Missions now online!

[Licho]

Ah right it was trying to access your lobby password hash which is unset.

It does it to eventually send your mission score.

Fixing

[bobthedinosaur]

sorting by mod and mod version would be nice

[Licho]

Mods are rather irrelevant here and especially versions of them, if you click it in Zero-K, it gets necessary stuff for you.

There will instead by campaigns so mod could implement campaign with tutorials etc.

[luckywaldo7]

I made a possibly passable skull icon.

Perhaps it would be a good time to point out that ZK needs artists in the worst kind of way :<

[Jazcash]

I'm trying to destroy units in a region but nothing's happening. Can somebody confirm this?

[Licho]

Thanks lucky, using skull now, though it appears big compared to star for some reason.

[CarRepairer]

Ability to rotate the map (Ingame too if that's at all possible)

Use a widget? Here's one http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=21450

[quantum]

Wow, normal chickens has been played 6 times, while easy and very easy chickens have been played for a total of 90 times.

[Jazcash]

Ability to rotate the map (Ingame too if that's at all possible)

Use a widget? Here's one http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=21450

Fix that up for me so it does nothing but change the map rotation and you've earned yourself a cookie. Otherwise, I shall not return the cookie I just stole from you

[Argh]

Yes please :)

OK, here are a few (sorry about the delay, my mobo died Thursday, been largely afk):

1. Ninja 101: Maneuver <insert cloakable thing here> through a web of patrolling enemies, detectors and turrets to reach a specific set of waypoints. If detected, mission logic should give attack orders to all enemy mobiles / turrets (effectively game over, but give people the illusion of having a fighting chance to run and hide). Twist: halfway through, the enemy is "alerted", and the patrol paths for the various groups suddenly change, making it much more difficult to reach the final waypoints.

When the Macguffin is captured/blown up/whatever by the ninja, destroy the power generator supplying the Ninja's cloak, initiate a countdown, and the player is told they have X seconds to reach their extraction point, while remaining undetected (ideally, however long it will take to run down their energy storage or however ZK is handling that atm). It will take a few tests to get timing right, but the end could make for a satisfying "oh snap" moment.

2. Ninja 102: The enemy is sending cloaked troops to destroy your base! Player starts with minimal base that is spread out enough that cloaked units are a serious problem until detectors are up.

Twist: when the player has defeated X cloaked foes, post a message to the player, congratulating them on defeating the 'ninjas'. However, the enemy base (which should be pretty uber, ofc) should then attack with a large conventional army after X seconds (give players a warning that this will happen).

Once the conventional force is launched, start up the enemy base's factories, put them on autopilot (random choices from a list of medium-difficulty units) and let the player have the satisfaction of beating back the attack and then counter-attacking the enemy base.

For a final twist, as the player enters the enemy base, a huge force of <insert something really nasty here> enters the map near the player's initial base, and destroys it (make it very unlikely that the player can defend against it, or just nuke 'em, it's all just theatrics). Now the player is told to "defeat the enemy base and save as many troops as you can"- they're supposed to finish the job of assaulting the base, then proceed to a final extraction point, with the <giant evil things of Dewm> chasing them (and spawning at the map edge, should the player defeat any of them).

Given a fairly large map, this can turn into an epic chase scenario at the end. Players should be scored on how many units they retrieve, compared to how many they built (so that building a huge force before attacking the fortress isn't necessarily the way to get the best score).

3. Scud Hunt: the enemy has built <some sort of mobile launchers> and the player only has X minutes to find and kill them before the <insert macguffin> is nuked and the player loses. On a sufficiently-large map, this could be a fairly nasty scenario (and if I were you, I'd randomize the patrols and starts a bit, so it's never the same game twice).

Twist: randomly generate some <insert nasty flak> so that aircraft will occasionally run into a mini-base bristling with AA.

4. Protect the Penguin: The P.E.N.G.U.I.N. (some sort of macguffin) needs to be moved from A to B in order to <insert sci-fi bullshit>.

At first, it's a straightforward "protect the train" mission. Enemy groups come out of the woodwork and attack the player. Give 'em a mobile radar, so that they can see the attacks coming and have plenty of time to respond and micro.

Twist 1: Aircraft attack the mobile radar, leaving a smoking wreck behind. If the player has lost too many AA / dual-purpose units, they probably lose at this point.

Twist 2: The route is blocked by the enemy building a huge maze of DTs (or whatever ZK calls 'em) that make it impossible for the P.E.N.G.U.I.N. to reach its destination directly. Does the player take a different route, cut through the obstacles, or figure out a clever workaround, like using that seemingly-useless builder to raise the ground?

Twist 3: A huge force of <insert really fast things> has been spotted behind you, heading directly for the P.E.N.G.U.I.N.! Do you try and defend it with a rearguard, or just go hell-for-leather for the goal?

Final twist: you reach the goal, and there's an enemy base in the way! Fortunately, the base was built rather poorly, and has <insert exploding buildings> built near some key defenses. Use a stealth unit or a kamikaze assault to blow up the explosives, enter the base, and deliver the P.E.N.G.U.I.N.

[Licho]

I like the penguin mission, someone should code that :)
Sounds simple to make too.

[CarRepairer]

Ability to rotate the map (Ingame too if that's at all possible)

Use a widget? Here's one http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=21450

Fix that up for me so it does nothing but change the map rotation and you've earned yourself a cookie. Otherwise, I shall not return the cookie I just stole from you

In order for it to do nothing but change the map rotation, only perform the actions that change map rotation and don't perform the actions that do things other than change map rotation. Seriously dude. No more silly offtopic.

