Operation Flashpoint: Mission Editing Competition.

[Junker 0]

Does this competition accept Sci-Fi mission types too and not just Battle Field Sim, If so im in

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]Does this competition accept Sci-Fi mission types too and not just Battle Field Sim, If so im in  

There's no rule that specifies what genre of combat your mission has to be.

[Ninja_STO 0]

Personally I think that taking part in assisting a mission builder in tasks such as voice acting, stringtable.csv's, or other such tasks that are not really part of building the mission itself, should not be considered part of a team unless the primary mission builder and that assistant wish to make it so. Instead, they should just be listed in the credits.

The reason is because I'm sure there will be several people getting help for minor tasks that don't really effect the mission's design or building, but only enhance certain aspects of it. And some of those people helping with the minor roles will probably wish to submit missions of their own design. I think it would be fair in allowing them to not be listed as part of the team, to allow them to submit their own missions as well.

I don't think that would be a problem for the hosts or judges, but it will be up to them. Hope they will see it that way and be ok with it.

[Junker 0]

Well this competition got my attention and i am working on a few ideas atm ;)

Good Work BIS :P

[Ironsight 1]

Just a question:

If you make a costum WRP (not released) for your mission can you just include it in the zip/rar of your mission?

Ehh do I get any answer

[Placebo 29]

Just a question:

If you make a costum WRP (not released) for your mission can you just include it in the zip/rar of your mission?

If the mission on its own cannot be used in the vanilla game then it must be submitted in the addon category, an additional file whether in the zip or elsewhere has to be classed as an addon.

Your probably aware of this.  

But the Entry Submission Form on http://www.bistudio.com/me_comp/mec_2004.html is not working. It gives me a 404 error anyway.

Hope it's cleared up ASAP.

Yup I know, at the time of "going to press" the submission form wasn't ready for implementation, so I threw in a "fake" url, clearly judging by the Emails/PM's waiting for me this morning that was an error    

Firstly anyone submitting a mission only a few days after launch is wasting a lot of time that they could be using for tweaking/polishing/sound recording etc. So I wouldn't expect any serious submissions to require the form just yet.

Secondly as soon as the submission form is ready I will make a post in here, a comment on the BI Studio website as well as an Email to Ofp.info/Avon/Ofpec/etc. to let them know

one more question (i hope last   ). I can make voice acting in ANY languege but titles MUST BE in English?

and name in submission must be my real name or nickname?

Voice acting may be in any language as long as the text/subtitles are in English

Name submission can be nickname/realname/both

The judges should consist of all kinds of people, objective of course,

Yep that's my aim, many people from many different backgrouns, many different skill levels and abilites, final round of judging will most likely (hopefully) be judged by "VIP's" i.e. people who've been around the community a long time and contributed something to the community in one form or another

I have a question: does a map that uses Keg´s editorupdate102.pbo count as an addon mission?

It's an addon, no matter how popular or common it's still an addon and as such any missions that require it must be submitted in an addon category

Quote[/b] ]People may team up and submit a joint entry

OK, I have a question about this rule. If one person creates all mission files, but asks someone to do translations for multi-language support, does that count as a team effort? If I gave an English briefing and a basic stringtable.csv to someone who translated the briefing into German and added German entries to the stringtable, would that mean that only one of us could submit a mission?

Translation is not considered part of a "team effort", unless the person who created the missions wishes it to be. Or the translator wishes it to be, whatever, that's to be decided by the people involved in creating the mission, as far as we're concerned translation does not take anything away from the author of the mission

Personally I think that taking part in assisting a mission builder in tasks such as voice acting, stringtable.csv's, or other such tasks that are not really part of building the mission itself, should not be considered part of a team unless the primary mission builder and that assistant wish to make it so. Instead, they should just be listed in the credits.

That's exactly how it is.

If people want it to be classed as a team effort then that's their choice, far as we're concerned the voice recording/csv/translation need only be classed as "crediting" roles

Ehh do I get any answer  

No  

Humble apologies, no internet in my apartment = 3 day wait if you post something Friday evening

I think that answers all remaining questions, if anyone thinks of anything else please let me know

BTW I'm still looking for offers to translate the mission editing rules, French has been done, just another 47 to go, Swahili anyone?

[Ironsight 1]

Just a question:

If you make a costum WRP (not released) for your mission can you just include it in the zip/rar of your mission?

If the mission on its own cannot be used in the vanilla game then it must be submitted in the addon category, an additional file whether in the zip or elsewhere has to be classed as an addon.

Don't want to submit it in the non-addon category so I can just include it in the zip/rar.

