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How do I play the missions?

Posted: 10 Apr 2010, 00:32
by ScarySquirrel
"I downloaded some of the games."
"I keep looking for the campaign, but I can't find it."
"Is there a button that says "start campaign" that I'm missing?"

Re: How do I play the missions?

Posted: 10 Apr 2010, 00:57
by SinbadEV
ScarySquirrel wrote:"I downloaded some of the games."
"I keep looking for the campaign, but I can't find it."
"Is there a button that says "start campaign" that I'm missing?"
Short answer is NO... but technically they are possible.

I'll let someone who knows more answer more specifically... but, while the engine has quite a few skirmish modes and AIs and such the like, for the most part no-one has really built a real campain... well except Argh, but he charges for it... I think there's an example in his demo... also, there was this mission thing for a while but I'm pretty sure it stopped working a few versions ago... I don't think it was used for much more then proof of concept stuff anyway.

Re: How do I play the missions?

Posted: 10 Apr 2010, 01:09
by Neddie
The missions used to be available through SD. However, seeing as missions need to be updated with game or engine changes, and in commercial RTS use the supermajority of development resources, none of the nonprofit game teams can feasibly deploy a working campaign. Some people made individual missions but these are probably out of date.

Re: How do I play the missions?

Posted: 10 Apr 2010, 05:05
by ScarySquirrel
Well that sucks I guess.
Is there a way to make missions work even though the engine changes?

Posted: 10 Apr 2010, 11:55
by quantum
If you're asking about the mission editor missions, the data files are pretty version-independent, but the mission framework scripts and the mission editor need to be updated. Also, the mod on which the mission is based might be incompatible with the latest Spring version.

Another route would be to make the system automatically and transparently fetch the specific Spring version that works with the mission but that probably has lots of complications.

As a user, there isn't really much you can do, you can't just get and old version of Spring and download the missions because they relied on a program that applied fixes and provided, ratings, comments, highscores, etc.

You can however get the NOTA mission pack, it uses a different system and comes with the required version of Spring.

Re: How do I play the missions?

Posted: 10 Apr 2010, 15:54
by SinbadEV
My best suggestion for "missions" would be to make a map-mutator with the scripting you need built into a Lua script...

Re: How do I play the missions?

Posted: 10 Apr 2010, 16:01
by Licho
What are you talking about SinbadEV - what do you think missions were?? It was that - mutator with lua scripts!

And any missions will suffer from problems outlined there (mod dependency, engine dependency, huge effort needed)

Re: How do I play the missions?

Posted: 10 Apr 2010, 17:33
by CarRepairer
Licho wrote:What are you talking about SinbadEV - what do you think missions were?? It was that - mutator with lua scripts!

And any missions will suffer from problems outlined there (mod dependency, engine dependency, huge effort needed)
I will help illustrate this point.

I created a mission called Chicken Tag that used CA as a base. I needed the mission editor to keep it maintained. The mission editor was required to upgrade it to use later and later versions of CA, and the last version I used was CA 4460. When the mission editor no longer worked with new versions of spring (it would crash), I converted the mission into a standalone game. This meant I no longer had the ability to use the mission editor anymore should it be fixed in a future time. It also means I have to re-fix all the issues in the 4460. One thing I had to fix was explosion decals. In the old version of spring that 4460 ran on, the images used for these were red, and later spring versions had upgraded so that mods can (and must) use a normal colored image. Spring changes, mods change, and missions built upon those mods must be maintained.

Re: How do I play the missions?

Posted: 13 Apr 2010, 01:30
by Argh
And any missions will suffer from problems outlined there (mod dependency, engine dependency, huge effort needed)
Just for the record, I ported the missions made to the current Spring build without a great deal of effort. The old Mission Builder needs to quit being dependent on UnitSync and then with minor changes to the Lua base files it could be used with practically anything.

Re: How do I play the missions?

Posted: 13 Apr 2010, 14:25
by ==Troy==
NOTA has a few single player missions, supposedly they are very hard.

Bepth

Posted: 20 Apr 2010, 12:01
by ScarySquirrel
Whoa.
As most people who know me will tell you, I rarely say this, but it seems I am out of my bepth.
I imagine you guys have higher priorities than missions right about now, and it looks like I have some answers for noobs, in the form of the mission editor and the NOTA missions.

Also, I have recently learned taht Chicken Tag still works!