[Video Tutorial] Mission Director Basics

[apricotslice]

Comment that comes to mind.....

Do the originals at whatever gives the best resolution, regardless of the fact that 2gb is too big.

Convert way down for Utube use.

At some point, another lesser scale down will get done for a downloadable version.

I have the space and the site bandwidth for hosting these (Probably not 2gb files, but something smaller than the originals, but bigger than you can upload to utube), I just have to solve how to get them on the site without using my own access bandwidth. (Should be easy, just have to figure out how - I presume I set up a local ftp of some sort). So down the track when we have finished product, we can worry about hosting it.

In the meantime, I suggest making high quality masters, and low quality utubes, then we worry about where the medium point is later on.

[Vayde]

I'm really enjoying the series so far and have, like the rest, learned a great deal.

Like Dr B, I think your presentation style is pitched perfectly for beginner and advanced user alike. You cover each topic with clarity and go into some excellent detail when you feel it's required.

As with all programming techniques KISS is the way to go. Please don't get sucked into writing missions for people who can't or wont figure things out for themselves.

Thank you for teaching me to fish rather than feeding me one

[Ketraar]

Regarding quality, I had a closer look at options yesterday and I can record in 1280x720 without changing screen resolution. Seams I cant do 1080
Also tweaked the puplishing options to max quality, but still will need to compress, I think I found a good balance now. Next video should benefit from it. Should be able to do it today.

Thank you for teaching me to fish rather than feeding me one

I'm glad you see it that way, its so much better to understand why things are the way they are and not just repeat steps. This is quite important for MD Coding due to the rather vast possibilities and various ways to do the same thing. I'm sure once someone understands the way the MD ticks new ways to do things will be discovered, or different/better ways to achieve the same thing.

So yes I'll try to focus on explaining how the MD ticks rather than just making code examples. Might not always be possible, there are some things I don't know, or lack in-depth knowledge to explain it.

MFG

Ketraar

[apricotslice]

if something comes up and you dont actually know, I'd rather you said that and left it open for a future video or left it as an unknown. That way everyone is aware there is a hole in the knowledge base, rather than you trying to pretend its not there (not suggesting anything). Besides, if you say you dont know, someone watching it later may tell you and then you can do another video to fill the hole.

I guess thats a good last video. Outlying what you dont know, in the hope that someone watching may well know.

[Argonaught.]

if something comes up and you dont actually know, I'd rather you said that and left it open for a future video or left it as an unknown. That way everyone is aware there is a hole in the knowledge base, rather than you trying to pretend its not there (not suggesting anything). Besides, if you say you dont know, someone watching it later may tell you and then you can do another video to fill the hole.

I guess thats a good last video. Outlying what you dont know, in the hope that someone watching may well know.

I agree there also, you never know, maybe one of us that are watching and learning from the videos will discover what an unknown command does by accident or by messing with it alot

Argo.

[Ketraar]

OK next video is done and is publishing as I type. It got rather big (58min )
So it'll take a while to publish then have to chop it into 15 min parts and upload them all, so it may still take a while untill its up, but thought I'd pop in here to say its underway.

It has actors, offers (not briefing and guidance, that's for later) and the occasional explaining of triggers and stuff one should know.

MFG

Ketraar

PS.: no clue what the hell I talked all about to make it that big though

[DrBullwinkle]

OK next video is done and is publishing as I type. It got rather big (58min )

Excellent.

You can apply to YouTube to allow your account to upload longer videos.

[Argonaught.]

Excellent

I'll give feedback when it's available to view and after I've watched it.

Argo.

[Argonaught.]

Your on the front page news http://www.egosoft.com/community/news_en.php

Congrats

Argo.

[Ketraar]

Ok video is up [MDTutorial] Actors and Conversations

Mind its still "in process" and no clue how long that will take. The other ones were quite fast to process but they were smaller in size and length. Given this one is ~400ish MB it may take a min or two, and seams everyone else is uploading stuff to Youtube as well.


MFG

Ketraar

EDIT: As I typed this seams it was done and is now available for watching. Please let me know if quality is OK now and as usual general feedback is highly appreciated.

@DrBullwinkle
Thanks for the hint, much easier now to upload stuff without having to go over the whole cut stage.

[Argonaught.]

Actors & Conversations video was very well explained, I'll still need to refer to it from time to time as my memory isn't what it used to be.

You laid out nicely too, good work.

Argo.

[apricotslice]

New suggestion, from a current page 1 thread.

MD - SE interfacing.

The recommended way of getting a MD to trigger from a script is to create a ship somewhere totally isolated, with a certain number of ecells on board.

The MD checks for the existence of the ship, and depending on the number of ecells will trigger different parts of the MD.

So the MD runs on startup, the ship gets created by a script as a major trigger set as a condition in the MD, and the number of ecells then is the way the script controls when to trigger parts of the MD.

It would be nice to have this done as a video tutorial showing both sides, both the MD and the scripting, with references that show the bit of the script that references the bit of the MD and back again.

Obviously it works both ways too. An MD can create a ship which a script is looping to look for. Obvious pitfalls and traps for newbie scripters in doing that, but its worth describing imo.

