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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
"text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<title>The FreeSpace Oracle</title>
</head>
<body alink="LIMEGREEN" bgcolor="LIGHTSTEELBLUE" link="DARKBLUE"
vlink="DARKRED">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img src="FAQ-Images/Oracle.gif"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr valign="top">
<td>
<table width="200">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li><a href="intro.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="general.html">General Questions</a></li>
<li><a href="fred.html">FRED Questions</a></li>
<ul><font size="-1">
<li><a href="fredretail.html">Retail
Help</a></li>
<li><a href="fredretailtech.html">Retail Tech Help</a></li>
<li><a href="fredopen.html">FRED_Open Help</a></li>
<li><a href="fredopentech.html">FRED_Open Tech Help</a></li>
<li><a href="fredcommonmistakes.html">Common Mistakes</a></li>
<li><a href="fredcookbook.html">FRED Cookbook</a></li>
</font></ul>
</li>
<li><a href="gameplay.html">Gameplay Questions</a></li>
<li><a href="installing.html">Installing FreeSpace</a></li>
<ul><font size="-1">
<li><a href="installingfs2.html">Installing
FS2</a></li>
<li><a href="installingfs2_open.html">Installing
FS2_Open</a></li>
<li><a href="installingmods.html">Installing Mods</a></li>
</font></ul>
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<li><a href="technical.html">Technical Problems</a></li>
<ul><font size="-1">
<li><a href="fs1-technical.html">FreeSpace
1</a></li>
<li><a href="fs2-technical.html">FreeSpace 2</a></li>
<li><a href="fs2_open-technical.html">SCP</a></li>
<li><a href="movies.html">Cutscenes</a></li>
</font></ul>
</li>
<li><a href="storyline.html">Storyline Questions</a></li>
<li><a href="modding.html">Modding Questions</a></li>
<li><a href="shipmods.html">Turreting Tutorial</a></li>
<li><a href="glossary.html">Glossary</a></li>
<li><a href="downloads.html">Downloads</a></li>
<li><a href="tools.html">FreeSpace Tools</a></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
<td>
<a name="top"></a>
<h1>Advanced FRED2 Retail Help </h1>
<a href="#design">Mission Design</a><br>
<a href="#sexps">SEXPs</a> <br>
<a href="#variables">Variables</a><br>
<a href="#Arrivals">Arrivals And Exits</a><br>
<a href="#events">Events & Objectives</a><br>
<a href="#voice">Voice Effects</a> <br>
<a href="#Medals">Medals And Promotion</a><br>
<a href="#Cutscenes">Cutscenes</a><br>
<a href="#Debugging">Debugging and Weirdness</a><br>
<a name="design"></a>
<h2>Mission Design</h2>
<p><i><b>How long does a ship take to recharge jump engines after a jump?</b></i>
</p>
<p>The simplest answer is as long as you want it to. There is very little hard data on this. It depends on the ship. <br>
<a name="sexps"></a>
</p>
<h2>SEXPs</h2>
<p><i><b>What is the difference between ai-waypoints and ai-waypoints-once?</b></i>
</p>
<p>AI-Waypoints-Once does just what you'd expect. The ship
follows the way points you've given it and then comes to a rest at the
last one. With AI-Waypoints however upon reaching the last waypoint the
ship turns and heads for the first waypoint and begins the cycle again.
This makes it very useful for setting up patrol routes etc.
</p>
<p><i><b>Can I disable Alpha 1's subsystems?</b></i>
</p>
<p>Yep. Fred2 will complain at you but it will work.
</p>
<p><i><b>How do I make a ship jump out at a certain place (e.g. a jump node)?</b></i>
</p>
<p><img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/NodeCapship.jpg" align="left">This
depends greatly on the ship. Capships (or any ship that the player
can't make jump out) can be done fairly easily. This is one way. You
have to place a waypoint in the middle of the jump node. You then make
the ship leave when it reaches a suitable distance either from the ship
editor or by changing the ai-goal as shown here.
<br clear="all">
</p>
<p>If you're trying to stop Alpha 1 or a ship that Alpha can
order to jump out requires a little more work. First you need to
prevent the ship(s) from being able to jump out. Then you need to make
it so that the ship can only jump out within a certain distance of the
node. </p>
<p>
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/NodeJumpOnly1.jpg" align="left">
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/NodeJumpOnly2.jpg" align="left">
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/NodeJumpOnly3.jpg" align="left">The
second event activates the jump engines when alpha reaches 500m from
the centre of the node. The third event deactivates the engine if alpha
leaves the area around the node. you'll need a repeat count on the
second and third events or alpha 1 might become stuck in the mission.
