpse, and then walk off in the direction the ally got hit from. If they can not find any enemy along that path they return to whatever they were doing before they saw the corpse.
• RepairBot is no longer used.
• Turret is used for turrets J
• Looter is used if you want an AI character to try and loot a specific item. This should only be used in 1 or 2 places.

 

Tactics

• Hold means the character will try to remain in it's current position. There are certain conditions that will cause a holding player to retreat, but for the most part the player will try to hold it's combat position.
• Advance is for characters you want to charge toward the player. Good for when the computer player is attacking something defended by the player.
• Retreat will cause the entity to run from any attacker. They will still return fire, but will be backpedalling
• Flank in will make the entity skirt around the attacker.

 

Waypoints

• Waypoints are a way of making actors walk around on the map in a realistic way. Anything from patrols walking around a raider camp, to a citizen going about their daily chores can be done with waypoints.
• In the editor each waypoint is marked with an entity. Each waypoint in the path must have the same player index (Normally 0) and the same tag name. The waypoint entity can be found in the Misc directory.
• There are two kinds of waypoint, "waypoint" and "waypoint_dir"
• Waypoint_Dir will make the entity face in the direction indicated when they reach that point.

Ordered Waypoints

• Ordered waypoints are a list where the actor knows to walk from point A to point B in a certain order. Each of the waypoints has an Index, starting at 0 for the first point in the path. When an actor reaches a waypoint they check against the Next Waypoint list to find where to go next. Normally ordered waypoints are in a loop, so that an actor walks from index 0, to index 1, to index 2, etc… eventualy ending up back at index 0, where they start the path again.
• It is possible to give a list of next waypoints that the actor can pick from, instead of a single index. In the Next Waypoint list field just provide it a list of different index numbers, each seperated by a comma. This is good for creating a random wandering pattern, while maintaining some form of order.
• For example: At waypoint 3 the next index is set to 4,5,6 which means that an actor who walks to waypoint 3 will next goto either waypoint 4, 5 or 6.
• It is possible to weight which waypoint will be selected next by putting the more waypoints you prefer the actor to goto in multiple times, for example:

3,3,3,3,4 will give an actor a 80% chance of going to waypoint 3, and a 20% chance of going to waypoint 4.

 
• If a waypoint specifies either -1 or a blank for the next waypoint, then actors will stop when they reach it.

 

Actions at Waypoints

• It is possible to cause actors to perform special actions at each waypoint they reach.
• Pause will cause the actors to wait for a specified amount of time before moving onto the next waypoint. The time is measured in seconds.
• Action allows you to force an actor to perform an animation at the waypoint. You can use this to make it look like a character is checking things, opperating machines or computers, or any other number of tasks. The actor will perform the animation once.
• Repeat Action will make the actor perform the action you specified for the entire time it is at the waypoint. Good for patrols who get to the gates of the town and spend 30 seconds looking around, or similar tasks.

 

Alarms

• Alarms are another special type of entity that works in conjunction with the Squealer nature.
• Each alarm is attached to a player index. When an actor with the squeeler nature sees an enemy they search the world around them for an alarm. If they find one it run to it and activate it (using the magic hands animation). When activated it will cause any sleeping actor with the same player index as the alarm to wake up.
• If the human player uses an alarm before a computer-controlled actor then the alarm is disabled, and can no longer be used.

Switches

• Switches are used to trigger certain actions depending on an on or off state. More under Triggers.

Scripting

Triggers

• If entities are the bones of scripting then triggers are the flesh that goes over the top to make it complete.
• You can use triggers to change how actors react to each other, to open and close doors, or just about anything else you need to do.
• In general the less triggers used the better. A mission that relies too heavily on triggers will look and feel forced to a player. It is normally better to let the actors run the mission, with triggers only where needed.
• Triggers are made up of two parts, the Condition and the Action. When all of a trigger Conditions are met the Action happens.
• Several triggers and actions affect entire player index numbers, while others only happen to a single actor. When a "list" box appears it contains a list of all entities with a tag name set. This is how you can affect a single actor within a large group.

