Creating the Triggers and Events

We will finish off our mission by using triggers and events to control some of the action and create several different options to end the mission. You will recall that the goal for both our carrier and the destroyer in the lagoon is ‘Must survive’. We will start by creating triggers and events that will penalize us if they are sunk. Begin by clicking on the ‘Triggers’ button and then on the ‘New’ button.

Title this event “Respawn Carrier attack”. Select the ‘Destroyer sunk’ trigger and click the double right-hand arrows to move it into the ‘In use’ window. Under ‘Action type’ select ‘Spawning’ then click on ‘Spawn unit’. Scroll down and select the Unit ID ‘Otani’. Again, it is very important that you choose the correct flight of bombers. Now, select ‘Action delay’ under ‘Action type’ and set a delay of 30 seconds. Then select ‘Play priority sound’, scroll down and select sound number ‘w639’ and enter it. You can click the ‘Test’ button if you want to listen to the sound first. In the event that a second wave of torpedo bombers is launched against the carrier we will get a radio message ordering us back to defend the ship.

There will be three ways that we can end this mission (Four if you count getting yourself killed!). The mission will end if we shoot down 10 or more enemy planes, if we leave the combat area, or if we are shot down and successfully crash-land or ditch our plane in the ocean. We need to create triggers and events to control each of these possibilities.

Now we will create the trigger/event combination to end the mission when we have shot down 10 enemy planes. Open a new trigger. Call this trigger “Player shoots 10”. Select your aircraft as the object and set these parameters: ‘Status’, ‘Aircraft kills’, ‘Greater than or equals’, ‘10’. Save it and open a new event. Title this event “End mission – kills”. Select the new trigger. Under actions select ‘Play priority sound’, scroll down and select sound number ‘w662’ and enter it. Then select ‘Display text’ and type in the following: Great job! You have stopped the enemy attack. The mission will now end. Select ‘Action delay’ and set a delay of 10 seconds then select ‘Miscellaneous’ and ‘End mission’. Finally, select ‘Debrief text’ and type in the following: Excellent work! You have joined the select group of Aces flying in the Pacific Theater. Now, if you’re lucky enough to shoot down 10 enemy planes you will get a verbal pat on the back from your wingmen and recognition at the debriefing.

First we must define what is a successful ditch. There are three elements, which must be true for us to safely ditch our plane:

You could include elements such as requiring that the landing gear be retracted. That would make sense if you ditched at sea but with Wake Island so close to the combat area it’s possible you could crash land there with your gear down. We could also require that the flaps are down, but what if your controls are damaged and they can’t be lowered? Use the three elements we’ve identified here and the trigger/event will work correctly.

If you look carefully at our three elements however, you will notice a flaw. All three of these statements are true when the mission first begins and you’re sitting on the flight deck of the carrier getting ready to start your engine. Obviously we don’t want our mission to end before it begins, so we will add one more trigger. We will delay this event for one minute. In other words, the mission must run one minute before you can safely ditch and end the mission. That’s only fair. If you crash land in the first minute of the mission, you deserve to flunk! Now, let’s create the triggers and event.

Open a new trigger and call it “Ditching delay”. Your category is ‘General’ and the parameters are ‘Environment’, ‘Time elapsed’, ‘Greater than’, ’00:01’. Save it and open another new trigger. Call this trigger “Player landed”. Select your aircraft as the object and set the parameters as ‘Flight’, ‘Altitude (AGL), ‘Less than or equals’, ‘0’. Close it and open another new trigger. Call this one “Player stopped”. Again select your aircraft and set the parameters as ‘Status’, ‘Speed’, ‘Less than or equals’, ‘0’. Close it and open one more trigger. Title this one as “Player alive”. Again, select your aircraft and set these parameters: ‘Status’, ‘Pilot health’, ‘Greater than’, ‘0’. Close it out and open a new event.
Title this event “End mission – ditch”. Begin by selecting all four triggers we just created, “Ditching delay”, “Player landed”, “Player stopped”, and “Player alive”. After selecting all four triggers drop down and select ‘Display text’ as the action. Type in: You have safely ditched your plane. This mission will be terminated. Select ‘Action delay’ and set a delay of ‘8’ seconds, then select ‘Miscellaneous’ and ‘End mission’. Finally select ‘Debrief text’ as the Action and type in this text: You survived to fight again but you lost your plane. Next time, stay alert and watch your six!

Click ‘OK’ and close out the event window. That completes the action for this mission. We have created 10 triggers and 7 events. See the following illustrations for the complete list.

Under ‘Background’ type in: The Japanese have caught us off guard. They will either focus their attack on our carrier or on trying to sink the destroyer in the lagoon and blocking the entrance to the harbor. They must not succeed!

For your ‘Intelligence’ information enter: The Japanese are well armed in this sector. Expect a wide variety of aircraft making up this assault.

Remember, you’re writing these briefing notes as though someone else, who knows nothing about the mission is going to read them. Try to make them informative as well as entertaining. The briefing should always tell the player what he needs to do to successfully complete the mission, or in cases like our shoot-em-up, how the mission will be terminated.

This is a fun mission and isn’t even remotely historically accurate so you can choose any date you wish. However, set the time to 07:00, as this is an early morning attack. If you want some clouds or rain go ahead and add it. One caution, clouds add to slower frame rates and we already have quite a few planes flying around. You might want to leave the skies clear to keep performance up.

Your mission is now complete. Save it and let’s go flying. Now that all of the triggers and events are in place you really need to test each one of the endings for the mission. You will need to fly it several times to make sure that everything is working correctly. When you’re finished, meet me back here.

You should have tested the flight patterns and distances earlier so this time was mainly to check the triggers and events. You don’t have to get shot down to check the ditching function. After you’ve flown around for a minute simply cut your throttle and put her down on the ocean. By the same token, you don’t have to shoot down 10 planes to test this trigger. For testing you can modify the number of kills in the trigger to 3 prior to flying. If the trigger works at 3 kills it will work at 10. Just remember to modify it back up to 10 when you’re finished. To test leaving the combat area, just take off and keep heading West. When you get the warning message, turn and reenter the area. The warning message should stop. Once it does, turn West again and fly until the mission ends.

You should also have tested the spawning of the additional torpedo bombers. If you don’t take any hostile action toward the first flights of Kates, the odds are that they will sink one or both of the ships. If you set your triggers and events properly the additional bombers will spawn and begin their run. In fact, if you’ve followed the steps in the lesson carefully up to this point, everything should work flawlessly.

Mission Too Hard:

About the only other potential problem area is with terminating the mission. If one of the events is failing to end the mission go back over the steps we outlined above. If you follow the steps exactly, the game will end the mission according to plan.

Summary

If you’ve followed the lessons in all three parts you should feel pretty comfortable with designing your own missions. There is much more to a successful mission than just throwing a bunch of planes and targets on a map. Triggers and events are what give your missions life. By being creative you can control the flow of a mission, make it more difficult, or set objectives, which must be completed before the mission will terminate.

I hope that you are inspired to write all sorts of exciting missions. As I’ve said before, there is no right or wrong way to design a mission. Whatever works for you is the right thing to do. Whether you try to replicate history by designing missions based on real events or just like to write missions using your favorite planes and scenery – have fun doing it. It is, after all, just a game, and games are supposed to be fun.

Good luck and good simming!