Tools Needed:
BF2 Editor
Prerequisites:
A map that has at least one gameplay layer created (i.e. AAS 64 etc.)
Creating combat zones, object spawners, and spawn points won't change from previous AAS versions so that won't be covered in this tutorial. For basic layer information, refer to: [Map Tutorial] Layers (16, 32 And 64 Size Maps etc) and Creating a Basic Level - BFEditor
Setting up your Teams
The CP capture order always starts with Team 1. So the closest control point to Team 1's main will be CP#1 and working it's way out from there. So the first thing you'll want to do it establish which team will be Team 1. You do this by editing the init.con, which is found in your map's main folder. Open it up and you'll see something like this:
Code: Select all
rem *** Generated by BF2Editor ***
if v_arg1 == BF2Editor
run Heightdata.con
LevelSettings.InitWorld
run Terrain.con BF2Editor
run StaticObjects.con BF2Editor
run Sounds.con
run Sky.con BF2Editor
run Editor/GamePlayObjects.con host
UndergrowthEditable.create
Undergrowth.load Levels\yourmapname\
run Overgrowth/Overgrowth.con
Overgrowth.editorEnable 1
run AmbientObjects.con BF2Editor
run Water.con
run TriggerableTemplates.con BF2Editor
else
run Heightdata.con
run Terrain.con v_arg2
run Sky.con v_arg2
run CompiledRoads.con
run Sounds.con
run tmp.con v_arg1
Undergrowth.load Levels\yourmapname\
run Overgrowth/Overgrowth.con
run Overgrowth/OvergrowthCollision.con
run AmbientObjects.con
run Water.con
run TriggerableTemplates.con
run Fields.con
endIf
rem ------------------------------- LevelSettings -------------------------------
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
run ../../Factions/faction_init.con 1 "gb"
run ../../Factions/faction_init.con 2 "ch"
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
gameLogic.setBeforeSpawnCamera -728/24/-1075 -124.292/-2.23791/0
if v_arg1 == BF2Editor
LevelSettings.CustomTextureSuffix "Woodland"
else
texturemanager.customTextureSuffix "Woodland"
endIf
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GameLogic.MaximumLevelViewDistance 800
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 16 1 50
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 16 2 50
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 32 1 250
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 32 2 250
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 64 1 300
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 64 2 300
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 128 1 50
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 128 2 50
gameLogic.setDefaultTimeToNextAIWave 8
gameLogic.setTicketLossAtEndPerMin 1000
gameLogic.setTicketLossPerMin 1 20
gameLogic.setTicketLossPerMin 2 20
Placing Control Points (CPs):
As a quick refresher to the layer tutorial, here's how to create control points (CPs):
1. Open BF2 Editor in it's "Level" function.
2. In the right column of the Editor screen, select the layer you'd like to add a control point to.
3. Move the camera around in the map and locate where you want to put your control point.
4. Right-click on the spot where you want to place the control point and choose "Create ControlPoint" from the menu that pops up.
5. A window will pop up prompting you for a name.
PR uses a specific naming convention. Ignore the suggestion that the editor recommends and use this naming template:
Code: Select all
cpname_nameofthemap_gamemode_nameofcpalloneword
Example: "cpname_kashan_desert_aas64_northvillage"
"cpname" = literally always just the text "cpname"
"nameofthemap" = the name of the map, if spaces are needed use _
"gamemode" = the game mode and number. Valid values are:
aas
skirmish
insurgency
training
followed by either 16, 32, 64 without a space
"nameofcpalloneword" = literally all one word of the cpname.
No other characters except alpha characters should be used.
ALL of this needs to be lower case. Do this each time you want a control point.Using AASv4, you have a lot more options at your disposal on how you want your control points to show up in game. The order and choice of CPs will depend on the SupplyGroupId in the control point's tweaker bar (highlighted in yellow below).
In AASv4, we'll be changing the default SGID of -1 to a specific number, depending on what you want to do.
AASv4 gives you a LOT more options than ever before, so I'll explain each option and how to set up the SGIDs using an imaginary PR map.
