Single Player Mission Process A break down of Good Mission 1: Rivendell.

This Tutorial rovides general guidelines on the rocess of building !attle "or Middle #arth $%s first &ission. 'e%ll talk about &a layout and general scri ting of the &ission. (f you are not fa&iliar with the basics of 'orld!uilder) you should check out !"M#((*basicscri tingwb.doc beforehand. (t covers essential ti s you%ll need to know and understand before reading further. Lesson 1 Layout. 'hen creating a &ission like Good Rivendell) &any things &ust be taken into account. 'hen you first look at the layout of the &ission) you can see that there really is only one way for the layer to go. The south side of the &a has a large area where the layer can roa&) but ulti&ately the layer M+ST cross the bridge. ,aving only one way to go hel s an e- loratory layer follow the correct &ission rogression. This bridge is also an indicator that the &ission has changed. There are . acts to this &ission) and every ti&e you cross the bridge) you enter a new act. o (n general) when &aking a layout for a &ission you have to take into account a lot of obvious things like available tech and s ecial abilities. Technical constraints &ust also be taken into account. /hoke oints should be at least $ 0 hordes wide. There should never be a case where a ath1able area is less than $ hordes wide2ever. Take into account high ground and wall bonuses. They actually &atter in this ga&e) so a wall on to of a hill overlooking a athable ravine will be al&ost i& ossible to take down) which is no fun for anyone. (f you want to call attention to so&ething) fra&e it. (& ortant set ieces like the Tower of 3rthanc or the ,ouse of #lrond should be fra&ed. The Tower has the roads surrounding and leading to it) drawing your attention towards it. The house of #lrond has been raised u on a sort of cliff) hel ing illustrate that it is an i& ortant lace. (f there is a river in the &a ) &ake sure there are ade4uate fords to cross. 3nly use bridges if absolutely necessary. "ords should be at lest . hordes wide and no dee er than 5 ft. below the water lane.

o Act ( begins on the south side of the river. The first art of the &ission is a scouting &ission. 6ery si& le and straight forward) so the layout &ust be e4ually si& le. There are no big rocks or stands of trees here) lending the area a subtle sense of si& licity. There is a ath that leads the layer along this 1

edge of the cliff. The choice to ut the ath along the cliff was &ade to give the layer a natural border and a not so subtle sense of direction. The Act ( s ace also had to be large enough to su ort the Goblin base in Act ((() which was another i& ortant consideration when creating the layout. o Act (( considerations for layout include the lace&ent of the ,ouse of #lrond) the ro-i&ity of that to the inco&ing Goblin waves and the gate. !ecause buildings die so ra idly in this ga&e) we didn%t want to have a lot of travel ti&e between the ,ouse of #lrond and the west side entrance where the base attack begins. This enables the layer to react 4uickly enough to where casualties are generally &ini&al. (n a &ission 1 the layer is still getting a feel for the ga&e and we don%t want to co&e straight out and hit the& as hard as we can2that co&es later. The river that runs through also serves to hel confine the area and give it a sense of claustro hobia. ,owever) the layer still needed enough roo& for &aneuvering and tactics so the gardens to the west are rather o en and flat. o Act ((( was actually 4uite si& le to lay out 11 it had to be large enough for a decent si7ed Goblin base) but the north end also had to be shared with Act (. More e& hasis was ut into the base layout than the actual &a layout here. Planning the Goblin base buildu was a lot of fun) but also re4uired a lot of though in res ect to the layout. (t de&onstrates how the A( will e- and outwards after building u a &ain base) and show what those e- ansions look like) but it &ust also string the layer along in a bread cru&b fashion) leading the layer to the final conflict. Lesson 2 8 Setup. The layout is i& ortant) but what ha ens really defines that &ission. Most i& ortantly) scri ting is what &akes the &ission fun. "or this tutorial) ( a& going to take you through all . acts start to finish. These acts cover Pre1 lacing units and a&bushes) s awning waves in and general ractices when doing the basics. o Placing and Naming Objects -'hen &aking a single layer &ission) the first things to be laced 9and inevitably changed a hundred ti&es: are the layers starting units. (n this case) the layer starts with Glorfindel and a battalion of ;orien 'arriors. After these units have been laced in the world) we need to set u various Players 9both A( and the +ser: re4uired by the &a . 'e laced the units in the world before doing this because it is easier to add a layer by lacing ob<ects down) than by going through the #dit Player setu screen. 3nce you have your starting units give the& each a uni4ue na&e. ( called &ine Glofindel and #lf $. 3ne thing to kee in &ind when na&ing your units is that your units will show u in a list) so kee ing a na&ing convention hel s when searching your unit lists and kee s the& organi7ed. Also na&e your