 

Actions

• Actions are what happens when a trigger is set off. There can be as many actions set off as you want, but as with most things the less it has to do the better it looks in the long run.
• A Blocking action is one that will wait until it is executed before the action after it in the cue can be executed.
• Center View will center the view for the specified player on a tagged entity. Shouldn't really be needed, as Force Speech has auto-centering.
• Player Retreat Zone will change the retreat zone for the specified player index.
• Player Move State - Deactivate will deactivate the actors of the specified player index, effectivly removing them from the map.
• Player Move State - Stationary will change the specified player index to stationary.
• Player Move State - Follow will make the specified player index follow a certain actor. Make sure the actor you specify has a unique tag name.
• Player Move State - Waypoint will make the player index follow the waypoints you specify, starting at index 0.
• Player Move State - Flee will make the player index flee from where they are, moving to their current retreat zone.
• Player Priority will change the players priority settings, ie: move state, aggression, mobility, etc.
• Set Variable will set a variable that can be used in the conditions. All variables are strings, with a unique name. If the Campaign Variable box is checked then the variable is stored in the campaign data and can be checked in other missions. All campaign variables should be prefixed with C_<variable name>
• Set Timer can either start a timer or add/subtract time on a current timer. All times are measured in seconds, and timers can either increment or decrement as needed.
• Stop Timer will halt the specified timer.
• Wait will cause a pause in your list of events, so you can have an event that will happen over a period of seconds or minutes as needed. Make sure this event type is set to Blocking or it will do nothing.
• End Mission will drop the player out of the mission to whichever screen you specify in the drop down menu.
• Toggle Exit Grids will turn the exit grids on or off, letting players leave the level if they are turned on.
• Set Speech ***redundant DO NOT USE ***
• Set Click Speech changes the speech node the character will use when clicked on.
• Set Random Speech will change the floating text that appears above the specified entity.
• Set Mission State will change which missions are open for players to visit. Don't use without consulting with Ed.
• Play Wav will play a sound file that you specify, centered on a tagged entity.
• Kill Entity will kill an actor in the manner that you specify. Good stress relief - set all actors to explode when you start the map when you need to blow off steam.
• Set Object Script State can be used to set object state to true or false. Covered later on..
• Set Team Alignment Matrix will change the relationship between two teams. The change is one way, so to make two teams take a dislike to eachother you need to do this twice, reversing the teams each time.
• Display World Text will make a popup window appear in the players screen with a message on it. The message is a tagged string from the speech file. See speech for more details.
• Start Combat Mode only works in turn based mode, and it forces the game to switch to the turn based combat style rather than normal real-time movement.
• Add experience will add an amount of experience to a tagged actor. If several actors have the same tag name each actor gets the experience.
• Force Speech will A) (for windowed text) center the camera on the selected entity and they will say whatever speech node you specify. Or B) (for floating text) simply force the entity to float the specified text.
• Entity Speek ***Redundant DO NOT USE ***
• Change team changes the team index for a player. Perfect for traitorous dogs/turncoats.
• Entity Chat ***Redundant DO NOT USE ***
• Give Item to NPC will take a specified item from the player, and give it to an NPC. (make sure the condition checks to see if the player has that item first…)
• Give Item from NPC to Human does the opposite. Great when you want a side quest to reward a player.
• Play Bink Movie does exactly that. Shouldn't be needed bar some specific missions.
• Lock/Unlock Door will do just what it says. It will not Open or Close a door however.
• Jam/Unjam Minimap used in Mis23 to prevent use of the minimap.
• Ping on minimap will "ping" a circle of a specified color from a specific location. Good for indicating objectives, but keep in mind the player may not rely on the minimap at all.
• Add Items to Quartermaster list is used to update the quartermaster's inventory at BOS bunkers.
• Add text to debrief text list will add some specific text regarding a mission objective in a certain order.
• Display debrief window and text will popup the debrief and and text that has been added to it.
• Modify RecruitPool List is used to change the Pool of recruits a t the BOS bunker.

 

Conditions

For a trigger to "go off", all of a set of conditions must first be met. There is no limit to the number of conditions you can assign to each trigger (within reason :) ). All of the conditions in the list must assign as true before the events will occur.

The various conditions are:

• Always. This trigger is always considered true, so the event will go off. Useful for a trigger that is meant to happen at the start of a mission.
• Never. The opposite of always. This trigger will never go off. Useful when testing something and you need to disable the trigger without deleting it from your list.
• Speech Occurred is called when an actor says the matching speech node. More details in the Speech section.
• Skill Used. When the tagged actor uses the specified skill the trigger occurs.
• Variable. You can set and check variables inside the editor. This can be used for when a player talks to actor X they are now allowed to do something new. Variables are set as strings. If the campaign box is checked, then it checks against campaign variables, otherwise only variables local to the map are checked against.
• Timer is called when the timer you specify matches the values you set in the drop down menu.
• The Most is mostly used for multi-player maps. You can specify this to go off when a player index has the most of a wide range of factors, such as the most alive, the most kills, the most hit points, etc…
• The Least works the opposite to The Most.
• Quantity - Team works similar to The Most, checking if the team specified has a certain number (or more than/less than) of a specified type.
• Quantity - Player is the same, except it checks each player index rather than each team.
• Quantity - Unit is the same, expcept checks against tagged units rather than team or player index.
• Object Script State checks the state of tagged entities or containers to check if they are open or closed.
• All Alive at exit grid checks to see if all player characters left alive are at the exit grid.
• Can See checks to see if one player can see another. Use with caution, as Can See has a range of 100 metres, and doesn't take LOS into account.