You might need to alter the distances too since I haven't checked them
(Last time I checked around 700m is a better choice). <br clear="all">
</p>
<p><i><b>I noticed you are using never-warp in the above example. Why not break-warp?</b></i>
</p>
<p>Never-warp prevents the ship from leaving until the allow-warp
order is given. Break-warp merely breaks the jump engine. It can be
fixed by the fix-warp SEXP but it can also be repaired by a support
ship. This of course means that the player could spoil your carefully
crafted "leave only at the node" mission simply by rearming. For this
reason Break-warp should only be used when there are no support ships
allowed in the mission (or if you want to create a mission where you
say that something has broken the players drive and he needs a repair).
</p>
<p><i><b>What is the difference between Ship-Invulnerable and Ship-Guardian?</b></i>
</p>
<p>Ship-Invulnerable means that a ship can't be damaged by
anything. No matter what happens the ship will remain at 100% (or
whatever the damage was when it was at when the SEXP triggered).
Ship-Guardian allows a ship to take damage until the ship reaches 1%.
After that the ship becomes invulnerable. Careful use of both can fool
the player and prevent him from realising that the ship is protected (A
wing of ships at 100% at the end of a mission is a big sign that
Ship-Invulnerable was used while a wing at 1% is just as obviously a
sign of Ship-Guardian's use.) <br>
FRED2_Open has a third SEXP Ship-Guardian-Threshold that allows you to
set the point at which a ship becomes invulnerable to something other
than 1%.<br>
</p>
<p><i><b>How do I make a message come from a ship that isn't actually present?</b></i>
</p>
<p>If you look at a mission in FRED you'll notice that all orders
from command are actually coming from #command. The # symbol tells FS2
that it's not coming from a ship that is actually present. Simply make
the message come from #Whatever. </p>
<p><i><b>How do I make a Red-alert only occur when the player jumps out?</b></i>
</p>
<p><img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/RedAlert.jpg" align="left">
Easy. Just use an event like this. Replace the -true in the first event
with whatever conditions you want to use to make the mission red alert.<br>
<br>
The key-reset is needed to make sure the jump out isn't triggered 4
seconds after the Mission Complete event becomes true if the player
happens to have pressed ALT-J at some other point in the mission.
<br clear="all">
<a name="variables"></a>
</p>
<h2>Variables</h2>
<p>Most beginners regard variables as one of the most confusing
parts of FRED. In actual fact they aren't really that tricky. I was
using them since the first mission I ever FREDded. What confuses most
people is that when they see them being used it's always in big
complicated events so they get lost. I'm going to try to explain simply
how to use them. <br>
</p>
<p><i><b>What is a variable?</b></i>
</p>
<p>Since most FREDders aren't from a programming background the first thing that needs explaining is what a variable actually is. <br>
One simple way to think of a variable is as a box. The box has a name
written on the side of it (the name of the variable) and inside the box
you can put a single number (The value of the variable). <i>String
variables contain a word or sentence rather than a number but I'll
explain those in the FRED2_Open section as number variables are easier
to understand and string variables are of very limited use in FS2
Retail.</i> <br>
</p>
<p><i><b>How do I make one?</b></i>
</p>
<p><img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/BasicVariables1.jpg" alt="" align="left" border="0">
You create a new variable by choosing add variable from the right mouse
menu in FRED. This opens the Add Variable dialog box which allows you
to name your variable and give it a default value. </p>
<p><img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/BasicVariables2.jpg" alt="" align="right" border="0">
<br clear="all">
When you make a new variable you always create it with a default value.