units so&ething very obvious like) =#astern Attack 'ave 1>. That tells you e-actly what the unit or tea& does. (n Good Rivendell) ( have the re1 laced goblins na&ed "irst #ncounter) Second #ncounter) Third encounter fighters) Third encounter archers2 you get the icture. 'hen ( a& scri ting the actions for these guys) ( know e-actly what they do and where they are in the &ission flow. o ACT ! p"e-placed encounte"s and ambus#es. So) first thing you%ll want to do is set the stage for how the level is going to lay out. (n Good Rivendell) Goblins are invading and Glorfindel s ots the& while on a routine atrol. Leading t#e playe" 1The layer%s first ob<ective is to return to the ,ouse of #lrond and infor& hi& of the goblin invasion. So we have the starting forces facing the direction they should &ove) and we have an ene&y horde set u <ust outside the vision range. The layer encounters are also set u to string the layer along in the right direction. 'hen &aking single layer &issions it is a great idea to attack the layer fro& the direction you want the& to go. Sleep 1 As you rogress through the &ission you encounter &any s&all grou s of goblins. These are thought of as the =forward scouts> of the large force. All of these guys are re1 laced on the &a . ?ou will notice &ost of the& are set to the A( &ood =Slee >. +nits are set to Slee as an o ti&i7ation to hel kee the fra&erate higher. 'hen a unit is set to Slee it does not track any infor&ation ertaining to interacting with other units. $a%ing &nits - "or each slee ing grou of units a trigger area has been set u . 'hen a layer%s unit enters this area) the units will change fro& Slee to Aggressive. This enables the& to attack and interact and seek out layer units. Player recruitable units work in the sa&e way. They start off in Slee then are set to Aggressive when the layer enters the trigger. 'ags +se gags to kee the &ission fro& being re etitive. The Mallorn tree gag at the beginning is a erfect e-a& le. (nstead of encountering units standing around or <u& ing out of trees) you see these guys attacking so&ething already. The tree is actually set to invulnerable) and the goblins are attacking fro& the &ission start. 'hen the layer gets close) the tree is destroyed and the goblins will now ac4uire the layers units. (e)a"ds -3nce the layer crosses the bridge they are rewarded with an in1ga&e cut scene. ?ou generally want to give the layer so&ething cool when they finish an ob<ective) whether it%s a new ty e of unit) a reinforce&ent wave or a bit of story. @uring this cut scene you%ll notice that control is taken away fro& the layer so they can en<oy the scene that lays out. ?ou%ll also notice that whoever is talking will begin flashing) this hel s the layers identify what unit is s eaking and gives 3

the layer the idea that these units are i& ortant. The cut scene as a whole gives the layer a sense of acco& lish&ent. o ACT Spa)ning attac% )a*es. Teleg"ap#ing - After teaching the layer the basics of unit building you begin to hear war dru&s. 'hile this is also dra&atic) it signals the layer that so&ething bad is about to ha en. This is called telegra hing. 'hether you use a big cree y dru& or a long laying horn or a siren you will always want to telegra h big and i& ortant events that ha en. +sually this is done with Audio. C"eating t#e Pat# to +ollo) /lick the following button to bring u the Path Tool. After you click this button) click the ground to lace a way oint. /lick and drag to connect way oints. 'hen lacing your ath) kee in &ind how &any units are in the tea& that uses it. (f there are a lot of units &eant to follow it) &ake sure there is lenty of s ace between the ath and any obstacles. And <ust like everything else) &ake sure the na&e is distinct. C"eating t#e team 1 S awning in tea&s is rather si& le) all you need is a tea& and a way oint. ;et%s create the tea& first. !ring u the tea& window by clicking this button: 3nce you are in the tea& window click the =add new tea&> button) located at the botto& of the tea& window. This brings u the tea& te& late window. At the to ) na&e your tea&. ( called &ine ="irst 'ave !addies.> This instantly lets &e know this is the first wave of ene&y attackers any ti&e ( refer to the& later.