 

Speech

What fun is it having a world where nobody will talk to you? A world where nobody can tell you how nice you are to save them, or where nasty raiders can not tell you to go shove a cucumber up your bunghole? Well here's how to make it happen. It may look complicated at first, but its quite simple when you get into it, and lets you bring a level to life.

 

Setting Up a Speech File

A speech file is a simple text document that contains all the spoken text for a mission, as well as the brief/debrief messages and any tags for the minimap. The format for a speech file must be followed closely so that the editor can read it in correctly.

Each line of text, or node, is done in the format:

Speech_node_name = { speech }

For example:

M01_Hawkeye_A00_W= { WAZZUP! }

Mission No.- Character-Variation - Window(blank for floating) = {WAZZUP!}

• The speech needed for each mission can be found in the mission speech files, found in
\bos\core\locale\missions\

Each node is auto wrapping, and will delete any end-of-line characters it finds. To add in an end-of-line use the special text: \n

 

Loading Your Speech File

The next step is to load the text file into the editor. This is a simple task: go to the levels tab and select speech file. Browse to your speech file and double click on it.

 

Creating Speech Nodes

Now that the speech is loaded into the editor you need to assign each line of speech to a node. Briefing and debriefing text are done automatically, so there is no need to assign them.

1. In the levels tab select Speech.
2. Click on add..
3. Make sure you rename the node to something obvious and informative by selecting the field above the Chat box.

For Floating Text:

• Check "Floating"
• Each node has a random chance of being selected. Use the scroll bar on each box to select the appropriate line of speech.

For Conversations:

• Check "Windowed"
• The nodes are picked at random from these boxes. In most cases you will only need a single line.
• If you want an event to happen when the character speaks a certain line of text then add a unique name in the event field. These can be used in the "speech occurred" condition. This can be used in conjunction with the change speech event to form a conversation tree.
• If there are not enough lines to fill all the boxes then leave empty spaces as is.

Assigning Speech Nodes

Once all the speech nodes are in place you can assign the actual speech to the actors. Each actor can have one dialog node and one chat node assigned at a time, and if they do not have anything set they simply will not talk to the player.

1. Select the actor you want to add the speech too using the Entity Edit mode.
2. Use the rolldown menu labelled Random text to add a floating text node.
3. Use the rolldown menu labelled Click Text to add a dialog node.

Other Uses For Speech Nodes

The speech file you created for your mission also contains 3 other types of messages apart from speech.

• Mission brief/debrief text. If you have a line in the speech file with a lable like: mission_XX_brief = { text } then that text will be shown to the player when the first start the mission. For debrief text use mission_XX_debrief = { text }

• Minimap Objectives information is also stored in the speech file. The tags for these are the same as a line of speech, using mission_XX_MM_01 = { text }.

Adding these into the minimap is covered in the next section.

World Text Message should be rarely used, but from time to time you may need them. What they are is a popup window with your text displayed in it. Normally it would be better to use an actor to give out messages to players in the form of speech. The format for them is exactly the same as for a speech node, but it is displayed using the event display_world_text.

Killing Text

So that characters don't keep saying the same thing over and over again, you can add a "Speech Occurred" trigger that checks for the speech event, and when it happens, the Action will change the speech to whatever you specify. If you want them to shut up, leave the rollout blank.

Text Codes

Special codes can be inserted in text to add colors or various other formatting effects.

Tilde code "~"
Probably the best known code. When typed in front of a letter, it'll turn it yellow.

• Bold code
<b+> Bold on (makes text lighter)
<b-> Bold off

• Colour Code - Typing this code in before a sentence will change the displayed colour of the message.
<C-> = Changes to primary colour (White in-game, Green in lobby)
<Cb> = blue
<Cc> = cyan (light blue)
<Cg> = green
<Ck> = black
<Cm> = magenta (illuminous pink)
<Co> = orange
<Cr> = red
<Cw> = white
<Cy> = yellow

• COL code - The x represents the RGB number in decimal form. For those who know about the way colours work in html, if you have #FFFFFF it would become <col:16777215>.
<col:%x>

• F Code - This code is a means of placing your coloured text where you want.
<Fy> = Sets to "nick" colour
<Fg> = Sets to "text colour after nick"

• IMG code - This code allows you to point to an image (.ZAR files). Large images may not work.
<img:path>
Here's an example:
<img:gui\cursor\move.zar>

• Justification code
<Jc> = Align text to the centre
<Jl> = Align text to the left
<Jr> = Align text to the right
<Jj> = Possibly a forced justify?