Quote[/b] ]BTW I'm still looking for offers to translate the mission editing rules, French has been done, just another 47 to go, Swahili anyone?  

Can do Dutch, and I know some German  

Quote[/b] ]Humble apologies, no internet in my apartment = 3 day wait if you post something Friday evening

Now I get why you weren't here all weekend

[Placebo 29]

Can do Dutch, and I know some German  

Dutch will be splendid Placebo@bistudio.com

[Placebo 29]

Don't want to submit it in the non-addon category so I can just include it in the zip/rar.

You waited 3 days and still I misread the question

Well no I'm afraid not, it has to be available on the internet as the basic point of this is to make more missions available to the community, the 10 finalists will all be release for definite so anything they require will have to be readily available, depending on the submission level there's a good chance that further competition entries will be released, for example the 50 best non finalists could be released together as a little pack

[Junker 0]

Don't want to submit it in the non-addon category so I can just include it in the zip/rar.

You waited 3 days and still I misread the question  

Well no I'm afraid not, it has to be available on the internet as the basic point of this is to make more missions available to the community, the 10 finalists will all be release for definite so anything they require will have to be readily available, depending on the submission level there's a good chance that further competition entries will be released, for example the 50 best non finalists could be released together as a little pack

or a speacial CD  ;) all profits to a Charity  

BTW any good places to get non-copyright music..?

[Ironsight 1]

Can do Dutch, and I know some German  

Dutch will be splendid Placebo@bistudio.com

Check your inbox

[Guest]

Just a little something....I don't know how important it is, but should all global variables be tagged? Someone (several people?) is going to be looking at a lot of missions in a row.....and the chances of some interference between variables is possible/probable? Just a thought....

[Placebo 29]

I'm afraid that question goes completely over my head, perhaps someone can explain it to me as though I'm a child so I might understand?

I know where the mission editor is in the game but that's about it

[Munk 0]

Where do you sign up to be a judge?

[vektorboson 8]

Just a little something....I don't know how important it is, but should all global variables be tagged? Someone (several people?) is going to be looking at a lot of missions in a row.....and the chances of some interference between variables is possible/probable? Just a thought....

How should global variables interfere between unchained missions?

Global variables should be only tagged for addons, but I don't see a necessarity for mission variables to be tagged.

[Junker 0]

oh just 1 thing does the mission have a max set for player slots to play on Multi-Player ?? is it 10 or unlimited..?

[Guest]

Just a little something....I don't know how important it is, but should all global variables be tagged? Someone (several people?) is going to be looking at a lot of missions in a row.....and the chances of some interference between variables is possible/probable? Just a thought....

How should global variables interfere between unchained missions?

Global variables should be only tagged for addons, but I don't see a necessarity for mission variables to be tagged.

Just a question.....I'm far from an expert in these matters....

[drow 0]

a good mission for this competition is one that revives itself numerous times throughout the mission,

meaning, the objectives change, new objectives are added, the mission takes on a turn in a direction unexpected, becomes significantly longer than previously stated in the breifing... this all might make no sence, but basically the mission should tag on a couple extra events to happen after the initial objective, to add suprize and excitment.

Simple "take the town" missions will have no place in the comp im sure...

Maybe - Take the town, the fight off the counter attack, then reinforcements arrive to secure the town, free'ing you up to conduct a search to the north where u discover enemy troop movements on a massive scale forcing you to fall back and await reinforcements and/or call in fire support...

Just be creative and write down your ideas before you open the editor, it helps alot.  

[Junker 0]

a good mission for this competition is one that revives itself numerous times throughout the mission,

meaning, the objectives change, new objectives are added, the mission takes on a turn in a direction unexpected, becomes significantly longer than previously stated in the breifing... this all might make no sence, but basically the mission should tag on a couple extra events to happen after the initial objective, to add suprize and excitment.

Simple "take the town" missions will have no place in the comp im sure...

Maybe - Take the town, the fight off the counter attack, then reinforcements arrive to secure the town, free'ing you up to conduct a search to the north where u discover enemy troop movements on a massive scale forcing you to fall back and await reinforcements and/or call in fire support...

Just be creative and write down your ideas before you open the editor, it helps alot.  

Maybe you can write and plan a mission from paper, But i find my bestest missions have come from messing in the editor and adding to them, Do one part test in dedicated and then add more, this way u dont get a mess at the end of it when Bugs throw them selves at u when u r in dedicated.

 Once i got the basics down i add the fancy stuff to it  ;)

[Doolittle 0]

Hi, this is my first post in six months.

I just wanted to ask, are there any kind of rules for the MP respawning?  Like: no respawn, group respawn only, etc.?  I would imagine your answer to be:  whatever you think will be good for the mission.

