the brainstorming phase of a mission

[BoweryBaker 0]

Sometimes people have a certain conflict in mind.

Some start with the addons.

Lets start with the addons.

Your favorite addons are usually the ones that you make a mission based on or around.

You want to play with that addon.

So you say i got this addon, now what island goes with it?

You look through your island options.

Personally I stay away from middle east missions because for one I know how they operate, from a window of like a third or second story window and not many addons can get you a guy up in a building window to shoot down at you or catch you by surprise based on the buildings out there. The closest would be afghanistan islands buildings. They got some second story space opening to them to where someone could fire at you if you put in this setunitpos "up" so that they don't duck down at all or lay down which they do by nature. Lizardia is coming though and more. Next you get your enemy. You started with your good guy, your island, now your enemy. Now you need to set it up so these guys will go at it. That's the story, or the plot. You write that up in a briefing someone else made, just fill in the info. Then you start making the guys playable who's playable and setting up the waypoints. Dictating the action. Thats your basic mission. Next.

[Blanco 0]

I never start with the addons...

I'm half way with a mission when I have a decent story/plot.

Also, It always takes plenty of time before I can decide it's a good location on an island (could take days sometimes).

Even when the mission is big or difficult to make , I make a modfolder especially for that mission, to avoid conflicts.I always test the WP's, triggers and scripts  with the regular BIS units, actually the addons are stuff I add in a later stage

Except for addons with inbuilt scripts.

But I have so many unfinished missions (I guess I'm not the only one    ) I always have the bad habit to add this and that...  

[theavonlady 2]

I never start with the addons...

I almost always do.

But that's because my mission makings skills are (maybe I can say "were" ) minimal and my goal was to convert existing missions to easily highlight the gameplay look and feel of a given addon.

Now I'm wrapping up something that centers on an addon and involves converted missions but I've made so many changes to the original mission code and logic that something with a new look and feel has come out of it.

If only I could get some decent cutscene makers, I could wrap this up and release it. HINT! HINT!

[Blanco 0]

Hint taken...   * bling*

Avonlady, I can help you with those cutscenes, but I need the time to do it. It depends...what do you want to happen in that scene? pm me

[Junker 0]

i always start with location then addons and last of all the FANCY STUFF

Sometimes i work backwards Last Objective to insertion :P

the best missions always use the least enemy placed in the right places :P

[BoweryBaker 0]

Cutscenes. I try to make my scripting real time to avoid all the camera garbage that I don't feel like learning. On occassion ill do that right out of the box camera scripting. I just make all the talking and all that real time. There is some kind of block in my mind I like to call "style" that says don't do cutscenes, make all your dialog with npc's n stuff real time.

[Commando84 0]

I try to decide what building addons should be used

what custom or original island i use

and then i start doing the enemy bases or patrols or something like that and then also try thinking out some objectives

the place you start at i just pick one in less than 10-20 minutes

sometimes add vehicles , crates and objects around the start place and then i can add music and more enemies and also during that whole period there is alo of tesing all the time to see how things look like and also get the feel of the mission by testing it in mp when i feel that i got something thats can be playable

then there is briefing writing and also scripts can sometimes be inserted after i figured out what i want the mission to be about.

I got one script i use in many missions, keycats group link script 2 version 1.92 wich adds some very cool stuff that i can't live without.

[ACF 0]

My mind had nothing to do this lunchtime so I've let it out for a ramble . . . psychiatrists, look away now:

Recognise what you can do easily in OFP and what OFP will never do, then go with the former, not against the latter. As the military would say: reinforce success, not failure. Use scripting and functional addons to reduce the gap between the extremes. An example: if I want to watch a Blackhawk go down, I'll get the DVD out. If I want to be a Delta operative clearing buildings, I'll find some game that does that. But if I want to experience fire and movement in built-up areas against hostile forces that's a job for OFP.

Use anything as inspiration but don't get too tied to it. History may need spicing up, nationalities can be swapped. Replace Agincourt's French knights, English archers and wooden stakes for Russian motor rifle units, US artillery and minefields and see where that gets you.

OFP is a tactical simulator - find examples of real small unit tactics and engagements; not easy but far from impossible. At any cost get and read 'Dragons at War' by D Bolger (now there's an OFP2 campaign idea for you). Look at 'low-intensity', 'counter-insurgency' and 'peacekeeping' operations (e.g. Malayan Emergency, Confrontation; I've even found the operational report for Limbang on line!!) - small engagements are seen as significant and usually better recorded.

Find section, platoon or company tactics manuals. Use old ones and anyones - bread and butter fire and movement tactics don't change that much. Learn what should be done, what shouldn't be done and what has been done.

At this stage, the briefing will have almost written itself as you'll know what you want the player to do and what not.

The backstory is just that - background. Expend effort on the mission; just enough story to make it make sense. Too much too-good storytelling and the mission may not live up to it.

Ground can work for you or against you, whether you want it to or not. Terrain and tactics are related; look around.

Spend at least as much time designing for the enemy as you do the friendlies; they are the challenge and you spend far more time watching them. Do not rely on AI reactions for everything - they need a mission too. Get the enemy to use the right counter-tactics to your tactics and find ways to penalise the player when he does something he shouldn't.