Set up a Spa)ning team8 3nce you have your tea& set u ) you need to throw down a way oint 9'P: where you want the& to s awn in. (n this case) ( have a few tea&s s awning on the north side of the river) so ( na&ed the 'P =Goblin north wave s awn.> 3nce again) being as descri tive as ossible hel s you kee everything straight. 'P%s are chea so it often hel s to throw down one for each tea& s awning there) even if it%s the sa&e general area. ,aving se arate 'P%s will hel kee your &ission running clean. ,ere you see ( have laced the 'P off the &a ne-t to a few other 'P%s that s awn elves later. ?ou should A;'A?S s awn things in off the &a and &arch the& in. This will hel kee the layer i&&ersed in the reality you are creating for the& 8 if you s awn the& on &a ) no &atter how cleverly you do it) so&eone) so&ewhere will find out.

?ou will also notice that the Path that the units are &eant to use begins inside the &a border. @oing this ensures that the tea& will be able to ath onto the &a at the a ro riate oint. Sc"ipting a Spa)ned team 3nce you have the 'P and Tea&s actually set u ) you need to set u the scri ts. /heck out the icture below:

?ou will notice ( have &y scri ts organi7ed into folders. ( can%t stress enough how i& ortant it is to organi7e your scri ting. They are also organi7ed by firing order to to botto&. ?ou can see the s awn scri t is highlighted. (t triggers when a "lag is set to True. "lags and ti&ers are good to use when s awning in a tea&. Aee your condition state&ents si& le. (t is a good rule of thu&b not to have it check for &ore than . conditions. ?ou can see that ( set a ti&er in the sa&e scri t also) =Goblin 'ave 1 @elay &ove 6

T(M#R>. This ti&er is as it states) how long the delay is before the tea& &ove. The flag is set during the cut scene. (t%s a good rule of thu&b to s awn in your tea&s 151.B seconds before you are going to use the&. This hel s s read out the rocessor hit and guarantees the tea& is ready to go when you need it. The ne-t scri t that fires is below.

This ne-t scri t fires when the =Goblin 'ave 1 @elay &ove T(M#R> e- ires. "irst thing this scri t does is &ove the tea& down a Path. This action can be found in Tea&1action Move Tea& follow way oint ath. ?ou%ll notice the =as a tea&> and =in for&ation> are both false) Goblins are not an organi7ed faction. ,aving the& run around willy nilly is definitely in their idio&. 3nce the little goblins are on their way) another ti&er is set. This one is the attack delay. 'hen setting u attack delays) it is a good ractice to have the delay ti&er slightly shorter than the ti&e it takes to traverse the ath. This is done so that the units are still in &otion when they receive their attack orders. 3therwise you can have tea&s sto of a few seconds) then attack. (f the unit sto s) it does not look very realistic. This is robably the only ti&e it is actually a G33@ ractice to interru t another scri t. The last action is telling the tea& to use an APS or Attack Priority Set. APS% will tell the tea& what kind of targets to refer and are o ulated by using the scri t shown below:

Attac% P"io"ity Sets -The way APS% work is si& le. "irst you give the actual riority set a na&e) this one is ='ave 1 APS>. Then) you s ecify an ob<ect ty e and associate a nu&ber to that ob<ect ty e. The nu&ber is a riority designation. ,igher is &eans &ore likely to attack. ,ere we set @warvenGloin to have a riority of 15B. 'hen you lay the &ission) you will notice that the first wave runs right ast the layer%s buildings and straight for the layer%s heroes. ?ou can even change the Priority of an ob<ect on the fly) once a tea& is told to use an APS it looks to that before ac4uiring its ne-t target. Another i& ortant thing to note: APS are *ONLY* used when the team is hunting. It will not affect the teams normal behavior in an wa . +se the Tea& 8 Actions Attack or hunt Tea& begins ,unting.

