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To expand on my previous comment, @Amechwarrior , any chance you're going to put together a youtube video where you walk the rest of us through how you did it so we can follow along in awe and wonder? It sounds like you pulled in a lot of info from a bunch of different places.

Also, is there any way to load these without ModTek?

Yes, I'm debating the best format for a guide. I'd usually do some kind of fat post, but I think it's just too much to cover. Probably going to try and see how I can break each part down in to small focused topics for 5-10min video series. I don't feel like I know enough yet to do it right. But I could probably start with an overview when I have the time.

Edit: Non MT - You'd have to add all that stuff in the zip to the right folder in /data and also add them to the MDDB and Version Manifest and I think it would work.
 
That's a fantastic breakthrough. Just curious - from playing flashpoints it is obvious that you can branch to a new mission on a win, are you to tell if you are able to branch to a new mission if you lose the preceding one? Is there a limit to how many missions you can chain together? If there were no real limits and you could branch to a new mission on a loss then you could probably do a branched mini campaign
 
Edit: Non MT - You'd have to add all that stuff in the zip to the right folder in /data and also add them to the MDDB and Version Manifest and I think it would work.

Maybe that's something worthwhile to have added to the tool... same for the Event Editor tool also...
 
That's a fantastic breakthrough. Just curious - from playing flashpoints it is obvious that you can branch to a new mission on a win, are you to tell if you are able to branch to a new mission if you lose the preceding one? Is there a limit to how many missions you can chain together? If there were no real limits and you could branch to a new mission on a loss then you could probably do a branched mini campaign
I've only just scratched the surface with this Joint Venture style FP. There are far more complex templates, but I can't say for sure about failure based branches.

I'd guess you could branch more than once, but right now I think any FP clears some choice tags as a reset. They only clear choice a and b. Resetting deeper tags might need to be looked in to.

Maybe that's something worthwhile to have added to the tool... same for the Event Editor tool also...

Yes, a non ModTek way to do it would be smoother for sure.
 
This bodes VERY well for the future. I can smell the custom made campaigns already. If we go by what has come in the past with the Wolfman X campaigns for Mechcommander 2, it should be awsome, and I can see all the fun stuff that people are begging for. Succession wars era, star league era (using existing models anyways). Full campaignsfrom multiple consecutive FP's. My mouth is watering.
 
Congratulations and thanks a lot for your hard work. Is somewhere a First Lord title for him? :)
 
Please make a docx file-guide with pictures. Or a video series (which is harder for you, take extra unrelated work). And we will make more flashpoints in your honor and for everybody
 
Please make a docx file-guide with pictures. Or a video series (which is harder for you, take extra unrelated work). And we will make more flashpoints in your honor and for everybody
Frankly it's such a interconnected thing that I think doing video capture is less work. With a document, I'd have to capture a ton of screens and write a ton of text with links, section references and so on. With video a lot of that happens naturally at the same time and I don't have to spell check and rewrite anything.

My plan is to map out 5-10 minutes of a specific topic and make videos when I can. I'd start with a total overview of everything, maybe even enough to let people get started. But I won't be able to devote time to this for a few days.
 
Really great job on Flashpoints.

I will be doing full FP compatibility upgrades to ConverseTek (the tool used to make the conversation) over the next few days. Until then CT is only half compatible.

I plan to add more FP features to CT and do some video tutorials for it as well for those interested (been on the todo list for a while).
 
Really great job on Flashpoints.

I will be doing full FP compatibility upgrades to ConverseTek (the tool used to make the conversation) over the next few days. Until then CT is only half compatible.

I plan to add more FP features to CT and do some video tutorials for it as well for those interested (been on the todo list for a while).

That's great! I'm planning using your existing videos as a guide for my own. If you do more conv.tek vids I could plan my videos to not double up.
 
Frankly it's such a interconnected thing that I think doing video capture is less work. With a document, I'd have to capture a ton of screens and write a ton of text with links, section references and so on. With video a lot of that happens naturally at the same time and I don't have to spell check and rewrite anything.

My plan is to map out 5-10 minutes of a specific topic and make videos when I can. I'd start with a total overview of everything, maybe even enough to let people get started. But I won't be able to devote time to this for a few days.
If a picture is worth a 1000 words... moving pictures but run into the tens of thousands a minute :)
 
@Amechwarrior so i finally got down to detroit and did your FP.

worked well....went in with the good guys.
the missions were interesting especially since one of the many many (50 folders in mods) mods i run is Mission Control.
so the baddies got some help...an extra lance of fully armoured vees on the first and 2 lances of fully armoured mech/vees for the second.
made for some fun stomping.
and the rewards were nice in that i got a messload of goodies that are part of the Battletech Enhanced mod.

overall great effort nothing broke....

more please.
 
Oh yaaaaay i'm so excited! You all being able to create your own FPs was honestly one of the secret goals I had during the whole design process, so I'm glad it's finally happening!

That's a fantastic breakthrough. Just curious - from playing flashpoints it is obvious that you can branch to a new mission on a win, are you to tell if you are able to branch to a new mission if you lose the preceding one? Is there a limit to how many missions you can chain together? If there were no real limits and you could branch to a new mission on a loss then you could probably do a branched mini campaign

You should be able to. Our intent was to build a generic system that could entirely implement the Kamea campaign, and it turned out that FPs are even more flexible than the underlying mechanics of the Kamea stuff.
 
Oh yaaaaay i'm so excited! You all being able to create your own FPs was honestly one of the secret goals I had during the whole design process, so I'm glad it's finally happening!

