Opening An Exisitng Mission

[Beebop]

I have decided to get started using the Mission Editor.  I have read the first (basic) parts of a couple of manuals and watched several 'basics" videos and am getting the general idea.
Rather than just make a mission I thought I should look at a constructed mission and explore via their dialog boxes the various objects, timers etc.  I have a couple of simple mission I made using the Easy Mission Generator.  They are very basic with not a lot of stuff happening and I thought that might give me a less cluttered mission to study rather than a well made full blown mission. 

And, I could practice "enhancing" the mission with objects, planes etc. and see how well (or poorly lol) I was doing.

 

But I'm having a problem.

 

I learned how to open the .Mission file and how to find and open the .msbin file but neither show me any more than the map.  No planes, objects link lines etc.
I have tried various items in the toolbars but nothing lets me see them.
I restudied the manuals and videos but all either deal with making a mission from scratch or, if editing a mission, do not explain how they got to the view with planes/objects etc.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

TIA

[[DBS]MDS1]

Hi Beebop,

The Mission Editor in Great Battles is vastly different than IL-2 1946, as I'm sure you have discovered. I'm still at the "toddler" stage of mission building /editing, however what I do regularly is 'adapt' already made missions by other members. I guess this is what you are trying to do too.

I have a selection of Jade Monkeys single player missions, which I have altered to reduce the AI numbers and skill (more to my  own personal skill and taste) and changed the planes which the player can fly.

 

I just open the ME and select "File Open" and  select the mission I wish to adapt/alter. I then change the AI settings on enemy aircraft from 'normal' or 'high' to low, as when attacking bombers I've found that the rear gunner AI above "low" is way too accurate. After I have changed a few parameters of the Mission, like player aircraft, weather,turbulence,wind etc. and added a few objects here and there, I "Save As" to my single Missions folder with a new name -leaving the original mission intact, and unaltered.

 

I have attached a screenshot to try and explain what I am on about. BTW, it's good to see you here Beebop

Kind Regards,

MDS1

 

 

[jollyjack]

8 hours ago, Beebop said:

I have decided to get started using the Mission Editor.  I have read the first (basic) parts of a couple of manuals and watched several 'basics" videos and am getting the general idea.
Rather than just make a mission I thought I should look at a constructed mission and explore via their dialog boxes the various objects, timers etc.  I have a couple of simple mission I made using the Easy Mission Generator.  They are very basic with not a lot of stuff happening and I thought that might give me a less cluttered mission to study rather than a well made full blown mission. 

And, I could practice "enhancing" the mission with objects, planes etc. and see how well (or poorly lol) I was doing.

 

But I'm having a problem.

 

I learned how to open the .Mission file and how to find and open the .msbin file but neither show me any more than the map.  No planes, objects link lines etc.
I have tried various items in the toolbars but nothing lets me see them.
I restudied the manuals and videos but all either deal with making a mission from scratch or, if editing a mission, do not explain how they got to the view with planes/objects etc.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

TIA

 

I am more or less in the same situation, for starters this vid might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpjPn7r_0qg

[Thad]

Prangsters Mission Building Guide

 

I suggest you go through this guide step by step to obtain a good basic knowledge of Mission Building.

[JimTM]

9 hours ago, Beebop said:

...

I learned how to open the .Mission file and how to find and open the .msbin file but neither show me any more than the map.  No planes, objects link lines etc.
I have tried various items in the toolbars but nothing lets me see them.
I restudied the manuals and videos but all either deal with making a mission from scratch or, if editing a mission, do not explain how they got to the view with planes/objects etc.

...

 

First, make sure you are looking at an area on the map containing objects or MCUs. To do this, right click on an entry in the mission tree (on the left) and choose "Move Camera to Object".

 

If you still do not see anything, see the following in the editor manual:

• Show or Hide Icons, Text, Links, and Terrain (pg. 30)
• Cannot See Icons in the View Port (pg. 181)
  Also, click the OBJ FILT button and see if any items are not selected.
• Cannot See Links in the View Port (pg. 183)

 

[No601_Swallow]

For the mind-bending basics, in which you learn that it's a whole different thing, I would still recommend: 

 

Yes, it's rise of flight, and yes it's old, but it goes through all the basics.

 

(By the way, really what we're doing when we use the ME is a sort of computer programming using graphics. You place the objects on the map, but also the conditions and behaviours. It's a powerful tool. Once you get into the rhythm, it's hypnotic, the kinds of behaviours and "flows" you can construct. If one thing happens, then another'll be triggered, and if that's triggered, then...)

[Beebop]

Gentlemen, thank you!  These look like the clues I've been searching for.

