[Fan-made FAQ/Guide] How to Use the Mission Editor

[urban wing]

FAQ: Last updated for Patch 0.22.81

1. How do I access my saved missions?/How do I install other users' custom missions?
   For Windows users, your missions file is located in C:\Users[yourusername]\AppData\LocalLow\Shockfront\NuclearOption\Missions
   Everything about the mission is contained on a .JSON file with the name of your mission converted into a valid filename format as the filename.

2. How do I reposition or rotate buildings/vehicles/aircraft (henceforth referred to as objects)?
   As of build 0.22.81, you can't rotate objects that have already been placed, nor can you change their position, you will have to delete it and replace it. The orientation of an object is based on the rotational bearing of the camera when you placed it, generally with the "business end" of the object pointed away from the camera.

3. How do I make custom airstrips/Why can't I modify existing airbases?
   As of build 0.22.81, the only available spawn-points for aircraft are hardcoded to be at any of the 7 existing airbases: North Boscali Airbase, City Airbase, Highway Strip 1, Highway Strip 2, Naval Airbase, Desert Airbase, Mountain Airbase. There are pre-placed objects (MapObjects) at each of these airbases, which cannot be modified. MapObject hangars, shelters, and revetments are the only objects that can spawn aircraft, and will become active once they are captured.

4. How do I set teams for airbases?
   Airbases can be "captured" in the mission editor by placing down faction-owned objects at the airbase. If multiple factions are within the airbase, whichever side has more vehicles or planes on the ground will have control.

5. What are roads and how do I edit them?
   Roads act as guides for ground unit pathfinding. As of build 0.22.81, roads are modelled between airbases and are generally not modelled anywhere else, and cannot be modified. The roads tab in the mission editor is a development tool for Mitch.

6. What is faction inventory?/What are vehicle depots?/What are factories?/And how do I use them?
   AI spawning follows the following steps:

• i. Vertical Factory or Large Factory produces a vehicle or and aircraft (a unit) at a custom interval for it's owned faction.
• ii. That unit is added into the faction's inventory.
• iii. That unit can now spawn at ANY suitable faction-owned spawn point. Ground vehicles can all spawn at Vehicle Depots. For air units, the Medium Aircraft Hangar can spawn all planes, the Hardened Aircraft Shelter can't spawn Darkreaches, and the Aircraft Revetment can't spawn Darkreaches or Revokers. Air units will spawn with a randomized loadout. See question #3 for further rules affecting air unit spawns.
• iv. Any air units that successfully land at an airbase and eject after coming to a stop will despawn and return to the faction inventory.

7. How does AI pathing work?

• i. Ground vehicles will follow waypoints set by players during the mission (click on the unit, right click to set a waypoint). If no player has given it directions, it will follow the waypoint set by the mission editor. If the vehicle has not been given waypoints (such as ground units spawned at Depots), it will attempt to pathfind to the location of the current Mission Objective.
• ii. Air units will attempt to intercept and attack any spotted enemy units. If there are none, they will instead attempt to gather towards the current Mission Objective's position trigger, even if the position trigger's radius is set to zero. If no enemy units are spotted and no position trigger is available, or if they don't have a suitable weapon, they will attempt to land at a friendly airfield and despawn (see question #6.iv). If no friendly airbase is available and no enemy units are spotted, they will bail out.

8. My ground units have an objective to go to but they're are going the wrong way!
   Make sure the mission objective has a ground unit as a kill trigger, and make sure that the trigger is on a road or near an airbase. Ground units will try to prioritize using roads to get to the kill trigger even if it would be faster to go off-road.

9. What is Spawn Timing? Why doesn't the drop-down menu for it show anything?
   Spawn timing allows mission makers to spawn units upon the completion of an objective. Currently, it is not fully implemented in the Mission Editor, but units can still be given a timed spawn via manually changing the mission's .JSON file (for example, via Notepad). To do so, look for the corresponding unit's entry in the .json file, find the line that reads "spawnTiming": "Mission Start",, and replace "Mission Start" with the name of the objective in quotation marks.

10. +/- 10m isn't enough, how do I elevate buildings even more?!
    Put down any air unit and set it's altitude to the desired height, then place a building down on top of the plane.