[Ketraar]

Well all I can explain about that is the basic logic on how it should work and the MD side of it, since I dont touch the SE with a big stick. Seriously, I have no clue about SE beyond the basic logic on what it does and represents.

Also would like to point out that there not many real situations where this is really useful, given most stuff that can be done via MSCI are available in MD too. The only thing I always thought was missing from MD, was the ability to use menu and retrieve player input from it, that's for me personally the only reason to use MSCI.

Mind you can call/start script from MD directly and even "give" it some arguments but that's MD to SE only not the other way around.

Here would be good to have someone with enough knowledge about both sides of the Force (dillpickle? Scrat_GER? other I cant remember?) rather than me getting stuck explaining the SE bit.

MFG

Ketraar

[Juggernaut93]

Mind you can call/start script from MD directly and even "give" it some arguments but that's MD to SE only not the other way around.

That would be very interesting imo. I didn't know it could be done.

[dillpickle]

Here would be good to have someone with enough knowledge about both sides of the Force (dillpickle? Scrat_GER? other I cant remember?) rather than me getting stuck explaining the SE bit.

Won't be me - unless you want to know how to open the script editor... That's about the extent of my knowledge of it. - though I did actually manage to change a '2' to a '3' with it the other day (still being tested to make sure I didn't break the game...)

Mind you can call/start script from MD directly and even "give" it some arguments but that's MD to SE only not the other way around.

That would be very interesting imo. I didn't know it could be done.

We use them quite a bit in XTC - all MD created ships are equipped via script, more options than the standard minimum, default and maximum, and more control as to what gets equipped.

[kurush]

Also would like to point out that there not many real situations where this is really useful, given most stuff that can be done via MSCI are available in MD too. The only thing I always thought was missing from MD, was the ability to use menu and retrieve player input from it, that's for me personally the only reason to use MSCI.

That and also running an MD script from a hotkey or a ship command. This is where I had to cross-breed them. I am not sure it should be a part of the tutorial though, just a howto somewhere on the forum should suffice. It is a bit of an advanced topic that you won't need if you are just trying to create missions.

[apricotslice]

It is a bit of an advanced topic that you won't need if you are just trying to create missions.

Oh, I dont know.

I can see a plot type MD where a script adds a piece of equipment and the MD is triggered to give the player a mission that uses it.

Also, the one thing I dont like about MD is its lack of orderly flow. You set up ques, but these can be done in any order depending on when the condition activates it or is deactivated.

Scripts on the other hand have ordered logic, so writing a script to control the flow of a mission makes sense, with the MD acting on the conditions setup by the script.

I guess it comes down to whats easier to do. So seeing both ways of doing it presented would help someone choose which is best for them.

Edit : Once you get to that point, ask one of the scripters to colaborate. Someone like LV, Gazz or Logain-Abler.

[dillpickle]

It is a bit of an advanced topic that you won't need if you are just trying to create missions.

Oh, I dont know.

I can see a plot type MD where a script adds a piece of equipment and the MD is triggered to give the player a mission that uses it.

In which case you simply use:

Code: Select all

<condition>
  <object_has_equipment object="{player.ship}">
    <ware typename="SS_WARE_TYPENAME" min="1"/>
  </object_has_equipment>
</condition>

Also, the one thing I dont like about MD is its lack of orderly flow. You set up ques, but these can be done in any order depending on when the condition activates it or is deactivated.

Scripts on the other hand have ordered logic, so writing a script to control the flow of a mission makes sense, with the MD acting on the conditions setup by the script.

Of course it has orderly flow, that is why you use sub cues - Once the parent cue has been triggered it will only then start checking conditions for the sub cues, and so on for their sub cues etc...

They are two different tools for two different purposes, and never designed to have much interactivity. Trying to force them to work together will just lead to unnecessary frustration, and as I've yet to see a plot (or any other mission) that required a script to handle the mission flow it seems to me fairly pointless...

These videos are after all aimed at the beginner....

[apricotslice]

I dont disagree.

Its the way that MD is structured that offends my "old school" programming constructs.

I dont doubt it works, but my way of programming is more akin to the SE, so having the MD be an adjunct of a script strikes me as a good way of doing it. Essentially the MD becomes a series of black boxes each of which is player communication based, but the script controls the logic flow.

Anyway, just conjecture at this point. Personally I'm waiting for them all to be completed, at which point I'll do the lot as a course, then see which way strikes me as being the way that suits me best.

[Ketraar]

Well I used to go to companies and give training to people about new ways to do the things people were doing for ages, in some cases decades. The more people are set in their ways the harder it was to convince them to adopt new techniques. This seams to be a general bug in humans as they grow older, so my advise to everyone is to approach any learning process as a child, you don't know anything, that will make learning so much easier. Just a suggestion, as usually everyone is entitled to what the heck they like.

OK so preparing next video, I think I'm going to address library, should be a shorter one. I want to do some coding of my own too so this will have to do for this week.

Maybe, and that's just a maybe, I'll do a live recording of a small MD script I wanted to do for a while but never got around to actually do it. This would be one with less explaining as the last ones otherwise it would take for ever, but may be interesting for some to see how to build a script from start to end (I could add comments later in editing where needed). Obviously this would be a larger endeavour.

So let me know if it would be worth doing.

MFG

Ketraar