editing ArmA 3 Mission Creation

[Doctor_Holliday 0]

Hey there everyone,

 

I'll get to the point. I'm still pretty new to ArmA 3 Scripting and mission creating. I have a couple of these questions that maybe the Veteran community could answer.

I want to add custom images, unit patches, voice lines, etc etc etc. BUT. I am inexperienced in how to get them to work. I've looked on the community and the wiki but it doesn't seem to work in the way that I was hoping.

 

The questions.

- What scripting program is good?

- What programs would I need?

- Where can I find a way to insert my own custom made files into the game?

[RichUK 2]

Hi @Doctor_Holliday 🙂

I have just posted something myself here and saw your post, so I thought I would give you a quick reply.   I am a veteran of scripting since OFP, although until the last month had not done any scripting for many years and am certainly not an expert.   I will start by saying that it is great that you have an interest in scripting and mission creating and will say that although it can be frustrating at times, it is also very satisfying when you create something that works how you want it to.

In answer to some of your questions:

- What scripting program is good?
I strongly recommend using Notepad++  for doing your scripting.  I use it with an SQF plugin to make it visually easy to type and edit code used for scripting.  You need to download the Notepad++ SQF Syntax Highlighting and Auto Completion plugin.  Old stuff used to be done using SQS format, but it is best to forget about that as all Arma stuff can use SQF.

 

- What programs would I need?
Well apart from Notepad++, as you are talking about custom voices etc., then you need a good freeware audio processing program.  I have not done that sort of stuff for a long time, but I used to use Audacity which I found did a lot of the work for me.

There may well be other tools that you will need later.  Some are available to you as part of the ArmA 3 Tools you can get for free via Steam.  For example, you will need to use things like 'ImageToPAA' to convert graphics into compressed texture form that Arma understands for some thing.

- Where can I find a way to insert my own custom made files into the game?
Well, it depends what you mean here, but you create a mssion by a combination of stuff you do in the editor that creates a mission.sqf in the mission folder for your missionname.island, everything else you put in there you create yourself (or copy from others... hehe).

I recommend searching for some good scripting tutorial, and start off just doing some simple stuff at first, till you learn the techniques to do more.  There are a lot of older ones for earlier versions of ArmA and OFP, but not so many for ArmA 3. I have found the Killazonekid Tutorials quite useful, so that might be a start.

 

If you would like to look at the mission I have just posted, it is here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2013966321

If you try it and would like to know how I did what in it, I would be happy to help.  I actually have one sub-folder and 50 (mostly script) files in the mission directory for that mission.

I will also mention OFPEC: The Editing Center - Missions Depot and especially the forums there.  Although a lot of the information on the site is very outdated and there is not so much for Arma 3, the site has been going since the early days of OFP and there is a wealth of knowledge there.  Although not so used these days, it is still worth joining and posting any scripting questions you have in the forums.

Edited March 5, 2020 by RichUK
extra info on OFPEC