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MISSION BUILDING ACADEMY

Basic Operations and Ship Functions in TFW

This is designed to be an overview of the basic functions of TIE Fighter Workshop. This covers only the technical details in putting a mission together. By the end of the course, you should be able to create the ships involved in the mission, provide for in-mission messages and be able to complete briefing questions. These skills will be further developed in "Advanced Mission Design using TFW".

This course is not designed to be simply read, but rather it is split between learning concepts and ideas and then using the skills just covered. As such, the MBA recommends that you have TFW open as you read through this course so you can do the demos (which will eventually be the mission listed above) and that you also save the file at the end of each demo (You will need to designate a flight as the player to save the file, however, so skip to lesson 7 briefly if you do not know how to do this).

The course is broken up into the following lessons:

Lesson 1 - Adding Ships and Flight Groups
Lesson 2 - Placing Ships and Navigation
Lesson 3 - Giving Orders
Lesson 4 - Arrival and Departure
Further Lessons

Lesson 1 - Adding Ships and Flight Groups

This is obviously the most critical component of every mission that you can possibly make. Without ships, there's no need for any of the other things you will learn about. While it is the other aspects that make a mission complete, it is the ships that provide the backbone. As such, this is a fairly lengthy lesson. Do not get disheartened by it's length! A lot of it is explanation of concepts that, while critical, are not difficult to understand, just time-consuming.

Fortunately, TIE Fighter Workshop makes it easy to add ships, but first, we need to make TFW start up the new mission. To create a new mission, simply click on the File menu and select "New..." and then select the "TIE Mission" option and press ok. You should get this screen:

Now, to add a ship, you simply click on the button marked "New" in TFW (Make sure that the "Ships" tab is selected). This will create a group call (1) Rebel None New Ship. We'll take a brief moment to examine the structure of this entry before moving on. The (1) indicates the number of ships in that flight group, so if you were to later change this to a flight of TIE Fighters, that number would probably be (3) or (4). After that, the ship's IFF, or Identification Friend-Foe, is shown. This basically tells you what color this flight group's members will appear as in the mission. The "None" is the type of ship selected for this flight group and will usually be an actual ship. However, since we haven't set this value yet, it defaults to nothing. Finally, the "New Ship" designates the flight group's name. While LucasArts had fairly strict naming conventions, not all Imperial flight groups have to be named after Greek letters. For the most part though, it is a good idea as it gives the mission a more "realistic" feel.

Now that you're familiar with what TFW is telling you, let's change it around. Double click (or highlight and push enter) on the flight group you want to edit (in this case, the only flight group). This will bring up a page with many menus and options. For now, we will stick to the basics. Under the "General" tab, there are five "regions": Names, Flight Group Attributes, Special Cargo, Number, and Ship Status. We will now explore each of these regions in detail.

The Names region is only useful for changing the flight group's name and setting it's cargo. Putting information in the "pilot" category does NOT make that the player's craft nor does it have any discernible effect on gameplay. In the Flight Group box, you can technically type whatever you want, but remember that the targeting display (where this information will be shown) can only show so many characters, so the TIE Fighters of flight group "Jumpin Jess's Jumbalya Jamboree" will probably only show up as "Jumpin Jess" A good rule of thumb is to try and keep it under ten characters (meaning letters and spaces) whenever possible.

The Flight Group Attributes is probably the most powerful region on this menu. As the paragraph describing them all would be hideously long, they are broken down in the bulleted list below:

The Special Cargo Region is really just if you want a ship in the flight group to carry special cargo different from the standard cargo. A good example of this would be the first mission of the first battle in the original TIE Fighter. There were a series of freighters with cargos and then one with a special cargo of "Rebels". Here you simply specify what the special cargo is (keeping in mind that it, too, is limited in how much can be shown on the targeting display) and what ship in the flight group has it. If you want the game to randomly select a flight group member to have hit, check the "Random Special Ship Position" and the game will randomly pick one every time it is run. Normally you would only do anything in this region if it was a part of the mission's objectives.

In the Numbers region is where you can set the number of ships in the flight group and the number of waves of that flight group the game will create. The TIE Fighter targeting display can only display numbers 1 through 9 so you should try to keep the number in a flight group below that. Also, the basic TIE Fighter engine can only support 28 ships (this includes containers, tugs, ANYTHING) in the combat area at once. If you have more than 28 ships, the most recent arrivals will simply not be created (which would be bad if it say...that group had a mission critical ship in it). You can have more than 28 ships in the mission, you just can't have more than 28 ships ACTIVE in the mission. So what if you want the player to fight a full three squadrons of TIE Bombers? That's 36 ships right there not including the player's flight group! The answer is quite simple, you'd just adjust the waves of the ships. Have each squadron be represented by a flight group of 4 ships and then set the waves to 2. This means that when the four craft of a flight group get destroyed, another four will be created two times, after that, no more will be created. So the players will get the feel of fighting 36 fighters, but the game would only have to deal with 12 fighters at a time (plus the player's flight group). Capital Ship flight groups can also have numbers and waves, but in general, it's hard to find a reason to have waves for capital ships.