• The P Code - Possibly a Paragragh code, but it's unknown what effect it has.
<p-> = ?
<p+> = ?

• RGB code - The x's represent a 3-digit numeric value for the Red, Green and Blue colours, split up like this: <rgb: r, g, b> Each value is spread from 0 to 255 for each colour. If you enter a number higher than 256, it will simply loop back to 0.
<rgb:xxx,xxx,xxx>
Here's some examples of the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) values:
Value Colour / Shade
255, 255, 255 White
000, 000, 000 Black
255, 000, 000 Red
000, 255, 000 Green
000, 000, 255 Blue

• Tabwidth code - The tabwidth code is an odd one. The "pixels" in the above example is the number of pixels a tab-press should take. You can't type tab in game, so you'll need to paste it from the clipboard.
<tabwidth:pixels>

• Team Circle code - This one displays the "team circle" character (the little coloured dot before your nick in the game setup chat thingy).
ALT-127 (on keypad)

 

Minimap

The minimap (or Pip Map) is a useful way of giving players tactical information before they enter the map. It can contain a view of the whole map with certain locations marked in so players do not go in blind.

Creating and Importing a Minimap

• From the edit menu make sure Show Invisible Objects and Show Invisible Tiles are not selected.
• From the tools menu select Make Picture
• When the map has finished rendering and saving to disk close BOS and browse to the directory where you have been sacing your map. BOS will have created a jpg file of your entire map.
• Open the jpg in photoshop. Goto the Image menu and click on Image Size. Make sure the Constrain Proportions button is selected and reduce the image size to less than 510x330 pixles. Save the file as a PNG into \bos\core\locale\missions\ under the correct mission folder.
• Load BOS and from the main menu select "PNG to ZAR" and convert the map to a ZAR file.
• Open your mission and under the level tab select minimap.
• Click Change Image and select your map. It should load into the display window.
• You can now add objective, information and start position markers to your map.
Click on Add Objective.
Drag the new circle into position on the map.
Use the rolldown menu to select what type of information is appropriate.
Use the Text Key menu to select the appropriate node from your speech file. Mission Objective text must be written into the speech text file associated with the mission.
Choose a radius for the circle from the menu.

 

Q&A

TILES

ENTITIES

TRIGGERS

 

Tiles:

I found where the tiles for stairs and ladders are, but I have a hard time getting the individual pieces to line up. Is there a way to copy and paste entire ladders or stairs?

Look at the area you want to add the ladder to. You will need to start the ladder at one elevation level higher than the floor, and end it at a height equal to whatever it is you're wanting to climb onto. Remember also that a character cannot go up more than one elevation level, so if there's something taller in the way, you'll have to remove it, or put "caps" on the other side so that a character can climb back down.

The best way I've found to work with ladders is to scroll over to an unused portion of the map and build the ladder there. Build your ladder, the tiles for which are found in Generic Tiles/Ladders. Place each tile one level higher than the one below it. (A scroll wheel comes in very handy here, since you can scroll up or down elevation levels with it.) I recommend switching "Show Tile Bounding Box" on for this, since it places a box around the tile and makes them easier to line up. If you happen to misplace the tile, use Ctrl + the arrow keys to maneuver it into position while it is selected.

Once you've built your ladder, go into "Select" mode (either by pressing F1 or clicking on its box near the top of the screen), set your elevation to the base level of the ladder, press and hold Alt and drag the selection bow around the ladder. This will select the entire ladder. You can then maneuver your ladder into position using Ctrl and the arrow keys. If you need to change the elevation, press Ctrl + Page Up/Page Down.

If you're looking to select entire stairs/ladders, find one that you like, then switch to "Select" mode and use the "Visible Check" option. This will select one tile at a time, but you don't have to have the cursor set to the same elevation as the tile. Press "Shift" to select multiple tiles. If you click no an already selected tile while holding "Shift" you will unselect it. If you want to save things between maps you'll have to copy (Ctrl + C) the selected tiles, then use the "Save Clip" option. Name the file something useful, then switch to the map you're going to place it in and use the "Load Clip" option.

1. I tried to make a mission... when placing the terrain, if I click and drag my mouse (to put the selected terrain on a bigger spot.) it colours it in seperate colors... like they are not on the same level... ???
2. What is the invisible tile for ?

- Different color tiles: Usually the different color tiles mean that they are on different level