It's impossible to have an empty box. There is always a number inside
the box (although the number can be zero!). FRED will remind you what
this default value is. Whenever you use the variable you'll notice that
it's followed by the default value in brackets. While the mission is
running there are only two things you can do with a variable. You can
either open the box and take a look at the contents, or you can throw
away the contents and put something new in its place. Every single time
you see a variable being used in a SEXP no matter how complex it is it
will be doing one of those two simple things. (Some <i>events</i> do both but each <i>SEXP</i> within the event can only do one of those things.<br>
</p>
<p><i><b>So how do I use them?</b></i>
</p>
<p>
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/BasicVariables3.jpg" alt="" align="left" border="0" height="127" width="202">
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/BasicVariables4.jpg" alt="" align="right" border="0" height="125" width="206">
With me so far? Good. Okay, so a variable is a box for putting numbers
into. What use is that? Well quite a lot you see. Because you can place
this box anywhere in FRED where a SEXP is using a number.<br>
For instance take the event on the left. You can quite easily change
the 0 into a number variable if for some reason you wanted to.<br>
</p>
<p> One important thing to understand is that every time you see
a variable being used in this way you are opening the box and taking a
look at the contents. Whenever a variable is substituted for a number
in a SEXP it is always being looked at. No matter what the SEXP does
the variable will remain unaltered. <br>
There is only one SEXP that can change the value of a variable and [V]
did us the favour of giving it a pretty unambiguous name,
Modify-variable. <br>
</p>
<p>
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/BasicVariables5.jpg" alt="" align="left" border="0" height="113" width="206">
Modify-variable does only one thing. Throw out the contents of the
variable mentioned on the first line and replace it with whatever the
second line is (or whatever the second and subsequent lines calculate
to). In the example given to the left the contents of NumberVariable
will be thrown away and replaced by zero. Remember only the variable in
the first line is ever changed. <br>
<i>If you've noticed that the default value is zero and you're
wondering why I'm replacing it with zero it's because some other event
may have changed the value to something else. Remember that the value
you see is the default. FRED has no idea what the variable can be at
any particular point in a mission because it depends on what events
have triggered).</i><br clear="all">
</p>
<p> The simplest and most common use for a variable is for
counting the number of times something happens. This is done by making
an event that says when something happens look at the number in the
box, add one to that number, put that new value in the box. The SEXP to
do that looks like this. </p>
<p><img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/BasicVariables6.jpg" alt="" align="left" border="0" height="145" width="213">
The modify-variable SEXP tells you that we are going to change the
contents of a variable. The next line tells us that the name of the
variable is NumberVariable (It also tells us the default value is
zero). The line after that tells us what value to set NumberVariable
to. In this case it doesn't give us a number but instead gives us a
SEXP that has to be evaluated to find out what the desired number is.
The SEXP is simply the addition of two numbers. The first number is the
contents of NumberVariable and the second value is one. So after the
SEXP is finished we'll have added 1 to whatever the value of
NumberVariable was (Which you may remember was what we were after!) <br clear="all">
</p>
<p><i><b>Alright. I can use them. I still don't get what I'd use them for?</b></i>
</p>
<p> Okay so now you now know how to make a counter. What use is
that? Well the FRED2 Walkthrough has a good example of a counter. In
that mission you have 4 troop transports attempting to capture an
Orion. The transports will dock with the Orion. Spend a little while
disgorging troops and then undock. If two of the troopships manage to
successfully dock with the Orion then it is captured by the enemy
forces. In the walkthrough they used variables as a way of achieving
this. Basically they defined a variable called DockCount and added 1 to
it every time one of the troop transports managed to successfully dock.
When the value of the variable was 2 then the Orion could be captured
and a simple when DockCount = 2 type event could be used to test this. <br>
Still with me? Okay. Let's try something a little more advanced.
Although the walkthrough shows a good example of how to use a variable
it's not the best example as it could have been made using normal SEXPs
(basically a big OR checking that two transports made it). Many
FREDders would feel more comfortable doing this rather than messing
with variables so lets suggest an example that can't be done without
variables.<br>
Lets say that you want to say a certain number of marines board the
Orion before the NTF forces could succeed in taking it over. Let's say
that it doesn't matter if the troop transport managed to get undocked
safely afterwards or even if they get blown up while landing troops
since they are in battle armour and the ones already on the destroyer
will be fine (although those still in the transport are toast). All
that matters is the time the transports managed to stay docked to the
Orion. <br>
Now that is pretty much impossible without variables. With them, well it's not easy but it's possible. <br>
</p>
<p><img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/AdvancedVariables1.jpg" alt="" align="left" border="0" height="374" width="240">First
you set up a variable called timedocked (with an initial value of 0).
