Mission Editor (Wing Commander IV)
The Terran Knowledge Bank
arena13.zip | |
---|---|
Creator | HCl |
Download | Download |
Filesize | 122 kB |
See also IFF Extractor.
Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ARENA 1.3 - A Wing Commander 4 Mission Editor | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - How to install Arena 1.3 Unzip your copy of Arena to a temporary directory with the -d switch. Just copy all *.exe files, the 00000000.wsg, the data.wc4 and *.txt to the directory where Wing Commander 4 is installed. The contents of the missions subdirectory MUST overwrite the file present at \data\missions. If you already have a previous version of Arena installed, you're all set. If not, download the file a13iff.zip. These are the profile and objects files that should be unzipped with the -d switch into the \data directory. Make sure that the directories \data\profile and \data\objects are created. Copy the files GAMEFLOW.TRE and MISSIONS.TRE to the directory where WC4 is, make sure they aren't write protected and run the patch.com Now you're all set. - What's new + plans for the future You can set up the ship orientation (heading), speed, iff code (neutral iff code was added) and programmed actions. A script with a small number of functions was included. The interface changed too. You can now use the mouse and work in graphic mode (it doesn't seem graphic mode, but it is. Trust me on this.). I will add a 2d map or 3d map on later versions, even though there aren't gonna be many more... I'll mainly add commands to the script. I may improve a bit the Arena editor and even make a WC3 version, but i'm planning to start working in Prophecy now. Suggestions concerning this or anything else are welcome, of course. - How to work with this interface Click on something on screen to change it. For example, if you click on "Your Wingman is", you will change your wingman. Clicking on "COPY" will copy a ship, just like the space bar on previous versions. Click on "<<<" to go to the previous ship, and ">>>" to go to the next. You can also enter the ship name manually, if you press the "N" between the "<<< >>>". Building nav points is completely different now. If you only create 1 nav point the other 3 won't appear. There are several ways to turn a single nav point into a living nightmare, as you will see. Click on "Build nav points". Enter the number of navs and then enter the ships pressing enter after each ship. Leave the field blank to finish that nav point. Example: 1 <ENTER> 2 <ENTER> 3 <ENTER> <ENTER> puts ships 1,2 and 3 This was necessary for programmed actions. - Where is the option that allowed ships to autopilot with me? It had to be removed so you could enter programmed actions without conflicts. To make a ship autopilot with you, enter 8 in the first prog ("unknown condition") and if needed 9 in the second prog. - How to use ship orientation Ship orientation #2 is the angle the ship makes when yawing (pulling the Joystick up and down). Assuming that orientation #1 is 0, a 0 deg angle would mean the ship had its engines facing you with the cockpit facing up and a 180 deg angle would mean the ship is facing you with the cockpit facing down. Ship orientation #1 is tricky. It seems to rotate all axis. Assuming that orientation #2 is 0, a 0 deg angle would mean the ship had its engines facing you and a 180 deg angle would mean that the ships cockpit is facing you and the ship is heading down. This is to be used by people who, like me, like detailed missions. If you have problems with this, leave the values 0. - The difference between Relative and Absolute coordinates Another detail. Useful, sometimes. If the coordinates are Relative, then (0,0,0) is your position and putting a ship there would mean a colision an probably certain death. If the coordinates are Absolute, (0,0,0) would be the center of the nav point. This is to be used by people who, like me, like detailed missions. If you have problems with this, set Relative coordinates. - Different pilot input In Arena 1.2b and below, you just entered the difficulty level and the pilot (blance, confed, genpir). Now if you want to have a level2 confed pilot, you must write "confed2". While this may seem annoying, it allows you to have much more pilots on the missions. Try writing "seether" as the pilot or "hellcat1". - How to change your missile payload Run the program weapons.exe - How to distribute your missions You must send 3 files, to distribute your missions. The first 00000000.wsg, can be found in the directory wc4 is on. The second is data.wc4 which must be copied AFTER running gather.exe (gather.exe will gather info from your GAMEFLOW.TRE). The third one is missb1.iff. You can find it on \data\missions. - How to install new missions Copy data.wc4 and 00000000.wsg to the directory wc4 is installed, and copy missb1.iff to the \data\missions directory. Run update.exe and you're set. - Ship list Insert the name between bracets [ ] in the editor. Vaktoth [vaktoth] Phantom [phantom] Pirate Arrow [arpir8] Confed Arrow [arconfed] Cloak Arrow [arcloak] Razor [razor] Pirate Tbolt [tboltpr8] Banshee [bannew] Banshee [bannewj] Weak Banshee [banlow] Cloak Banshee [banclok] Avenger [aveng] Avenger [avengj] Avenger [avencle2] Avenger [avenge2] Avenger [avengl3] Cloak Avenger [avenclok] Vindicator [vindicat] Vindicator [vindica3] Cloak Vindicator [vindclok] Vindicator with MIPs [vindimip] Vindicator with MIPs [vinclmip] Hellcat [hellcat] Weak Hellcat [hellow] Thunderbolt [tbolt] Longbow [longbow2] Weak Longbow [longlow] Excalibur [excalibr] Weak Excalibur [excalow] Bearcat [bearcat] Hermes [hermes] Dralthi [dralthi] Kilrathi Shuttle [kshuttle] Shuttle [shut] Military Shuttle [trshut] Dragon [dragon] Darket [darket] Paktahn [paktahn] Capships: Black Lance Carrier [bcarrier] Black Lance Base [blbase] Black Lance Transport [bltrans] Pirate Frigate [pfrigate] Intrepid [intrepid] Intrepid (low) [intlow] BWS Tango [intclss1] Base (?) [uoutpost] Lexington [lexingtn] Lexington (low) [lexlow] Confed Star Base [cstarbse] Confed Destroyer [cdestroy] Confed Frigate [cfrigate] Depot (?) [bpdepot] Vesuvius [vesuvius] Vesuvius (unmovable) [n4vesuv] St. Helens [sthelens] Confed Cruiser [ccruiser] Radar Array (?) [radpost] Jammer [jammer] Weapons Depot [wepdepot] Radar Array [radarry] Spacelab [spacelab] UBW Frigate [ufrigate] UBW Destroyer [udestroy] UBW Cruiser [ucruiser] UBW Transport [utrans] Laser Mine [turpod] Dry Dock [drydock] Concordia class n. 48 [lex48] Concordia class n. 42 [lex42] Kilrathi Transport [kt] Kilrathi Light Destroyer [kdes] Kilrathi Carrier [kcarx] Kilrathi Dreadnought [kdread] Others (you can put missiles too): Capship missile [capmiss] Torpedo [torpmiss] (?)Skipper [skipmiss] - Troubleshooting: Q - I installed a new mission and now i can't make new wc4 missions. What's wrong? A - You probably installed a mission made with a previous version of Arena. Go to the \data\missions directory and copy the missb1.bak to missb1.iff This should fix the problem. Q - Arena says it can't open missb1.iff A - Make sure that you don't have the game installed in \wc4. Install it in \games\wc4 or \data\wc4. Q - Arena says it can't open some TRE file. A - 1 - Make sure that you copied the files to the HD. 2 - Run ATTRIB -R *.TRE Q - I keep playing the same 1st mission of wc4 where you have to escort the transport. A - 1 - Run ATTRIB -R *.TRE 2 - Run PATCH.COM CREDITS: -------- -> Wing Commander 4 is Copyright of Origin Systems INC. http://www.origin.ea.com -> The Arena editor and Script was made by Mario "HCl" Brito nop03079@mail.telepac.pt