My other question is:  what if Mike submits MFCTI? We'd all be doomed.  Or the CoC's Command Engine.  Or KaRRiLLioN's RTS3....these are all high quality work.  Is this allowed or not?  I think it should be allowed.

Doolittle

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]Or the CoC's Command Engine.

I don't think a mission based on the CoC CE will have a serious shot at the grand prize. First, long missions + no saving = extremely pissed-off judges . Second, OFP's AI isn't very good at large-scale RTS. Vehicles constantly collide (Especially choppers), friendly fire incidents are rampant, and troops will cheerfully look in the opposite direction of an attack. Games like this are frustrating and would probably receive a low playability score. Also, to keep down lag, minimal objects are used, so bases look sparse and unrealistic. I tried using CE in a prototype mission, but I just don't think this style of mission has much of a chance. You're better off creating missions where the player is a soldier or low-ranking officer.

[-)a)( 0]

It is allowed to submit missions, which were already released?! Bcs if it is a famous mission (like MFCTI), the mission-makers aren't really anonymous.

[dinger 1]

Uh, let's see:

Quote[/b] ]

I don't think a mission based on the CoC CE will have a serious shot at the grand prize. First, long missions + no saving = extremely pissed-off judges .

You're assuming that saving is a right and a necessity. Some missions can be designed to play very well without saving; others need a save every 2 minutes.

In any case, while for the last two years we have been able to repeat the "Savegame bug" 100% of the time when we want to, it does not always or necessarily occur every time you use the CE.

Quote[/b] ]

Second, OFP's AI isn't very good at large-scale RTS. Vehicles constantly collide (Especially choppers), friendly fire incidents are rampant, and troops will cheerfully look in the opposite direction of an attack. Games like this are frustrating and would probably receive a low playability score. Also, to keep down lag, minimal objects are used, so bases look sparse and unrealistic. I tried using CE in a prototype mission, but I just don't think this style of mission has much of a chance. You're better off creating missions where the player is a soldier or low-ranking officer.

Just because you have been incapable of making a CE mission that works effectively doesn't mean it's impossible. Vehicle collision can be avoided. Helo collision is the easiest to avoid, and that's done by assigning helicopters different altitude bands. AI that looks in the wrong direction usually occurs because of direction, whether by the mission editor or the commander. Excessive FPS chunders come about because a mission editor tries to do too much.

The OFP engine is flexible enough to give us a wide range of mission types. I certainly the other judges do not display this sort of prejudice against a given type of mission.

[Jinef 2]

Well considering during the Iraq campaign two seaking helicopters crashed into each other, a Tornado was shot down due to friendly fire and a M1A1 abrams was destroyed when a RPG was fired into the rear engine grill, thus it was looking the wrong way; then I think that the CE missions would score high on the realism anyway.

Have 10 judges been selected? I would quite like to be a judge so I can offer the above viewpoint

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]You're assuming that saving is a right and a necessity.

Placebo has said that you need to be able to save during difficult missions.

Quote[/b] ]Just because you have been incapable of making a CE mission that works effectively doesn't mean it's impossible.

As I said, the problem also stems from the lack of detail that is necessary when making large-scale missions. Bases look very empty and unrealistic, there's little/no civilian life in towns, and other such details. Making a CE mission isn't too difficult (With that helpful readme), but making a good-looking CE mission is rather different. You can auto-generate objects when a player is in the area to create better-looking areas, but if you want to keep the effect convincing then you have to generate these objects every time you switch to a vehicle/unit cam. And running these extra scripts may very well push you over the limit into non-save territory.

And no, I'm not "incapable" of making a CE mission. I'm talking about experiences I've had playing CE missions. Personally, if I'm going to make an RTS mission, than I'll make it about the resistance, which CE is somewhat unsuited for (It seems better suited for large-scale West vs. East matches). I even wrote my own personal command system for the resistance, with features like the ability to dig into towns. It was from making this system that I developed my "prejudice" against RTS missions. It always comes down to the lack of fine tune control. I want to individually position soldiers into an ambush area, but that kind of nit-picky detail results in lots of extra groups running around. I want to individually guide my soldiers through the woods and past traps, but I can't do that through the command interface. I want my sniper to hide in a certain cluster of bushes and only fire at officers and other snipers, but where is that order? And I can't use UA, which is guaranteed to prevent loading when combined with a command system.

It's not like "If I was a judge, I would mark down a mission because it used CE". I was saying that I think it's very hard to make a mission combine detail (Atmosphere score) with enough use of CE to get a good Novelty score, while keeping script usage low enough to keep the save feature working (Playability score).