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Offline mikey

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How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« on: 05 Jun 2009, 17:12:53 »
How to make a basic Briefing in ArmA 2


In ArmA 2 BIS has decided redo the briefing system. The well known 'briefing.html' is still being used, but only for the debriefing.
The actual briefing is added by script commands, which I advise you to put in a 'briefing.sqf', and give you the ability to add 'Notes' and 'Tasks' to the briefing menu.

Ok, let's start with the simple stuff. Make a file called 'briefing.sqf' and make sure this gets executed through the 'init.sqf'. Add the following to your init.sqf:
Code: [Select]
execVM "briefing.sqf";
Now we can add the briefing commands to the briefing.sqf file, and keep the other files of your mission clean.


Adding Notes:

player createDiaryRecord ["Diary", ["Title 1", "Message 1"]];

This adds a note called 'Title 1', and when you click on that a bigger message screen comes up with 'Message 1'. This is great, but we really need some formatting and ability to add links and pictures.

Linebreak/newline: <br/>
Link to marker: <marker name='obj1'>Link to Marker</marker>
Show an image: <img image='somePic.jpg'/>
Show an image and manipulate the image width and height: <img image='somePic.jpg' width='200' height='200'/>

Some examples:
player createDiaryRecord ["Diary", ["Title 2", "Isn't whitespace awesome? <br/><br/><br/>Yes it totally is!"]];
player createDiaryRecord ["Diary", ["Title 1", "We have an objective <marker name='mkrObj1'>here</marker> and one <marker name='mkrObj2'>there</marker>"]];


Ok, you should now understand how to make a note, and what the possibilities are in the briefing message window, so let's add some tasks.



Adding Tasks

You can make tasks whenever you want (at mission start, or at any time you like duing a mission), and you can customize them a lot, but let's start with a simple one:
tskExample1 = player createSimpleTask ["Task Title 1"];

This add only adds a task called 'Task Title 1', but the message box is empty. We fix this with the following command:
tskExample1 setSimpleTaskDescription ["Task Message 1", "Task Title 1", "Task HUD Title 1"];

This sets a description to the task. The first array element is the message (like the message from the notes), the second element is the title (yes, we already defined that, but we have to redefine it here), and the third element is what gets shown on the HUD.

Note: The formatting tags that I've shown you earlier work with tasks as well.


So now that we have a task with a title and message, we can also add an objective marker to the task so we know where the objectives actually are:
tskExample1 setSimpleTaskDestination (getMarkerPos "mkrObj1");

Make sure you have an empty marker called 'mkrObj1', and you'll see a semi-transparant circular marker which will light up when you set the task as active.


Other commands

Well,now you know how to make notes and tasks, but we also need to control those tasks during the mission.

We force a task upon a player by executing this on his machine:
player setCurrentTask tskExample1;

This will highlight the objective marker, and show him the through the HUD where the objective is.


Now all that there's left, is setting the task status:
tskExample1 setTaskState "SUCCEEDED";
tskExample1 setTaskState "FAILED";
tskExample1 setTaskState "CANCELED";
tskExample1 setTaskState "CREATED";

"SUCCEEDED" = Makes the checkbox green
"FAILED" = Puts a red cross in the checkbox
"CANCELED" = Puts a grey diagonal line through the checkbox
"CREATED" = Clears the checkbox (makes it look like you've just created it)


You can also show the state of the task with the taskHint command, but since that command is kinda hard to use, we're gonna use a function that I've made to make a lot easier to show the task state.


How to make task hints

If you wanna make taskHints that look like this:

then go and grab my taskHint function  at http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=33768.0


And that's pretty much it for a basic briefing. I'll try to add more advanced stuff to it when I have some more time.


Some templates you can use:
« Last Edit: 12 Nov 2009, 13:28:20 by mikey »

Offline kju

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #1 on: 05 Jun 2009, 18:18:30 »
wow - thanks a lot for sharing mikey  :good:

Offline hoz

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #2 on: 06 Jun 2009, 02:47:42 »
This is great stuff, how about a demo mission ticking the tasks complete too?
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Offline Binkowski

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #3 on: 06 Jun 2009, 03:07:46 »
Thanks for sharing! It really helps, and as hoz requested, demo mission?  ;)

Offline fleepee

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #4 on: 20 Jun 2009, 20:15:55 »
really helpfull, glad I found it! :D

Offline loki72

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #5 on: 20 Jun 2009, 22:04:35 »
has then been (accepted) as a tutorial yet? i know it saved me from listening to ppl say 'there's no tasks in your mission'.. if anyone actually tried it yet. :blink: :P

but good job for sure
« Last Edit: 20 Jun 2009, 22:34:13 by loki72 »

Offline fleepee

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #6 on: 23 Jun 2009, 09:43:57 »
does anybody knows how to add pictures in those briefing?! ???

Offline misein

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #7 on: 24 Jun 2009, 00:51:46 »
Quote
<img image='img\C3_PLHlagushina_ca.paa' width='256' />

;)

Offline etjester

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #8 on: 24 Jun 2009, 06:55:54 »
Hi.

I've been using the technique in the OP to make objectives, and it works as intended for single player.  However, I've had trouble making multiplayer missions.  I'm using RespawnType 5 to allow players to use teamswitch upon death to enter the body of another Playable soldier.  However, any active objectives and objective markers don't seem to reappear after the respawn.  Objectives that are subsequently created during the mission will still appear, but I'm wondering how to make a player respawn with all the objectives they had prior to their death.

Any suggestions?

Offline mikey

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #9 on: 24 Jun 2009, 14:40:27 »
try my briefing template which I know works with group respawn, but I've never ever tried Side respawn nor teamswitching. so ymmv...


Updated:

added
Code: [Select]
waitUntil { !isNil {player} };
waitUntil { player == player };
because of reports that the briefing didnt run at all for some reason



exchanged
Code: [Select]
format ["%1", player getVariable "mk_killedEHadded"] == "<null>" for
Code: [Select]
isNil{player getVariable "mk_killedEHadded"}because it looks better (and probably saves a few cycles)


People who've had problems should definitely give this a try.



edit:
** the above might be obsolete, check the latest version of the template in the first post **
« Last Edit: 20 Jul 2009, 13:08:43 by mikey »

Offline nominesine

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #10 on: 24 Jun 2009, 22:31:13 »
Really helpful. * Downloading for future use *
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Offline etjester

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #11 on: 25 Jun 2009, 15:02:09 »
try my briefing template which I know works with group respawn, but I've never ever tried Side respawn nor teamswitching. so ymmv...

This works, but it treats all objectives as unfinished upon respawn. If you complete an objective and then die, it will tell you that the objective isn't completed yet when you spawn again.

Offline Ext3rmin4tor

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #12 on: 27 Jun 2009, 19:33:31 »
What about multilanguage briefings? Do you need to use stringtable.csv to make them?
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Easy! Ya' just don't lead'em so much! Ain't war hell?!!

Offline bronx187

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #13 on: 28 Jun 2009, 14:24:11 »
hi there i was very happy reading this only i have put the files in my mission folder (my document/arma 2/user/usermissions.... briefing.sqf and a init.sqf
only it is not working, now the only thing i know is that i inserted in my init.sqf only execVM"briefing.sqf"; maybe thats a problem pls anyone help me

thanks,

Offline Ext3rmin4tor

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Re: How to make a basic briefing in ArmA 2
« Reply #14 on: 28 Jun 2009, 23:44:33 »
the line is

[] execVM "briefing.sqf"
How can you shoot women and children?
Easy! Ya' just don't lead'em so much! Ain't war hell?!!