The last region, "Ship Status", is used to add (or subtract) enhancements to the ship to make it fit in the mission. The status button lets you add various options to the ship. Options such as 2X Missiles, shields off and 1/2 shields are fairly self-explanatory. The two big ones here are "Lasers Out" and "Shields Added." Lasers Out means, essentially, that the lasers on that ship no longer function and that it cannot fire. This is good for capital ships that are supposedly damaged, drones, etc. Shields added means that a ship has shields even if it normally wouldn't. Here is an important note: you CAN add shields to a ship and have the player fly it, however, the cockpit graphic will seem slightly odd in some cases due to the extra power management bar. This is a fairly minor issue though and will not affect gameplay. The Missile box is fairly self-evident as well. Make sure you have something in this box if you want the player's ship to have missiles. Otherwise, the game will not let them choose at all (you can disable choice if you so desire, discussed later). Beam weapons can be tricky as not all of them are available in the original game. Also, it's hard to find reasons in an RS mission to include Beam weapons, so for the most part, leave this alone. Just remember what each weapon does and you can add it in if you so desire. (For those who forgot, Tractor keeps the enemy from manuevering, Jamming prevents the ship from firing and Decoy keeps warheads from tracking the ship)

Now that you have a good grasp of what each of these regions can do, let's make this a flight group that will eventually be the player's. We will make this a 3-ship Imperial TIE Interceptor flight designated "Academy", an Ace skill level, flying in Line Abreast formation with Concussion Missiles and enhanced with shields. We want the player to be able to order them around so make sure to check the appropriate box. As these are fighters, no cargo information is needed. Also, since it will be the player's group, no waves are needed as waves are only sent in when all ships are destroyed and the destruction of the player's craft ends the mission (sorry, no XvT style waves in this game). When you are done, your menu should look like this:

Click OK and TFW will automatically update the display. Now instead of (1) Rebel None New Ship, it says (3) Imperial TIE Interceptor Academy. Now, if you wanted many of the same sort of flight groups (like you wanted to quickly stock a Star Destroyer rather than making six or seven flights by hand) you would create the flight group completely with it's arrival, departure, methods and orders (i.e. - more in-depth than what we have done thus far) and then click the "Duplicate" button. Then all you'd really have to change is the name of the flight group. Try this by creating three more instances of the Academy flight group. You may notice that even if no flight group is actively selected, it still copies. If no flight group is selected, it will simply copy the last selected group ONCE and then the flight group at the top of the list. Be very careful using this button. Now, since we don't really need the extra flight groups, select them each individually and delete them using the obviously marked button.

In general, it is a smart idea to have all the ships in the mission planned out and created before you move on. The reason for this is that some orders need to have targets specified and you cannot provide this information if the flight groups do not exsist. This is not to say that you can't add fluff ships later or add more challenge, but the basic ships critical to the mission should be completed before you begin worrying about orders and other details.

This concludes the lesson on adding ships and flight groups. You have learned the basics in adding ships, adjusting the basic attributes and how to duplicate and delete them. You will begin to manipulate the ships in the following lesson, "Placing Ships Navigation."

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Lesson 2 - Placing Ships and Navigation

Ships all need points specified for them or else the game will have no idea where they are or where to put them. The navigation menu can be accessed by opening up the flight group properties (either double-clicking on the group or hightlighting and pressing enter) and selecting the seventh tab marked "Navigation."

Displayed is a long list of slots that appears like this:

The first major concept that must be covered is fairly complicated and math intensive. While the concepts are presented as simply as possible, they might still be confusing. The way in which TIE Fighter associates a ship with it's position is through plotting it on a graph with an X, Y and Z axis. The first number is the X coordinate, meaning where it is horizontally (side to side). The second is the Y coordinate, meaning where the ship is on the vertical axis (top to bottom). The third is the Z coordinate, meaning where it is in the 3rd dimension (short to tall is the simplest explanation). There is a demo at the the end of this lesson if you are having problems with the idea. For now, we will move on.

The ones marked "Start Point" seem to be fairly obvious, but why would you have more than one? Well, what if a capital ship is now where that start point is? The ship would crash the moment it entered the battle. Having alternate start points will prevent this from happening. Note that this value is only needed if the ship is A) deployed at the start of the mission or B) a craft arriving by hyperspace. Ships being deployed from motherships do not need this value (more on that later though).