Main Bases
As you probably know, in PR the main bases are not usually in play. They are a safe haven for spawning, vehicle repairs, etc. In order to set up AAS, it's important to decide how you want your main bases to be set up. The most common is to make them uncappable and assigned to the team that has a main base there. So looking at the tweaker bar above, you would set:
Team = 1 (or 2)
Check the box for "unabletochangeteam"
SGIDs for main bases are as follows:
Team 1 = 1
Team 2 = -1
The only change to this is if you want a main base to be cappable. Then you would assign it a unique SGID based on the tutorial that follows.
You can also delete the SGID for Team 2's main if you like by opening the text file and deleting the line "ObjectTemplate.supplyGroupId -1".
Basic Randomization
This is best for smaller (1km and 2km) maps with few control points.
CPs are assigned a 2-digit SGID (AB) where:
A = Its order in the sequence (starting nearest to Team 1's main)
B = If more than one CP has the same A number, B tells the computer how many to pick to be in play.
If you don't want a control point to be randomized, assign it a unique "A" digit and then make "B" a zero.
Example:
In the photo, Team 1 is located on the carrier and Team 2's main is the hashed area. The CP layout is as such:
CP#1: Village
CP#2: Bridge and Farm both have an SGID number starting with 3, so the computer will look at the second (B) digit to determine that the mapper only wants 1 of them to be picked. This will happen randomly, so sometimes Bridge will show up and sometimes Farm will.
CP#3: Junction
As you can see, this is a basic layout. Team 1 will have to capture Village first, then either Farm or Bridge, then lastly Junction. Team 2 has to attack Junction first. Their second flag will be either Farm or Bridge, then their last flag will be Village.
Now let's say you want both Farm and Bridge to be picked. By changing the "B" digit from 1 to 2, the computer will now pick both CPs as CP#2. This means that both CPs must be held by a team before it can capture the next flag in the sequence. Be careful using this option as it's difficult to defend two CPs while attacking a third.
AASv4 Attack Routes
Attack routes are the heart and soul of AASv4. Basically what you'll be doing is adding a third digit to the SupplyGroupId, so now you'll have "ABC", where:
A = Its order in the sequence (starting nearest to Team 1's main)
B = If more than one CP has the same A number, B tells the computer how many to pick to be in play.
C= The route it belongs to
The third digit (or route number) tells the computer that before it does anything else, it should pick a route to use. Since I think showing is better than telling, let me show you some examples:
Here you'll see two routes, Blue and Green. The first thing you should notice is that the SGIDs have a third digit, where the Green route is designated as route #1 and the Blue route is designated as route #2. When the map loads, the computer will see that your SGIDs have a third digit and will randomly pick a route. It may be Blue for one game and Green the next.
You can have up to 9 routes on your map, which should be plenty.
Ok, so that's the basic route set-up. Using this information, you can now incorporate more complexity into your routes. For example, you can add random flags (just like you did in the first part of this tutorial):
In the above example, I've added another CP to the Blue route called Village. This new CP has the same SGID as Port, so let's break it down by its ABCs:
A = 2, designating it second in the sequence. No change here.
B = 1. Since Village and Port both start with an A = 2, the computer needs to know how many of the flags should show up. In this case, setting B = 1 tells the map to pick just one.
C = 2, the route designation.
So, if the computer picks route #2, it will then pick either Port or Village (and not both) since you assigned B = 1.
If you are feeling comfortable with how all that works, let's move on.
Same Area, Different CPs
One of the features of AASv4 that has never been available before is having multiple CPs for the same area. This is possible by assigning the CPs to different routes.
So why would we want to do this, you ask?
Building on the Blue and Green route examples above, let's start with a simple example. Say you really like the "Village" CP area. It's fun, is in a great location, and will make for great battles... so you want it to be in more than one route. Solution: create another CP.
Yes, that's right. Just create another CP and name it something slightly different. To avoid confusion, you can place the route number in the CPs name, such as:
The Green route "Village" would be: cpname_mapname_aas64_1village"
The Blue route "Village" would be: cpname_mapname_aas64_2village"
Simple! Now you can move/edit the CPs within Editor so they have the exact same radius or make them slightly different. Now regardless if route #1 or route #2 gets picked, Village will be a possible CP.