When I first got into 1946 the FMB was mind boggling.  Yes, there was a manual but it was non-intuitive, left out some basic stuff and being as it was a translation, some of the nuances were gone.  Not anyone's fault but at the time a completely foreign language.  What opened it up for me was studying already built missions and some good tips from a couple of experienced mission builders.  Slowly the gates opened and I became fluent in the program.

 

@JimTM, your post is most enlightening.  Certainly I would have got to those places but your guidance has shortened the course.  Being able to see the objefcts/links and MCU's will give me a better understanding of how they work and how they interact.

 

@jollyjack, I have watched that video and have bookmarked it along witht he rest of the series.  Thank you for putting up the link.  Others just getting started may not have found it and so this will help all us noobies.

 

@MDS1, Thanks for the welcome.  Your screenshot is exactly what I was seeing, the map with snow and hardcoded things like airfields, trees, rivers etc. but no objects/links etc.

 

@Swallow, I shall watch this video.  I had heard comments that the RoF Mission Editor and this one were similar, I didn't realize just how close they were.  Thank you for another tool.

 

@Thad, RTFM, you are right.  I should get more familiar with the manual(s) but all are so large that the amount of information is staggering and I didn't know where to start looking after the basics were covered.

 

With the tips offered I should make some headway. 

Thanks for the help and, as Arnold said, "Ahll be bach." 

[No_85_Gramps]

You can search the manuals for relevant information, which is a big help, but when time permits, reading further into them is beneficial. My somewhat geezer mind can get cramped-up pretty quickly learning the ins and outs of the ME. The videos are also a big help in that you can start small and expand as your knowledge increases. It can be fun, but it requires the patience of a saint. Good luck! 

[JimTM]

38 minutes ago, No_85_Gramps said:

You can search the manuals for relevant information, which is a big help, but when time permits, reading further into them is beneficial. My somewhat geezer mind can get cramped-up pretty quickly learning the ins and outs of the ME. The videos are also a big help in that you can start small and expand as your knowledge increases. It can be fun, but it requires the patience of a saint. Good luck! 

 

Some suggestions re. searching and reading the editor manual:

• Use the advanced search feature (Edit menu > Advanced Search)
  Advanced search gives you some search options and all the results are listed in a dialog. When you click on a result you are taken to that result. You can also click on a result and then press the up or down arrow keys to scroll forward and backward through each result in the manual. You can resize the search dialog to make it easier to see the manual or even move the dialog to another screen, if you have one.
• Look through the table of contents to get used to where topics are.
• Look at the first paragraph of each topic in Chapter 3-11 to get a general idea of what you can do with the editor.
• Look at Chapter 13: Troubleshooting to see what kind of problems you may have. 

Edited August 26, 2019 by JimTM

[Beebop]

Thank you gentlemen. 

[Habu]

I don't think opening a mission from other would help you. We can do the same things with many ways. Using an existing mission could lost you more than it will help you, except if it's a tutorial mission. Even if we have a good understanding of the mission editor, sometimes, it's difficult to understand teh missioon on another builder, because he doesn't build his group like you, or didn't give information in the group/object.

 

The best way is to follow guide and online tutorial and learn to build the wall, instead of seing the wall, and try to understand how it was build.

 

There are a few things to know, but if you don't understand it, you'll be in trouble.

[Beebop]

"Using an existing mission could cost you more than it will help you, except if it's a tutorial mission. Even if we have a good understanding of the mission editor, sometimes, it's difficult to understand the mission on another builder, because he doesn't build his group like you, or didn't give information in the group/object."

 

You make a good point Habu.  I guess I was hoping I could use my previous mission building experience to help me understand the process but after looking things over perhaps the best course is to just build a mission rather than try to understand by looking at other's work.  This ME is just as foreign as the 46 FMB was when I first encountered it.

 

 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Beebop

[Habu]

Here are what you have to understand in the editor :

- What is Entity ?

- Why i use Add target ?

- Why i use Add object ?

- Using groups (that point is very important for debugging).

 

All other things are command and triger you use like a tetris, where every command is a brick.. For exemple : You want an AI plane which take off from the runway, fly around the airfield and Land.

You'll use :

- Ai Plane

- Command Take off

- Waypoint

- Command land

- Mission begin

- Timer

 

It's very simple, but with that, you begin to use entity and understand what is entity, you use several command and how link it. This is very basic, but with that you'll do a big step and understand the logic of the editor.

 

Do not hesitate to ask, try to do that simple exercice above.

 

Once you 'll do it, we can enhance it and add other elements.

[Beebop]

I will do that and report back in a couple of days.

Thank you.