Your First Mission

1. If the Mission Editor is not already open, double click on mgui.exe in the WIMapEd folder.

2. Select File / Open / desert.tc OR grassy.tc

3. Next click File / New.

4. Now that you have a window open you can begin to place terrain pieces. Simply left click, hold the desired piece and drag it to the desired location in the main window.

5. Use Zoom Percent = 50 to see all of map when designing your map.

6. To select different sides, click on the Side Selection menu which is found directly below the File menu. Select the desired side and drag the desired pieces to the main window.

7. To make a multiplayer map, select Settings / Level then on the right of the screen change the MinPlayers to 2 and above. Change MaxPlayers to the maximum number of players, up to 4.

8. IMPORTANT: Make sure to enter your mission name in the Title field in the Level (LevelDoc) settings.

9. To save a mission that you are creating click File / Save As. You should enter the name of your mission then click save. This will save your mission with the file extension of “.ld”.
-Once you have saved the mission you can frequently save the game by either clicking File / Save or Ctrl-s

IMPORTANT: Giving your mission a unique name is VERY important. Please resist the temptation to call it My First Mission, or Untitled level (what happens if you don't enter a name in the Level menu), or anything with "test" in it. An ideal name is somewhat descriptive but not more than 2 or 3 words at most. Check out the Add-on Mission Packs from the Warfare main menu to see what others have called their missions.

THE FUN STUFF - Locating all the features on your map:

Start dragging and dropping terrain objects onto the map from the objects on the left of the map editor.
To move pieces you have already placed, select multiple pieces by holding down the Ctrl key, or by dragging a selection rectangle around them; then just left click, hold down and drag to where you want them placed.
To make copies of pieces you have already placed, select them, hold down the Ctrl key and move copy to new location.
There is a limit of 100 scenery items used. When you File / Export Mission Pack (which you should do often - see #6 below) it will tell you if you have any errors, like too many scenery items (it says how many you have) and if one piece, like galaxite, is placed on top of another piece. It gives you the coordinates, so don't worry about it. This is very easy to fix.

Setting up Areas and Triggers

Once you've placed your terrain features, it is time to make it all work.

1. Start by putting a different colored Dominion or HQ in 2 corners of your map (or 4 if it is a 4 player map).

2. Next you need to set up an Area over each Dominion or HQ. Areas help you with the trigger actions, and allow you to create triggers that perform actions based on specific areas of your map.

An example of this might be to complete a mission when a players unit moves into an area of the map. But in this case we are using the area to tell it to center our view of the map over the dominion when the game starts.

To create a new Area click on the New Area item and drag and drop it onto the map. You can change the size of the area by dragging the corners of the area. It may take a few seconds to respond once you resize the area, so be patient.

3. Click on your new area on the map and you will see a menu for Area appear on the right. Name each Area square by typing a unique name into the Name field (i.e. Side 1 & Side 2).

4. Now setup initial galaxite and what type of player each side will be.

Select Settings / Side 1. In the SideInfo menu at the right input InitialCredit (i.e. 5000), and Intelligence (i.e. Human). Make sure you give each side enough galaxite to start a game. Do the same for the other players.

5. Open another copy of the Mission Editor.
In this second editor, open the built in multiplayer mission named Desert River Riches (M_02.ld) and click on the Settings / Triggers. Triggers are used to perform certain actions for specific conditions. See Triggers page for more details and examples of the End of mission triggers.

You should see a pop up screen like this:

You want your map triggers for side 1 to look just like these above. Instructions below.

   Click side 1.
Then click Conditions tab
   Then click New... then select Mission Loaded.
                                                       Then select Actions tab
                                                                Then select New... then select Center View (click on highlighted word "Area" to select Area you want trigger to work in)

           Now click on Settings / Triggers and click New... then click side 2.
Then click Conditions tab
   Then click New... then select Mission Loaded.
                                                       Then select Actions tab
                                                                Then select New... then select Center View (click on highlighted word "Area" to select Area you want trigger to work in)

Continue in this manner until your Triggers page looks like the Desert River Riches page.

5. SETTINGS: There are many settings you can play with to make a map more interactive.

Triggers: See Triggers page
Unit Groups: Used for spawning AI armies
Switches: Variables that are used within the Triggers section
Counters: Not Used

6. Creating Mission Packs (The Final Step)

Once you have created a mission that you would like to test out within the game you will need to create a .pdb file. To create the .pdb file click File / Export Mission Pack. If you have not already saved the level, you will be asked to do so.
You will be asked to provide a name for the .pdb file. Make it the same name as the .ld file.
Pay attention to where you are saving the file so that you can navigate with a browser to that folder.
Make sure that you only have one mission open when you are Exporting Mission Pack. If you have more than one mission open, it will create a Multi-Mission Pack for you with all of the missions that are currently active in the Mission Editor. You can see how many missions are currently open by clicking on Window and seeing if there is more than one window listed there.

NOTE: Multiplayer missions should have as few triggers as possible, letting the players create the action.

NOTE: While most trigger actions work, ecom trigger actions don't work with multiplayer. This is so the game doesn't pause for one player while continuing for another.

NOTE: Switches and Areas are named. Be sure that you give unique names to all your switches, areas, groups, variables. This is very important as the Editor will not warn you if you have duplicates.

Also... if you delete or rename an Area or Switch you will not be warned. It just won't work. So be sure to watch out for these changes.

STANDARDS for A GOOD MULTIPLAYER MAP:

Does it run after downloading?
Does it display the same name of the game in the iPhone Mission listings as the one in the ADD-ON MISSION PACKS download screen? (i.e. Not Untitled Level)
Does it have a Briefing when you click on the Objectives in the game?
Do all players start with equal resources?
Does each player start at their HQ?
Does each player have enough galaxite and room to build?
Does the end game display appropriate Win/Lose screens?
Are there just enough triggers to make it work, but not too many to make it overly complicated for players to understand?

STANDARDS for A GOOD SOLO MAP:

Does it run after downloading?
Does it display the same name of the game in the iPhone Mission listings as the one in the ADD-ON MISSION PACKS download screen? (i.e. Not Untitled Level)
Does it have a Briefing when you click on the Objectives in the game?
Does player start at their HQ?
Does the player have enough Galaxite and room to build?
Does the AI army behave as expected? (i.e. building, spawning, attacking, etc)
Is the AI army a challenging enemy, but able to be beat, or is it so difficult that players will be discouraged and never play your mission again?
Does the end game display appropriate Win/Lose screens?

Setting Objectives End Mission Triggers TOP of page