Waypoints are used to provide the ships with navigation. Capital ships will use these the most, fighters will really only use this in lulls in combat. Only certain orders will use waypoints so make sure that you only specify waypoints for ships that need them. The same goes for Rendezvous point, only use it if you have to.

Hyperspace point is similar to the start point except you only need to use it for hyperspace capable craft. This is their departure point and where they will go if they complete their mission or are withdrawing. A good idea is normally have this be fairly close to their start point, although there are always exceptions (like if you are making a blockade running mission).

The briefing point is where this flight group will be displayed on the briefing map before the mission. This is a most useful tool as it makes it possible to hide units on the briefing map and to have one flight of TIE Fighters represent many.

Please note that any point you wish to use MUST be checked. Even if there are coordinates in the boxes, the checkbox must be filled for the game to recognize it as being used.

While you can manually enter in the values here, most people (myself included) find it simpler to activate the points you will need (by filling in the check box) and clicking OK. Then go to the "Mission" menu and select "Mission Map..." This will bring up a graphical display of the units with start points and waypoints and allows you to manipulate them by simple drag-and-drop. The letters by the name are SP for start point, WP for waypoint, HYP for hyperspace and RNDV for rendezvous point. Making changes here will automatically change the values on the navigation chart. Personal preference is to use the map for X/Y coordinates (the default view) and then add in the Z coordinates manually, but you do whatever you feel most comfortable doing.

Now that you know the basic ideas behind this, do the following with the mission you created in lesson one:

Create a flight group of a single plaform (any style of platform), make it Imperial IFF, and call it Home Base. Activate start point 1 for this group.

Go into the TIE Interceptor Academy properties and activate start point 1 and waypoints 1 through 4.

Make the platform start at (0,0,0) and have the TIE Interceptors start at (-2,-2,0). Set the T/I first waypoint as (2,-2,0), the second as (2,2,0), the third as (-2,2,0) and set the fourth to match the start point. (In this instance, it is easier to use the table to enter the data)

You have now created a base and given the fighters a path to fly a patrol around. While they will not fly it as of yet, the framework to do so now exsists.

This concludes Lesson 2, please proceed on to Lesson 3 - "Giving Ships Orders" where you will learn how to make the T/Is patrol around their base.

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DEMO IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE XYZ CONCEPT:
Think of the battle as taking place on a 81/2 inch by 11 inch sheet of paper (which is pretty much a normal piece of notebook paper , try to do the following demo yourself). The X would be the short portion of the paper or the width. If you were told to put a dot at the 4 1/4 inch mark on the X axis, you would measure halfway through the page and make a dot. Now, the Y axis is the long edge of the paper or the length. If you were told to make a dot at 5 1/2 inches on the Y axis, you would measure halfway up the page and make a dot. If you were told to make a mark at (4 1/4 inches, 5 1/2 inches) you would make a dot 4 1/4 inches over, 5 1/2 inches up (the approximate center of the page). Now, take you pencil and put the tip on the dot you made in the middle of the page. The pencil is now the Z axis. In this system, the coordinates of (4 1/4", 5 1/2", 2") would be 4 1/4 inches over, 5 1/2 inches up and 2 inches from the paper up the pencil. In TIE Fighter, the location of the point you made would be called (0,0,0), so to have things in the bottom portion would require a negative second number and to have it in the left half would require a negative first number. The third number can also be negative.

Lesson 3 - Giving Ships Orders

So you now know how to add ships and you've created a great set of ships for a mission, even placed them on a map and given them waypoints. It looks like a great mission, except the ships don't DO anything, they just kind of sit in space and wave at each other. What you need to do now is to give the ships orders, otherwise they're just fancy background. There are several different orders that you can give to a ship and TFW includes a description of each of the ones that you would use (accessed throught the "..." and then clicking on the marked button), so, in this lesson, we will only discuss the dos and don'ts of orders.

First, select the flight group that you want to edit the orders for. This can be done by double-clicking on them in the ships list or highlighting the group and pushing enter. The fifth tab on the screen that pops up is labeled "Orders." As I'm sure you've already figured out, this is where we will be spending this lesson.

On the orders tab, there are three regions. Order Selector, Order Editor and Targets. They work as such:

The Order Selector enables you to specify in what order a flight group will execute it's orders. For example, if you wanted a craft to stay where it is until a certain flight group has arrived, you would tell that craft to wait for however long is appropriate. Then you would make the next order whatever fit in the mission. In this way, you could have a transport sit around until the ship it was to attack arrived. Also, you could use it to specify how many times a flight should go through it's waypoints before it flew back to its hangar.

