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Topic-icon Mission Editor - Does it make it easier to make a new game?

  • AdmiralBruno
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11 years 11 months ago #7247 by AdmiralBruno
Is it now conceivably fairly easy to design 50 new missions and make a new game out of it?

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11 years 11 months ago #7262 by karajorma
Making 50 new missions will never be easy!

But the mission editor is all you really need in order to do it.

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11 years 11 months ago #7275 by KeldorKatarn
Forget about making 50 missions. Honestly, forget it.

It took this team 5 years, with 2-3 FREDers and 1 year of testing to get 50 missions done. And that's AFTER the script was ready and not even mentioning setting up the Briefings and doing the voice recording, making all the backgrounds and light setups etc.

Seriously dude. You have NO chance of getting this done ever. Do a short campaign of maybe 3-5 missions. and fully complete that campaign 100%. After that you will have an idea what a giant project even such a short campaign is, if done right.

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11 years 11 months ago #7282 by karajorma
Yep. It's a very common mistake for new FREDders to get it into their heads to make a huge new campaign when they first start FREDding. The problem is that this ignores two basic, important facts.

1) It's a hell of a lot of work. It probably won't seem that way at first when you can make a mission in a few days. But you won't be able to keep up that pace for long because....

2) In 6 months to a year's time, your newbie efforts will embarrass you.
It happens to all of us. I'm not saying that the missions you're making now are bad. Just that as you improve your missions will take longer but will be more polished and impressive. For those people making a long campaign this usually then means going back and rewriting all the earlier missions to bring them up to your new standard. It's very easy to get stuck in an endless cycle doing that.

I'd agree with KK on this one. Make some short campaigns, polish them up, release them, and get feedback. That way you'll know what not to do in your next campaign.

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11 years 11 months ago #7296 by AdmiralBruno
FRED? Free Developers?

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11 years 11 months ago #7298 by horizon
Best to start with one goood mission, then expand it to a string of 3-4 system missions. Etc...

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11 years 11 months ago #7300 by KeldorKatarn

AdmiralBruno wrote: FRED? Free Developers?


FReespace EDitor

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11 years 11 months ago #7335 by X3N0-Life-Form

Karajorma wrote: 2) For those people making a long campaign this usually then means going back and rewriting all the earlier missions to bring them up to your new standard. It's very easy to get stuck in an endless cycle doing that.

I'd agree with KK on this one. Make some short campaigns, polish them up, release them, and get feedback. That way you'll know what not to do in your next campaign.


Quoted for truth. I started FREDing about 5 years ago, and after I had 4-5 missions which shared similar background/ships, I decided to start writing an entire campaign. So far, I have created 17 missions out of the 27 planned, 4 of them are flagged as beta-ready, 2 have never been quite finished, 5 will basically have to be redone from scratch, and the rest either needs more extensive testing or various tweaks to be up to standard.

If I were to start a new project, I'd probably follow a shorter release cycle, i.e. making several small releases over a few years: write 3-5 mission long mini campaign segments, release them, collect feedback, advices, etc., and then write the next 3-5 missions, release, collect feedback, etc.

That way, the urge to reFRED your newbie-FREDer missions (probably) won't be as important as if you have 10+ missions nobody else ever played. And you mission designer skills will grow naturally.

Example from the Freespace modding community: Axem is a FREDer that released several short campaigns over the years, with a steady growth in his modding skills, and is now considered one of the best FREDer around, although he is a bit ashamed of his very first campaign.
source: www.hard-light.net/forums/index. ... ic=78518.0
And don't hesitate to ask for advice here or on Hard Light Productions :)

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11 years 11 months ago #7345 by tolwyn
A dedicated beginner can create fairly complex missions within weeks. It took me a week to learn FRED basics back in 2007 - 10th and 20th mission were crafted with those fairly limited skills and yet they are highly enjoyable. Over the years we improved the scripting and autopilot cutscenes, but the overall flow remained the same. Don't be discouraged by the initial complexity - the original FRED tutorial can give you a solid foundation and you can build WC3 styled missions very soon.

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11 years 11 months ago #7403 by karajorma
Their are people who can succeed and who appear from nowhere with working campaigns. It's just more likely though that you won't be impressed by your newbie efforts.

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