Where does a total noob even begin?

[Eain 10]

Being new to ArmA II and loving the mission editor (I spent countless hours on that thing back in the days with Operation Flashpoint.... eight years ago), I decided to take it upon myself to make missions again.

But... there's so much info that I honestly don't know where to start.

Looking around the internet I found these forums, I found the COMREF both on the arma2 site and the wiki, I found the ofpec editing center, I found loads of addons for scripting...

Thing is, I don't even know the basics. What little I know of ArmA scripting is eight year old knowledge that I've lost for the most part and I'm pretty sure that the code used in OFP back in the days is childs play compared to what ArmA II uses.

Are there tutorials to follow? Or am I supposed to dig through the thread history on this forum and hope to find threads that adress my questions? The Comrefs are huge and contain a lot of info but they assume a basic level of knowledge because they present you with the commands and a really short description of what they do, but not much beyond that.

I'm pretty lost to be honest. xD There's a ton of cool mission ideas I have in my head and I know that when I get the scripting side of it all down again I'll be able to make some amazing stuff to share with the community, but I do need a bit of a hand.

Anyone have any advice?

Thanks.

[IndeedPete 1038]

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=4847

Best beginner's guide ever. It's written for Arma but most of the stuff works in Arma 2 too.

[Eain 10]

Wow, that's amazing. Gonna get right to that. Funny how that didn't come up in google searches at all... unless I simply searched for the wrong stuff.

Thanks mate.

[ziiip 1]

Not to sound like a dick, but did you even bother reading the stickies?

Mission Editing and Scripting Information - Links only, NO Discussion

[cyop 10]

Eain, Welcome to the forum! :)

So you know, most people have no ill feelings when they mention to someone about searching. When answers are almost right in front of the thread starter, it finally gets annoying, and one or more people will say something. I have been guilty of it at least once, myself.

Even for a youngster (not saying you're one), it should be obvious that the first thing a person should do is read the rules, and read the stickies.

Also, for whomever, many unneeded threads make searching the forum, and even Google, much more difficult. Man, wading through a bunch of the same threads gets tiring. :eek:

On topic... I started by just getting in the editor and doing stuff. When something would not do what I thought it was suppose to, or, I did not know what it was suppose to do, I would start looking for answers.

BTW, I still do not know much of anything, and I am actually going to start a thread about that in here. Hopefully, I don't get in trouble for that.

[Eain 10]

Not to sound like a dick, but did you even bother reading the stickies?

Mission Editing and Scripting Information - Links only, NO Discussion

I did and it's one of the reasons I made this thread. IndeedPete's contribution was awesome and one of those things that other people who use the search function in the future are going to get out of finding this topic :P

@ CyOp: I'm aware and no worries. That's how it goes, you're new to some communities and veteran to others and in those you behave like the veterans here do. But thanks for the welcome and I did indeed read the stickies :)

[Rustydog 10]

One thing is to look at some other missions and see how they did things. edit them a little to make changes and see what the results are .

A lot of doing missions is trial and error.

[cyop 10]

One thing is to look at some other missions and see how they did things. edit them a little to make changes and see what the results are .

A lot of doing missions is trial and error.

Yes, that is one mistake I made, was never getting anyone else's work and 'using' it. At the time, in the past, it just seemed wrong to me. And really, I still rarely do that. (Can't get past that mental hump, I guess.)

Also, yes, most will look and search, and still not be able to get something that is, maybe, just clear to 'them'. I know I have searched for things till I am going nuts.

But, yes, look at other's work!

[ziiip 1]

I dont see anythong wrong with learning from someone else's stuff. If you feel guilty, just credit him.:)

Here's a video tutorial (love them):

The first in a series of tutorials aimed at the complete novice to mission making in Armed Asssault 2.

This Tutorial gets straight to the point with a simple mission in under 6 minutes that you can play straight away. It introduces some basic concepts such as placing units, setting waypoints and synchronising events, as well as completion of mission.

Edited August 1, 2010 by ziiip

[Jack_Ryan_ 10]

I echo the above responses. I found reading about it very confusing, UNTIL I opened a mission (un-pbo'd) I enjoyed, and started adjusting little areas, then searched the forums on how to do other things. Eventually you start to see where various codes are placed and how UNBELIEVABLY adjustable all the facets of the mission can be.

Its so much fun, but kiss RL goodbye, LOL !!

[therev709 10]

Mr.Murry's Editing Guide, its written for Arma 1, and they're working on the Arma 2 version, but most of the stuff in that guide book is still relevant. I just use that, the search feature on the forums, and occasionally dePBO other missions just to learn how something works.

---------- Post added at 04:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 AM ----------

but kiss RL goodbye, LOL !!

OMG sooo true . . .