11. What does the Non-Sequential Objective tickbox do?
    As of build 0.22.81, non-sequential objectives are not implemented. Setting an objective as a non-sequential objective in the mission editor will make make the game ignore that objective in regular play.

12. What are Single-player Aircraft?
    Air units can be set as a single-player aircraft, causing the player or multiplayer lobby host to start the mission in that aircraft. This can be done to force the player into a specific loadout, or give them a unique starting location, however if the map is loaded in multiplayer it will only affect the host at the beginning of the mission
    

13. What does setting Faction Sortie Size do?
    IIRC this feature is not implemented as of build 0.22.81, but it will force air spawns to wait until a sufficient number of units are available before spawning them. Setting the minimum above 1 is not recommended since taxiing air units have a tendency to crash into each other and cause not only traffic jams but also abnormal amounts of lag.

14. I still can't find my Missions folder!
    Open the game through Steam, go to Missions, and near the missions dropdown menu there should be an "Open User Folder" button which will take you directly to the Missions folder.

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[urban wing]

Saving this for later: https://www.andre-gaschler.com/rotationconverter/

[surreal niche]

Fantastic guide for the Mission Editor! Thank you. 🙂

[lime sail]

i do not have a mission folder anywhere in my game files

i cannot find anything thats told in the guide

[urban wing]

Missions folder is not located in your game directory. Please reassess your reading comprehension and try again.

[lime sail]

no i literally cannot find my appdata file

[urban wing]

Are you using Windows

If yes, you may need to enable the ability to view hidden folders

alternatively just do what Ryusei told you to do in the other thread, that will take you straight there

[lime sail]

okay i got it working

thanks for the help

[paper valley]

[feral chasm]

is there a way to limit the aircrafts playesr can choose?

[urban wing]

Set rank multipliers, or find some way to destroy the spawn points— only works if you're disabling higher rank aircraft though

[feral chasm]

So there isn't a way to directly restrict vehicles and weapons?

[paper valley]

not in the way you're thinking yeah

[feral chasm]

the position trigger is for triggering the start of the mission or it's the objective?

[urban wing]

Position triggers make a sphere that if you enter it will complete the objective

[feral chasm]

and destoy units to trigger objective i have to put what i want to be destroied?

[urban wing]

yes, give a unit an unit ID and then set it as a destroy trigger to make that unit the target of the objective

[feral chasm]

i had some problems because it change it automatically, but i fixed

[feral chasm]

also, if i crash i get mission acomplished

[urban wing]

you might have to dig around in the mission .json to figure that one out, if you don't see anything messed up in the mission editor

I had something similar where Mission Start was somehow set as a faction victory objective for PALA

are respawns enabled in your mission?

[feral chasm]

no

[urban wing]

if respawns are disabled then that will force a mission success for the other team and a fail for you

Not sure why its reversed for you. Do you have an aircraft set as a single-player aircraft?

If yes, try deleting it and placing a new aircraft in its place

[feral chasm]

might have messed up something with the destroy trigger

also, it ask me to select a spawn point at the end

even if i have the respawn disabled

[urban wing]

I'm at work otherwise I'd ask you to send me the json to see

can't help you much right now

[feral chasm]

ok, ty for the help

[pearl dagger]

Really good guide even if you think you know most things, thanks for making it.

[glad spade]

Amazing

[ruby ibex]

Bump

[twilit sierra]

Am I missing the guide or is the "Guide” basically these questions/answers FAQs? Is there a step by step, start here, then do this type tutorial anywhere? I checked YouTube but didn’t see anything yet. Maybe I just need to spend more time with it.

[urban wing]

this is an FAQ first and guide second

[pearl dagger]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3226495954

[urban wing]

Roads
Shift+Click to start placing a road
Spacebar/Enter to finalize the road
Click on a road node and press Del to destroy the road

[paper valley]

^^^^^

[pearl dagger]

I didnt have to shift click

[paper valley]

can totally confirm brassy here

mitch said the same

its shift click

and it is spacebar to end, not enter

[urban wing]

you were probably holding shift to speed up the camera

which can sometimes cause you to start a road if you click

it's a bit glitchy so even if you let go of shift sometimes it still registers

however I can now also confirm that Enter and Spacebar both work for finalizing the road

[pearl dagger]

updated the guide

[urban wing]

[limber briar]

Hello why ( add wypoint ) in veichle option don't work ?