Chapter 5: Submitting and Finale

Submitting an X-Wing battle is a pretty painless endevour, almost the same as submitting any battle. First off, for your battle to be accepted, the following must ring true…

1) You have passed this course.
2) The missions involve the Emperor’s Hammer
3) The mission is in English. No exceptions.
4) Content must be suitable for all ages. Tactical Office holds all rights to declare what is suitable.
5) Your battle must comply with the LucasArts “New Levels” rules

Second, we’re going to need to prepare your battle for submission. Because there’s no EHBL for X-Wing, they must still be installed the old way, which means you’ll need a read.me with installation instructions. But first, for your battle to work, you’re also going to have to name all of your X-Wing mission files to the same name as preexisting X-Wing files. The standard is usually for your battle to take the place of the X-Wing simulator missions, but that’s not required. If they go over 6, they’ll have to be part of a ToD. Because the standard is for them to be the X-Wing simulator missions, I will list the following names you will need your missions to be.

Mission 1 – waistem.xwi, waistem.brf
Mission 2 – max4.xwi, max4.brf
Mission 3 – satlit1.xwi, satlit1.brf
Mission 4 - max5.xwi, max5.brf
Mission 5 – halley.xwi, halley.brf
Mission 6 – keyan.xwi, keyan.brf

If you’re curious for the names of all of the missions in X-Wing in case you wish to have your missions be placed somewhere else besides the “X-Wing Simulator Missions” section, you can check out a full listing here

Each battle must be zipped up with all the missions, named properly, as well as a readme file. Here is an example readme file.

---------example starts below-----------------

Title: Renegades of the Republic
Missions: 5
Game Platform: X-Wing
Author: CMDR-TCT-TCS-TCC:XW-PROF/COL Locke Setzer/Tempest/Wing X/ISD Challenge SS/BSx4/PCx5/ISMx3/MoT-1gh-6bh/IS-5BW-1BR-5SW-3SR/LoC-CSx3-Rx1/DFC-Rx1/CoL/CoB/LoA/OV-3E [GLDR] {IWATS-AIM-ASP-BOT-BX-CBX-FLA-GFX-ICQ-IIC/1/2/3-JS-LIN-M/1/2-RT-SM/2/3-TM-TT-VBS-XAM-XTM/1/2-XTT}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Installation Instructions:

X-Wing CD Installation: Download and install XCD from the SCO Site (http://sco.minos.net), files archive, the editors section. (6k.) This will let you run custom missions. There is a full guide available at the SCO site as well. Put Max4.BRF, Max4.XWI, Max5.BRF, Max5.XWI, Satlit1.BRF, Satlit1.XWI, Waistem.BRF and Waistem.XWI in your new "C:\Mission" folder and use XCD to start X-Wing CD. Create a new pilot based on your pin and the battle's type and name. For example: 2883tc01.plt if I would be flying the first XW-TC battle. Fly the first 5 "Historical Combat" missions for the "X-Wing". note: other custom missions in your mission folder will be overwritten.

X-Wing 95/Disk Installation: Run full install of the game so the mission files will be on your hard drive. The game will take it's mission information by preference from the hard disk, but might still give a warning. In that case - Ignore. Locate your X-W Directory and open the folder labeled "Mission", or "Classic" in X-W95. Copy the *.xwi, *.brf files of this custom battle into it. Create a new pilot based on your pin and the battle's type and name. For example: 2883tc01.plt if I would be flying the first XW-TC battle. Fly the first 5 "Historical Combat" missions for the "X-Wing". note: the original 5 missions in your mission folder will be overwritten, so back them up.

THIS LEVEL IS NOT MADE, DISTRIBUTED, OR SUPPORTED BY LUCASARTS ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY. ELEMENTS TM & © LUCASARTS ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY.

---------------------end example----------------------

Please feel free to copy and paste those installation instructions, as they were designed to be the standard. You must use the same format, although you can certainly add plotline information or other such things to the file. That’s just the bare minimum of what you need to have.

You may also include a plotline.doc file for a more detailed story for your battle, and you must include a patches.txt file if any patches are used. Finally, if you have all of this ready and zipped up, all you still need is a pilot file, that proves that you flew through your battle so that the TAC office knows it can be completed. This is *essential*.

If all is done and good, head over to the Battle Submission Form and submit your battle! Because X-Wing battles don’t come in too often, chances are you’ll have a high turn around rate for your battle to be released. You’ll have done it! Congrats!

Some final advice: X-Wing is an easy platform to build for, but a difficult one to master. You have less to work with, but people except the same level of enjoyment and difficulty as achieved in TIE. To do so means you’ll have to think outside the box more then TIE/XvT/XWA designers and also produce greater challenges without having to resort to simply throwing a lot of fighters at the players. Do a lot of thinking about your mission to make up for the ease it takes to build in X-Wing. Also keep in mind that it's incredibly difficult to make a Death Star mission and get away with it. Indeed, chances are if you use said Death Star, I may have to come to your house and beat you with my shoe. However, I should also mention that I often times see the argument of realism vs. playability being discussed in terms of mission making. You are going to have to accept that in the case of X-Wing, realism cannot be a factor. You have to make it about playability. If you accept that, then you’re on your way to thinking outside the box and creating some great missions.

I hope you enjoyed the course, and I look forward to flying some new X-Wing missions! Good luck on the test!

.: To the Test :.