OPF CWC

OPF CWC

Saturday 19 March 2011

Custom Missions (Map Editor): Scripts

Right, no one said that creating spectacular missions of your own was going to be easy. Lets face it, creativity can be a tedious enterprise, and time consuming. Especially in a game editor as well-equipped as OFP's. However, when a storyline/scenario comes together and (if you so wish), your ideas enter into the public domain, the sense of personal achievement can pay dividends.

The immense scale of what can actually be achieved in the editor really comes to light when you consider how to approach your intended goal. An all out blood bath, where two opposing faction slug it out in a head-to-head frenzy, is a fairly simple build. But an intricate thriller with twists and turns will require more thought and planning, and probably scripts.

Scripts are sets of instructions that you can write yourself and save as an external file which the mission/build references. You can write scripts to equip vehicles and soldiers, scripts to control alarm systems, scripts to create an atomic mushroom cloud, the list goes on. All that is required is a knowledge of the OFP commands and some general scripting principles like variables and loops. To summarize, the accepted logic is that if you want to build a mission that will have the player(s) more involved and is more complex in its structure, you'll need a few scripts.

That said, the mission editor offers quite enough complexity to create a gripping encounter. If you are new to OFP, start by becoming familiar with the mission editor interface, and take it from there.

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