I'm currently designing my Singleplayer map, Deathisland-solo.

I have couple of questions:

1. How do you enable the pause menu for singleplayer maps? every time I press 'esc' nothing comes out.

2. How do you add mission objectives to a map? It should involve a trigger volume and script, but what's the scripting command?

3. How can you add chapter titles to a map.

4. If I want to add weapons beside dead bipeds, should I place them under "netgame equipment" or "weapons" in Sapien?

5. How do you make a good cutscene? All I can come up with is just a camera overlooking the player and some Marines.

Help and answers to these questions would be appreciated.

Well I don't know the answers to most of them but here is what you should do for 1. first open your scenario in guerilla and then under skies it should say this sky type flags under where it says type switch it to solo. then everything should work for 1 just save your scenario and compile\recompile with tool!



-Pakar45

Yes, I did that. It still does not work. Have you ever made an SP map before?

How do you add music to a level when a player walks into a trigger? What kind of script should I use?
Edited by Polamee on Nov 7, 2008 at 08:06 AM

Since you do not want the weapons to respawn when picked up, you would load it into the weapon slot

Netgame equipment doesn't even work in solo missions. It's only intended for multiplayer.

I'm going to try to answer all of your questions.

1. Check your settings in multiplayer. If Esc pauses there, it SHOULD pause like that in campaign. I will look into other possible reasons as to why it may not be working and let you know what I find.

2. It involves the script. You also have to tool it in by way of the hud-messages command. Here's how to do it:

You will open Notepad. The objectives will be put in this exact format. I will use mine as an example:

obj1=>> Obtain a sniper rifle
obj2=>> Kill so-so
obj3=>> blahblah
obj4=>> yadayada

Each "obj" is an objective. Where I put in nonsense, you can put in whatever you want. You will refer to these in the script later. Save that file in the Unicode format as an HMT file. It will be saved in the data folder that corresponds to the tags folder that the scenario file is in.

You will then put it through Tool. This is the format of the tool command:

tool hud-messages levels\thislevel thisscenario

It will then be able to be referred to in scripts. You would refer to it like this:

(show_hud_help_text true)
(hud_set_help_text obj1)
(hud_set_objective_text obj1)
(sleep 150)
(show_hud_help_text false)

"Obj1" can be changed to Obj2 or whatever number the objective happens to be.

3. Chapter titles are referred to in unicode_string_lists, and then the unicode_string_list file is referred to in the scenario, thus making it able to be referred to in scripts. I usually use the String_List_Editor to make these, but it can be done in Tool.

4. Weapon and equipment tags only. No netgame equipment.

5. Loads of scripting, mostly to get the camera from one point to another. The rest is making sure the AI does everything exactly right, so I'm not going into detail here (having never made an extensive cutscene, I don't really know how to explain it).
Edited by drillinstructor on Nov 7, 2008 at 11:38 AM
Edited by drillinstructor on Nov 7, 2008 at 11:38 AM

Thanks for the help, drillinstructor. BtW, I've changed the tag to Multiplayer and the pause menu works. But change it to Solo and it does not work. Weird, huh?

Drillinstructor should get a cookie for being good at explaining things and being helpfull, unlike most people who actually know how to do stuff on this site.

*Cookies*

To make a sound play when entering a trigger volume, use a script like
(script startup script
(begin
(sleep_until (volume_test_objects (players)) 15)
(sound_impulse_start none 1)
)
)


Did I mention you need a trigger volume?


PS: Do I get a cookie?

Yay! All those who helped will get a preview of my map, a muffin, and a cookie. They'll mail it to you.

*Disclaimer: Muffin and Cookie might not arrive.

1. I have no idea.
2. Look on the Halomaps.org website for p0lar_bear's SP tutorials, they should help a lot.
3. There's this one tutorial on TheGhost's page, ghost.halomaps.org/tutorials
4. Place it under weapons. No offense, but this isn't a netgame, so, with common sense, we can determine that it goes under weapons.
5. Look up cinematography rules.