[knorke]

ok installed MissionEditor, seems to work.
But a few questions/critic:
1) Why can I not chose what path the Editor installs to?
2) Where the fuck DID it even install to? There is a "Application Reference" shortcut or something. Can not figure out where it points to, even opening it with a texteditor only shows
"http://zero-k.info/missioneditor/Missio ... pplication, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=lolz i censor this, processorArchitecture=x86"
I do not feel like search all discs & partions for "Mission Editor", I hate programs that install themself like that. Usually I just uninstall asap and hope I did not get spyware or a virus.
3) The condition/trigger menu is unresponsive.
I do rightclick, click on "new Action" and the context menu just disappears. Have to repeat every click multiple times until the menu does something.
I thought perhaps only the text on the menu is a clickable "hotspot" or the > Arrow to the right but it seems totally random. Maybe sometimes the clickable area is offset or something?
4) Could the GUI message/show picture event include a basic OK button? So you know to click it to continue playing and do not accidently click the image while ubermicroing. (are images scaled to players resolution btw?)
5) Maybe I did not see it, but is there a StopSound event? ie if you use GUI message and PlaySound for an introduction and the player wants to skip it, the sound should stop too.

Otherwise, cool to have missions back but point 1, 2 & 3 are really important to me before i can announcemamissionz.

[Licho]

Points
1) and 2)
won't be fixed!

It uses clickonce technology for self update and deployment. It installs to system defined folder somewhere in appdata. If you uninstall it, it deletes that folder completely.

We cannot control or change that. Zero-K lobby you been using for some time works exactly same ..

[knorke]

It installs to system defined folder somewhere in appdata.

Can not find it in %appdata%

I dont like that clickonce stuff, it seems every website can just install stuff with one accidental click.
I do not think I am paranoid but I like to know where stuff installs to and what it does on the net. Dont like if the line PC<->Internet gets blurred like that.
I only accepted zerok lobby because SL was broken at that time and I wanted to continue playing.
Had that been my first contact with Spring, I would have canceld installation. Seems like this anti piracy protection crap that also wants to install itself everywhere.

[maackey]

What do you propose we do to thwart the pirates then?


I really don't like things being everywhere either but its not enough to disown the software altogether -- both zklobby and mission editor are very neat programs

[knorke]

derail in 3, 2, 1..

What do you propose we do to thwart the pirates then?

offer good multiplayer or something. from what ive heard when you pirate some games you actually have less trouble.

its not enough to disown the software altogether -- both zklobby and mission editor are very neat programs

seeing as i need zklobby to update mods etc. and that allows me to play spring, then yes thats neat. I probally will use mission editor anyway. Still means I can say that some things of it suck?

[quantum]

1) and 2)
Benefits are an easy installer, automatic dependency installation, automatic updates, no UAC troubles, the uninstaller. Google Chrome uses a system nearly identical to that (in fact it can use clickonce for part of its installation process). I think most users prefer that kind of convenience over knowing where it installs.

Anyway, I can provide a zip archive for modders on request. I can use your branding for that version, for example I can call it the Conflict Terra Mission Editor. But it won't have automatic updates, which means it won't be able to publish missions at the next publishing service breaking change. It will still be able to make mutators.

3)
I don't know what could cause that. What's your OS? Did you change the DPI settings? Does everything else register clicks correctly?

4)
You're seeing the basic compatible message box. To get a prettier one, implement WG.ShowMessageBox(message, width, pause), or copy the Chili one in ZK (screenshot). It's not included in the mission editor because it depends on chili and the mission editor can't be sure chili works as expected in the current mod. For example, the chili messagebox crashes in in The Cursed.

The other module is GG.DropUnit, for the spawning animation of units after frame 0. ZK implements it as a an orbital drop. Not included in all missions because it would look silly in mods like S44.

Images are unscaled.

5)
There is no StopSound but that is something I can implement.

[knorke]

I can use your branding for that version

nah, not worth the trouble.

3) clicking
windows xp, resolution 1600x1200
DPI 96 (no idea what is default, but this one has "normal size" in front and i never changed that afaik)
Everything else seems to register clicking correct, ie placing units on the map. In zklobby I never noticed wrong clicking either.
I think the problem already existed in the previous mission editor?
The context menu for new trigger, new action does not highlight the mouse-over-ed item btw like I am used to from other programs/windows, is that normal?

4) message box

implement WG.ShowMessageBox(message, width, pause

wat.
also where.

or copy the Chili one in ZK

erm lol, fuck no?

Images are unscaled.

Could that be added? I think it is quite important that ie mission briefings always display correct and are not too big to fit on the screen or something.

orbital drop

zomg space rocks Oo

6) Being able to set mod and map options would be cool (but if not possible i already thought of something to work around it)

There is no StopSound but that is something I can implement.

Cool. I think StopAllSounds would be enough at this point.

7) What is the expected lifetime of missions in this form? ie will there be a mission-breaking update in the next few days etc. If I make a mission now, will it still be playable in a few weeks when there were lots of updates, zklobby being reworked etc?

[quantum]

3) That is not normal... I'll try it on an XP computer.

4) WG is a table shared by all widgets. Make a widget that creates a function called WG.ShowMessageBox and the mission editor will use that function to display message boxes, instead of the ugly message box with no buttons.

You can use it to make your custom message boxes with as many features as you want, including a close button. (Or use the already implemented one in ZK )

Yeah sure I can add an option for scaled images.

6) Yeah it's just not implemented yet.

7) No mission breaking updates expected. Not breaking missions is really essential. Nobody would make missions if they were going to break.