| Q & A |
Note: Answers in cyan are untested. |
Q: Why won't my wing follow the initial orders I've set for it?
A: Each initial order must have a different priority, if it doesn't FreeSpace takes the first
initial order and ignores the rest.
Q: How can I change the sun to use a different PCX?
A: You can't directly. Telling FRED to use something like Sun02.PCX crashes the game.
However, you can use sunglow01.PCX, keeping it in the data\effects directory. When you start up FreeSpace, the
sun graphic will be replaced with whatever graphic you replaced. Problem is, of course, that this will replace
the sun in EVERY mission, even if it isn't your own. Another problem is that background pics do not "stick"
to the background, so their orientation relative to you is constant. That means that no matter which direction
you turn, the background will always be pointing in the same direction relative to your HUD, so anything besides
perfectly round, regular images will look strange. That's why this isn't recommended.
Q: My mission flies fine, but reviewers on Xanadu have told me there is a bug - I can't find it?
A: I built and released Operation Fusion,
available at Xanadu, to test a question here
and had a similar experience. It was a large mission with lots of ships, I got to the point where if I added
another sexp the game crashed. When I released the mission it worked fine on my machine. The point
is it obviously didn't work fine on someone else's machine. This isn't a FRED or a design problem, it's a
problem with FreeSpace. How can you fix it? Other than trying to keep the missions small I just don't
know.
Q: Does anyone know how to make the white targeting boxes show up on asteroids?
A: The white/automatic targeting boxes that come up in the mission "Paving the Way"
can work in any mission. All you need to do is to mark a ship (freighter or larger) as an escort ship, and
any asteroid that will hit in under 20 seconds will come up.
Q: How can I set up a ship to depart after it's hull is down to say, 20%?
A: Use "hits-left" in a "when" event.
Q: How do you put those little red ships in the briefing screens?
A: To do that, go to the briefing editor, highlight the ship or wing you want to make an icon for, then click the
make icon button. To change the icon, select a different Icon image in the drop down box. To change the color to
red, select hostile in the team drop down box. You can make the little triangles circle it by checking the highlight
check box.
Q: I was wondering what needs to be done to add medals to a campaign.
A: Use "grant-medal" in an Event. You have to manually type in "grant-medal" as it's not in
the sexp menus. Once you do, however, Fred recognizes it and gives you the valid data entries in a menu, like normal.
Q: How do you move the sun in the background on missions?
A: Go to the Background option in the Editors menu, and turn backgrounds on. Leave the
dialog up and CTRL click on the sun. The fields for the background will become editable, and a box will appear
around the sun. You can now drag it (X and Z axes).
Q: How do add a level to the campaign editor?
A: Pick "New" under the file menu. To add a mission to a campaign, select if from "Available
Missions" and the control-click in an empty gray box.
Q: What's the difference between transfer and exchange cargo?
A: Exchange cargo puts the contents of X in Y and Y in X, instead of just overwriting the contents of Y with X,
as in "transfer-cargo".
Q: How can I tell a ship to slow down on it's way to a way point?
A: You can't really, although freighters with cargo go slower.
Q: How do you like a Red-Alert mission in a campaign?
A: Consider you have two missions M1 and M2. M2 must be marked as a red-alert mission. M1 must
use the sexp to invoke a red-alert. You should also mark the "red alert carry status" for Alpha.
Q: Once I add a jump point I can't select anything in the same area?
A: Add jump nodes last, or position them last. I've also heard that "hiding" them works.
Q: What does the "update" do in the events editor?
A: When you pick one of the canned messages hit the update button - it will select the correct persona and ANI.
Q: My wing never accomplishes there orders because they end up defending themselves, how can I fix that?
A: Check the "No Dynamic Goals" in the "misc" box of the ship editor, that will prevent the
ships from defending themselves. This might be a way to get a capital ship to ignore fighters and slug it
out with another capital ship.
Q: My wingman doesn't use the right accent, how can I fix this?
A: First check that the personas are set. If you've used a really different accent you might
want to override the built in WAV messages. Create a subdirectory of 'Data' called 'Personas'. Then,
replace the build in WAV files you need for the mission (e.g., 1_rearm.wav). You can download VPVIEW32
from http://www.descent-freespace.com/
to see and hear all the files used in the game and figure out what directory the belong in.
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Q: How can I have the player fly the dragon#3 ship? Also, how do I use the orion#1 and orion#2. Q: How many points does it take to promote someone? Q: When the character joins the fighter core I want to award wings to him......but how do I?...I didn't see
it under the grant-medal command |
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