User:Hypoxic125/Sandbox

Creating A Multiplayer Campaign

A multiplayer campaign is a series of interconnected missions that follow a sequential order, creating a storyline that groups of players can enjoy together.

Key things that a multiplayer campaign will include:

• Interconnected sequential missions
• Centralized location of common mission files to save on storage space
• Utilizes MPCampaignDisplay
• Missions can be selected in the hosted server mission selection menu

Creating the Missions

If new to creating missions, it is advised that you ignore concerns about disk space and make each mission independent of the campaign mod. When you get more comfortable with how the file structure works, and have more confidence in your code, you can then move on to centralizing common files. Debugging missions within the mod structure is much more annoying, especially if your code is more prone to bugs/errors.

Be sure you structure your missions with multiplayer locality in mind from the start. It is much more time-consuming to convert a single-player mission into a multiplayer mission.

File Structure

Now that you have your missions created, we can move on to the mod's file structure.

myModName
|--addons
   |--myCampaignName
      |--data
      |--functions
      |--campaign
      |  |--missions
      |  |  |--myMission01.worldName
      |  |  |--myMission02.worldName
      |  |  |--myMission03.worldName
      |  |--description.ext
      |--$PBOPREFIX$
      |--config.cpp

Red highlights indicate required files/folders

Green highlights indicate optional organization files/folders for shared campaign files

Campaign Description.ext

The campaign description file will dictate how the missions are structured within the campaign menus. Unlike a single-player campaign, we are going to be ignoring the mission flow aspect of the campaign description file so that the multiplayer campaign menu functions correctly.

/* --------------------------------------------------
    Defining Templates for Inheriting Later
-------------------------------------------------- */

// Setting up no endings, cutscenes, or rewards (stuff for single-player campaigns).

class NoEndings                                     // For use in chapter class and class MissionDefault.
{
    endDefault = "";
};

class MissionDefault : NoEndings                    // For use in individual mission classes.
{
    lives = -1;                                     // Not important with/without "Tickets" respawn template.
    noAward = 1;
    cutscene = "";
};

/* --------------------------------------------------
    Actual Campaign Class
-------------------------------------------------- */

class Campaign                                      // Contained inside CfgMissions - Holds other campaign classes such as "Apex", "Bootcamp", "EastWind".
{
    firstBattle = "Missions";                       // This will point to class Missions below which contains no information on purpose
                                                    // so that the mp campaign menu will load all missions.
                                                    // If info is given, no MPCampaignDisplay will be created.
    name = "$STR_CAMPAIGN_TITLE";
    briefingName = "$STR_CAMPAIGN_TITLE";
    author = "Hypoxic";
    overviewPicture = "myOverViewPicture.jpg";
    overviewText = "$STR_CAMPAIGN_DESCRIPTION";
    disableMP = 0;

    class myCampaign : NoEndings                    // Chapter class - Typically only use one chapter when dealing with MP Campaigns.
    {
        firstMission = "myMission01";
        name = "$STR_CAMPAIGN_TITLE";
        cutscene = "";
        end1 = "";

        class myMission01 : MissionDefault          // Mission class - Inherits default settings from class MissionDefault above.
        {
            end1 = "myMission02";                   // Default Ending - "end1" call BIS_fnc_endMission will use this mission as next mission.
            myCustomEnd = "myMission01";            // Custom Ending - Defined in mission's class CfgDebriefing - Can be whatever you want.
            lost = "myMission01";                   // You can send the lobby back to current mission on loss using this. Can also be custom.
            template = "myMission01.worldName";
        };

        class myMission02 : MissionDefault
        {
            end1 = "myMission03";
            lost = "myMission02";
            template = "myMission02.worldName";
        };

        class myMission03 : MissionDefault
        {
            end1 = "";
            lost = "myMission03";
            template = "myMission03.worldName";
        };
    };

    class Missions                                  // This is essentially a class with empty values. Used to invoke MPCampaignDisplay - See firstBattle above.
    {
        name = "$STR_CAMPAIGN_TITLE";
        cutscene = "";
        firstMission = "";
        end1 = "";
        end2 = "";
        end3 = "";
        end4 = "";
        end5 = "";
        end6 = "";
        lost = "";
    };
};