Another reason you may want more than one CP for an area is to offer variety. This is a little more difficult to explain, but I'll try.
Firstly, I've made the "village" into a "city" (forgive my photoshopping abilities). By using the multiple CP option, I can now make it so that if route #3 (Orange) is picked, the players may see a 150m North City, 150m South City, or a 300m Entire City flag. The computer will pick just one because B=1 and it won't interfere with the CPs in other routes because C=3 (designating it as route 3).
Now putting it all together, you get:
You can see why it will be important to properly name your CPs so it includes the route number... but you can also see the amazing possibilities AASv4 gives you.
Using One CP on All Routes
Depending on your map layout, you may want to include one CP on all of your routes. For example, here is an old Fools Road AASv4 set-up:
You can see that CP#1 and CP#5 are on all of the routes. This often makes sense when the map has a final location that the armies have a "mission" to capture or defend... such as a missile silo, airfield, etc. When this is the case, you don't have to create separate CPs for each route but can instead assign it a single digit. If the CP is at the beginning of the route, it would have an SGID = 1. You would then set both main bases to SGID = -1 since neither is in a route. Basically, here's the way to look at it: The computer needs to see an SGID = 1, so if your main base fulfills that role then great. If it doesn't, then the first flag needs to be SGID = 1.
Ok, so what if your shared CP is at the end of the route? Now it gets slightly more complicated. You can either change your team assignments in the init.con so that it becomes the first flag, but that may not be possible based on the map layout. The second option is to assign it a single digit SGID that ends all of the routes. The drawback to option 2 is that all of your routes must end at the same number. For example, when you look at Fools Road, all of the routes end at flag #5.
It's important to note here that you can't have a gap in the sequence. So if Fools Road had a route that only had SGIDs of 1, 205, 305, and 5 then there would be a gap between 305 and 5 and it wouldn't work. The map would load just fine, but neither team could cap the other out.
A Few More Things about Main Bases
- I know we've talked about main bases several times in this tutorial already, but there are still a few things to cover. If you make one (or both) of your main bases part of a route, then they must be single digit SGIDs with Team 1 = 1 and Team 2 = the last number in the routes. The reason behind this is that all of your spawn points and objectspawners are linked to this CP and having the spawners assigned to one route causes a lot of issues if that route isn't picked. So the best thing to do is ensure your spawners are tied to a CP that isn't cappable and is not assigned to a route. The simplest way to do this is to assign Team 1 = 1 and Team 2 = -1. If you want your spawners to be associated with a CP that is cappable, so that the team loses it's ability to spawn, then you must give it a single digit SGID so that it is part of all routes.
- With the exception of CnC mode, 99% of main bases should be marked with a CP. This let's players know where the main bases are and thus where the domes of deaths are. So if your main is not cappable and not part of your routes, you'll still need to make sure the CP is marked on the map.
Flag Names on Minimap
When your map is nearly final (or ready for play testing), there are two more steps that you'll need to take:
Adding flag names to the localization file: Since you don't want players to see the confusing flag name that you used above (ie. cpname_map_aas64_flagname), you'll want to follow this tutorial.
Ensuring flag name doesn't go off the minimap: Once you've updated your localization file, jump in game and check to make sure the flag names don't go off the minimap. This is especially common with main bases and flags near the map edge with long names. To correct this, go back into editor and edit the "MinimapNameOffset" values:
If you click on the + sign, it will expand so you can change the X value (left/right) and Y value (up/down). This is typically trial and error getting the value just right so you will likely have to go in-game several times to see how it looks.
Verifying your routes
We got a tool to verify these routes and other things on nice little overview images.
Like this:
It has a nice set of options to tweak it to your settings.
I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out how to get it to work. If not feel free to ask further here.
Download link: https://files.realitymod.com/prbf2/PRMa ... Helper.zip
In Closing
Have fun and experiment. These new capabilities should allow you to create more focused fighting, more strategic points of interest, more logical avenues of attack, more variety, and so much more!
If you have any questions, please post them here.
Thanks