Thanks for the help on music.

y the way, what are the names of the music files?

There's so many that it would be impractical to list them all.

However, if you've ripped the campaign maps, you can go in their respective folders and have a look at all the music files that they used (they'll be sound_looping files, and are named something like a10_01, a10_02... and so on).

Thanks for all the help drillinstructor.

Hmmm.....but my pause menu problem is still unsolved...weird.

Or for the music you can download the halo soundtrack tags from
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3834
Halo 2 and 3 are there somewhere...

Nope. Nothing like that.

Gameplay goes like this:

Player emerges from Flood-infested structure, and fights off Covenant with air support and Flood outside. The player gets a ghost,, neutralizes several Elite Hunt-and-Kill teams on the beach that are fighting flood, and goes into a cave.

In the cave, the Player will meet ambshes of Jackals (which are surprisingly effective) and a shade turret.

Upon emerging, the player faces a SpecOps unit led by a white Elite.

Turning right will bring the player to the last stage of the level, which is killing the Elite commander. He is aided by Black Elites and Hunters. There are Flood in that area to distract the defenses.


Edited by Polamee on Nov 13, 2008 at 08:04 AM
Edited by Polamee on Nov 13, 2008 at 08:05 AM
Edited by Polamee on Nov 14, 2008 at 12:00 AM

That is actually very thought out. Nicely done.

Cookie Jar Access: Granted

You might concider changing the map name, though...

Sounds nice, but are there going to be any allies around? Most maps with large open battlefields *cough cough Attack on Covenant Base cough cough* require much skill without cheats. Usually the huge amount of people there just cut you down.

i like the the map idea =) but i have 1 question: will it use only a little part of deathisland, or the whole/large amounts of the map? =P

It uses the whole map.

I'm planning to have a huge Banshee battle after you kill the Elite commander, where the player goes on top of the hills and obtains a Banshee, fighting off squads of enemy aircraft, including seraphs.

By the way, how do you make amn AI start in a vehicle?

Why Death Island? Why not use BSP #1 of b30?

I used a command list, for entering vehicles, and spawn the AI right at the seat, so right as he spawns, he hops in.

Come to think of it, I'm not really sure....
BtW, how can you find the unicode_string_list files?
Edited by Polamee on Nov 15, 2008 at 01:23 AM

You could use vehicle_load_magic as well.

There is no way the Type-26 Ground Support Aircraft can fight off a Seraph-class Starfighter.

And like i said, you need a better name...

I played this map and it's very good, except for a few kinks that I'm not disclosing. :P

How can you find them? Look in any one of the original campaign map scenario files. It's the "in-game help text" file, near the bottom.

This is where the chapter titles are referenced. You can compile your own using the String List Editor, found here:

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=1049

There's one modified by E3pO as well, but I don't know what was improved.

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=2874

Huh? Wait......
Near the bottom of what>? When you open the Scenario in Guerrila?

That's affirmative. It's right below the custom object names, and right above the field where you put the reference to your hud messages (your objectives).

Thanks. By the way, I'm still having problems with the music script. It keeps saying there is no such music file.

Let me see the script. Make sure there are no typos or spaces in the name.

(script startup script
(begin
(sleep_until (volume_test_objects trig_3 (players)) 15)
(sound_impulse_start d40_9 none 1)
)
)

I'm not sure which music file d40_9 is exactly, so maybe I made a mistake in that.
Anyway, I can't do anyhting due to a glitch I'm experiencing (Sapien dosen't work correctly). I've uploaded a Beta test version of my map, which should be up soon.

Name of the file is d40_09.

Script would look like this:

(script startup script
(sleep_until (= (volume_test_objects trig_3 (players)) true) 15)
(sound_looping_start levels\d40\music\d40_09 none 1)
)

It should now work.

Shouldn't this work as well?

(script startup script
(begin
(sleep_until (volume_test_objects trig_3 (players)) 15)
(sound_looping_start levels\d40\music\d40_09 none 1)
)
)

Yes, but the "begin" command is unneeded.

Thats what I wanted to know.