The next region of this menu is the Order Editor. In this box, you specify the type of order and any additional information it may need. For example, if you have selected board and capture and you need it to capture multiple ships in the flight group, you would give it the number needed in the appropriate box. Please keep in mind that docking duties are equally divided among the ships in the group. If you have a four ship flight to dock with four other ships, then each of the ships will dock with one of the targets. Make sure to read order descriptions carefully before using them. On a related note, under NO, and I do mean NO, circumstances should a capital ship be given the order "Attack Targets." This order is meant for use with small ships and includes logic structures such as jinking (or moving suddenly to throw off an attackers aim). Nothing makes a mission look more silly than having an Imperial Star Destroyer try to jink!!! Also, it can cause a lot of collisions as the craft acts a lot smaller that it is. The proper option is patrol loop or, if it needs to not move, hold station.

The Targets section is more or less self-explanatory. The Depends On category gives the order it's broad parameters, such as ships of a certain type, flight group, IFF code, etc. The target is the specific part of the broad category to target, such as the Rebel IFF or all TUGs. The only one that needs explanation is the Global. Try to avoid using this except when you are making groups to attack the player exclusively. You can also specify many criteria, such as Rebel ships or starfighters or ships that are trying to disable a craft. TIE Fighter will go through the targets based on whichever comes first. If that target is unavailable or out of range, the next target on the list is used.

Now, time to get back to the mission we've been working on:

Go to the T/I orders and change Order 1 to Patrol Loop and have them go through their waypoints 4 times. Specify their targets as "Ship Category:Starfighters" and "IFF Code: Rebel" The Order screen should like this:

That is the end of the lesson on giving ships orders. You should now have a general idea about how to make ships do what they need to in the context of the mission. The next lesson, "Arrival and Departure" will cover the methods of making a mission dynamic and adaptable to the player's performance.

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Lesson 4 - Arrival and Departure

Up until now, we have dealt primarily with ships that have been in the mission since the start. However, what if the ships aren't supposed to be there until later? Or what about that 28 ship limit? How can ships be in the mission without starting off? For these reasons, each flight group has the arrival, departure and their associated methods tabs in their property sheet.

The main focus is on arrival, as good use of this feature can make or break a mission. The section on what levels the group appears in isn't really a factor in RS missions. The setting of "All Levels" is usually appropriate for an RS level as we want everyone to fly the same mission. The Arrival conditions is a bit tricky. For the most part, it's easiest to make their arrival dependent on the arrival of other ships or from the start of the mission. To make them arrive after a certain amount of time, all you have to is set the amount of time at the bottom. The other easy method entails getting the flight group that will arrive first in the selected menu (make sure the depends on is set to "Flight Group") and then set an interval, if desired, for it to arrive. Another popular method is to have ships arrive when another ship is attacked. This is good if there are neutral ships or ships they aren't supposed to attack in the mission. Just remember! 28 ships is all you can have.

The departure condition is an overide of the unit's current orders. This is used for things such as Rebel hit-and-fade tactics (they would all leave when the target is destroyed, but if you don't set this, only the bombers would leave and the intercept fighters would stay) or if the side will cut it's losses and run after the destruction of a key ship. The topmost box is for the individual units status. This will let you make the departure conditions unique for each group, as though they are ordered not to take excessive losses.

The arrival and departure methods are really designed to make the game more pleasing to those who demand a degree of realism in a fictional universe. If you want a ship to be launched from a ship or platform, specify that as it's mothership and make sure the mothership radio button is selected. The alternates are really for if a mothership was specified and the mothership has since been destroyed. You can specify a different mothership or hyperspace (which will always work). Keep in mind though, if you have TIEs entering hyperspace (except Advanced and Defenders) you will probably hear compliants from people about the mission.

Since we thus far have had a fairly boring patrol mission, let's spice life up for our flight of TIE Interceptors.

Create two three-ship Rebel groups, one of X-Wings called Green and one of Y-Wings called Blue. Make them both the "Officer" setting in TFW and give the Y-Wings torpedoes. Set the X-Wings to start at (0,4,0) and the Y-Wings to start at (0,5,0) and set their hyperspace points to match.

Set the X-Wings to attack the Interceptors and the Y-Wings to attack the platform. Make their arrival time 45 seconds from after the mission start.

Go into the Interceptors properties and set their arrival and departure methods to the platform, then set their departure condition to "Is blasted to 50% hull".

Once you have done this, you'll have put together a very basic mission. In the next lesson, continued on the following page, we will get into the touches that make a mission interesting.

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