If you think AI act weirdly, remember HI will be worse. Find ways to 'encourage' players to not 'cheat' your carefully-crafted mission (and then claiming it was all too easy or some critical event wasn't triggered or they never saw your arty (either sense) effects etc). You know how you want your mission to play out - they don't, so will benefit from some guidance.

Balancing difficulty is hard. If you set the mission up so that AI will fight AI it can beta test itself while you roam around as SetCaptive true or as a civvie to see what happens. Weight it so your side doesn't win, then the player has to make the difference; which is what we want from the game.

Finalise the briefing - make sure it's consistent with the objectives, the action and the 'boundaries' of the mission.

Leave voice work until last - the script will change and it's a pain to record new stuff and make it sound like the old.

Manage the expectations of players to suit yourself. Stick your reasons for doing and not doing things in the readme and chop the unconstructive-critcs' legs out from under them. Make a feature of 'big addons' or 'no intro/outro' or whatever. Don't suggest your mission is 'good' because that becomes a challenge to some to prove you wrong.

Several projects in development are a good idea as you can take a break and tinker with something else, then come back to it with fresh eyes and ideas. It also stops you putting all your good ideas in one never-finished mission.

At the end of the day, build a mission you would like to play; then one day, when you've forgotten the pain and frustration of making it, you just might!

Apologies if it was a bit dark in here.

[Redskin53 0]

Nicley put ACF and informative

[BoweryBaker 0]

I know I like my Power campaign. Its alot of fun. Especially if I had some buds with me. It's multiplayer but you can play it by yourself. message me if you want to beta test. its only three missions and about four addons used throughout all three.

[BoweryBaker 0]

once you are blessed with a good story you should make each situation lead to the next as long as it can go but be smart about it.  maybe, if you're lucky your franchise will last you your entire life, or you may be blessed with many stories.

[kerosene 0]

I've made a few small missons for myslef and im working on a few things that are a little more ambitious. I usually base my whole my misson around the enemy, deicede what I want to fightand where. I look around the map and try and find places I would want to put a drug factory or whatever and then I do patrols and stuff and work in and do the base defenders last.

I learnt its best to test stuff out in isolation by merging it to an empty map, I got sick of a bunch of missons I started, but i've just started to learn about scripting so its getting a little better.

P.S, does anyone know any good military-type websites for inspiration on missons? Espically on WW2, i'd like to try some, but I'm not really sure about missons for small groups, like, say 3 squads.

[BoweryBaker 0]

No, but you can try goarmy.com.

[.pablo. 0]

when im making a mission i usually start with an idea of some situation i want the player to be put in, whether its commanding an infantry platoon on a POW rescue, running from zombies with no ammo in your pistol, or flying helicopters into hot LZ's.  then i try to make the mission as realistic as possible, get bogged down in the details, and quit when i realize that i can't make it as good as i had pictured it in my head.    so my missions folder is full of really detailed briefings, or really elaborate intros, or really complicated scripts, but nothing that could be pbo'd and submitted as a mission.

edit: oh, and the moral of this story is that you should accept that your mission will never be as perfect as you visualize it in your mind

[BoweryBaker 0]

That's right. It's like the Nike slogan. Just do it. Don't think about it.

[The Real Armstrong 0]

When I come up with a new idea, I think about it a lot. Then I play round with notepad and the editor to come up with the backbone of the mission. Then I make the backbone of the briefing at this early stage, because then I know exactly what to do. Of course I can change it, but it's good to have some sort of frame.

[BoweryBaker 0]

especially with a cutscene planning. the timing that the camera will end, the timing of the voice files, who says what in what order, that all must be typed down in notepad before being put into a mission.  ive done alot of that with mission two in my power saga.

[-=BT=- Matty R 0]

i plan the mission first, then i add the enemy onto the map make sure there in the right places then i add the objectives in then i add the player(s) in then i add extras in and so forth..

when i plan the mission i decide the story, then island then units to fit the time period

[tj72 0]

I often play a standard OFP single mission like Steal the Car or Clean Sweep and think about what I would like to improve about those missions.

For example I wanted a Clean Sweep mission that kept going. So there was more than just one town to take but dozens. It wasnt hard to make a basic version of this but I kept wanting to improve it more and more. This led to OFPEC and forum searches here to try and enhance the mission. Now Im adding scripts and Addons to the mission and starting to learn some scripting and tricks myself. The mission becomes four missions over the four main Islands. Two years later Im almost done. Haha.

[-=BT=- Matty R 0]

I often play a standard OFP single mission like Steal the Car or Clean Sweep and think about what I would like to improve about those missions.

For example I wanted a Clean Sweep mission that kept going. So there was more than just one town to take but dozens. It wasnt hard to make a basic version of this but I kept wanting to improve it more and more. This led to OFPEC and forum searches here to try and enhance the mission. Now Im adding scripts and Addons to the mission and starting to learn some scripting and tricks myself. The mission becomes four missions over the four main Islands.  Two years later Im almost done. Haha.

cool lol, most people just give up and start a new mission.. lol sounds big