N00b questions about description.ext

[sanndor 10]

Hello all, I apologize if this is a dumb question or if its answered somewhere already. I have been searching these forums and multiple sites for the past 2 days and have some basic questions causing me confusion.

I started creating a basic mission and with the help of many threads here and the Arma1 editing guide it's coming along nicely. I see in many places talk of the Description.ext and several other files(SQS and SQF files). I have kinda figured out that I have to create the descriptions.ext via notepad and have gotten a good idea of what needs to be in it.

I have 2 main questions, Do I need to do something special to make my mission use the description.ext file and if I put my mission on a dedicated server, do I need to place the ext file with the mission pbo in a folder?

My mission is a coop mission and it works fine with 3 players locally and on the server but in trying to make respawns work ,I have read the numerous threads here on the subject and created a description.ext file with the required respawn strings, but they still do not seem to work. This leads me to believe that I somehow need to link my mission to the description file. Am I missing something?

[The_Angry_Canadian 10]

1- Put the description.ext file in you mission folder.

2- Add the 1 needed lines in the file

respawn = 3; 
respawnDelay = 10;

3- Add a marker on the map : respawn_west or respawn_east depending on what side you are playing.

4- From the editor, click save, then, export to multiplayer.

5- Exit the editor and go to multiplayer.

6- Start the server and test there.

That worked for me.

[sanndor 10]

Figured it out with the help of a friend.

I had the lines in the description.ext, I had the marker in the map and it was all correct but wouldn't work. The issue is that to have it properly work in MP, I had to create the mission and save it as a user mission. Exit the editor and add my description.ext file to the folder. Once my mission and the .ext were in the mission folder, I reopened the editor and saved again, exporting as MP mission. At that point is when the description file gets merged into the .pbo file for the mp mission. This was the peice I was missing as I couldn't understand what to do with the description file to get it linked into the mission pbo.

heh, everyone says to just create a description file and add the marker, no one ever explained the rest. I told you I was a n00b :)

Thanks

[The_Angry_Canadian 10]

Glad you made it work !

Have fun with you missions now ;)

Btw, if you want to change the time of day or the weather, you can use that code in you description.ext :

// Mission setup.
titleParam1 = "COMBAT SITUATION";
valuesParam1[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7};
defValueParam1 = 3;
textsParam1[] = {"RAINY, DAY", "RAINY, NIGHT", "DAY", "NIGHT", "SUNRISE", "SUNSET", "DAY, FOG"};

Put a file named init.sqf at the same place you put the description.ext and fill it with :

// Use the params set in the description.ext
// {"RAINY, DAY", "RAINY, NIGHT", "DAY", "NIGHT", "SUNRISE", "SUNSET", "DAY, FOG"};
combatStatus = Param1;

switch ( combatStatus ) do
{
case 1:
{
	skipTime (12 - daytime + 24 ) % 24;
	1 setOvercast 1;
	1 setRain 1;
};
case 2:
{
	skipTime (21 - daytime + 24 ) % 24;
	1 setOvercast 1;
	1 setRain 1;
};
case 3:
{
	skipTime (12 - daytime + 24 ) % 24;
};
case 4:
{
	skipTime (21 - daytime + 24 ) % 24;
};
case 5:
{
	skipTime (7 - daytime + 24 ) % 24;
};
case 6:
{
	skipTime (18.5 - daytime + 24 ) % 24;
};
case 7:
{
	skipTime (12 - daytime + 24 ) % 24;
	1 setFog 0.6;
};
};