As you can see) this is how the attack is set u . The first action tells the tea& to hunt 9using the APS assigned to it: The Sound laying is telegra hing the attack.

The second wave is set u the sa&e way. The only &a<or difference is the units that co& ose the tea&. ,eeping t#e playe" in+o"med - The ne-t thing done for every attack is actually infor&ing the layer they are under attack.

As you can see) once the attack tea& has entered the Rivendell eri&eter the layer is infor&ed in every way ossible of the inco&ing attacks short of reaching out of the co& uter and s&acking hi&. ?ou get a te-t dis lay) a &ini &a ing) and &ulti le audio cues. Sneak attacks are cool) but only when used s aringly. These ty es of scri ts usually are set to re eat every CB1DB seconds to hel re&ind the layer where they should be defending. 3nce the tea& is destroyed another scri t will disable the re eating scri t. And of course) the layer gets a &ini1 reward in the sha e of #lrond talking so&e s&ack when the wave is destroyed.

-ase -uilding - After Act (( is finished) Act ((( is heralded by a lone goblin fighter horde running into the gate. !efore ( get into that attack though) lets back u a bit. 'hile the layer is occu ied fighting off the two attack waves fro& the west) C lone orters walk on to the south. #ach orter is re1 laced off the side of the &a and na&ed individually. They are also all on the EPlyr'ildFPorter Tea&. This was done so ( could control each individual inde endently) but also the tea& as a whole. These orters build u the goblin base in the south. 3ne thing to always kee in &ind while &aking a &ission in any RTS is that you never know where the layer is looking at any given ti&e. So whenever you%re scri ting actions) &ake sure you try to e&ulate what a layer would actually do. (nstead of <ust s awning in buildings and calling it a day) these orters walk on and use a s ecial build scri t that allows you to build a structure at a 'P with an angle. ?ou can find this scri t here in:

The easiest way of figuring out the angle of lace&ent is actually lacing the ob<ect in the world. 3nce you get the angle you want) <ust co y the angle into the scri t ara&eters. Gow it gets a little tricky. 'e have to detect when each structure has co& leted its build then give the orter an order to build the ne-t structure. ( ut down an area trigger that will cover all of the area that the structures are going to be building. (t is called EGoblin ,o&e AR#A%. ,ere is the condition for testing whether or not the building e-ists:

10

As you can see) it basically detects for the correct nu&ber of Ebuildings of ty e% in the area trigger. This is done instead of checking for layer ownershi because ( have the orters set u to build a s ecific set of buildings. Trove Porter builds the structures around the Trove. 3nce it is done with the trove) it &oves on to build the fissure. 3nce the fissure is co& lete it builds the guard tower. This is all done by &aking variations of the following scri t:

?ou%ll also notice that the last action na&es whatever building was <ust finished. (%ll get to why ( do that in =#nding a &ission>. Communicating t#"eat to t#e playe" 1 So) all the base building actually ha ens in Act ((. Gow we &ove on to Act ((( and back to that Goblin fighter horde s awning in. This little gag was set u with $ si& le scri ts) a s awn scri t followed by an attack scri t. After the unit was s awned it) it set a ti&er. After the ti&er e- ired the unit was given and attack1&ove to 'P. The 'P was laced ne-t to the ,ouse of #lrond. This baby attack was done to alert the layer that there was a base to the south and to re&ind the& not to get

11

co& lacent. ,aving a unit actually attack for& that direction &akes the threat real. .nding a mission 1 The layer is now told to ride out and destroy the goblin base. This is done once again with &ulti le audio cues) visual &a ings and te-t. Re&e&ber how each goblin building was na&ed after it was builtH 'ell) here is why they were na&ed individually:

