How to name Missions

[Damorfasu 0]

My request to those of you that are making missions is simple and stated as

such....

When you create a mission to be distributed, please identify the mission as

a Single player (SP) or Multi-player (MP) in the title. I know many of you

include readme files, but these are not what we look at in the mission

selection screen. Also please identify how many players along with the

style of play. This will make it so much easier in handling the hundreds of

missions that are already out there now and on my hard drive. Here is an

example of my proposed Mission naming scheme...

**Single Player mission**:

SP_Attack_at_dawn.eden

**Multi-Player**:

MP_Attack_at_dawn_COOP14.eden

MP_Attack_at_dawn_CTF14.eden

MP_Attack_at_dawn_DM6.eden

MP_Attack_at_dawn_TDM12.eden

Explanation of name...

MP = self explained

AAD = Title of mission

CTF/DM/TDM/COOP = Type of mission -

14/6/12 = Total number of human players.

Thank you all. if anyone has any questions just ask. Or if you can make this

better please speak up. Thank you for your support. I also ask that you

spread this around on your forums and web sites. I, and many OFP fans

appreciate your help...

--

Kris aka Damorfasu <TZW>

damorfasuNO-SPAM@timezone-warriors.net

www.timezone-warriors.net

DF:LW and Operation Flashpoint

Death and carnage shall follow me like the rains follow a hurricane. It is

inevitable....

[Angry Radish 0]

Here here!

Since OFP is pretty crappy about showing mission parameters, can you map authors please at least include min/max players in the name of your maps?

I'm having a #### of a time tracking down maps to support the 20-30 players usually on my server, and I have to wade through alot of 8 player maps to find any.

Thanks for the consideration!

Angry Radish

[benu 1]

Why not use the naming conventions bis use themselves? Eg name_of_map.island.pbo for singleplayer, like 07shadowkiller.abel.pbo and #players_type_name.island.pbo for multiplayer with type being (c|ctf|d|dm|t), like 1-4_C_SHADOWKILLER.ABEL.PBO, 1-8_D_FlagFight.ABEL.pbo, 2-8_T_CaptureTheFlag1.EDEN.pbo...

I would also suggest you put a (t|s|ts, for time limit, score limit or both) between the name and the island if the map needs parameters for a dedicated server. It can be #### of a lot work for an admin to find that in the hundreds of maps. So for example

2-8_DM_newscenario_ts.cain.pbo for a team deathmatch map with time and score limit.

(Edited by benu at 11:41 pm on Nov. 5, 2001)

[Chris Death 0]

Why you don't let the mission makers choose the name,

they want? If you want to have a better overview at your mission selection, just rename the files in your MPmissions folder, or you could also write down a list

of your maps and a comment beside (including all info you want). Don't understand me in wrong way, but isn't it enough that the mission makers makin good missions,

which you can play (and all for free). Don't bother them

with your special wishes.

[benu 1]

As a player i couldn't care less what the name of a mission is, but as an admin it's just a lot of work to figure all this things out and it would have been no extra work for the mapper at all to put this info into the name of the map. Have you ever edited a server.cfg? How bout BIS post all their answers in czech? I mean they do a lot of work for the game and answering and all and why should they post in english? Hope you get the point...

[Chris Death 0]

How the #### could anyone tell a mission-creater

how he has to name his mission?

If you don't like the name of a mish,

there will be 3 ways to avoid of having

missions with such names:

1 - rename the mission (as i told in topic b4)

2 - don't download it, or if you got it by

playing - delete it from your folder

3 - create your own list (maybe on a toillet-paper)

where you write down the in-game name

and some comments like you want.

Everyone who creates a map has the right

(and only he has it) to name his map how

he wants (even if it's xyz or GIRHGRT)

I understand all what you mean by having

probs to select the right map for playing,

but i never had a real big prob with that

naming thing.

[benu 1]

It's not about ordering mappers around, i think the word is being considerate. It's absolutely no extra work for the mapper to put that info into the name of the map. The actual NAME of the can still be chosen as he likes it. Many times i've played on servers which suddenly got flooded with players and asked the admin to change to a bigger map for 12vs12 or more players and the admin didn't know which map was big enough. When i'm setting up a dedicated server i have to playtest each map to see if it's got a time or score parameter, cause if you don't set them up correctly in the server config they won't work at all. When i download a map it would be helpful if i knew what kind of map it is so i can chosse the right one without testing them all on my computer before editing the server config and uploading them to the server. It's hard enough running an ofp server without that additional and really pointless work.

BTW: Renaming the missions imho is bad style. That's really disregarding the mappers wishes and all the players need to download the map (again) cause it's got a new name and they may have it n-fold on their harddrive under n different names.

[Oversoul 0]

Lots of name calling and this and that.

Simply put: standards make it all easier.

[DEMONIAC 0]

i gota agree with DV Chris Death very much on this subject you lazy *** people who cant take the time to

read the readme.txt when you download missons

need to quit complaining dont download a s**tload of missons and extract them all do one at a time and read

that seems the problem with most of you who are complaining you dont wana take the time to do it

and after you read the txt file if you feal the need to rename the pbo go ahead...after renameing i wouldent repost it eather might piss someone off.......

[Damorfasu 0]

I read every read.me file that comes around, When i enter the mission into my dedicated server, I use a modified file name like i posted above. The thing to remember is that when running your dedicated server is that the files are downloaded into the players missions folder also. New name and all. This is a good reason to standardize the mission naming.

I was not trying to cause controversy and I did not think this was an unreasonable request. I have talked to a few mission designers and they did not seem to have any problems with this idea. As for thinking we folks who are running dedicated servers are lazy. Have you tried to maintain a DEDICATED server lately. I am remotely rebooting the PC and restarting OFP on a daily basis. I have searched through virtually hundreds of missions to determine which missions we would host. I am extremely grateful to those mission designers who have made thier mission public for us to use. I just wish that it would be a little more Standardized in the naming style. And there is stil no reason why the mission designer can't put his/her moniker along with the mission name.

I hope you can understand this. Thank you for taking the time to listen.

[Lt_Damage 0]

This looks like an old post but I will add to it anyway..

The BIS standard is used on most dedicated servers. We use it on ours and it makes searching for maps easier. (We have about 300 and its tough)

Example of a 30 player coop

16-30_C_SLAPTHEMONKEY.abel

Example of a 30 player CTF

16-30_T_EVILMONKEYCTF

Basically, C = Coop, D = DM, T = Teamplay, TDM = TeamDeathmatch, CH = CaptureHold, DD = Defend Destroy

[Major Fubar 0]

Lt Damage seems to have it right, that's the standard I would like to see followed.

DV, take a pill man! No one saying mission creators have to follow this standard (halt, this is the naming convention police, you are charged with incorrectly naming your mission! ), but it sure makes things a lot more straightforward if they do.

e.g. At the beginning of an impromptu LAN session with some friends, we grabbed a whole heap of missions from various sites. After installing them, we couldn't tell WTF half of them were in the game screen. Yes, if we'd had the time to sit down and go through each mission, renaming it as we saw fit, all well and good. But, strangely enough, we would rather have spent that time playing. (Note: next session I did exactly that, went through the missions beforehand and renamed them to the standard).

What I would like to see (and I hardly think this is likely till OFP 2), is a better interface when selecting missions. Instead of just having names to chose from the pretty pictures of the various islands, how about info on each mission (type, # players) etc. If this was the case, missions could be called whatever the hell anyone wanted without inconviencing players.