Then you set up a repeating event for each transport that looks
something like the one on the left (Lots of repeats, repeat every
second).<br>
<br>
Basically this event waits until the transport has been docked for 10
seconds and then adds 1 to the value of TimeDocked every second until
the ship undocks or is destroyed.</p><p>You'll need copies of this event for Transport 2, 3 and 4.<br><br>
Then you have an event like the one on the right <br>
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/AdvancedVariables2.jpg" align="right" border="0" height="114" width="199">That
event triggers whenever timeDocked reaches 100 seconds regardless of
whether each ship stayed docked for 25 seconds, one ship managed a full
100 seconds or any other combination you can think of. Replace the do
nothing with whichever SEXPs you feel depict the NTF taking over the
Orion and you're done. <br>
</p>
<p>As you can see there is no way you could do what we have just
done without variables. With them we've done it in just five events
(One for each transport plus one to check if the Orion has been
captured). It is this sort of power that makes variables worth the
trouble they are to use. I've seen missions that have hideously
complicated logic to them that I could have solved in one or two events
by using variables. Eventually missions reach the kind of complexity
where it's much easier to just try to learn how variables work than it
is to try to write the mission without them. <br clear="all">
<a name="Arrivals"></a>
</p>
<h2>Arrivals And Exits</h2>
<p><i><b>I've set Beta and/or Gamma wing as a reinforcement. Fred keeps complaining at me.</b></i>
</p>
<p> Ignore it. The ships should work fine in game. FRED doesn't
like either wing being reinforcements so you can get rid of the error
(if it annoys you) by setting them to some other wing but either way it
will work fine in the game. Remember that doing so will prevent the
player from arming those ships during the game as only ships in Alpha,
Beta and Gamma wing appear in the loadout screen.<br>
</p>
<p><i><b>How do I make reinforcements only appear later in a mission?</b></i>
</p>
<p>Same way you make other ships appear later. Set the arrival
cue. If you do this for a reinforcement unit it will remain greyed out
until the arrival cue becomes true. After that the player will be able
to call the ship in (don't forget to remind the player that the
reinforcements are now available) <br>
<a name="events"></a>
</p>
<h2>Events & Objectives</h2>
<p><i><b>What is an invalid objective and how does that differ from a bonus objective?</b></i>
</p>
<p><img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/ObjectiveInvalid.jpg" alt="" align="left" border="0" height="196" width="218">When
making objectives in the objective editor you may have noticed the
little Objective Invalid tick box and wondered what it does. To explain
let's take an example mission. Suppose you're FREDding a mission where
you're going to destroy a Moloch corvette. When the mission starts
however you find the Moloch taking on supplies from a Demon class
destroyer. Command order you to ignore the Moloch for now and
concentrate on the Demon. Now look at your objectives. Having the
destruction of the Moloch as a primary goal while the destruction of
the demon is a bonus seems ludicrous. In addition to this the Destroy
Demon objective will only appear on the objectives list after you have
destroyed it. <br>
</p>
<p>This is where invalid objectives come into their own. The game
completely ignores the objective until an event using the validate-goal
SEXP is triggered. After this the game treats the goal normally. So
basically you've suddenly made a Destroy Demon primary goal appear as
if by magic. <br>
</p>
<p>Goal validation doesn't end there though. Just as you can
validate goals you can also invalidate them. For instance at the moment
destroying the demon and the Moloch are both primary goals. If you fail
to kill the Moloch you won't get the full victory music even though you
did better than the mission briefing expected of you. What you can do
in this case is use the invalidate-goal SEXP to make the Destroy Moloch
goal invalid. The game will now ignore it. <br>
If you're really sneaky you can even have an invalid Destroy Moloch
secondary goal as well as a primary one. Invalidating the primary while
making the secondary valid will make it look like the Moloch's
destruction has changed from being a primary goal to being a secondary
one.<br>
</p>
<p><i>It's worth noting that bonus goals can also be invalid too.
You could have a Destroy Cain bonus which only becomes valid once the
Moloch and Demon have been destroyed or have departed. In that way you
get a bonus if you destroy all three but get shouted at if you ignore
the Moloch in favour of the Cain.</i>
<a name="voice"></a>
</p>
<p></p>
<h2>Voice Effects</h2>
<p><i><b>How can I make voice effects?</b></i>
</p>
<p>There are two main programs used by the FreeSpace community. <a href="http://www.goldwave.com/" target="_blank">Goldwave</a> and <a href="http://www.syntrillium.com/" target="_blank">CoolEdit</a>
The programs are fairly easy to learn how to use. Goldwave is shareware
but it will only start to nag you after 100 operations which should be
enough to allow you to make a few voices. </p>
<p><i><b>How can I make Vasudan effects?</b></i>
</p>
<p>Goldwave has a rather cool mechanise special effect that is pretty close to the one used in the game.<br>
<a name="Medals"></a>
</p>
<p></p>
<h2>Medals And Promotion</h2>
<p><i><b>How do I give out a medal?</b></i>
</p>
<p>Medals are given out by the special grant-medal SEXP. Don't
bother looking for it on the list unless you're using the SCP version
of FRED cause it isn't there. What you need to do is create an event
and then manually change the do-nothing into grant medal. You can then
pick which medal you wish to grant.