This is how ( set u all the ob<ective ings. #ach ob<ective has a na&e. #ach na&e is inged on the radar &a . (f the unit no longer e-ists) no ing will occur. So if the layer destroys buildings) but &aybe &isses one along the way) that building will ing on the radar. This gives the& only the infor&ation they need) as o osed to inging an I)?)J coordinate which will ing the location whether there is anything there or not. -oss /ig#t0 To give the &ission a little kick at the end) and to introduce and reinforce so&e of the new creatures you will encounter in !"M# $ in the first &ission) we chose to end it with a 'yr&. o -"ingin1 in t#e $y"m This was a si& le &atter of casting the s ell at a way oint. (n early lay tests the the 'yr& was cast at the layer unit closest to the goblin base and didn%t ull the ca&era away to where the su&&on occurs. This resulted in the layer &issing the actual su&&on about half the ti&e) and then the layer was left wondering what to do ne-t. So we went with the ca&era ull and redeter&ined su&&on s ot. The layers never &issed the 'yr& and knew e-actly what needed to be done to finish the &ission. o Sc"ipting t#e $y"m This was a si& le &atter of using the =KPlayerL fires s ecial ower ES ellbookAwaken'yr&% at 'ay oint> that can be found in Player S ecial Power.

12

The whole se4uence was . scri ts. The first Moves the /a&era to the 'P where the wyr& will be su&&oned

?ou can see that this triggers when the Goblin Player has 7ero structures. This was done to ensure the layer 3G;? had to worry about the 'yr&. The first action in the scri t enables the letterbo- &ode. That brings in the black bars at the to and botto& and gives the cine&atic feel. After that is enabled) it begins &oving the ca&era to the sa&e 'P that the wyr& su&&ons at. The $ second ca&era &ove ensures that the layer doesn%t &iss the su&&on ani&ations. A 4uick ca&era &ove also gives the layer a sense of urgency. The ti&er is set to trigger the ne-t scri t in the series. The last actions reveal the area so the layer doesn%t have to worry about sight ranges during the bossfight. (t then turns off the revious ob<ective dialogue scri t. The last action turns off the +ser (nterface so the layer can%t scroll or interru t the ca&era &ove.

3nce ( bring the 'yr& in ( enable the win condition scri t) set a ti&er to reference the wyr& and then another to enable the win condition. ?ou can see the trigger for this scri t is the ti&er set u in the revious scri t.

13

And then finally ( &ark the revious &ission ob<ective co& ete. scri t can be found in the (nterface 3b<ectives tree.

That

The final scri t for this gag sets a reference to the wyr&. This is done to detect when the layer destroys it to trigger the win condition.

As you can also see) it gives the layer so&e audio and te-t lines to infor& that layer of the wyr&. ?ou%ll notice that the audio lays fro& =Tea& 8EPlyr#lvesMTea&Plyr#lves> to guarantee that the layer will hear the audio as if it is co&ing for& his soldiers. The last and &ost i& ortant thing enables +( and also ends the letterbo- &ode. (%ll get to why ( do that in =#nding a &ission>.

14

2ap.ini - The 'yr& was &odified to give it a big bang. (t has a &odified body that has increased hit oints to &ake it &ore of a challenge. 'e set this via the Ma .ini file. !elow are the actual lines fro& the &a .ini with a bit of e- lanation as to what is going on here.

Object Wyrm RemoveModule ModuleTag_LifetimeUpdate ReplaceModule ModuleTag_Body Body = ActiveBody ModuleTag_tuffwyrm Ma !ealt" = #$$$$ '(d ')* ')*

%W&RM_!'ALT!

T#e +i"st line is t#e name o+ t#e actual object to be modi+ied. T#e second "emo*es t#e un-summon time". So t#e $y"m does not &nsummon a+te" 34 seconds. T#e t#i"d line "eplaces t#e old body module. T#e 2oduleTag name 2&ST be t#at o+ t#e old module t#at it is to "eplace. T#e +ou"t# line names t#e type o+ module 5body6 and t#e ne) name o+ t#e module 5ModuleTag_tuffwyrm+ T#e +i+t# line sets t#e ne) #ealt# to 34!444 T#at last +e) lines end eac# module. T#e +i"st end is +o" t#e body module! t#e second +o" t#e "eplace module command and t#e last +o" t#e enti"e object itsel+.

That was a basic insight into Good Mission 1: Rivendell. ( covered the basic layout of scri ting a&bushes) a few of our basic design rules of thu&b and a little insight as to why ( &ade the choices ( &ade. 'e ho e you en<oyed it and now feel ready to &ake so&e fantastic single layer &issions on your ownN 1Ada& ,ayes) ;evel @esigner

15