CHAPTER 5 - OTHER FLIGHT GROUPS
 

    It is now time to add all other flight groups. The first to add are capital ships and mission critical crafts. In our example, the FRTs and the ATR. Before filling your mission with FGs, just add the most important first. It will make playtesting easier. Add these main FGs in chronological order (makes things easier for arrival conditions). For each new FG added, follow these steps:

• create the new FG
• set up the information on the "Datapad/Ship" page
• set up the Tactical Role on the "Datapad/Role" page if any. You may want to set "Primary Target" or "Mission Critical Craft" for some FGs.
• set the arrival conditions, and the departure ones if available. If some needed FG is not yet created, come back as soon as possible to this screen
• set the orders and waypoints (once again if you need to create some other FG before, come back to this step ASAP). Be sure to check the order/region selector when editing orders ! Editing an order in the wrong region can happen very easily...

• Waypoints: waypoint 1 of order 1: it determines the direction the FG will face when arriving in the region. Even if the corresponding order does not use waypoints such as "Attack" - Waypoints can only be activated via the WP Editor Window - For "hyperspace to region" orders, use waypoint 1 to set up the hyperspace jump location - make sure crafts do not collide when setting waypoints (check the result in playtesting your mission - best way is to idle with the map displayed).
   
• Orders and targets: first do not mess orders between starship and fighter orders; starship orders begin with SS; most of the SS orders will need to specify some waypoints. If you want to have a starship with no movement defending herself, the best solution is to use the "SS patrol and attack" order with throttle set to 0%, with the attacking fighters as the targets.
   
• Global Groups: A good solution for determining targets is to use Global Groups (GG). I personally heavily use GGs and GUs in XWA missions, they can be very helpful, should you need to order a flight group to attack/disable/inspect etc a group of FGs: you will for example put into the same GG all crafts with similar orders: for example in a ranged battle between two task forces, you would put all space superiority fighters of each side in a GG, and giving orders to attack the other GG. Thus, if you add some new fighters to one side or another, no need to edit orders of the other FGs. Can be useful too if you introduce difficulty levels: you will use for example a GG (or GU) for the several versions (depending on the difficulty level) of a same critical FG.
  Global Units act the same way than Global Groups, crafts within a GU are just numerated as well. It offers you some real flexibility with your orders and condition strings.
   
• You can select multiple FGs in the FG list, modifications in the datapad then affect all the selected FGs.
   
• Waypoint display on the map with the evaluation version: it may not work well when changing orders; disable/enable the  icon each time you change of order.  

      In our example, we begin to add a 2-FRT flight group named Target, with arrival conditions being "100% of flight group B/W Shadow must arrive in Region #2" time=30sec, with orders being "fly home" at throttle 10%. With the WP editor, we activate the "depart hyp" waypoint, moved on the map far way from the departure point to give enough time to the player to disable the FG.

      Then, we add a single Imperial ATR named Capture, with arrival conditions being "100% of Flight Group FRT Target must be disabled" time=10sec. Thus it will arrive 10 seconds after both Freighters are disabled. As orders, the first one is set to "Board to capture", Primary Target: Flight Group FRT Target, number of dockings: 2, time of docking: 15 sec. When setting "Board to ..." orders, make sure to give the right number of docking operations, otherwise either not enough crafts will be docked or the boarding craft will wait for additional targets. Order 2 of the ATR is set up to "Fly home", although it is not necessary.

      An important thing not to forget is to give orders to the previously created player FG, otherwise your wingmen will not move a finger for you. In region 1 first order is set up to "Hyper to region #2" with the waypoint placed near the hyperbuoy (for realism), the fourth order to "Fly home" (could have been the second order). Thus, once the FG is back in Region 1, it will go back home aboard the cruiser. In region 2, first order is set up to "Disable Flight group FRT Omega" (don't forget to activate waypoint 1 if you want to choose in which direction the FG will appear in the region), second one is set up to "attack Global Group 5", third to "Hyper to Region #1", with waypoint 1 placed near the hyperbuoy. the pirate escort will be set as GG#5. Thus if you ever decide to add another pirate fighter flight to the Z95s... 

      At this point, you can playtest the mission as you have added all primary crafts. Once everything works fine, you can add additional FGs. Playtest your mission each time you add something if you are not sure of the result. 

      If you followed the example, you may have encountered a problem: your wingmen hyperspace to Region #2, have a look then come back to Region #1. They simply went from one order to another, and as targets didn't show up yet, they reached the third order: hyper to Region #1. If this happened, to correct this, add a "wait" order (for 30 sec) before all orders of region #2 (one possible solution).

      We now add the Z-95 flight, with the same arrival conditions as the FRTs, with orders being "Attack Team.1". The FG is set with GG=5. We add as well the 3-XW flight group Ares, with arrival conditions being "100% of FRT Target must arrive" (NB: "arrive" means here arrival in the mission, and is different from "arrive in region #") time=0 sec. Its orders are "Attack GG#5". This FG will come and attack all crafts of GG#5 (the escort), then going back to hyperspace. 

  One thing you can either do at each new FG creation or at the end is to set up the Global Unit information's. If you want crafts to be numerated within their flight groups, use a different GU for each FG. If you have some crafts in different FGs but part of a same squadron, you can give them the same GU. NB: Like GGs, GUs can be used for arrival conditions or targets. 

  Playtest your mission (the golden rule :P) each time it is necessary, you should now have a working mission with crafts doing what you want them to do. Next step will be to add the goals to achieve.

   

Introduction - AlliED Interface - Mission Making - FAQs
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10