Well I'm glad that goal was achieved. Building these things is pretty fun and I want to see what everyone else can come up with. I got one other person on discord already working on theirs and discovering things along side me. I think they will put out the first "real" modder made FP as mine is really just a proof of concept. They even learned we can just rename the convo. file in to a friendly name in windows after creation, makes tracking them way easier.

You should be able to. Our intent was to build a generic system that could entirely implement the Kamea campaign, and it turned out that FPs are even more flexible than the underlying mechanics of the Kamea stuff.

Is there a limit on the number of missions or branches we could string together? So far, it seems we could just keep stringing stuff together in to a giant mess if we wanted to, as long as we kept the choices to 4 or less at once within the limits of the conversation screens.

Any tips for aspiring FP creators? Any kind of writers guide for the main cast? Right now I'm just exporting convos in to json and collecting each actor's chat in to a unique file for reference. Things like Yang calling the commander "Boss" and Dr. Murad acting as kind of a moral guide in some FPs is something I want to stick close to.
 
Created a neat way to plan and track your branches, talks and mission structure when planning a Flashpoint.

milestone_flowchart.jpg


Use ConverseTek!

I just name the start of a node or response with the 3-digit number and a/b/c of the associated milestone. Here I can move, copy and edit the names and places of the planned milestones before building them from scratch or json editing a template.

The FP editor doesn't seem to just let me rename a milestone. So if I have a spot between "004 Mission" and "005 Talk" I want to insert another mission & Choice in between there, it gets complicated very easily.
 
Is there a limit on the number of missions or branches we could string together? So far, it seems we could just keep stringing stuff together in to a giant mess if we wanted to, as long as we kept the choices to 4 or less at once within the limits of the conversation screens.

Any tips for aspiring FP creators? Any kind of writers guide for the main cast? Right now I'm just exporting convos in to json and collecting each actor's chat in to a unique file for reference. Things like Yang calling the commander "Boss" and Dr. Murad acting as kind of a moral guide in some FPs is something I want to stick close to.
You can make FPs as complex as you want to, as far as I know. I think past a certain point you're probably better off ending a FP and starting another, using the previous FP's resulting tags as a requirement -- because if you fail any mission in a FP, you fail the whole thing, and if you're 10 missions deep and you fail you're gonna be *really* angry.

Tips, um. Remember that people are only guaranteed to read conversations and interrupt dialogue in missions, so don't rely on the mission briefing text to convey story points. In fact, if the mission is consecutive drops, the only place the player will see the briefing is on the loading screen. i dunno about you but I mostly ignore the loading screen so I miss anything written there. Um, what else? You can give different reward packages for different endings, if you branch; check the rewards for the 'too moral to do this' exit from the Liao Alliance FP, for instance.

There is no character guide for the cast; you'll just need to pull their dialogue out of the existing material if you want to try to capture their 'tone'. I write Darius as a professional soldier, Yang as a brash and irreverent jerk, Sumire as enthusiastic, Farah as upbeat and academic. I don't write them exactly the same as Andrew, or the Events team; all of us have a very slightly different 'voice' for each of them. So as long as it feels right to you, you're probably within the scope of the character.
 
#HBSrocks!
 
You can make FPs as complex as you want to, as far as I know. I think past a certain point you're probably better off ending a FP and starting another, using the previous FP's resulting tags as a requirement -- because if you fail any mission in a FP, you fail the whole thing, and if you're 10 missions deep and you fail you're gonna be *really* angry.

Tips, um. Remember that people are only guaranteed to read conversations and interrupt dialogue in missions, so don't rely on the mission briefing text to convey story points. In fact, if the mission is consecutive drops, the only place the player will see the briefing is on the loading screen. i dunno about you but I mostly ignore the loading screen so I miss anything written there. Um, what else? You can give different reward packages for different endings, if you branch; check the rewards for the 'too moral to do this' exit from the Liao Alliance FP, for instance.

There is no character guide for the cast; you'll just need to pull their dialogue out of the existing material if you want to try to capture their 'tone'. I write Darius as a professional soldier, Yang as a brash and irreverent jerk, Sumire as enthusiastic, Farah as upbeat and academic. I don't write them exactly the same as Andrew, or the Events team; all of us have a very slightly different 'voice' for each of them. So as long as it feels right to you, you're probably within the scope of the character.

That's a really great point about the mission briefings and not putting super important plot points in combat dialog. I was planning on putting in a TA mission and realized it should not come as the second part of a consecutive drop in case the player did not have any TA focused 'Mechs. They wouldn't have no way of knowing it would be coming. I could write it in the conversation prior to the first mission, but that runs the risk of being forgotten by then. I also just figured out where we can override the FP rewards.

For anyone else also working on making one:

dn64Lui.jpg


This is for when you offer an out and the player gets nothing, I took these values from the flattenedEarth FP's early exit. Those convos for Liao Alliance is a really good advanced reference looking at how it uses links and tags to filter options in the same file. The final conversation given you take some of the later missions is all in the same file. But the first root has a condition to check for fp_choice_a and will only start that line if they did the a branch, otherwise it goes down the totally different b branch. I'd have thought they would need separate files until I looked at this FP. Thanks Kiva!
 
Also for anyone looking for planets to pick, these are the HBS created ones gathered by @Justin Kase:

Ahlat
Alamagordo
Alloway
Balawat
Bellerophon
Bonavista
Cassilda
Chandan
Gaucin
Mantharaka
Mystras
Peratallada
Pyrrhus
Sacromonte
Tarragona
Tiverton

These are created for this game, so anything you create there won't conflict with previous lore. I'm probably going to place my first real FP on Tiverton as it's in that far lower-middle you never really need to venture to. Other planets have a slightly better set of tags and descriptions for what I want build from, but the location can't be beat.