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/Grant-Medal3.jpg" align="left">
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/Grant-Medal1.jpg" align="left">
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/Grant-Medal2.jpg" align="left">
<br clear="all">
</p>
<p><i><b>How do I put ships in the tech database?</b></i>
</p>
<p> Using the tech-add-ships SEXP. As with the grant-medal SEXP
you have to type this one in manually unless you're using the SCP
version.<br>
<a name="Cutscenes"></a>
</p>
<p></p>
<h2>Cutscenes</h2>
<p><i><b>How can I have new cutscenes in my campaign?</b></i>
</p>
<p><i>Short answer.</i> You can't. FS2_Open can do it but retail can not. <br>
<i>Longer answer.</i> FS2 retail only plays movies in the MVE
format. MVE is a proprietary format owned by Interplay and there are no
tools officially available which will allow you to use it. You can make
the game play an existing FS1 or FS2 .mve file by simply specifying it
in the campaign editor but to add anything new would require the use of
one of the illegal programs floating around the net which will allow
you to encode MVE format movies. I once found avi2mve but I've got no
idea where you'd get it from if you wanted it now. <a name="Debugging"></a>
</p>
<p></p>
<h2>Debugging and Weirdness</h2>
<p>Since certain problems only show up during debugging or seem to defy all logic I'll put some of these problems here
</p>
<p><i><b>I have an event that is supposed to occur when a ship is 50% damaged but it isn't happening</b></i>
</p>
<p>
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/DebuggingHitsLeft1.jpg" align="left">
<img src="FAQ-Images/Fred-Tips/DebuggingHitsLeft2.jpg" align="right">The
problem might be that you have an event like the one on the left in
your campaign. The problem with this event is that it only comes true
when the ship hits 50%. However certain kinds of weapons don't cycle
the counter down but change hits-left immediately (e.g. from 51% to 47%
without passing through the intervening numbers). The result is that
the event is never triggered since the ship was never 50% damaged. This
problem is easily solved though. Instead of triggering when the ship is
at 50% the event on the right triggers as soon as the ship is less than
50%. Thereby avoiding the problem. <i>(I
suppose I should have set that to 51% actually so that the event would
trigger when the hull was 50% rather than 49% as it is now)</i>
<br clear="all">
</p>
<p><i><b>I still can't get an event in my campaign to work</b></i>
</p>
<p> The first thing to find out is if the event is happening at
all. Messages are the simplest way to do this. If the event has a
message and you aren't seeing the message then it isn't being triggered
for some reason. If there isn't a message add one and see if it goes
off. If it doesn't add one to events that it is dependant on and see if
they are triggered. By using this method you can trace the SEXP that
isn't working. <br clear="all">
</p>
<p><i><b>When the mission starts the clock says it's 2 minutes into the mission. Other weird things have also happened.</b></i>
</p>
<p> This is the infamous player entry delay error. It is caused
by having too many ships in the ships.tbl You can't really do anything
about it except reduce the number of ships in your table. Once you've
trimmed down the number of ships in the table you can salvage your
mission by opening it up in notepad. Look for a line that says "+Player
Entry Delay:" The number afterwards probably says something like ~120
Change that number to 2.0000 (everyone says 0 but when I looked at
working missions of mine the number there was 2) and your mission
should work. </p>
<p><i><b>I've entered some text into FRED and it looks fine but then it disappears when I save</b></i>
</p>
<p> Was the text within quotation marks (")? Due to the way FS2
mission files are set out FS2 views the first quotation mark it sees as
the end of the message and doesn't parse anything further. Just don't
use quote marks in briefings, debriefings or messages and the problem
should go away. Don't use semi-colons either for that matter.</p>
<p><i><b>I've entered a message in FRED and it looks fine but
then it disappears when I choose another message and then go back. The
message properties I set have also been wiped.</b></i>
</p>
<p> This is due to a bug in FRED. You should only edit messages when that message is highlighted in the message list. <br>
</p>
<p><i><b>I've written a mission but all the capships seem to be strangely invulnerable/My shots are going straight through ships.</b></i>
</p>
<p> This is another of the problems caused by <a href="glossary.html">Battle of Endor Syndrome</a>.
Basically you've tried to make your mission too big and FS2 can't do
the collision detection on every new object the game creates (like
laser bolts and beams). As a result these things don't collide with
anything and simply go straight through capships without damaging them.
The only solution is to scale down your mission or use FS2_Open which
is slightly better at handling this sort of thing.<br>
</p>
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